“I would silently judge you if you told me three months down the line, but we only have… ten minutes left until the new year. I don’t have time to judge you,” she said.
He smiled at that—it was a good smile. Infectious. The side of his face was lit up by the moonlight, and a small dimple appeared on his right cheek.
“Okay.” He took a breath. “I dropped out of college a couple of weeks ago, and I’m pretty sure it’s the worst decision I’ve ever made.”
She could hear the heaviness in his voice, so she decided to lighten the tone.
“Oh, this would never work out then,” she teased. “I graduated first in my class, so I only date guys who finish their degrees.”
Drew didn’t miss a beat. “If I knew I was going to meet you, I would have stayed in school.”
“But if I’m honest, I peaked in secondary school,” she admitted. “And I got a degree in sports science, so…” She shrugged.
“Your destiny is to become a high-school gym teacher clinging on to your glory days?”
“Something like that,” she said, thinking about the Team GB Olympic Kit that awaited her back at Bootcamp.
“Okay, your turn. Anything worse than throwing your career away on a whim?” he asked.
Ari thought about it for a moment, flipping through her rolodex of regrets. Ari was all for sharing secrets with a stranger, butthis was still a Zeus party. She couldn’t risk telling him too much too soon. It was a small world where reputations were tarnished overnight. She couldn’t risk it all for someone she didn’t know.
“Hmm, what will make you judge me…? Oh, I have a good one,” she said. She kept her voice light, but her first secret had been weighing down on her for years. “I once got into acompetitionwith one of my rivals at…work…”
“The long pauses make me feel like you’re not being honest,” he said.
“I’m not lying. I’m just being evasive.”
“Oh, that is something I could get a degree in.” He laughed.
She cupped her hand to her ear. “I think I can hear… alarm bells?”
“If I can admit I’m evasive, then you can hide the details of your story. No judgment if we’re on the same page,” he said.
If this had been a real first date, Ari would have run for the hills. But she was never going to see Drew again, so what was the harm in opening up?
“Okay, so I was in a competition at work. And I wanted to win. So, I did my very best and put all my energy into the… game. But in the process, I accidentally hurt someone. Physically. It could have left her injured for life,” she admitted, thinking back to a fateful hockey match from years ago that troubled her to this day.
“But it was an accident, right?” he said, looking over at her.
“A complete accident. Nobody was supposed to get hurt,” she said, recalling the moment she’d tried her best to forget.
“So, there’s nothing to feel bad about.”
“Oh, but it gets worse,” she said before he could try to make her feel better about it. “It almost ended the other person’s career but it did wonders for mine. In fact, that accident changed my life.” Ari felt simultaneously exposed and unburdened. She’d beenthinking about that match ever since she’d heard the news about Gracie. What were the chances that two injuries four years apart would have such a significant impact on her career? She searched Drew’s expression, expecting to find judgment in his eyes. But instead, he just nodded.
“Her loss was your gain. I’ve been there before,” he admitted. “I once told a girl that… wait, no. That’s too far,” he said, stopping himself.
But Ari was curious. She glanced down at her watch to check the time.
“Why hold back? There’s only a few minutes left until midnight, and after that, we’ll never see each other again,” she said. “Imagine we’re in a confession booth. If you tell me your secrets, I’ll absolve you.”
He hesitated for a moment before he spoke again.
“I once told a girl, who in my defense I did really like—”
“Said every fuckboy ever. No judgment, of course.” She teased as she watched him shake his head and look up at the sky.
“I dated this girl, Sade… whose dad just happened to be one of the top execs of a football team I was interning at. For the record, that isn’twhyI dated her—”
