Chapter 22 #2
When the elevator doors open again on the ground floor, the crowd has thinned a little bit, but not much.
It’s getting late, nearly midnight, but most people are still going strong.
Including Brayden, who is leaning against the bar chatting with one of the girls from the French team.
He catches my eye and I raise my eyebrows and he shrugs helplessly before refocusing on the brunette.
Scanning the crowd, I catch a glimpse of Riley’s crutches leaning up against the far wall, near the café, and there she is, sitting at a table with Ben and Freddie, because of course.
I take a deep, steadying breath and then release it before heading right for them.
“Hey, guys,” I say, hoping my voice doesn’t sound as squeaky as I think it does.
“Hi.” Freddie’s voice cracks a little and he’s standing up out of his chair so fast it rocks back and nearly crashes to the floor, but Ben catches it.
“Hi,” I say back, and smile.
“Hi,” he says again, and a small smile starts to form on his face too.
I have to close my eyes to keep from getting lost in his and I’m about to ask them if I can talk to Riley in private, when Riley beats me to it.
“Boys, go away, it’s girl talk time,” she says, shooing them away.
Ben stands, clapping Freddie on the shoulder. “Let’s go see if they have any more of those croquettes.”
Freddie hums an agreement, but he stumbles a little when he tries to follow Ben without turning away from me.
“Ah, they’re gone, okay, sit down, I have to tell you something,” Riley says, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the chair that Freddie vacated, and I brace myself because she’s giggling, and I know that giggle.
It’s the same one she used when she talked about Freddie back in Boston or when she thought Brayden and I were together.
My stomach sinks.
“Ben kissed me!” I blink at her and wait because there’s no way I heard her right. “Adriana, did you hear me?”
“Yeah, I think so. Did you say Ben kissed you? Ben Woo?”
“Yes!” she squeaks.
“Um, did you want him to?”
Riley grins widely. “I never even thought about it before, but then he was kissing me and I was kissing him back.”
“So, you and Ben?”
“I know, right? Could you think of two more different people? He’s so serious and I’m…
well, not, but they do say that opposites attract, and I don’t know, it could work.
He came to the hospital every day, even after he won his gold, you know, to make me feel better, like I won’t always be hurt and that I could come back.
Part of me, like a really, really tiny part is glad I got hurt because I don’t think we’d ever have figured this out and I’m so glad we did. I really like him. What do you think?”
“I…” I trail off, trying to process all of this. “That’s awesome, Riles.”
“Really? You don’t think it’s too weird?”
“Why would it be weird?”
“Because I thought that maybe Freddie and I would be a thing and then—”
“You’re entitled to feel however you feel and if you like Ben and he likes you, then I don’t see a problem.”
“No, let me finish, though,” she says, cutting me off. “I thought that it made sense, you know? Freddie and me? And then I realized that he just didn’t feel that way about me. I mean, Freddie isn’t the kind of guy to not ask a girl out if he likes her.”
“You’re right,” I say. “He’s not and…well, he might have…I think I might…I like him, Riley.” Her eyes go wide. “I’m sorry, I should have told you so long ago, but then Brayden and I decided to pretend that we were…”
“You were pretending?”
“Yeah, it was such a stupid idea because—”
“Because Brayden is super for real in love with you.”
“It was that obvious? Ugh, I’m such an idiot.”
Snorting, Riley nods. “Yeah, kind of, but you guys are okay?”
“Yeah, we will be, but I had to tell you about Freddie because I think he might…no, I know he feels the same way, but if you aren’t okay with it…”
“Are you kidding me? I’m so relieved. It was like he became someone else completely when we got to Kellynch and I couldn’t figure out why, but it was because he was going to be around you, and God, it makes so much sense now.”
“Yeah, we were all being ridiculous, weren’t we?”
“Speaking of ridiculous,” Riley says, glancing over my shoulder. “The puppy eyes he’s shooting across the room at you right now are pretty intense. You should probably go put him out of his misery.”
I turn, my eyes darting around the room, looking for Freddie.
I scan the crowd in the direction Riley’s staring and there’s a head of brown hair over the crowd across the room, like when I caught a glimpse of him at the arena.
That had to be him. He came and he watched me, but first he left me that letter. That’s why he wasn’t in the stands.
I stand from the chair so quickly I knock it to the ground, but I leave it there. I can’t lose sight of him again. Not now that I finally have hope.
I battle through the crowd, which is getting rowdier by the moment, with fewer people but more alcohol.
Charles shoots me a thumbs-up from across the room where he’s standing with the Nike reps, but I pretend I don’t see him and instead focus on Freddie’s back.
He’s talking to Georgia, who meets my gaze over his shoulder and smiles and then nods to me, which makes Freddie turn around.
Finally.
“Hi,” I say again.
He laughs and runs a shaky hand through his hair. “Hi.”
“Can, uh, we talk?”
“Yeah,” he says, dropping his hand and reaching out for mine, but then stopping halfway, like he’s not sure he has the right. I don’t let his hand get far. I take it and twine our fingers together, like I wanted to for every moment we were walking along the Seine.
“This way,” I say, and lead him away from the group that’s staring at our retreat, nonplussed. I find the door to the room off the lobby that I went through earlier with Dad and Elisa. Maybe I’ll have fonder memories of it in a few minutes.
I lean back on the door, making sure it’s closed to the prying eyes behind it and Freddie wanders into the room, suddenly pacing back and forth.
Then he turns to me, bouncing on his toes like he might spring away at the first sign of rejection.
“You read the letter?”
“I did.”
“And…”
“You said a look or a word would be enough? Is…this not enough?” I ask, looking at him with all the love and want I can muster from within me.
As I talk he walks closer to me, slowly.
“I’ve been working on my expressions for years now and that’s at least fifteen words, more if we count the number of times we’ve said hi—”
He doesn’t let me finish.
This is how I’ve always wanted to kiss him.
Without a care in the world except how long I can keep my mouth against his.
His body is pressed to mine, and I wind my arms around his shoulders, pulling him in, burying a hand in his hair to keep us as close as possible.
I deepen the kiss, my mouth opening under his, and a groan rumbles up from his throat.
He wraps his arms around my waist, hauling me against his chest. And when I pull away to breathe, he shifts his focus to the line of my jaw and blazes a path over my skin, leaving a fire in his wake with just a gentle brush of his lips.
“Can I?” he murmurs against my neck, his nose against the soft skin at my pulse point.
“Yes,” I manage to rasp, and then I’m almost lost again to the sensation. “Wait, no.”
“No?” His brow furrows, pulling back with clear concern in his eyes.
“I mean, yes, but I need to say something first.”
Reaching up, he brushes a stray curl off my forehead, his eyes running over my face like he can’t choose where to look. “Okay.”
“I love you,” I say, and that pulls his gaze straight back to mine.
“You said you were fighting against it all this time, and I was too. Nothing ever changed. I tried to pretend like it all didn’t come roaring back again when you walked through the door at Kellynch, but it did, and it scared the hell out of me.
I’m sorry if I sent you mixed messages or made you think that I…
that I wanted someone else. I don’t want anyone else. ”
“But Brayden?”
“We’re not together. We were never together and that’s a messy complicated story that I promise to tell you soon and hope you don’t change your mind completely after I tell you the truth.”
“I’m not going to change my mind,” he says, but I just talk over him.
“And it was all such a mess and I was worried that Riley—”
“Riley?” he asks, tilting his head in clear confusion.
And that’s when I realize he really was oblivious to it. This whole time he had no idea how Riley felt and there’s no way I’m going to betray that, not even for him. We’re a hell of a pair, both completely oblivious that our partners had feelings for us.
“You guy are partners and that’s important. I didn’t want to get in the way,” I say vaguely.
“You won’t,” he says softly. “And anyway, Riley’s with Ben now.
He’s been into her for a while, since Nationals, I think.
It’s hard to tell with Ben, because he keeps everything inside, but he finally worked up the guts to say something.
If she can date my best friend, I think you and I should be okay. ”
“Yeah, she just told me about Ben.”
“Is that why you needed to talk?”
I shrug. “Something like that.”
He leans down, resting his forehead against mine. “You said you love me.”
“I do.”
“I love you too.”
“That’s what you said in your letter.”
“But I wanted to say it out loud after not saying it out loud for so long.”
“Freddie?”
“Yeah?”
“Kiss me again.”