“I’m into it.” I rolled my hips against his suggestively. “Veryinto it.”
“Oh trust me, I’d stay trapped in this cardboard torture boxwith you all day, but how many appointments and meetings do you have lined up?”
I dropped my head to his chest. “A billion. Starting at ten.”
“Then let’s get moving, it’s already eight.”
“Are you sure?” I kissed his neck and slid my hand under the blanket and wrapped my fingers around him. “Because I think you want to stay for a few minutes more.”
He groaned. I was right.
Thirty minutes later we were back in bed with a fruit basket and a box of fancy cupcakes between us.
“Best breakfast ever,” he said with his mouth full of salted caramel cupcake.
“It’s quite literally the breakfast of champions,” I laughed. “Twogold medal winners.”
“Look at us,” he mused.
“How much longer are you staying?” I asked him, eating a cupcake with zero guilt. “Downhill finishes up tomorrow, right?”
His face hardened for an instant, a microexpression of discomfort that was there then gone. “I’m still working on my departure plans.”
“When will you know for sure?”
“Soon,” he said noncommittally as he grabbed another cupcake.
My chest hollowed out. He knew something he wasn’t saying.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “And don’t give me any agreement crap, I deserve the whole story now.”
“Quinn, let’s talk about this later. You need to get moving.”
I felt a shift in the air and I refused to ignore it.
I reached over and put my hand on his leg. “Please tell me.”
The physical contact was enough to make him pause. He sighed. “I wanted to wait. This isn’t the time.”
Worry bubbled up inside of me. “Ben...”
His shoulders drooped as he looked down at the pile of cupcake wrappers in front of him. “They’re not hiring me.”
The news sent me into free fall. Any happiness I’d been feeling vanished at the thought of what Ben had probably been going through while he was cheering me on.
“Why?” I practically shrieked. “How does that even make sense?”
He drew a breath and stared off into the distance like he was trying to get his story straight before speaking the words.
“Honestly? They’re sort of assholes. I didn’t want to tell you before you competed, but they fired Neil and Hailey. Someone found out about them and the powers that be freaked out about their zero-tolerance policy, and how fraternization opens them up to lawsuits. Absolute bullshit.”
My mouth dropped open. “Fired?”
He nodded.
“But what does that have to do with you?”
Ben looked like it was hard for him to get the words out, and the longer the silence stretched on the more seasick I felt.
