34. Zeke
DAY FIVE OF THE 2024 OLYMPICS
By 11:45 p.m. Zeke, Haruki, and Valentina were heading toward their third club of the night. They were meandering down one of the main roads by the city square when they walked past a building that radiated a pulsing energy they could feel from outside. The windows were lit up with warm lanterns, and they could see people dancing and moving along to the music that was spilling out into the street. It was a small bar with an unassuming sign, but something about it drew them in. So, they opened the door to Club Cassiopeia and walked inside.
It was like walking into a movie scene. Everybody in the club was singing, dancing, or in the midst of an animated conversation. The DJ was playing a selection of songs from all around the world, and everyone was up on their feet. The clubs in Athens opened late, so even though it was almost midnight, in the city center the party had only just begun.
“This is so much better than the last place,” said Valentina.
“And what would our favorite multi-gold-medal-winning legendary gymnast like to drink?” Haruki asked.
“If you two were drinking, trust, it would be tequila shots,” she laughed, “but since you’re not, can I get a mojito?” They’d decided to take a sneaky night off to celebrate Valentina’s gold medal win, but Zeke and Haruki were too close to their races to drink anything stronger than a protein shake.
“And you, Zeke? Nonalcoholic espresso martini?” Haruki said, smiling at Zeke’s newfound passion for the mocktail menu and the fact that he always needed caffeine to get him through a night out.
“I can get it,” Zeke said, taking out his wallet.
“Bro, one of us just signed an eight-figure Louis Vuitton campaign, and it wasn’t you. Drinks are on me tonight,” said Haruki as he went off to the bar.
“Did he just…” said Zeke, standing with his mouth open.
“Call you broke? Yes, he did.” They both started laughing.
“I can’t keep up with high-fashion Haruki,” Zeke said, relieved to have something to laugh about to stop him obsessing over the conversation he knew he needed to have with his best friend the next morning. Or his own semifinal. In fact, he’d spent the whole evening grateful to have a night to take his mind off things.
After Valentina’s coaches took her out for a celebratory dinner at six p.m., they’d gone home to catch an early night ahead of their final competitions the next day. So, at nine p.m., Zeke and Haruki had picked Valentina up and taken her out into town to really celebrate.
They’d started out at a glamorous high-end bar. It was filled with extremely wealthy people who’d traveled from all around the world for the Olympics. The whole bar clapped for Valentina as soon as she walked in. Then someone anonymously sent a bottle of expensive champagne to toast Valentina’s third Olympic gold medal. The bar was decadent and beautiful, but the atmosphere was a lot more elegant and reserved than the three of them were feeling. So, they went out into town to find the next spot.
A short walk led them to one of those superexclusive clubs filled with celebrities and high-profile athletes. But everyone in there had been a little bit too eager to talk to them, so the three of them made a swift exit. They were thinking of just getting some takeout, heading back to the Village, and calling it a night when they’d stumbled across Cassiopeia, and, now that they were inside, Zeke knew it was the right decision. Everyone in the room was too focused on dancing to pay attention to them, and Haruki was having a great time making friends with the bartenders and getting recommendations for the best souvlaki in the city.
“I heard Haruki’s in love,” said Valentina, turning toward Zeke. His stomach dropped. So much for a night out to take his mind off things.
“You did?” said Zeke. He hoped his voice didn’t give his disappointment away.
“Oh yeah. He called to tell me that he’d taken a photo of a girl by the Olympic rings, and that ever since—and I’m quoting him here—‘the universe has been conspiring to bring them together.’ So, I think he’s in deep.”
“Well, you can’t question fate, can you?” said Zeke, the guilt beginning to set in. If he’d been paying more attention to Haruki, maybe he would have done a better job of putting the pieces together. The thought that he’d been so caught up in his own life that he’d missed the details of his friend’s felt like a punch to the gut. But he felt even worse as he realized that, despite Haruki’s revelation, his feelings for Olivia hadn’t wavered. He still wanted to text her, to see her, to kiss her. Zeke had never thought of himself as a bad friend.
As he talked to Valentina, he found out that Haruki had asked her for advice on what to do if he saw Olivia again. That the outdoor cinema date was her idea, and that Haruki had called her just that morning for advice on what to send as his first text. As Valentina explained it all, Zeke saw just how invested Haruki was in this. And if he’d been talking about anyone but Olivia, Zeke would have been really happy for him.
But it was Olivia.
He wanted his best friend to be happy, but not with the girl that he had feelings for. It was selfish, he knew that. But the more he thought about the very real prospect of Olivia liking Haruki back, the worse he felt.
“He gets so excited every time he talks about her,” said Zeke, realizing that he was either going to have to tell Haruki the truth or break things off with Olivia before they’d even begun.
“How about you?” she asked gently as she took a sip of her drink. “Are you seeing anyone?”
While he and Valentina stayed friends after the breakup and hung out with each other whenever they were in the same city, they were only just reaching the point in their friendship where they talked to each other about their newly separate romantic lives.
“I’m… not seeing anyone,” said Zeke. It was hard to know how to explain Olivia. He rarely talked to his friends about his relationships, but he wanted to tell Valentina about Olivia. About the fact that he hadn’t stopped thinking about her all week and that, ever since they’d swapped numbers, he’d spent hours trying to think of something good to say. He could see them all getting on. But Haruki’s revelation had complicated things, so Zeke bit his tongue and turned the conversation away from himself.
“How about you?” he asked, knowing that the question held more weight when he asked her than when she asked him.
Valentina paused for a moment, and then her face broke out into a smile that told him everything he needed to know. Being happy for her was an easy feeling. If he’d told his twenty-one-year-old self that in two years Valentina would break up with him and that a year later he’d be standing in a bar with her talking about how she was seeing someone new, he wouldn’t have been able to understand it. But that night in Athens, he was just glad to hear that she was happy.
“How did you meet?”
“At a party, it was really… natural. You know when you meet someone and instantly get that sense that they’re going to become a really important part of your life?” Valentina asked. Zeke nodded. He’d felt something very similar when he’d looked at Olivia in the elevator.
“It was like that,” Valentina said, looking at a bracelet on her arm with a smile.
He’d noticed the screensaver on Valentina’s phone earlier in the evening. A photo of Valentina smiling as a girl he didn’t know kissed her on the cheek.
“Her name is Leila. She’s an English teacher from Chicago. She’s met my friends and most of my family, and I really really like her. No, I love her.” She flipped through her phone and showed him photos of them.
“I feel like I’ve spent so much of my life trying to make sure that the rest of the world approves of me, you know? Never saying anything political so I don’t offend people on either side of the spectrum, hearing from a whole committee of advisers before I make even the smallest of business decisions, and getting every single thing I post screened by at least ten people to make sure I don’t become the subject of a social media firestorm.”
Zeke nodded. He did the same thing.
“But I wish I didn’t have to do that with my personal life too. I just want to post a cute picture of me and my girlfriend at my cousin’s wedding without it being a big deal. I don’t want to be an activist or feel like I have to speak on behalf of every single queer athlete in the world. But I know that once that part of me is out there, there’s no going back,” she said, looking burdened.
“It’s special and it’s yours, just yours. You don’t owe the world an explanation or announcement,” he said, trying to be helpful. “And you don’t have to post it if you’re not ready.”
“But I don’t think I’ll ever really be ready, not for all of those opinions. I’m terrified of the headlines and the trolls the pundits are going to fire up and send my way. But the love I have for her outweighs the fear.” She showed Zeke another photo on her phone. It had been taken in low light and you couldn’t see all the details of their faces, but you could see their dresses, their arms intertwined, and the look of love on Valentina’s face as they held each other close.
“When you’re ready,” he said, squeezing her hand.
“When I’m ready,” she agreed, squeezing his back.