I love you.
“Yeah, Rye Bread, I want to be with you. It might be crazy for us to be married when we haven’t even technically begun dating, but?—”
“It’s not crazy, Mabel. It’s you and me. Our destinies have always been intertwined. We’re written in the stars.” He gives me that signature, cocky Ryder grin that always accompanies that foo-foo universe shit he pulls on me, but for the first time I don’t have the urge to fight the truth. Ryder is mine. He was always meant to be mine.
“Mabel and Ryder, written in the stars.”
Ryder drops his lips to my neck, dragging themover the sensitive skin until goosebumps erupt over my body. “So, my darling wife. Should we go straight to planning our future over gelato at the dining facilities? Or would you rather I lick and fuck a few more orgasms out of you first?” He presses his covered cock against my cunt, and I buck my hips like a hussy, seeking more of him.
“First, we have orgasms. Then we have gelato. Then we plan the future, okay, husband?”
“Sounds like a plan to me, wife.”
25
CHILD’S PLAY POD — RYDER & MABEL ANSWER YOUR SNOWBOARDING QUESTIONS
*Partial transcript*
Q: What’s your biggest piece of advice for beginners?
Mabel: I’d say just start. You watch snowboarding on TV or on the internet and think those people woke up one day able to do 1080 flips and all that stuff. But really, everyone is a beginner at some point. The road to being a pro at something is paved with first sucking at the thing over and over again.
Ryder: I would add to that, try to relax. I see beginners who are so tense when they first strap on a board and that makes balancing so much more difficult. If you’re super rigid, your balance is going to be so weird. Take a breath and relax. Falling doesn’t hurt that bad.
Q: How did you convince your parents to let you snowboard every day? I want to get better but my parents say the drive to the mountain is too long.
*Both laugh*
Mabel: I think it’s different for us because we grew up in the mountains, close to the slopes.
Ryder: And there isn’t much convincing involved when your parents are also addicted to riding the slopes. My mom was mad that I chose to pursue snowboarding over skiing, though.
Mabel: Mine too. I think from that perspective, you just need to prove that you’re taking the sport seriously. When you’re on the mountain, make use of your time the best you can. It’s totally okay to have fun, but make sure you’re practicing your skills, too.
Q: How do you deal with all the bruises? You probably don’t fall as much as me but I feel like I cry every time I sit for a week after I snowboard.
Ryder: If you fall enough, your butt goes numb eventually. I barely notice the bruises anymore.
Mabel: And trust me, we fall a lot. A lot, a lot. But yeah, I think you eventually either get used to the soreness or you learn how to fall so that you’re not going down as hard every time.
Q: What is the hardest part about going pro when you’re still a kid?
Mabel: For me, it was the social aspect. I started homeschooling when I was 13, so I missed out on a lot. All of my friends became my fellow snowboarders, but we’d really only see each other at competitions.
Ryder: Lucky that you had a built-in bestie with me, Marshmallow.
Mabel: Yeah, I guess that did end up being pretty lucky, huh?
26
IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME
MABEL
“God, I am so sick of pressers,” Ryder groans, letting his head roll to the back of the beanbag chair he’s still scrunched on. I’m already up, pulling gear out of my bag to change into while watching the first trial round of the women’s ski jump on a small television hanging on the wall.
“The worst of it is over, babe,” I say as I start to undress. “And at least for this one we got to wear our comfy clothes.” We’re still in the middle of the makeshift studio where we just spent the last hour doing a Q&A for a youth sports podcast. There was no interviewer; Ryder and I just read questions sent in from kids around the world off a phone in front of a camera, and the footage will besent to the podcast’s team and edited some other time. So besides Trina, who is, as always, tapping away on her phone, only Ryder and I are in the room.
