Chapter 165: Buildup

Sophia and Warren had less than a month. Nationals had ended on January 15^th. That was a Sunday, the day of the exhibitions. The Olympics would begin on Friday, February 10^th.

They were still working. They wanted those programs down cold before the Olympics, so they were working hard. Sophie was so tired that she wasn't even in the mood for sex for about a week.

"Are you sure you're all right, honey?" Warren laughed.

"I'm fine. I'm just tired. We might be working too hard."

"Yeah. We'll want to ease off some as it gets closer. Are we putting too much pressure on ourselves?"

"Of course we are," Sophia laughed. "But, it makes sense. This is it. Except if we decide to go to Worlds, but still, this is it. This is the only thing we haven't won. This is what we've been gearing up for. And, you know how it goes in figure skating. The audience, what, quadruples or something for the Olympics? If you don't win an Olympic gold medal, you're an also-ran, even if you've already won a World Championship. Plus, there's that 'first American ice dancers' thing. We'd go down in the history books. If we weren't feeling pressure, I'd be amazed."

"Too true," Warren said with a wry grin. "And we've certainly traveled a long and winding road to get here. Our life has been so wrapped up with skating. So, when we've had a twist in life, we've had a twist in skating."

"And we've had a lot of twists," Sophia laughed. "Nine years. We met each other almost exactly nine years ago."

"And I wouldn't change a minute. Well, except for being attacked, that I'd change. Everything else, I wouldn't change."

"Even me breaking up with you Freshman year?" Sophia asked.

"It made us stronger. If we hadn't gone through that, I don't think we would've been able to deal with Betsy."

"You're right. I never quite thought of it like that, but you're right."

"It's been a hell of a nine years. And a big part of it is almost over."

"Just in time for you to go to Med School--and for me to start popping out more babies," Sophia laughed. "And it'll never be completely over. I still want to choreograph."

"And I'm leaning towards sports medicine, so I can stay involved. But the skating part's about to come to an end."

"Do you regret that? If you want, we could turn pro and still skate, and you could put off med school for a while. It's up to you."

"No," Warren said. "Pro skating actually holds no appeal for me."

"Me, either, actually."

"And as for eligible competition, it's time to move on. We don't win this year, we never will, and I don't want to stick around for the downward slide. Plus, I've wanted to be a doctor since I was 8. The problem is, being a doctor isn't going to be something I do with you. That's the biggest loss, actually. I wouldn't have cared about skating so much if I had done it with someone else."

"That's so sweet," Sophia smiled. "I do know what you mean, though. We're going to spend less time together. Med school's a grind, and you'll have to drive back and forth to Boston every day. So, yeah, I'll miss the closeness aspect of it. But there's a lot of it I won't miss."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Most specifically, the keeping-in-shape part. That I am entirely sick of, I'll admit it. I think we'll always skate. Even when we're like 90, I think we'll put our creaky bodies out on a public session and waltz."

"Most likely," Warren laughed.

"Yeah. But the rest of it? I'm done, and glad to be done. As of the end of this season, I have lifted my last weight. I have run my last lap. I have counted my last calorie. If I gain thirty pounds from the next kid and it doesn't bleed right off, so be it." She stopped, and looked sideways at Warren. "You will still love me if I gain thirty pound from the next kid, won't you?"

"You really have to ask that?" Warren chuckled.

"No," Sophie smiled. "I know you will. Hey, I want to keep myself in reasonable shape, especially when I get older. But I don't have to care about keeping myself in animal shape anymore. It comes as a relief."

"For me too, actually," Warren agreed. "Getting back after the knee was brutal."

"No doubt," she said. "So, anyway, that I won't miss at all. I've loved skating. I've especially loved skating with you. But it's time to go out."

"Right. So let's go out on top."

"Damn straight!"

A few weeks before the Olympics, Warren and Sophie, along with Warren's parents and Tom, traveled into Boston. Cambridge, to be more accurate--they were headed to Harvard.