“I saw your press pass yesterday and figured that somebody in the press office would be able to help me find you. Then, when I got here, I started chatting to a very charming Brazilian man.”
“Luiz?”
“Yes! He told me that you’d probably be back at his desk by lunchtime, so I figured I’d wait until you came back,” she said with a shrug.
“Why?”
Ari kept spinning around in Luiz’s desk chair. Either trying to avoid his gaze or avoid his answer. But after a moment, she stopped and looked up at him. She scanned his face as if searching for something and then planted her feet firmly on the ground.
“I came to ask… will you be my boyfriend?”
17Ari
DAY ONE OF THE 2026 OLYMPICS
Ari’s best ideas only ever felt like good ideas in her head. On her walk to the press office, she’d been pretty proud of the plan she’d concocted in the hour after her team’s first win. It seemed totally logical, the perfect solution to both her and Drew’s problems. But now that she was standing face-to-face with Drew, she realized that the combination of postmatch adrenaline and the optimism of a bright blue day had deluded her into thinking a ridiculous plan made sense. But it didn’t. If she’d watched this scene play out in a movie, she would have called it unrealistic. If one of her friends had told her they were going to do it, she would have looked them dead in the eye and asked if everything was okay at home. But the more she thought about it, the more she believed it was crazy enough to work.
“Your… boyfriend?” he asked in confusion.
“Wait, that didn’t come out right,” she said. “I’ll explain. But first, can we go somewhere quiet? Private.” There were hundredsof journalists scattered around the building and, while she was pretty sure they were all too caught up in their work to notice her, she couldn’t afford the risk.
Drew glanced around the press office, then nodded, gesturing for her to follow him. They walked past a TV crew carrying cameras through the hallway and navigated their way around a reporter having a heated phone call next to the coffee machine. The whole building was abuzz with activity, but as they got further into the building, things gradually got quieter. She followed Drew through the maze of corridors until he opened a door and switched on the light.
It was a tiny room stacked floor to ceiling with camera equipment. Tripods, lenses, battery packs, and memory cards. Ari didn’t know that much about cameras, but she could tell it was a pretty impressive collection. Drew must have noticed her curiosity because he pulled one down to show her.
“This is my favorite, it’s a Nikon F3,” he said, opening a camera bag to reveal a chunky black camera with a single red line on its side. He handed it over to her like a proud father. Ari held it in her hand for a moment, slowly examining it.
“What do you like about it?”
“I almost never get to use them for work, but Ilovefilm cameras.” She noticed the way his eyes lit up as he spoke. “You just get this instant sense of nostalgia when you look at the photos they take. I’m trying to convince the company I’m with to let me do a photo diary with the F3, but I haven’t found the right story for it yet.” He put the camera away and looked over at her, leaning back against a shelf. He seemed comfortable in here, as if he’d just welcomed her into his home. “I could show you a few of the others, but I’m guessing you didn’t come here for a tour.”
He was right. The door was still ajar, so Ari pulled the handle and shut it tight so they could talk freely, away from pryingears. It wasn’t until she turned back around to face him that she realized just how small the room was. There couldn’t have been more than a yard between them. And with the door closed, it was quiet enough to hear her own heartbeat, notice the way he tapped his foot when he stood still, and smell the subtle scent of whatever cologne he was wearing. While someone like Yasmeen could have given a detailed description of the formula, Ari couldn’t even identify the top notes. All she knew was that Drew’s cologne reminded her of winter evenings and made her want to lean in.
They stood in silence for a moment, until she finally plucked up the courage to say what she’d come here for. “Are you secretly an athlete?” she asked.
“Unless carrying four cameras up the stairs counts as lifting, no,” he said with pride.
“Did you get back together with your ex-girlfriend?” she asked, trying to sound casual despite the fact that standing in a tiny low-lit room with a man she barely knew made her mind wander back to kissing boys at teenage house parties.
“No.”
“Are you seeing someone new?”
“Also, no,” he said.
“Is there a girl somewhere else in the world whothinksyou’re her boyfriend?” Ari asked. She wanted to cover all bases to be sure.
“No… at least, I don’t think so,” he said, tilting his head. He smiled when he saw the skeptical expression on her face. “I’m kidding. I don’t have a girlfriend. I’m not talking to anybody, and there’s no one on the roster right now.”
She raised an eyebrow. “There was a roster?”
“No. I’ve been too busy thinking about this girl I met on New Year’s to speak to anyone else,” he said, looking into her eyes.
“You’re so full of shit,” she laughed, relaxing a little as sheleaned against a shelf and he rested an arm against a different shelf.
“That’s true.” He nodded. “And so is the fact that I don’t have a secret girlfriend hiding elsewhere. Unless you’ve been pining after me since December?”
“Oh, I get it now,” she said, nodding.
