“What the fu—” I closed my mouth and pressed my lips together. Think. Think, Jasmine. I had given them my word.
“It’s not the best idea I’ve ever heard, but we should do it,” Ivan muttered. Then he looked in my direction and his forehead scrunched up. “It’s only a year before I get rid of you.”
Motherfucker.
Coach Lee groaned, but I barely heard it over the need for me to call him a little bitch.
He sighed and tipped his head up toward the ceiling. “I can fake a smile,” he went on as I leaned over in my seat and planted the tip of my elbow onto the armrest. “She don’t have to marry me or have my kid… right, Lee? Or did I miss that?”
That had me rolling back to sit up straight so I could glare at him. “I wouldn’t have your kid if you paid me a million dollars.”
Something strange happened to his cheek before his facial features went completely smooth. “I’m not asking you to. It isn’t that big of a deal. I can do it.” Those dark, thick eyebrows of his went up just half an inch, max. “You can’t do something so small?” he asked, and I swore he was purposefully trying to egg me on.
If that throwdown wasn’t enough to calm me down and get my thoughts in order, I didn’t know what was. Of course there was nothing he could do that I couldn’t do better. Except a quad—a jump with four revolutions—but that was beside the point. I wasn’t about to let evil think they were better than I was. So I kept my voice nice and even as I tried to explain, “I can do it, but I’m just not good at pretending, all right?”
Neither one of them said a word.
“I’m not,” I reiterated.
They were asking me to be affectionate. All right, maybe not affectionate, but… at least not act like I couldn’t stand him. I guess.
Of course I could do it. I just didn’t know if I wanted to. I’d never been a good actress. I had never seen a point in pretending to feel something that I didn’t, or like someone I couldn’t stand. I had dealt with enough shit like that in my life.
“You’re not exactly my type, if that helps any,” Ivan threw in, forcing me to turn my head slowly to look at him. “I can look at you like I don’t hate you.”
I blinked. “Good. You’re not my type either.”
He blinked.
I blinked.
And then Coach Lee let out an uncomfortable noise. “I’m glad neither one of you is each other’s type. So, can we agree that you can be nice to each other in public? I have an interview set up for both of you next week.”
Ivan shrugged as I stared at him, his own gaze not going anywhere. “I can do it. It’s up to her if she can.”
Years from then, I’d look back on that moment and see how well they played me. How well Ivan knew me after so long. Because I walked right into that shit. My pride led me there. “Of course I can do it.”
And with a clap of her hands, it was settled. “Good. Let’s move on to the next thing.”
“Sports Documented wants to have you in their magazine,” Coach Lee said, her fingernails scratching at her neck in a way that told me she was anxious.
And she was never anxious.
I glanced at Ivan to find him in his seat with his arms crossed over his chest, looking totally unfazed… until I saw the way he was shaking his foot.
“Okay,” I said slowly, still watching Ivan as he sat there, looking almost checked out.
But I knew his form of evil too well. He wasn’t.
Coach Lee let this small, awkward smile cover her mouth, putting me on edge. “Both of you.”
Well, no shit both of us. Why would they only want me when it was Prissy Pants over here that was the most well-known one between us? There was more to this, my gut knew there was.
She was just taking her time telling me for some reason.
So I waited. And I didn’t say anything as I stared at her, ready to hear the rest of it.
When Coach Lee’s eyes flicked in Ivan’s direction, it just confirmed everything. Her voice was higher than usual as she said, “It’s for a special issue—”
The idiot in the seat coughed.
“It’s highest-selling issue every year—”
Oh.
Oh.
I knew exactly what she was talking about.
But I kept my mouth shut and didn’t let her know I knew, because what would the fun in that be when she was nervous and maybe even a little embarrassed to be trying to talk me into something that would require me to get naked? She didn’t know I wasn’t shy, but she should. I’d strip down right then if I had to. I’d been changing in front of other people since I was a kid starting off in competitions.
“It would be great publicity if you did it—”
I kept on watching her. Kept the blank look on my face too.
“It would only take a morning or an afternoon—”
I nodded that time and did it slowly.
“Possibly a day at the most, but no longer than that,” she finished up her pitch with a tight smile.
I blinked at her, looking as innocent as I was capable of. “What’s the issue?” I asked her, keeping my tone light.
Her face flushed red, and her gaze moved to Ivan quickly.
“You already know it’s for the Anatomy Issue, Meatball, quit being a pain in the ass, dragging it out.” Ivan snickered, shaking his head.
There went fucking Meatball again. Focus. Be better.
I shot him a bland look and shrugged. “Sorry,” I said, only half meaning it.
Her face immediately went into a frown. “You knew?”
“I figured when you were trying extra hard to sell me on it.”
She still didn’t look happy, but she didn’t look mad either, just… surprised. “You’re fine with it?”
I raised a shoulder. “All they need to do is take pictures of me in my skates, right?”
Coach Lee blinked. “Yes.”
“I get to tape my extra private parts, right?”
She nodded slowly, her face still twisted into an apprehensive expression.
“And it’s only the staff that are around?”
She did the same gesture, her expression not going anywhere.
“It’s fine with me then,” I told her easily. “I know that would be good publicity.” Plus, I had always secretly hoped I’d be invited to do it. It was pretty much an honor in a sport with so many talented people.
Coach’s eyes narrowed almost suspiciously, and she took her time saying, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m having a hard time accepting that you’re being so understanding with this.”
“I get naked in front of total strangers in the changing rooms,” I said. “The people taking the pictures and on the staff have seen better bodies and worse bodies than mine. We all have butt cracks and genitals. I don’t see what the big deal is. And it’s not like anyone is going to see my nipples or anything.” Then I blinked. “Neither one of you needs to be there, right?”
Ivan coughed again, and Coach Lee’s face turned bright red. Her sputter could probably be heard around the world as she replied, “Jasmine…. the shoot isn’t of you by yourself. They want you and Ivan together.”
Me and Ivan together.
Naked.
“It would be great for the two of you to do it,” Coach Lee added, trying to put some enthusiasm into her tone, like that would convince me. “Just a quick shoot. Knowing both of you, you’d get it done as fast as possible.”
“I’d have to get naked in front of him?” I hooked my thumb and pointed it toward the idiot that was smirking from his spot on the seat. I didn’t need to glance at him to know he was doing it. I just knew he was.
She nodded.
I didn’t even think about it. “No.”
Ivan’s laugh, this lazy, bright thing that got on my nerves every time I heard it, filled the room. “You said a second ago that you get naked in front of complete strangers.”
I shot the idiot in a fleece pullover and navy blue sweatpants a look. “Yeah, strangers. Not people I need to see every day.” I scoffed. “Not you.”
He wrinkled his nose, clearly enjoying the shit out of this. “Yeah, you know me. You know you can trust me—”
I laughed. “No.”
“What am I going to do? Take a picture of you and post it on the Internet?” He made a face.
He had a point, but… “No.”
“I trust you to not post a picture of me naked,” he offered, like that would help.
I shot him another look. “Why would I do that? Nobody wants to see that anyway.”
He rolled his eyes and made an exasperated noise in his throat that I had seen and heard him do at least a handful of times over the years when he didn’t know what to say in return, AKA I’d won. “I don’t get what the big deal is.” He changed the subject. “She was worried you would tell us no, but I thought for sure you’d say yes. It’s the highest-selling issue.”
Fuck me.
Ivan tipped his head to the side and gave me that clear, smug face again. “We made a deal.”
Damn it. “I know we made a deal,” I hissed, suddenly feeling off.
“We have to do it.”
I wanted to lift my hands up to cover my eyes, but I didn’t. I wouldn’t. But shit. Shit. I looked up at the ceiling and let out a breath.
“You know I’ve seen naked women before, right?” he asked, with what might have been humor or smart-ass in his tone.
I shook my head and kept my gaze upward. How the hell had I gotten into this? And how could I get myself out of it?