“You can take this too,” he said, handing her a fresh pair of tracksuit bottoms before going to the bathroom to brush his teeth for four minutes longer than he needed to give her space to change.
“Okay, I’m ready. Ta-da!” she said when Drew knocked on the door and came back out. He was greeted by the sight of her spinning around and waving her hands in the air while wearing his clothes. Everything was too big, but it suited her perfectly. For a moment, he imagined what would have become of them if she’d gone to college in California. If he’d met her for the first time on campus wearing that same red hoodie. All the alternate realities flashed in his mind for a moment. All the lives in which they’d met sooner and didn’t live on different sides of the world. She was still here, just a few yards away from him, but he could already imagine how much he would miss her once this all ended.
“Are you okay?” she asked in amusement, no doubt catching the faraway expression on his face. He wasn’t okay, but he nodded anyway. It was a violation of their most important rule, but he couldn’t tell her the truth without the risk of coming on too strong. She gave him a funny look, as if she didn’t quite believehim, and then began to walk around the room, picking up her scattered belongings.
“I’ve got to dash. I need to listen to two chapters of this book before training,” she said as she collected the clothes that had gotten lost last night and put them in her bag.
“I could come. We could get breakfast,” he began. He could hear the earnestness in his voice. It had been about a week, and he was already down bad.
“Drew,” she said softly, looking over at him. She didn’t need to say anything else for him to know she wanted to just let things stay as they were. He nodded. It would be foolish to try and make it last.
“I’ll see you around,” she said, putting on her shoes and coat. She left the room before either of them could change their minds.
Drew flopped back on his bed and stared at the ceiling, realizing he was in trouble. Because Drew was falling for a woman he would know for only a few more days. Someone his sister hated who lived a whole ocean away. It was supposed to be a relationship with a clear expiration date, doomed to end before it could begin. But as he sat up, looked through the window, and watched the golden early-morning light cast its rays against the snow, he couldn’t help but smile. He shook his head and laughed. This was definitely going to hurt.
34Drew
DAY SEVEN OF THE 2026 OLYMPICS
“Let me guess, you and Hans have progressed from a subtle head nod to an actual ‘hi’?” asked Luiz, studying the slightly lovestruck expression on Drew’s face as he walked into the press office that afternoon.
“How do you know if you like someone, for real?” asked Drew.
“Hans?” asked Luiz. “I’m pretty sure having a seventy-two-year-old sugar daddy is frowned upon in most communities,” he joked.
Drew shook his head. “Ari,” he admitted.
Drew wasn’t delusional. Despite all the risks he’d taken in his professional life, when it came to relationships, he didn’t rush into things. He’d met Ari two months ago, and they’d only spent a week together. So, Drew knew that he wasn’tin lovewith her. But after she’d left his room that morning, he’d paced around the Village taking photos and wondering what it wouldbe liketo fallin love with her. He didn’t believe in love at first sight, but he did believe in meeting someone for the first time and knowing they would play an important role in his life, and he’d felt that way about Ari since the very first night.
“When you know, you just know.” Luiz shrugged.
“That’s super helpful and not at all cliché,” said Drew, shaking his head.
“It’s true, ask anyone,” said Luiz, scanning the room for someone to back him up. As Hans Leitner walked past them, Luiz smiled. “Mr. Leitner, how do you know if you’re falling in love?” Luiz asked. Drew’s eyes widened as he wondered how Luiz felt comfortable casually asking Hans Leitner such a personal question. Hans paused midstep and looked at the two of them with a little sparkle in his eyes.
“You stop asking yourself, ‘Am I falling in love?’ and start thinking, ‘Oh, I’m falling in love,’” said Hans with a firm nod as he walked toward their table. “Luiz, where did you put that spare battery charger?” he asked. Luiz grabbed a charger out of his top drawer and handed it over to Hans, who nodded at the two of them and then walked away. Drew immediately swiveled his head.
“You know him?”
“I worked at the 2022 Winter Games and 2024 Summer Games. I know everyone,” he said nonchalantly. “But on to the more pressing matter: What does Ari think of the whole dating-her-rival’s-brother situation?” Luiz asked. Drew had divulged his secret to Luiz after his odd encounter with Harrison the other day, but he still hadn’t done anything about it.
“Drew?” Luiz raised his eyebrows as Drew rifled through a drawer of charging cables to avoid his gaze.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Luiz, shaking his head.
“I’m going to tell her,” Drew said despite having no idea how to.
“You’re digging yourself a bigger hole every day you don’t tell her, trust me.”
Drew knew that. It felt like every single path in the Village was littered with holes he’d dug for himself. Not telling Ari about Thandie. Keeping his grandma’s illness a secret from his sister. Entertaining the idea of going back to college. Developing real feelings for his fake girlfriend. It was only a matter of time before he fell into a trap of his own creation.
As Drew left the press office to photograph that afternoon’s speed-skating competition, he examined all the secrets and half-truths he was keeping from the people he loved. The elaborately interconnected nature of each of the secrets he was keeping meant that he didn’t even know where to start when it came to fixing things.
So, he did what he did best: distracted himself. He took photos of athletes at a cross-country skiing final, did a behind-the-scenes shoot of figure skaters preparing for that evening’s competition, and convinced a journalist fromForbesto let him take a portrait of her and her colleagues for the photo collection he was building on his laptop.
He and Ari had been texting back and forth in between her training sessions and, while it wasn’t enough to distract Drew from all the explaining he had to do, it was light and fun enough to convince him that everything would be fine once he did. So, he made plans to see Ari at the café near GB House after her practice match. Drew hoped that walking there would give him time to figure out how to approach the conversation he knew they needed to have. But halfway down the path, he was greeted by a six-foot-seven, Team GB–uniformed, slyly smiling problem.
Harrison.
