From Lukov with Love

by Mariana Zapata

I needed to chill out. Or maybe masturbate. Something had to help.

Lol me

“I don’t know why you get so excited seeing her. She might have been a good singles skater, but she always choked, and her pairs career was nothing to talk about.”

Damn she couldn't wait until the door was closed? Lol

“Hello, yozik,”

“We want you to be Ivan’s next partner,” the woman said. Just. Like. That.

Let's gooooo

You are who you are in life, and you either live that time trying to bend yourself to make other people happy, or… you don’t.

I was good with secrets. I was really good with secrets.

Foreshadowing?

I could be safe. Couldn’t I? I could watch what I posted. Be more careful. I could be smart about it if things started happening again. Especially if this opportunity was real and mine.

Does she have a stalker or something?

People liked to say love was blind, but there was no way love could be that blind.

Lmaooo why'd she read her brother like that

Mom wasn’t just a cougar, she was The Cougar. All other cougars hailed to her.

He’s not doing you a favor by asking. You’re doing him the favor.

Yes, mama!

But like my mom had always said, usually shaking her head or rolling her eyes as she did it, I “came out doing things the hard way” because I’d decided to come out of her feet first. And ever since, nothing had ever been easy for me.

Not feet first...you had one job

Other than that, practice will be six days a week, twice a day. Will that be a problem?”

Damn

It was Ivan that answered as he shifted around on the bench. “Four hours at four in the morning at the LC, and a three hour workout at one in the afternoon.”

Good lord..

My fingers had probably been inches away from Ivan’s when he’d snatched his hand back, smirked even wider, and left me there. On the ice. Just like that.

Rude

“What are you smiling at, Meatball?”

That nickname is so disrespectful

I was going to take that as her telling me she would rather I not have an account than have one where I got sent videos of someone jerking off to pictures I’d posted of myself.

Omg??? Ew

There wasn’t anything wrong with me. I stood up for myself. I stood up for other people. I didn’t take shit from others. Was that so wrong? Even Jonathan, my brother, had told me once years ago that if I were a man, no one would think twice about it. People would think I was some kind of asshole hero with a heart of gold.

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.

Pardon?? What kind of magazine is this, honey?

“I’ve never seen you so squirmy before, and I don’t know if it’s annoying or kind of cute.”

Pardon?? Kind of what??

Ivan Lukov laughed loud. “You probably paid the judges with your Russian mafia money,” I kept going, which earned me another laugh so loud that I almost smiled back at him.

“You probably sit in your Tesla and cry every time you wrinkle your sweaters.”

Did his voice sound weird or was it my imagination? Maybe he didn’t like talking about her either.

“Is there something funny?” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Ivan shake his head. “No. Nothing. We respect and admire each other a lot.”

Y'all have one job lol

“I know you haven’t been together very long, but if there was one thing you wanted to say to the other, as a criticism, what would it be?”

She's so messy...answer the question though

Plus, the truth was… he hadn’t told me. Period. I’d found out when he’d announced Mary and him were taking the next season off to train together. That’s how I’d found out. From an article. Two days after we had started our planned one-month break.

Woooow what a little bitch

“What is Jasmine’s favorite food?” The idiot beside me didn’t miss a beat. “Chocolate cake.”

“I know you better than you think I do.”

“Get in, loser.” And that had me blinking. “Did you just quote—”

Omg lol

“Which bridge do you live under and how do we get there?” “I can’t stand you.”

Ivan raised his eyebrows after turning to me. “Can I use the bathroom?”

Absolutely not. Pee outside like a man

At least I sure as hell hoped that’s all he was doing. From a single sniff, I could tell dinner was well on its way to being done. It smelled so good.

The mom is so going to invite him over for dinner

Someone snorted, and I knew it was Tali. “Jas hit puberty really late. What was she? Like sixteen?”

Oooooo that's so nasty

“Then she got detention in kindergarten twice. One girl pulled on her hair, so she pulled her hair right out—”

What kindergarten has detention???

That had Mom winking. “Then don’t be a hypocrite or sexist. The human body is a natural thing. What she’s doing isn’t going to be sexualized… is it, Ivan?”

Alright, mom

“Ivan, do you think I want you to tease me about skipping puberty after you’ve seen my tits? Because I don’t. Not even a little bit, all right? Is that what you want to hear? That I don’t want you looking at me and judging me when I have to see your face all the time? I like myself just fine. I don’t want to listen to you make fun of me, of things I can’t change. I have little tits. Okay. We both know that. What if you think my nipples are too big, or you think they’re too small, or you’ll laugh at my stretch marks, or tell me you get where all my weight comes from! My thighs!”

I heard more than saw him exhale. But what I felt was him taking another step closer to me. “The only reason I give you so much shit is because you were a pain in the ass, and then you were the only one who dished it back to me. You know you’re beautiful.”

The second the two hands landed on my shoulders, I jumped, unexpectedly. And when his mouth lowered to where his lips hovered just over mine,

“There’s my Meatball,” he said in almost a whisper, his fingers loosening from around my wrist until they were slipping through mine, holding our hands together like we had done it a thousand times. Because we had.

“Fuck,” I heard Ivan mutter under his breath as I looked at his face… only to find that his eyes were squeezed closed.

Oh my gosh that’s insane

Baby, where are you going?? You don’t have a car

Girl…now don’t be a dummy

I loved my family. I loved figure skating. And I sucked at loving both. “Get up, Meatball.”

“I’m not dealing with you if you get sick,”

He lifts you up everyday! It would be extremely easy for him

I went over his shoulder, ass in the air, head and arms dangling along his back.

Did her mom call him or something?

“You can tell me anything. You know I know what this life is like,” he murmured the words I hadn’t expected from him. Words that cleaved deep into my gut.

“It used to be a conference room and a storage closet, but I had it renovated a few years ago, when some fans snuck into the facility and went into the changing room while I was showering.”

People are actually insane

Ivan raised his eyebrow and moved it half an inch closer to me. “It’s the packet stuff,” he explained in a damn near murmur like he didn’t want to say the words or something. “I don’t have any marshmallows, if you like that kind of thing.”

Awww he made her hot chocolate