“I can Revolut you,” he said. “Give me a minute.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sam said. She slid into an empty seat and nodded for him to sit down. “We have work to do first. We need to craft the perfect reply—”
Finn added salt to his already salted fries. He dipped into the mayonnaise and popped the fry into his mouth. “God this is delicious.”
“Pay attention!” Sam mock-frowned at him.
Finn absent-mindedly ate another fry. He watched Sam as she took a huge bite of her chicken, chewed it and swallowed.
“Finn—hear me out, okay, this is a little crazy, but I was thinking last night—when I couldn’t sleep. And I have a plan.” Sam glanced around and leaned forward. “We need to make them believe that wearethe perfect athletes for their partnership. If we land deals with Salvaro and Montalier—without any help from my dad, or anyone else—it means that we don’t need them, that we can do things on our own.”
“Now who’snotafraid of growing up.” Finn picked the tomato from his burger and ate it. “Seriously, Sam, what’s going on? What do you see happening?”
“This is more than just a partnership or a sponsorship deal. I feel it.” Sam paused. “Finn, you know how much I want to be free from my dad, but he pays for everything, controls everything.”
Finn nodded. “You know how well I understand that feeling.”
“Yeah, I know. Well, think about it—we’ve never considered striking out on our own, before now.”
“Sounds ridiculous now you say it.” Finn sat forward. “I had the odd thought, but I never really gave it serious consideration. It seemed sort of rude—like I was throwing it all back in my uncle’s face, you know.”
“I hear what you’re saying, and I want you to hear me out before you say no,” Sam said. “The reality is that we’re not kids anymore. I’m almost twenty-four for crying out loud. You already are, come to think of it. We should be standing on our own two feet. Well, four if we do it together.”
“Four feet.” Finn loved how serious she was looking.
“Finn. Be real, for one minute.” Sam frowned. “Think about it. If we play this right, we can start to manage ourselves, call the shots for once.”
“You reallydothink this is real—that there’s a chance for a big deal for both of us?” Finn leaned in. “This could change everything, Sam, everything.”
“I know!” Sam excitedly whispered. “Becky can keep Valestré. They’re not a patch on these guys. The whole world would look at us differently too.”
Finn nodded. It was a strange place to be, on the edge of huge success but still being treated as if his sport wasn’t his main career.
Sam carried on, almost echoing his thoughts. “I could show everyone that snowboarding isn’t myhobby—that it is a real career, and that women can have it all.”
“Wow. This is huge. The potential …” Finn grew quiet.
“It is, isn’t it?” Sam put her chicken down. “Like, Finn, ifwe get a medal we get a bonus payment—but imagine what would happen if we had endorsements.”
“I could fix up my mom’s house,” Finn said quietly.
“At the least,” Sam said. She reached over and wiped mayonnaise from his lips. “But it’showwe get the deal—how can we convince them that they should choose us? We’ve only the Olympics to convince them.”
Finn nodded. “Yeah, we need to make the most of this time frame. We have … what’s your timetable like?”
Sam looked down at her phone. “Well, tonight is the big air qualie, and the final for that is tomorrow—Monday.”
“You’ll walk it,” Finn said with conviction. “It’s your best game.”
Sam smiled. “Then I have the halfpipe qualie and final on Wednesday and Thursday. That’s the big one for me. What about you?”
Finn pulled out a creased and crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. He reddened as he smoothed it out. “I’m not as organized digitally as you are.”
Sam shook her head. “Why am I not surprised?”
Sheepishly he pointed to some dates he’d highlighted. “My first final is this Tuesday.”
“I’ll be there.” Sam twisted the paper from his hands. “Oh! Your last competition isn’t until the 13th and 14th! That gives us … um, today is the 8th … oh crap! That gives us just under a week to make the best impression that we possibly can.”
