Chapter 96: Beat The Press

Sophia and Warren walked into the press center and sat down at the table that had been set up for them. Stephanie Langson from the USFSA was already there, as was George Gullick from the USOC. Both of them were nervous. Sophia and Warren were charming, and the figure skating press loved them, but not everyone here was from the figure skating press.

"Just give us a minute to get settled," Stephanie said, as Warren and Sophia settled into their seats behind the table. However, just as soon as Sophia settled in her seat, she closed her eyes and reeled. Then, she was out of her seat in a flash, imploring to Stephanie, "Bathroom!!" Steph pointed to a door behind and to the left of the table, and said, "Turn left, second door on your right." Sophia sprinted out of the room.

The press corps, of course, wondered about this. Warren sat there, by himself, smiling at them. "Is she that nervous?" Tina Bowman of USA Today finally asked good-naturedly?

"No, she's not that nervous," Warren said with a smile.

"Is she that sick?" Tina persisted.

"No, not if you mean ill," Warren said mysteriously.

"Then what was that?" Fred Rausch of the Chicago Tribune asked him?

"When she gets back," Warren said. Just then, Sophia walked back in.

"OK, folks, sorry about that," Sophia said to the assembled press corps. "Morning sickness is a real pain in the ass."

It took the press about ten seconds to realize what she had just said. "Did you say morning sickness?" Tina Bowman asked her.

"Yup. Geez, the Enquirer is incompetent, aren't they? They dig up all this dirt on me, and they can't even find out that I'm two months pregnant. Would have been a fitting end to their story, don't you think?" Sophia smiled and sipped from the water that had been given to her.

"Pregnant?" Tina echoed.

"Yup."

"Do you know who the father is?" some reporter she didn't know asked her.

"I only sleep with one man, contrary to published reports." Sophia snapped at him.

"She only skates with one man, too. Coincidentally, it's the same guy," Warren quipped, to the laughter of at least the regulars in the press corps.

"Are you keeping the baby?" Jim Pitman of the Boston Globe asked.

"We most certainly are," Sophia told him.

"I hope I don't have to ask you if you've consulted with a doctor about competing while you're pregnant," Tina Bowman said to Sophia.

"Of course not, Tina. I've been cleared. There are no complications that they can see, and ice dancing is low impact, and I'm still in the first trimester. Plus, one of the USOC medical staff is an OB-GYN, Doctor Millar. I've already talked to her. I'm going to be monitored."

Jared Hurstell of the NY Times raised his hand. "Does the pregnancy affect your skating?"

"Only in the morning," Sophia said dryly. "My morning sickness is an accurate description, I only get it in the morning. We have a few morning practices, but no competitions in the morning. As long as I eat right, I should be just fine."

"But it is one o'clock in the afternoon," a foreign reporter said.

"Not in Wisconsin, it's not, it's 6am there, and I'm still on Wisconsin time. I get the sickness about an hour and a half to two hours after I wake up, and that's just about right. I got up at quarter past eleven. Which was quarter past four Wisconsin time. I want to go back to bed," she said, drawing amused giggles.

"And she's the morning person in this team, if you can believe that. I'm desperately seeking coffee," Warren added, to more amusement. To Warren's amusement, Stephanie rapidly produced a cup. "Look at this. What service. I love the USFSA!"

"OK, now that I've given you the unexpected tidbit of my condition, I'm sure you all have tons of questions about how our long program is coming along, am I right? I mean, there's nothing else we could have to talk about, right?" Sophia baited them with a huge smile on her face.

"Well, there was this little article, you know, about you..." Jim Pitman said, playing along.

"Oh that. It was in the Boston Globe, wasn't it?" Sophia teased, drawing laughter around the room.

"We generally don't print stuff like that, no," Jim said.

"No, Jim, you wait until some rag like the Enquirer prints it, so you can conduct the follow-up," Sophia said pointedly, drawing an embarrassed look from Pitman. She liked Jim, but someone had to take that bait. "Having made my point..." she paused..."ask away."

"Well, let's start with the biggie," a reporter asked. "Are you gay, and is your relationship with Warren a sham?"

"Well, if it's a sham, how in hell did I get knocked up?" Sophia said amusedly.

"You don't need to be with a man for that nowadays. Babies can be conceived in a laboratory," the reporter said.

"Well, this particular baby was conceived in a hotel room in Nagano, Japan. In the shower." Warren interjected helpfully. Sophia cracked up laughing, and the reporters looked at him in amazement. "Hey, look at Jim, taking notes. I want to see that printed in the Boston Globe," Warren joked. Jim Pitman just smiled at him.

"Anyhow, to get back to the question," Sophia said, "My relationship with Warren is not, has never been, and will never be a sham. I love him completely. He loves me back. And our relationship is not platonic. This is his baby. As for whether or not I'm gay, I am not. I had a few bisexual feelings at one point, and I explored a little bit, and Warren knew about it. And that's all I'm going to say about that. But I'm not gay, and I finally decided I really wasn't bi, either. I don't regret finding that out for sure, but I would have rather not have to have read about it in the Enquirer. I don't think it's anybody's business."