“Like you did?”
“When did I run… Oh, yeah,” she said, no doubt remembering the sound of footsteps and fireworks.
“I don’t blame you for leaving, though. I wouldn’t have told you all my real red flags on a first date either… or the specific ways I’d end up disappointing you.”
“If you could redo that night, what would you do differently?” she asked, tilting her head.
“I would have just tried to make you laugh.” He shrugged. “Turned on the charm to try and get you to like me, flirted without coming on too strong. Talked enough to show I have a personality, but given all your stories my full attention,” he said with a nod. “I probably would have kissed you sooner, too.”
“I wanted you to kiss me sooner.”
They sat in silence for a moment, as if they’d been transported back to the roof to start again. But as Drew looked into Ari’s eyes and thought about the past few days they’d spent together, he realized he had no regrets.
“I’m glad it didn’t play out that way. Not the kissing part—I definitely should have kissed you sooner.” He smiled, taking a sip of his drink. “I mean that I’m glad we didn’t pretend with each other. That we were completely ourselves from the start.”
All that either of them had ever wanted was to be with someone who knew their flaws and liked them anyway. Someone who didn’t require perfection but for whom they wanted to become the best version of themselves.
“Imagine if everyone was like that from the get-go?” he said. “Messy and honest.”
“Nobody would get a second date,” she laughed.
“Yet here we are.”
“I realized something while I was on my way here,” she said.
“What?”
She lifted her glass, took a sip, and looked over at him.
“We had breakfast, went to the hot chocolate bar, and saw the curling competition. That’s three dates. We were only supposed to go on three fake dates.”
He looked her in the eye. They both refused to break. He could feel the tension in the air. Everything unsaid, but felt, between them.
“Well, I guess that means this is real.”
31Ari
DAY SIX OF THE 2026 OLYMPICS
Ari knew they should have never gone on a fourth date. The restaurant was too romantic, she was still holding Drew’s hand, and the way he was looking at her made her feel light and heady. It was a pull she couldn’t quite explain or disentangle herself from. She’d been attracted to Drew ever since the night they’d met. He was handsome and funny and made her feel completely at ease. And at first, that had felt harmless. There was nothing wrong with admiring the face of a good-looking man, laughing at his jokes, or feeling a quiet thrill whenever she caught his eye. But she was starting to realize that it wasn’t just a girlish crush on a guy she knew she couldn’t have. Ariliked him.They’d quickly become friends, told each other way too much, and there was a strange untouched intimacy between them that made it feel like she’d known him a lot longer than eight days. Had it only been eight days? He was wearing a small smile, the candlelight was casting a golden glow onto his face, and he was looking at herwith a warm, gentle gaze that made her want to lean over toward him and cuddle up in his arms. It was becoming a lot harder to convince herself that this was all pretend. She needed to reroute the conversation before she got too starry eyed.
“So, I know why you take photos, and I know why you moved back home, but I could never figure out why you decided to completely leave college. How come you didn’t transfer to a school closer to home?” she asked, hoping the new topic would kill the romance in the air.
“Because I wanted my full attention to be back home with my family,” he said unconvincingly.
“I don’t want to sound insensitive but… that kind of sounds like a cop-out.”
She knew she was pushing too hard, but the story didn’t entirely add up. His grandmother was ill and he wanted to spend more time with her, which Ari completely understood. But he had other options and, while he’d been game to play along with her, she didn’t get the sense that Drew was a particularly impulsive person. He chose his words carefully and assessed it all. Dropping out of a college course he’d clearly loved seemed incompatible with who she now knew him to be.
“What I mean is, was that Thanksgiving trip back home a split-second decision or the final push?” she asked curiously. He looked at her for a moment as if trying to figure out how much to tell her, but then he took a sip of his drink and sighed.
“You know how hockey means everything to you, so you want to be the best at it?” he asked. She nodded.
“I got it into my head I would never truly excel as a photographer. Not in the way everyone I went to college with would. Typical self-doubt stuff. I thought I was okay but not brilliant enough to make it all the way.”
“You’ve almost got to be a bit delusional to believe you’ll bethe one who makes it,” she said, thinking of how many years she had spent trying to convince herself she could.
“Exactly, so when I found out my grandma was sick, I decided to cut my losses and go back home. That way I wouldn’t have to put myself through the slow torture of giving it my all in LA just to find out that I was only ever going to bejust okay.”
