“Have you talked to them about it?”
“No,” she whispered.
“You won’t know until you talk to them. I know it's scary. Hell, look at me dating a star quarterback and having my name plastered all over social media. But, being around Mateo makes all of that disappear.” I shot her an encouraging smile. “Don’t let something real slip away because you were too scared to ask for it. You might be surprised by what they want, too.”
Cladin my leggings and a T-shirt underneath a light jacket with my big coat draped over my legs, I sat in the front of Mateo’s Range Rover, ready for whatever he had planned for today. True to his text, he picked me up at seven sharp.
“Ready to tell me what we are doing?” I asked as he pulled onto the freeway, leaving the city behind. I had a faint idea since he sent me a text right before he pulled up to make sure I had my passport with me.
“Have you ever been to Niagara Falls?” He glanced at me briefly then back at the road. Excitement filled me as I turned in my seat to face him.
“Wait? Are you serious? We’re going to Niagara Falls?”
“We are.” He mirrored my grin.
“I’ve only been once when I was a kid, but I don’t really remember it.”
“Same here.” Kind of ironic considering we lived only thirty minutes away.
“This is going to be so fun!” I rubbed my hands together. “Our first proper date.”
Mateo rested his hand on my thigh. “Look at us.”
“Look at us, indeed.” I laughed, turning back to face the front windshield, my hand on top of his. “You know you didn’t have to plan something elaborate for our date.”
“Elaborate? Em, this is the bare minimum.” Mateo scoffed. “What kind of men have you been dating?”
“None, actually.”
“None?”
“Had a few flings here and there but nothing serious.” I shrugged. “My main focus since I was little was to make it to the Olympics. I only went to high school until my junior year, then I did online schooling to get my GED at sixteen right before I made it to my first Olympics. Guys weren’t really on my radar.”
There was no way I was letting some random guy get between me and my dream.
“So, I gotta ask.” He glanced over at me quickly. “Is it true the Olympic village runs out of condoms within days?”
I snorted, not expecting that question. “Yeah, they do.”
“Really?”
“Hate to burst your bubble, but they don’t run out because everyone is having sex. All the athletes take them because they have Olympic Rings and the year on the packages, so it's more of a keepsake. Athletes aren’t going to ruin their only chances at medals by having sex.”
“Well, that’s a letdown.” Mateo merged into the next lane before he looked over at me. “Does that mean you have Olympic condoms hidden somewhere?”
My lips twitched. “Maybe.”
“You do! This whole time we could have been using rare condoms.”
“Pretty sure some of them are expired,” I pointed out.
“Don’t worry, we’ll stock up at the next games.”
“You sound so confident we’ll still be having sex in six months.” I raised an eyebrow at him.
Mateo shot me a look. “Babe, six months isn’t even close to being long enough to do all the things I want to you.”
“That must be a lot of things,” I mused.
