DAY SEVEN OF THE 2026 OLYMPICS
Ari was too stunned to speak. The combination of “Dating your rival’s brother” and “Wait, he didn’t tell you?” had completely thrown her off. The information was laid out before her, but the pieces didn’t fit. She’d noticed the stacks of Team USA merch in Drew’s wardrobe, but she’d assumed he was just patriotic in the way everyone was during Olympic season. She knew Drew had a younger sister, but he hadn’t mentioned the fact that she was an athlete, never mind that she was one of the world’s most successful ice hockey players. And while she’d been the one to suggest the fake-dating, she’d assumed that he’d gone into it without any personal conflicts.
A part of her wanted to believe that it was all just a coincidence, that Drew had been just as blindsided by Harrison’s statement as she had been. But the guilty expression on his face said otherwise. She looked him in the eye, and he immediately averted his gaze to the ground, to the ceiling, and then to the busy café.Innocent people didn’t feel the need to avoid eye contact, so her mind put the pieces together in the shape of a mental spiral. If Drew was Thandie’s brother, then he knew about the injury. If he knew about the injury, then he knew that Ari had been responsible for the accident. And if he knew that Ari was responsible for the accident that had almost ruined Thandie’s life, then he knew that his sister, who was known for holding grudges, hated Ari.
“Tell me that you didn’t know,” she said softly, clinging on to one final moment of hope.
“Ari…” he said, his face a mix of guilt, nerves, and panic. Her stomach sank as she realized that he’d held back the truth. Alarm bells began ringing in her head. She didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but if Drew had known all along, how many lies had he told to get them this far? Had his sister been in on it the whole time? Had their entire relationship been some strange attempt at sabotaging her Olympic chances as a shot at revenge? Had he purposefully instigated the whole mess on New Year’s Eve? Each piece of the puzzle forming in her mind was jagged and distorted now. Their first rule had been no lies, and to her, a lie of omission was just as bad. If he could lie about something that so directly involved her, what else was he capable of? The thought threw her so off-center that she couldn’t bring herself to finish it. So, she turned around and redirected her energy into ordering a golden matcha latte. She didn’t want to look at Drew, but as soon as she finished her order, he walked right into her eyeline, tapped his card against the reader, and paid. She knew he probably meant well, but the gesture irritated her. He wasn’t getting out of this by buying her a drink she’d intended to get for herself.
“I can explain,” he said as he put his card back in his wallet.
“You have until my drink is ready,” she said, her voice detached and emotionless.
Drew glanced over at the barista and gave him a nervous smile.
“Hey Jørgen. Sorry to ask, but could you make her drink extra slowly?”
Drew’s coffee runs had put him in touch with all the baristas in the Village. But he wasn’t the only one with friends in highly caffeinated places. Ari had been getting all her drinks from this café from the start.
“Jørgen,” she said, turning to the barista with a sweet smile. “Sorry, but could you please ignore him and actually make it as fast as you can… because if Drew needs that much time to explain himself, this conversation might as well already be over.”
Jørgen glanced between the two of them with a slightly startled expression.
“It takes four minutes to make a golden matcha latte, that’s the fastest and slowest I can do it,” Jørgen said, holding up a milk frother to defend himself.
So, Ari began to count down.
“Three minutes fifty-nine, three minutes fifty-eight, three minutes fifty-seven…” she began.
“I’m so sorry, I promise I didn’t know who you were on New Year’s Eve,” he protested. “I didn’t even know your full name. Seeing you at the opening ceremony was the first time I even realized you were an athlete.”
“But then I told you I was. You took photos of me playing hockey and met my teammates. You can’t tell me that the thought that me and your sister were competitors didn’t cross your mind?”
He opened his mouth, and then he closed it. The silence was all she needed to know that she’d hit the nail right on the head.
“Drew, you can’t be serious right now,” she said, rubbing her temples.
“I didn’t know until after we agreed to do the fake-dating,” he said, scratching his head.
“Excuse me,” said a man standing a few paces away from them, “you’re holding up the queue.” Ari looked around and realized they were, so she and Drew shuffled away and toward the end of the counter to resume their conversation. This time in hushed whispers, because there were way too many prying ears to have a conversation like this in public.
“So, when did you find out?” Ari asked, leaning against the counter, willing it to give her strength.
“The day after Schokoladenzeit. And I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t find the right time to mention it. You weren’t supposed to find out this way.”
Ari’s eyes widened. They’d only been together for a week and in any other circumstance, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. But each week in the Village felt like a month in the real world, and so their friendship—relationship, situationship, whatever it was—had accelerated pretty quickly. They’d gone on dates, shared secrets, and slept together. He’d had plenty of time to tell her the truth, and from the look on his face, he knew that, too. She wasn’t even angry, she was disappointed.
“How was Isupposedto find out, then, Drew?” she asked, looking him in the eye. “On the internet? When you popped up in the US supporters’ box at one of my games? Or was your unhinged little sister planning on whispering it in my ear at the start of a game to mess with my head?”
“She’s not unhinged.… She’s just passionate,” Drew said, avoiding her eyes.
“The last time she crossed paths with a player she hated, the girl left the game with a broken arm.”
“She didn’tbreakanyone’s arm,” he said defensively. Thandiewas his sister, after all. “The girl tried too hard to tackle her and crashed into a wall. That’s not her fault.”
Ari would have respected his commitment to having his sister’s back in any other situation. But this wasn’t any other situation. A part of her didn’t believe that Drew could have gone out of his way to deceive her like this. From what she knew of him, he was kind, honest, and sincere. But then she thought back to the party.
Ari was used to people who lied and hid the darkest parts of who they were. So, when Drew had shared all those truths about himself on New Year’s Eve, she’d implicitly trusted him. She’d reasoned that there was nothing to be suspicious of if his cards were already on the table. But now, she was beginning to wonder if he’d intentionally divulged all those secrets to get him to trust her. Lulled her into a false sense of security so he could spot her weaknesses and use them to his advantage. After all, his sister was Thandie Dlamini, and Ari knew that, like her, Drew would do anything for his family. He seemed like a good guy, but she couldn’t put it past him to have strategically gotten into her head to destabilize and distract her on behalf of his sister. And while Drew had seemed startled when Harrison revealed the truth, all of this coming together now seemed a littletooconvenient. What better way to throw her off her game than to drop a bomb right in the middle of the most important tournament of her life?
