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Something has changed.
She didn't notice it at first, but it's been a few days, and she knows something's up. She doesn't know how she can tell, but she's known him for 22 years, reads him like a book, so she's surprised she hasn't noticed it earlier.
She figures it while they're at her house one night, tiredly continuing their planning for their upcoming tour. She doesn't think much of the fact that the rest of their friends have already left. Scott doesn't really have a reason to be there, considering he's not really doing anything anyway, just sitting next to her as she sits in front of her laptop, thinking of new social media promotions to boost ticket sales.
She hums softly as she pulls up all the pictures they're considering posting in the future, studies them carefully, then realizes exactly what they need.
"We need more pictures of us," she mumbles, talking to herself rather than to Scott.
"What?" he says in his usual loud way, leaning a bit closer to her to see her computer screen.
She smiles at his interruption, which is more than welcome. "See," she points to the pictures, "We have tons of pictures of our merch, and of Kaetlyn, and a bunch of Elvis, but we barely have any pictures of us. People want to see us, right?"
She smiles and looks over her shoulder at him, and if she had blinked, she would have missed the way his smile faltered just a little, because in an instant, he's looking like his usual joyful self. She tries not to think about it.
"Yeah," he replies, then says nothing else, so she doesn't, either.
Something's changed, she thinks again, and this time, she doesn't ignore it. Something's wrong.
She closes her laptop, her eyes feeling strained from the bright screen in the dark night.
"Is everything okay, Scott?" she asks him, feeling concerned as she turns to look at him.
"Yeah," he says, but she notices the way he averted his eyes for a split second. "Just... tired, I guess." He laughs a little. "It's getting pretty late."
He doesn't make any move to get up, so she supposes he's just going to stay the night. He hasn't done that for a while, she realizes.
She smiles and moves a bit closer to him, feeling tired, not to mention a bit cold, even though it's the middle of summer. She rests her head on his shoulder, something she's done countless times. She expects to feel his arm wrap around her instinctively, something he's done every time. So she's surprised when he doesn't, and she finally realizes what's going on when he sits up, no longer supporting her, distancing them just a little.
Something's changed, she realizes, and she knows what it is.
It's the way he didn't pull her tight against him when he hugged her the other day at the rink. It's the way he hasn't looked her in the eye when she's smiled at him for the last three days. It's the way his hands are off her before she's even fully balanced on the ice after a lift, which startled her so much yesterday that she almost fell. And now, it's the way that he's pushing her away so that he's not even touching her. Since when was he like this?
Something hasn't changed, though, and it's the way he can tell exactly what she's thinking, because he answers her unspoken question almost immediately.
"I'm engaged," he blurts, squeezing his eyes shut so as not to see her reaction immediately.
"Oh," she exclaims, overwhelmed. She knew it was going to happen since the day he started dating again, but nothing could prepare her for the moment it did. "Oh, I'm so happy for you, Scott!"
He opens his eyes slowly to see her excited expression. "You... you are?"
She laughs. "Of course! Why would you think I wouldn't be?"
He shakes his head as if to clear his confusion. "I don't know, I just thought that, you know, you'd think it's kind of weird, or whatever, because we've been each other's only partners since pretty much the beginning..."
She doesn't hear the rest of what he's saying as she finally starts to process exactly what's happening. Neither of them have ever been in serious relationships, so they've always been able to play out a romance on the ice, even if it doesn't exist in real life. But now that Scott's going to be married, that's going to change. Wait, is it?
"But we can still skate together, right?" she asks quickly, without thinking.
Her question seems to shock him. "Tess, I would never leave you, you know that, right? Skating's been my life, I just need... I need something else in my life."
Something, not someone else in his life, and she doesn't miss the distinction. She knows he's always wanted to get married and have kids. His life was never going to be just about skating.
But he still needs her. He needs her more than he lets on, and she knows that.
"We can still be us," he reassures her. "Nothing has to change."
She knows that he's trying to convince himself, because she's not that naïve. She knows that things have changed, things will always be different now, and truth be told, it's going to be a little weird. Everything they had, everything they were, won't be the same.
But she thinks she's prepared for that.
Nothing could have prepared her for the way she found herself letting go from his hugs after only a second or two, never allowing them to linger. Nothing could have prepared her for the way they now kept a safe distance from each other on the ice, never getting quite close enough. Nothing could have prepared her for the way that she would never again be his only partner.
Nothing could have prepared her for 22 years of everything she knew suddenly disappearing.
She doesn't know if she'll ever get used to it. But she's willing to spend the rest of her life trying.
And he will, too.