Second Chances (6 page)

Allison
stood up and brushed at the imaginary lint on her jeans.  “I’ll sleep out here on the couch.”

“No, no,” Reagan
protested.  She stood from the couch, now feeling more awake. “I don’t want to put you out like that.”

Allison
sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. Why did she have to make everything so
hard
? “Reagan, I invited you,” she pointed out.  “You’re my guest.  I’ll take the couch,” she insisted.  “It’s actually pretty comfortable.”

R
eagan considered protesting again, but finally she bit her lower lip and nodded her consent. 

Allison
grabbed a few afghans from a nearby window seat and started to make up her bed on the couch. “Good night.  If you need anything, I’ll just be out here.”

Reagan
wordlessly nodded again and walked the few steps to Allison’s bedroom, where she’d put her overnight bag earlier.  She quietly closed the bedroom door and was greeted by the simple furnishings of Allison’s room.   In the center of the modest-sized room was a single bed, immaculately made.  A few bookshelves populated the room, each struggling to contain the impressive amount of books on their shelves. 

She felt like she’d
been granted access to a holy place – the inner sanctum of an elite club. If anyone had told her just a few weeks ago that she’d soon be sleeping in Allison Hoge’s bed, surrounded by her things and the scent of her light perfume, she would have bitterly laughed in their face and called them a liar.

+++++

CHAPTER
FOUR

The morning after the initial awkwardness of arriving in
Providence, Reagan woke up early.   It wasn’t unusual for her to wake up at an early hour, even on the weekends.  She had her routines and her body obligingly stuck to them.  She lay in Allison’s bed for a few moments, just waking up and listening for any telltale sounds that people were up and moving around in the house.  She had yet to meet Allison’s roommates, but she was honestly a little nervous about it.  What kind of people would Allison-version 2.0 be living with? 

When she finally exited Allison’s bedroom
as quietly as possible so as to not wake up anyone in the house, she found Allison already awake, drinking coffee and sitting at the kitchen table with the morning newspaper.  She wore black, rectangle-framed glasses, and her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. The tip of her tongue was just barely visible, peaking out between two pale pink lips as she worked on the morning crossword puzzle.  Reagan thought it unfair that anyone could still be so attractive in glasses and slightly disheveled from sleep.

“Morning.”

Allison looked up and smiled warmly when she saw the brunette.  “Morning,” she returned the greeting.  Her voice sounded deeper than usual.  “Sleep okay?”

R
eagan scratched at the back of her neck self-consciously and nodded.  She had thought about changing out of her pajamas, but felt relieved that Allison appeared to still be in hers – a light blue Henley top and cotton pants with a drawstring. She wondered how she’d gotten them since she’d taken over her bedroom. “How about you?” she asked.  She still felt guilty that Allison had slept on the couch, but she didn’t really know what protocol was for adult sleepovers.

“Good,” Allison
confirmed.  Her eyes fell back down to her newspaper. “If you want coffee, there’s some extra in the machine.  Mugs are above the microwave.”

Reagan
padded over to the coffee maker and made herself a cup, black and strong.  She cupped the ceramic mug in her hands and let it warm her.  Allison’s house was old, and therefore a little drafty.  She was used to the muggy heat of her residence hall in the mornings, the result of so many women all taking hot showers at the same time.  She sat down in the spare chair at the kitchen table and silently observed Allison for a moment as she continued to work on the crossword puzzle.

“What would you like to do today?”
Allison asked without looking up.  “I gotta warn you. Providence isn’t that big, plus it’s winter.”

“Does Brown
have an ice rink?”

Allison
looked up at the unexpected question. “I think so,” she said.  Her fair eyebrows were still knit together.  “I’m pretty sure we have a hockey team. Why?”

“It might be fun to go ice skating,” R
eagan said, drawing invisible patterns on the table with her fingers.  “It seems like an appropriate winter activity,” she added self-consciously.  “I usually go skating with my dad on Christmas day, but we didn’t get to go this year.  Too many other things to squeeze in while I was home.” 

Allison
seemed to let the idea marinate for a moment before responding.  “I’ll call the rink and see if that’s something we could do today.  I don’t know if they let students skate there or if it’s just for hockey.”

“Could you ask if they have skate rentals, too?”

Allison nodded. “Good thinking.  That would probably be important,” she said with a quiet chuckle.

Now that a tentative pl
an had been made for the day, Reagan felt more at ease.  If they had something concrete to do, there was less chance of her embarrassing herself or babbling endlessly and annoying Allison.  “Do you have your own skates?”

Allison
shook her head.  “I’ve actually never gone skating before,” she revealed.

“What?!”

“Geez, Murphy.” Allison winced. “Trying to wake up my roommates?”

“Your parents
never took you ice skating?” Reagan asked incredulously, dropping her voice to a hoarse whisper.

Allison’s
brow furrowed seriously.  “No.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.” Allison shook her head, looking frustrated.  Reagan apologized too much.  “It’s not your fault.”

“But we grew up in the middle of nowhere
,
” Reagan pointed out.  “What else was there to do in the winter months?”

Allison arched an eyebrow. “Under-
aged drinking and premarital sex?”

“Skating, sledding, and making snow people?” R
eagan countered.

“Snow people?”
Allison echoed.

“Well I suppose they’re better known as snow
men
, but it always seemed unfair to me that you could only build snowmen.  What about snow
women
?” Reagan huffed indignantly. “They deserve a chance, too, you know.”

Allison shook her head at Reagan’s
antics. Her energy was contagious. “Of
course
you’d get upset about that.”

+++++

Reagan inhaled, enjoying the smell of the cold ice.  She stepped out onto the sparsely populated ice rink and made a tentative stride.  She hadn’t been skating since two Christmases ago, but knew that after a little while she’d be back to her old form.  Gaining confidence, she started to skate faster in a wide loop around the oval rink.  She crossed her right foot over her left, making a sharp, crisp turn around the first corner.  The sound of her sharp blades cutting into the ice was familiar and comforting, bringing her back to simpler days.

A loud crash pulled
her out of her trance, and she looked in the direction of the noise to see Allison awkwardly opening the large gate to the rink.  She stumbled out onto the ice surface and immediately grasped onto the sideboards surrounding the hockey rink to keep from falling. 

“Devil shoes,” she complained under her breath.  “God never intended for people to fly or to ice skate.”

“Well, for starters, you didn’t tie your laces tight enough.”  Reagan pointed to Allison’s unsteady feet and laughed.  “That’s why your ankles are wobbling around like that.”

“And here I thought they’d rented me skates made out of Jello,”
Allison quipped and rolled her eyes.

Reagan
cocked her head to one side, amused by Allison’s lack of balance.  The normally perfectly put-together girl looked anything but comfortable. “I still don’t understand how you could have grown up in Michigan and never learned how to ice skate.”

Allison
scowled and her legs continued to wobble unsteadily. “It’s Michigan, not the North Pole.”

Reagan
skated easily over to Allison and wrapped her arm around her waist. “C’mon,” she cajoled, “I’ll help you.”

With a minimum amount of convincing,
Allison released her tight clutch on the boards and allowed herself to be led back towards the zamboni entrance. Reagan momentarily released her hold to open up the sideboards.  

Without the support,
Allison immediately spilled onto the ice. “Hey!” she loudly complained, her back flat on the ice. “What was that for?”

“I’m sorry.” Reagan
held a mittened hand over her laughing mouth.  “I didn’t think you’d fall so easily.” She reached down and pulled Allison off the slick surface and back onto her feet.  The two wobbled unsteadily, both threatening to tumble, until Reagan planted her feet in the ice for better balance.

“Don’t you dare let go again,” Allison
grunted through clenched teeth.

R
eagan laughed. “I’ve got you,” she reassured the shaky girl.  She steered Allison back through the rink entrance and helped her step off the ice and onto the thick, black rubber flooring.

Allison
wobbled over to a wooden bench and sat down.  She breathed a sigh of relief to be on solid ground again. 

R
eagan stood in front of her and grabbed onto her skating partner’s right ankle and elevated it so she could rest the skate blade between her knees.   “This is how my dad used to tie my skates for me when I was little,” she explained.   She unlaced Allison’s skate laces and retied the shoddy work. “You’ve got to get the laces really tight, especially around your ankles.”

Allison grunted slightly when Reagan
pulled the laces tighter. “Are you trying to cut off the circulation to my feet?”

“Do you want to flop around on the ice like a fish out of wa
ter, or do you want my help?” Reagan challenged.  Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed Allison’s other foot and retied the laces on that skate as well.

With
both feet back on the ground, Allison flexed her toes, coaxing the blood back into her tiny appendages.  “I don’t think magic shoelaces will keep me from falling on my butt,” she stated sourly.

Reagan
laughed.  “That’s why you’ve got
me
to help you out,” she reassured.

“Sure,”
Allison rolled her eyes.  “Help me fall again, you mean.”

“That was just once,” Reagan
protested with a soft laugh.  “I won’t let you fall again, I promise.”

Allison
sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.  “Why am I doing this again?”

“Because you don’t want me to have to skate all by myself,”
Reagan lightly pouted.  Her bottom lip made an appearance, signaling the end of Allison’s protesting.

“Fine.”

With the help of Reagan, the normally graceful girl stumbled back onto the ice.  Once again, she clung to the hockey boards on the perimeter like an amateur swimmer staying afloat in a pool.

“Here,” R
eagan stated with a smile.  “Do what I do.”

Allison
hesitantly allowed Reagan to wretch her grip from the sideboards.  She held onto one of Allison’s gloved hands and carefully pulled her towards the center of the rink.

“Hey,”
Allison remarked, allowing herself to pick up speed.  “I think I’m starting to get the hang of this.” Her legs felt more solid, but she was still unsure about letting herself go too fast.

“I kne
w you’d be a natural at this,” Reagan noted with a crisp nod. “You’re good at everything.”

Allison
gingerly turned on her skates, causing her to slow down. “Do you always put people up on such a high pedestal?”

Reagan
wasn’t quite sure what she was asking or what the right answer was, so she merely shrugged.

Allison
started to skate towards Reagan, but her toe-pick caught on a divot in the ice and she started to fall.  Her arms flailed comically at her sides as she tried to latch onto something to catch herself, but it only resulted in her plopping down hard on her backside.

R
eagan tried to not laugh as she stared down at Allison.  “Okay, so maybe you’re not good at
everything.
”

Allison
groaned and rubbed at her tailbone.  Falling on the ice felt like wiping out on concrete, only you got wet. 

“Don’t worry about it
.  It just proves that you’re human after all.” Reagan suddenly lost her balance and fell onto the ice surface, joining the other woman.  She groaned unhappily.  “I did that on purpose.”

“Uh huh.”

Reagan rolled onto her stomach and stared intently. “This is fun.  Thank you for giving it a chance.”

“It’s
really not a big deal. I told you, it’s all part of the new Allison Hoge.”

“I think I’m really starting to
like this new Hoge,” Reagan smiled back. “What do you want to do with the rest of the day?”

Reagan’s
words echoed in Allison’s head. “What time’s your train?”

R
eagan’s features scrunched together as she tried to remember. “Not until 6pm, I think.  I could take a later train, but the 6 o’clock gets me back to New York at a respectable hour.”  It would have been more time and money efficient to stay Friday night through Sunday afternoon, instead of Saturday morning through Sunday evening, but she’d made the decision to make this initial visit as short as possible without offending Allison.  She hadn’t wanted to commit to spending two nights in Providence if it turned out to be a disaster.

“Right.  Need to make sure you get your 8-hours of sleep,”
Allison snorted.

“My sleep schedule is very important to me.” R
eagan dug her toe-picks into the ice and pushed off, forcing her body to scoot across the ice, closer to where Allison still lay.  She used her elbows to army-crawl until their bodies were parallel.  Other skaters veered widely to avoid them.

“Are you a human zamboni now?” Allison
cracked.