“Or what? You’ll trash me in a confessional onCelebrity Temptation Paradise Hotelor whatever it’s called. You’ll make a mean video about me on TikTok? I’m not scared of you.”
The shocked silence should have made Mara snap out of it, but instead, it made her feel like she was soaring. It feltamazingto fight with Kirby. To finally take out some carefullycontrolled anger on her. To seethatsmile from Kirby again, the one that had rolled her four years ago in that godforsaken press conference.
Because saying what she’d said four years ago had felt amazing too. Until it hadn’t.
“Ohmeow. I love when you prove you actually have a personality, Mara.”
“You peaked in Beijing. I’m still climbing.”
Kirby was breathing fast. Mara was too.
A lock of Kirby’s short, wavy hair was stuck to the side of her neck. Her throat was glistening with sweat. Mara’s mind whited out, and her heartbeat exploded in her chest. She was sure she’d turned red. It felt like anger, but it was more complicated than that. Anger mixed with something messy and pulse-pounding that Mara wasn’t willing to name.
“Speaking of reality TV,” Janette said, and both Mara and Kirby jumped. Mara had forgotten Janette was there. “What do your teammates think about your turns in the television spotlight, KB?”
Kirby was still staring at Mara when she answered. “Ask them. Not me. I like being on TV. I like making money.”
“Fair enough,” Janette said. “Mara, what do you think about Kirby doing competition reality shows?”
“I’ve done two dating shows as well,” Kirby said, and for some reason, that made Mara even angrier. “Neither one isCelebrity Temptation Paradise Hotel, but I’d go on that show too if it existed.”
“Bonham can do what she wants with her free time.”
“Oh, should I translate that for you too, Janette?” Kirby asked.
“By all means.” Janette gestured and smiled.
Kirby changed her posture, sat up straighter, and primly put her hands in her lap. Kirby was impersonating her. Shepretended to flip her hair over her shoulder. “Bonhamcan waste her time making more money than she ever has skiing by selling her soul to trash TV, but the rest of us have to keep our hearts pure and our hands clean forathletics.”
That impression hurt. It hurt like Mara was fourteen years old and being snubbed at the lunch table, which was ridiculous. She was thirty-four. Plus, she probably deserved to be called stuck up. But a dig at that aspect of her personality pressed on a childhood bruise that had never healed.
“So your stints on TV are about the money?” Janette asked Kirby.
“A girl’s gotta eat.”
It wasn’t about the money. Or notjustabout the money. Kirby was a spotlight hog. She was hungry for attention. She’d milked the aftermath of her surprise gold medal with a voraciousness that would have been impressive if Mara cared about that kind of thing.
But she didn’t. She couldn’t.
She cared about winning her own gold medals. That was it.
“After I won that race, it opened doors for me, man. Doors that had money and opportunity and excitement behind them. My phone was suddenly ringing,” Kirby continued. “‘Do you want to be on this dating show? How about a social strategy show? A celebrity cook-off? The grandmaster of the Pride parade?’ I couldn’t believe it. It changed my life.”
“And to the different networks and streaming services and events contacting you, you say?” Janette asked.
“Hell yes. Put me in everything. I’ll do it all.”
“Have you watched any of Kirby’s shows, Mara?” Janette asked.
“No.”
Yes.
“Why not?”
“I avoid empty calories,” Mara bit out. Her anger was starting to wear thin, but she didn’t want to come back to the real world. She didn’t want to face it. She wanted to live in this moment that was hot and sharp and biting.
Kirby laughed at that, which shouldn’t have made Mara feel like she’d won something, but it did.
