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In New York City the holidays were magical. The lights, the atmosphere, everything about it was magical. Because of this, Stevie and Ruth had created a ‘totally cheesy, touristy, and sort of overrated’ holiday activity list; a list of which they had checked almost everything off of. Everything that was except ice skating at Rockefeller Center.
Which was where they found themselves.
The ice skating rink was bustling with people. Mostly laughing teenagers, couples skating, and families teaching toddlers how to skate. Stevie thought that ice skating was a great people-watching opportunity, but also a nightmare during the holidays.
Why was it that people who didn’t skate all year always felt the urge to do it during the holidays? Was it all the movies that highlighted it, nostalgia, or something else entirely?
Whatever it was, it was Stevie’s worst nightmare.
“I know how to skate,” Stevie argued, even while her feet began to glide in opposite directions.
“Do you?” Ruth questioned, her tone gentle, if not also a little skeptical, as her gaze landed on her girlfriend’s white knuckled grasp of the rink wall.
“I do!” Stevie replied in a determined tone. “I just, I haven’t done it in a couple of years.” More like ten, but who was counting. “So I’m just a little rusty,” she continued, gingerly letting go of the wall to test her balance. Her feet stayed firmly where she placed them, which meant she avoided an imitation of a gangly newborn foal, so that was progress.
“See! I’ll be fi-” The words were almost out of Stevie’s mouth, before she rocked backwards just a little too far and found herself letting out a very unattractive ‘oomph’ as she hit the ice.
“You were saying?” Ruth asked, trying to hide her amused smile as she offered a hand to Stevie.
A part of Stevie —a bigger part than she cared to acknowledge, actually— wanted to refuse Ruth’s hand and remain on the ice for the rest of the adventure. But her pride wouldn’t let her. She knew how to skate, she’d spent winter after winter as a kid doing it. How was it that her body had betrayed her like this? How had it forgotten the simple mechanics of it? Was it some kind of body amnesia that she had been unaware of until now?
“I’ll be fine,” Stevie bit out as she took Ruth’s hand and allowed herself to be pulled up off the ice. “I’m just getting used to the skates.” Yeah, that was it, she just had to get used to the skates. They weren’t her usual. “Give me a couple minutes and I’ll be skating circles around you!” She said with feigned confidence. More confidence than she felt. But, what was said, was said, no take backs!
“Sure you will,” Ruth replied, humoring Stevie.
“I will,” Stevie countered, trying to convince herself that she would in fact be fine.
While Ruth dutifully tried to let her girlfriend work through her skating dilemma, and Stevie warred with her body to do what it was she wanted it to do, a gangly teenager skated over, an unusually helpful look on his face. ’Obviously not a native New Yorker.’ Stevie thought.
“Need help?” he asked While Stevie knew he was just trying to be nice, she found herself annoyed by the ease in which he had skated over, and also offended at how he had identified that she needed help. I mean, obviously she did, but she didn’t like people noticing! Frankly, she was annoyed at the kid’s parents. How dare they raise a child who was so happy to help strangers.
“We’re fine,” Stevie replied quickly, hoping her tone was breezy and devoid of the low level anxiety and annoyance she felt. It was a stretch, so she wasn’t sure she managed it.
“You sure?” The teenager questioned again, Stevie found herself annoyed with both him and his parents. “Because I don’t mind helping you! I mean, it looks like you’ve never skated before.” Stevie’s look darkened, though he seemed oblivious.
“I-” Stevie began, prepared to offer some sarcastic remark that might get them removed from the rink or possibly banned for life, but before she could finish her sentence Ruth intervened.
“Thank you, but I think we’re okay,” Ruth said evenly, with a smile.
“Okay, if you’re sure,” He replied with a shrug and skated off.
“We are okay,” Stevie said shortly. “I am okay.” That might have been a little more convincing if her legs hadn’t wobbled at that very moment and her hand hadn’t flown out to grasp the side of the rink again.
“I’m sure you are, but we can also leave if you’d like,” Ruth offered. “Maybe grab dinner, then curl up with hot chocolate and start our cheesy holiday movie marathon?” Ruth paused. “You can even mock all of them, I won’t mind, and you’ll love it, I promise.”
Even if Stevie had wanted to do that —and admittedly it sounded tempting— her pride refused to let her leave. She had to prove to herself, if not everyone else, that she knew how to do it, because she did know how to skate. She did.
“I’m. Fine,” Stevie maintained. At that point Stevie wasn’t certain who she was trying to convince more, herself or Ruth. “Like, totally fine.” So what if her hand hadn’t left the rink wall yet, she was just waiting for Ruth to move. Yeah, that was totally it, she was just waiting for Ruth now.
“Okay,” Ruth agreed. She wasn’t going to fight Stevie about it. “I’ll meet you at the other end of the rink?” she added, just a hint of a challenge in her smile and her voice. “Don’t let the teens lap you!”
Without another word Ruth went gliding off towards the opposite end of the rink and left Stevie to silently debate the pros and cons of attempting to follow and see if her body had finally remembered how to stay upright on the ice.
While Stevie was mentally calculating what a trip to the emergency room might cost, Ruth waved from the far end of the rink. Stevie heaved an annoyed sigh, waved back, then mustered every last bit of courage she had —because she might make a fool of herself again— and pushed away from the wall.
“Hopefully this doesn’t end in a hospital visit. Or worse,” she muttered under her breath while her skates began to glide across the ice and the rink wall got a little further away. then a little more, and before Stevie knew it she was halfway across the rink and still upright.
Progress!
“Looks like you weren’t wrong,” Ruth called from where she stood There was a glint in her eye as she watched Stevie gingerly skate in her direction.
Stevie pulled a face in response and called back, “I told you I could!” Tone more confident than it had been minutes before. “ I’m not a liar!” Stevie exclaimed as she finally reached the end of the rink and came to a stop —with some assistance by the wall— next to Ruth.
“You’re not,” Ruth agreed with a fond smile. “Now that you’re here I have a question for you,” she said, then paused. “I was kind of worried it might not go over that well five minutes ago, when you were clinging to the other end of the rink, and convincing me you absolutely knew how to skate,” continued, then quickly added, “which you do.”
Stevie heard Ruth’s words but her attention was fixed on the way her girlfriend had reached into her coat pocket. While it seemed like it might be an innocent gesture, something in the back of her brain was convinced it was important.
“I know this is a super cheesy holiday movie thing to do,” Ruth said as she produced a little velvet box from her pocket. “And I hope you won’t say no immediately, but, will you marry me?”
Stevie was speechless. She blinked at Ruth, her mouth an ‘O’ as she processed Ruth’s question. Of all the things she thought might happen once, that was not one of them.
It was only when Ruth hesitantly said, “Or not. We don’t have to get married.” that Stevie realized she hadn’t said anything. She wasn’t even sure her face had registered any kind of reaction besides the owl-ish look.
“Oh my god! No!” Stevie said, rushed. “I mean not no,” Stevie corrected.. “Yes! I mean yes! I want to marry you. I just, I wasn’t expecting that.” Despite the little voice that told her she might fall over from the movement, she threw her arms around Ruth, pulled her into a hug, and kissed her. “Of course I want to marry you. Even if this is totally a cheesy as hell way to propose” she continued after she broke their kiss, her voice excited.
“Thank god!” Ruth exclaimed, relief clear in her voice. “Because I really didn't want to break up, or have you disown me for the spectacle,” she stated with a smile. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Stevie replied “And I told you I could skate!” She pulled back to look at Ruth, a teasing grin on her face. “Can I see the ring?”
“You did,” Ruth agreed. And you can.” Ruth disentangled herself from Stevie and opened the little velvet box.
Inside was a simple, yet stunning diamond ring. Exactly the sort of ring that Stevie would have chosen for herself. A fact which solidified that Ruth was her person, and that saying yes had been the right decision. Besides David, nobody knew her as well as Ruth did.
After taking a second to confirm her balance was still okay, Stevie pulled off one of her gloves and reached for the ring in the box. “You realize when I retell this story I’m going to leave the whole ‘looking like an uncoordinated idiot ’ out of it, right?” she remarked as she slipped the ring onto her finger. “There won’t be any mention of that teenager either.” Stevie’s expression clearly stated that there would be no arguments about that. “At least for the first few retellings. Maybe twenty years from now people will know the full story,” she amended. “Maybe.”
Ruth laughed. “You can tell whatever story you want, as long as they know you said yes and it ends happily ever after,” Ruth told her. There was a small chance that Ruth would tell people the real story, but Stevie wasn’t about to tell her newly minted fiancée that she couldn’t. “And we never have to mention the teenager.”
Another kiss followed, and when Stevie and Ruth broke apart Ruth asked, “Want to go mock cheesy holiday movies now?"
Stevie took one look around at the rink, then down at her ringed finger, smiled, and gave a little nod. “Yeah, I think we’ve both accomplished what we came here to do,” Stevie said.
She had proven to herself she could still skate and Ruth had played out her very cheesy, yet also very sweet engagement.
“Plus, you’re dying to get off the ice,” Ruth added with a smirk. “Admit it.”
“Okay, fine! I’m dying to get off the ice,” Stevie confirmed with a laugh and took Ruth’s hand. “These skates are killing my feet,” she added. “Maybe that’s why I was so bad!”
“Maybe it was,” Ruth agreed, humoring her as they began to skate back towards the exit. “You have to admit that it makes for a good story, though,” she reasoned. “Even if nobody ever knows all the details," she added.
New York City was just a little more magical in Stevie’s eyes after today, but it had nothing to do with the city and everything to do with the diamond ring sparkling on her finger and the woman beside her.