“Drew, you know the girls. But this is Harrison, he’s a snowboarder on Team GB,” she said, gesturing over to Harrison, introducing him as if she thought Drew would be excited to meet him.
“You know each other?” Drew asked, glancing over at Harrison, who was giving him a curious look.
“Yeah,” Thandie said, her eyes lighting up. “Me and Harrison might be doing a campaign together after the Olympics.”
Her voice was full of hope, and Drew understood why. At twenty-one, his sister was already an incredibly successful athlete. She was one of the best players in North America and skated for one of the country’s top professional teams during tournament season. But that success had never translated to the kind of brand deals and sponsorships that the high-profile men in winter sports got. He’d had a bunch of conversations with her over the years about how hard it was to build a financially viable career in sports. She’d concluded that she would need to get a huge deal to sustain her career the way she wanted to.
“It’s still being confirmed, so don’t tell anyone, but it could be a game changer.” She smiled. “Wait, do you know Harrison?”
Harrison and Drew locked eyes. Drew could tell he recognized him. But to explain how they knew of each other would mean having to explain that he knew Ari, which was aconversation he didn’t want to have yet. So, he made sure to speak up before Harrison did.
“No, I’m just here on assignment. I’m Drew, I’m here to take photos for Zeus,” Drew said, pointing to his camera bag. “Shall we head out?” he asked, trying to remove his sister from the situation as soon as possible.
“Sure, let me just grab this,” Harrison said, picking his kit bag up from the ground but then gesturing between Drew and Thandie. “Wait, I forgot to ask, how do you know each other?”
“He’s my older brother, only by like eleven months, though. We’re kind of like twins, but I got all the athleticism,” Thandie teased before waving them off and heading over to her training session.
When she left, the two men stood in silence for a moment before Drew began to walk in the direction of the practice slopes. Drew did his best to keep their conversation to a minimum as he begrudgingly took photos of Harrison walking through the snow and then directed Harrison to reposition his board so he could capture him in different types of motion.
“Your sister, huh?” Harrison said after Drew had gotten a few shots of him at the edge of a slope.
“Yes,” he said, hoping short answers would kill the conversation.
Drew took his second camera out of its bag and attached it to a special wide-angle lens. He wanted to ask Harrison to take a chairlift up the mountain so he could capture him snowboarding again, but Harrison kept pushing.
“Are you close?” Harrison asked, undeterred.
“Mm-hmm.”
“And she’s okay with you dating the girl who broke her leg?” Harrison asked, giving him a long, hard look. Drew had done his best to avoid the topic, but it was inevitable.
“Who told you that? Thandie or Ari?” Drew asked, trying not to give himself away.
“Your sister. We’ve been spendinga lotof time together, you know,” Harrison said. The emphasis made Drew tense up and glare at him. Harrison put his hands in the air in surrender, but his mouth turned up into a smirk.
“For the campaign, of course. The sponsorship team wanted to see if we have enough in common to go on a PR tour together after the Games. And it turns out, we get alongreallywell,” Harrison said.
Drew knew he was being weird and suggestive to rile him up. And he might have been successful if Drew didn’t know his sister so well. Thandie could generally only tolerate a few people, and guys like Harrison were the type she avoided at all costs. She had zero patience for golden boys and false prophets. So, if they were getting along as well as Harrison claimed they were, his sister was either just keeping it cute and cordial to secure the brand deal she wanted, or the two of them had hit upon a genuine shared interest.
“We realized we have Ari in common,” Harrison said, confirming Drew’s second theory. “She kind of screwed us both over.”
“Ari didn’t screw you over, you were just a shitty boyfriend,” Drew said without thinking. Harrison raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, so you’ve discussed me.” He looked pleased with himself. “Sorry, it probably sucks to be the rebound. But don’t take it personally, she just doesn’t know how to get over me.”
“Can you put your ski goggles on? The team at Zeus wants more photos of you in the merch,” Drew said, deciding to skirt the conversation Harrison was trying to pull him into. But the distraction only made Harrison more curious. He stopped and examined Drew for a moment. He must have sensed his evasive body language, because his eyebrows raised and his eyes widened.
“Ohhh,” Harrison said knowingly. “Thandie doesn’t know, does she? That you’re seeing Ari.”
“It’s not—”
“Wow, they hate each other. You know that, right?” Harrison almost looked impressed. “I’ll hand it to you, even I wouldn’t hook up with someone my sister hates.”
“We’re not… Ari doesn’t…” Drew stammered. He couldn’t explain himself, especially not to Harrison. “I’m going to tell her later.”
Telling the truth proved to be a mistake, because as soon as the words left his mouth, a sly smirk crept up onto Harrison’s face.
“So neither of them knows?” Harrison asked, searching his expression.
