“You know, there are competitions you could enter.”

Luke rolled his eyes and didn’t look up from wiping down the blades of the rental skates. “You would make a great dad.” He told Rick. “Very supportive.”

Rick laughed and patted his shoulder. “Give it some thought. I’ll help in any way I can.”

Luke stopped himself from protesting and nodded instead. Best to not bring up just how much Rick had done for him already. It didn’t matter, since Luke was pretty sure most figure skating competitions still couldn’t accept him in the men’s category. He wouldn’t open himself up to that rejection of his identity.

He finished with the rental skates and went over to the concession counter. The first game of the season was tonight, and he wanted to make sure everything was in order when the fans arrived and decided they wanted stuff before the game.

Rick followed him. “Did you want to watch the game?” He asked while checking the levels on the condiment dispensers.

Luke looked up from the coffee machine. “What?”

He got a sideways smile from Rick. “I overheard you telling Michael that you couldn’t watch the game because you had to work.” He made a show of shrugging. “I was just wondering if you’d rather watch. I can handle things here if you do.”

Luke frowned. What had that look been for? “I’m fine here.” He assured Rick. “I don’t know anything about hockey, so there’s really no point.”

“No point?” Rick snorted. For a moment Luke was afraid he had offended him. Then he smiled again and patted Luke on the shoulder. “You just do what you have to.” He waved as he walked away.

“What?” Luke looked after him, confused. He got the feeling Rick was trying to get him to do something, but he didn’t know what. He would do it if he did know. He owed Rick so much, he would do anything he was asked to, but he couldn’t do what he didn’t know he had to do.

“Ahg!” He let out an angry breath and shook his head. Why did life have to be so confusing?

He didn’t get much time to puzzle things over though, because people started to arrive for the game. The concession counter was quickly swarmed by people, and Luke was dancing around, trying to do everything at once.

And then, almost just as quickly, he was alone.

He heard the buzzer sound to start the game. He silently wished Michael and his team good luck.

With nobody around, Luke busied himself by tidying up. He hadn’t been able to keep everything tidy while dealing with the rush, and he knew another one was coming at the end of the period. Now was his chance to keep things manageable.

He was just about happy with how everything was when he heard the door to the rink open. He looked up to see a girl come back into the lobby. She was bundled up in a thick coat, even though a decent sweater was all that was required in the rink.

He smiled to himself. “Cold?” He called to her.

She looked up at him and their eyes met. “Yeah.” She came over to lean against the counter. “I don’t have much tolerance for the cold. Can I get a hot chocolate?”