Chapter 119: The New Threat

The plane landed in Philadelphia on a Sunday afternoon. That's where Nationals were being held this year. Sophie, Warren, Betsy, and Ellen were there, of course-but Jessie had come along, too. Dan and Kate, and Warren's parents, would be along later in the week.

Jessie was thrilled they had asked her to come-and amused at one of the reasons. Sophie didn't want to get full and bloated. "And the way you've been draining me, the minute I'm apart from you for a few days, I will. After you go back to Milwaukee, fine, but not when I'm trying to skate!"

But that wasn't the only reason. Since Jessie had to go back to Milwaukee soon, they wanted her along. They had become very comfortable with Jessie being a complete part of their lives.

They got their hotel rooms-Ellen had one of her own, where Dan would join her in a few days, and the threesome plus Betsy shared one-then went down to the hotel restaurant for supper. As usual, they ran into some friends who had also arrived early.

"If it ain't Daddy and Mommy!" Liz Cushman greeted them, plucking Betsy out of Sophia's arms. "And how's my little namesake?" she gurgled.

"Hi, Liz," Warren said. "You remember Jessie, right?"

"Of course," she grinned. They ended up at a table with Evan, Shawna, and Liz, happily chatting and

eating.

Afterwards, they invited Liz up to their room, to chat.

"So, how's Rich?" Warren asked.

Liz sighed. "I didn't want to tell you this until I saw you in person, but there is no more Rich."

"Aw, Liz," Warren said. "What happened?"

"What happened is that Rich doesn't know what he wants. He tells himself he wants a successful, independent woman-but he doesn't. I think, after I won the Olympic gold, he expected me to retire, hang around LA, go to school, and just do the occasional show. He never quite got how important skating is to me, and he didn't like the separations. I started to see it when I was gone on tour last year. He pouted. Then when I started competing again this year, he really pouted. I broke up with him right after the Grand Prix Final. He couldn't come, and got all pissy about it. That's a skater's life, and I'm not ready to give it up yet. I tried to make him understand, but he wouldn't."

"Shit," said Sophia.

"Well, Liz, we can commiserate," Jessie said with a strained smile.

"Weren't you with Warren's best friend, for a long time?"

"Was. Aren't anymore."

Liz laughed. "And look at us. We have to stare at The Cuddly Couple over here. It's disgusting." Liz grinned. "Ah, well, Jess. We'll find someone else. There's fish in the sea, and all those cliches." Jess didn't say anything, but had a strange smile on her face. "Wait a minute. You found someone already?" Liz asked.

"Jess, Liz is completely trustworthy," Sophia told her.

Jess laughed, and said, "I didn't just find some one, I went in for the two-for-one special."

"Huh?" Liz said.

Sophia laughed. "Liz, Jessie is staying with us in this room. Did you happen to notice how many beds there are in this room?" There was only one.

Liz's jaw dropped. "You're kidding."

"Nope. I got me a boyfriend and a girlfriend," Jessie grinned.

"You guys take the cake," Liz grinned back. "Is there room for a fourth in that bed? No, I'm just kidding. I'm a one-on-one kind of gal. So, it's funny. Three girls in this room, and we've all slept with Warren." She grinned wider. "And, I must admit, he was better than Rich."

"A whole lot better than Crash," Jessie agreed.

"He's way at the top of my rather lengthy list, that's for sure," Sophia laughed.

"Jesus. You all are going to give me a swelled head."

"Good. That's what I was hoping for," Jess grinned.

"Not that head, you sex maniac," Warren said.

"So," Jess said, "Warren, which one of us is the best?"

"Oh, no," Warren spat out, "no you don't. You are not getting me into that."

"Come on, Snugglebear, fess up," Sophie said.

"Nope. Besides which, it's not a fair question. I've been with Sophie thousands of times. I've been with Jess, what, about twenty by now? I've been with Liz once. It's just not a fair question. Besides which, Sophie was my first-and for a good couple of years, my only. Sophie taught me how to make love to a woman. If either of you two think I'm that good, Sophie gets a lot of the credit."

"Aw, you're so sweet," Sophie beamed at him.

The next day was their first practice. They were standing in the corner, chatting with Shawna and Evan.

"Who's that?" Warren asked, pointing to a couple he didn't recognize.

"Courtney Rogers and Ryan Killen. Junior National Champions last year. She's 17, he's 20. And she is, apparently, a barracuda," Evan told them.

"Ah," Sophia said. They chatted a bit, then started skating around the edges of the ice.

"Oh, look, it's the slut and the shit," Courtney said to her partner.

"C'mon, Court. They are the National Champions."

"Not for long. They're overrated and a disgrace," Courtney said. "They're our targets, Rye. Let's go introduce ourselves," she said with a wicked chuckle.

"Court, I don't think-" but Courtney was already pulling him along. Ryan did what Courtney said-life was easier that way.

Warren and Sophia were gliding along the boards, when Courtney directed Ryan full-speed right into their path. Warren was too good for that, though-he saw them coming, stopped, and turned, leading Sophia and neatly sidestepping Courtney and Ryan. "Nice try!" Sophia giggled as they skated off.

"Well, we know what their game is," Warren said.

"They really think it's going to work with us?" Sophia snorted. "They forget who they're dealing with."

"Too true, love," Warren agreed. "We don't intimidate easily."

Meanwhile, Courtney was livid. "Those two assholes! We almost crashed into the boards." Ryan didn't say anything. He knew it was their fault, but you didn't say that to Courtney. Not if you enjoyed breathing. Courtney dragged him right up to where Warren and Sophia had stopped.

"We're gunning for you," Courtney told them straight out.

"Take your best shot," Warren grinned.

"Oh, I plan to. You two are ruining ice dancing."

"Is this a stylistic debate?" Warren asked. "I haven't seen you skate yet, so I don't know what your style is."

"Different from yours, but, no, this isn't a stylistic debate," Courtney spat. "I just hate seeing a slut as the National Champion."

"Hmmm," Sophia grinned. "Slut, huh? Well, you can believe what you want. But I'm not a slut. I love him. We're getting married this summer."

"That doesn't matter. You're all about sex. You got pregnant, for goodness' sake," Courtney said.

"Yes, I did. You wanna see our baby? She's beautiful, and a joy," Sophia said calmly. "She's the light of our lives. We're so glad we had her-because, you know, I almost didn't. Because I was too worried what narrow-minded jerks like you might think. Betsy was an accident, but she's the most glorious accident ever."

"Babies are for married people," Courtney said.

"Well, in August, she will be," Sophia countered. "You need to be a little less judgmental."

"Oh, she's going to love the next issue of Maxim," Warren laughed. Sophia laughed in agreement.

"The magazine?" Ryan spoke up. "What about it?"

"I'm in it," Sophia grinned. "In fact, I'm on it. And I'm not wearing much."

"That's disgusting!" Courtney wailed.

"If you got it, flaunt it," Warren grinned. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go skate."

"Oh, goody. Our new challengers are narrow-minded moralistic shits," Sophia said to Warren.

"The exhibition's gonna blow their minds," Warren laughed.

"Jessie would really blow their minds!"

The competition was rather anti-climactic. The only other team in their league was Evan and Shawna, and they finished a distant second. Ryan and Courtney finished third. Liz repeated as the Ladies' champion, as did Andrea and Brett in pairs. The men's champion was a youngster named Tom Bellamy.

The real furor came, as predicted by Warren, with the new exhibition they had worked up. It was to an Aerosmith song called "Pink", a song that was pretty suggestive in the first place. And the program that they had worked up was really suggestive. First of all, Sophia took the title of the song to heart, and dressed in a pink miniskirt and a pink spaghetti-strap low-cut top. She had dangly pink heart earrings, had her hair tied back in a pink bow-she was even wearing pink lip gloss.

The program started with Warren standing at the far end of the ice. Sophia skated alone for the entire intro, going from the near end down to Warren at the far end. She sauntered down the ice, rolling her hips, snapping her fingers, a sultry look on her face. And the program went on from there to get steamy. There were all sorts clench-moves. There was a lift where Sophia had her arms wrapped around Warren's neck, her legs wrapped around his hips, his hands on her ass, and she lightly humped against him. There was the sequence where Warren clearly had his hand on her breast. "Pink" was about sex-the song and the program. The crowd seemed delighted. The powers-that-be did not. Sophia and Warren loved it.