“You’re cute together.” Yasmeen was being friendly, but Ari could see the long, hard look she was giving Drew. She was the one who tried to get a read on the guys her friends were dating. And after Harrison, she knew that it was going to take a lot to convince her friends that the next guy she’d chosen was good for her, but Drew made it easy.
“She’scute, I’m just happy to be here,” he joked. Yasmeen cracked a smile, a real one this time.
“Let me guess: Izzy, Yasmeen, and Sienna?” he said, correctly matching the descriptions she’d given him of each of her friends. “She’s told me so much about you,” he said with that friendly,golden retriever smile. “Let me get a photo of all of you, something for the photo diary.”
Ari got into the frame and posed with her friends as Drew took photos. But she couldn’t focus on the lens because her attention kept drifting back to him. To how focused he looked with a camera in front of his face and the light-hearted jokes he made with her teammates. He slipped into her life with ease, as if he’d known her friends for years, not seconds.
“Are you working the rest of the game?” Izzy asked once he was done.
“No, but I was going to edit some photos,” he said, looping his camera strap back around his neck.
“Come and sit with us,” Izzy said as the other girls nodded along. “There’s a spare seat at the end of our row, and I know she’s not saying anything but it’s obvious Ari wants to hang out with you,” Izzy continued, throwing her a knowing glance.
“I don’t want to gate-crash,” Drew said, looking over at Ari, scanning her expression for an answer.
“You wanted candids with Ari and the rest of us, right?” Yasmeen asked, never one to miss an opportunity. “What’s more candid than a spontaneous team trip? And actually, come to think of it, I have a couple of questions for you,” she said before asking Drew a dozen questions about how to draw enough attention to their teammates to get the brand deals and sponsorships they needed for their next season.
Drew was game, answering all her questions, giving her contact details for the people he knew at Zeus, and taking a bunch of photos of the team as they walked from the food stalls back into the arena. Ari watched on with a smile as her friends invited Drew into their conversations, peppered him with questions, and occasionally glanced over at Ari in approval. As the rest of them took their seats, Drew put his arm around Ari’s shoulders.
“Sorry for the ambush,” Ari said, quiet enough that only the two of them could hear.
“Don’t be. Anyway, aren’t we due for our third fake date?”
26Drew
DAY FIVE OF THE 2026 OLYMPICS
Drew was under investigation. Ari’s teammates had been peppering him with direct, if not slightly intrusive, questions ever since they’d sat down to watch the rest of the curling match.What’s your relationship like with the women in your life? How did your last relationship end? Where do you see yourself in five years?He took them in stride because he knew how important it was to make sure a girl’s friends liked him. Even if he was just her two-week fake boyfriend. So, he expertly maneuvered their questions and skated his way out of any answers that would force him to mention Thandie. He hadn’t told his sister about Ari yet, or told Ari about his sister. It was a necessary conversation, but now wasn’t the time to complicate things, so he decided to wait until they were alone.
“When you said you and your teammates were having a big night out, this is not what I thought you meant,” Drew said as they watched players sweeping brooms across the ice.
“I will not tolerate any curling slander. It’s a slow burn, but it’s beautiful,” she said before whispering excited commentaries and tossing out witty observations about every second of the game.
“You’re going to kill it at the nursing home in sixty years,” he joked.
“Oh, no doubt, I’m going to be the eighty-year-old who runs the annual curling tournament like the navy,” she laughed.
“And I’ll be the old man who spends hours telling everyone the stories behind his photo albums,” he said as she pulled her eyes away from the ice and looked over at him.
“Will I be the long-lost love of your life whose photos make you tear up?” she asked.
“No, you’ll be my gray-haired love of my life. Walking around the common room wearing your gold Olympic medals while telling some random man named Gerald you saw him cheating in the bingo game,” he said, picturing it in his mind.
“I think I’ll be your glamorous ex-wife by then,” she said, absentmindedly glancing down at the toffee popcorn box on his lap.
“We’re breaking up?” he joked as he handed her the box. She’d insisted on sticking to healthy snacks, but he knew she couldn’t resist a sweet treat.
“Yeah, I think we’ll get married, divorced, and remarried. Maybe twice actually,” she said as she popped a few kernels in her mouth.
“Like true romantics.” He nodded.
“You’ll be the Burton to my Taylor,” she said. He didn’t understand the reference, but the smile on her face told him it was a good thing. “Speaking of love, did you tell your grandparents about USC?” she asked, the competition unfolding on the ice long forgotten.
“That’s at the top of the long list of things I’m trying to avoid right now,” he admitted.
“Oh, sorry, we don’t have to talk about it,” she backtracked.
“No, I want to,” he reassured her, surprising himself. Ari had so much distance from his real life that she felt like the easiest person to open up to about it.
