Chapter 13 Ari
Ari
AFTER THE OPENING CEREMONY
Ari’s teammates started running around and making plans as soon as confetti began falling to the ground.
It was the most exciting night of the year and they wanted to hit the after-parties and late-night dinner spots.
They were in the middle of discussing a Team Switzerland cabin party invite when Ari’s phone rang.
She walked to a quiet spot at the side of the stadium to answer the FaceTime call.
It was her mom, sitting in the living room with the TV on.
Telling her that she’d already started replaying the live broadcast of the opening ceremony so she could watch Ari walk into the stadium again.
“I’m so proud of you!” Ari’s mom cried, wiping away tears as she gushed about how good Ari looked in her uniform, how well she’d carried the flag, and how happy she and her teammates looked on her TV screen.
“I wouldn’t be here without you,” Ari said, meaning every word. Her mom had pretty much raised Ari and her sister alone. She’d been the one to pack their lunches, attend parents’ evenings, and do hockey practice drop-offs. Ari owed her everything.
“And we can’t wait to come and see you on the ice. I’ve already packed my outfits.” She began detailing every dress, sweater, hat, and scarf she was planning to wear in St. Moritz. Her mom was glowing.
“Not until the quarterfinals, remember,” Ari said.
She loved her family, but they stressed her out.
She knew that if they came to watch all her games, they would eventually say or do something that would throw her off.
It was never intentional; they just carried their drama with them wherever they went.
No matter how hard they tried to be supportive, she always found herself having to defuse arguments and smooth emotions when they were around.
So, she’d effectively banned them from traveling to St. Moritz unless she and her team made it to the quarterfinals.
“You’ve always been so suspicious,” her mom said, shaking her head. “It’s the one negative thing you got from your father.”
Ari sighed. She could tell that while her mom was calling to congratulate her, she had something else on her mind.
“Did you and Anesu figure things out?” Ari asked as she watched the other athletes walking up and down the hallways in excitement, chatting about after-parties and group dinner plans, with a carefree kind of happiness.
She wanted to join them, but her mother’s response to her question made it pretty clear that her tears weren’t just those of a proud parent.
“I still can’t believe she would do something like this,” her mom said, tearing up again. Even though weeks had passed, her mom and Anesu were still stuck on their Christmas Day argument. The wedding was just a few weeks away, and Anesu hadn’t changed her mind about going.
“I moved to another country, raised you girls all by myself, sacrificed everything, and what does she do to thank me for it? Side with a man who did nothing but throw money at her.”
“He’s still her dad,” Ari sighed. “You can understand why she’d want to have a relationship with him.” She was trying to get her mom to see it from her sister’s side.
“I could understand if he’d actually made an effort to be present.
But he just wants to reap the fruits of my labor now that the two of you are grown up and he doesn’t have to take care of— Actually, none of that matters because he’ll always know that I …
we did this by ourselves.” Her mom smiled from the other end of the phone.
“My baby, the Olympian. I’ve already cleared a space on the fireplace to frame your medal. ”
Ari laughed. Her mom was adamant that her team would be going home with something. She possessed unflinching belief when it came to her daughters’ abilities.
“Remember, you’ve done hard things before; you can do hard things again.
They wouldn’t have given you this responsibility if you weren’t capable.
I know you can do it,” her mom said. Ari tried her best to believe it.
“Well, I know you’re busy, so go and enjoy yourself.
Don’t forget to send me photos,” her mom said before finally letting her go.
Ari hung up and made her way back out into the crowd of athletes, a single question circling in her brain: Where is he?
While it made absolutely no sense for Drew to be at the Olympics right now, she knew with almost complete certainty that she’d seen him in the crowd.
Her friends were still trying to decide whether to go back to GB House and end the night with hot chocolate or join the hockey lads at an after-party hosted by the Swiss curling team.
But Ari didn’t want to leave until she found Drew, so she told her friends she’d meet them later and walked back in the direction of the stadium.
She maneuvered her way around a huddle of French figure skaters and walked back to the press pit, but it had emptied out.
She scanned the crowd, looking for anyone with a purple photographer lanyard around their neck, but she couldn’t spot any.
So, after walking around the stadium and taking in the gravity of just how many people were in the Village, she decided to cut her losses and head back to GB House.
But when she walked toward the gates, she came face-to-face with the one person she’d been trying to avoid ever since landing in Switzerland: Harrison Cavendish.
It was hard to publicly hate someone that everybody loved.
And everybody loved Harrison. They either knew him from spending time on the slopes together or admired his gleaming professional reputation.
He was a two-time Olympic gold medal–winning snowboarder, and there were thousands of people around the world rooting for him to win his third.
He was charming and moved through every room with complete ease.
Behind closed doors, Harrison found a million little ways to try to make Ari feel small, but he had the kind of aura that made each person who met him wonder what it was like to be loved by him.
In her low moments, Ari missed him. When he turned up the charm, she momentarily forgot that he’d been the worst thing to ever happen to her.
But it was true. And she refused to let her heart betray her again.
“Ari, you look beautiful tonight,” Harrison said when he finally reached her.
He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek in a way that felt both foreign and familiar.
Each encounter with him was a battle between her body and her mind.
He ran his hand across her shoulders and down her arm until he reached her wrist.
“You’ve still got it,” he said, smiling down at the birthday gift he’d bought her last year.
A black leather and gold watch from Cartier.
It was unjustifiably expensive, enough to put down a deposit for a place in the North of England.
But Harrison was a Cavendish, so to him it was just pocket change.
She’d attempted to give it back after the breakup, but he’d waved it off.
She’d lost interest in the giver, but the gift was too nice to lock away.
“And this is gorgeous, you should do it more often,” he said, casually running his warm hands over the curls in her hair. She tried not to like it.
“Thanks, Yas helped me do it,” she said, recalling the number of flexi rods they’d put in to get her hair in its current form.
“Always more concerned with her hair than her on-ice strategy,” he chuckled.
She winced a little, taking a step back before he could try to pull her into a hug.
Ari was getting impatient. She wanted the conversation to be over.
The icy wind was making her eyes water, her ears were numb from the cold, and each moment she spent standing still made it worse.
She wanted to be sitting in bed with a mug of chamomile tea, scrolling through all the photos she and her teammates had taken while watching a rerun of the opening ceremony, not talking to her insufferable ex-boyfriend.
But Harrison was like a leaky tap, once he started talking, he couldn’t stop.
“So, are you heading out to a party? I know your girls like setting themselves up for failure by going on big nights out, but surely not you?” He was smiling, but his voice barely concealed the distaste he’d always reserved for her friends.
She looked away and over toward the thinning crowd of athletes leaving the stadium to head out to after-parties and late-night dinners and decided it was time for her to leave.
She didn’t have time to entertain a conversation with him.
“I should head out. I’m going to get an early night.”
He winked. “Good. We wouldn’t want you getting sloppy, honey.”
Once again, Harrison was showing himself for who he really was. She’d ignored it when they were together, but now that they weren’t, she could see how repulsive his personality truly was. So, she turned on her heel to leave.
“Let me walk you back since we’re heading to the same place.
I think you’re just one floor below me, actually,” he said.
It took her a moment to understand what he meant, but then the reality of her situation sank in.
The British athletes were staying in a big cabin-themed apartment block: GB House.
It was easy to avoid him back home in London.
They ran in different social circles and lived on opposite sides of the city.
But for the next two weeks, she and Harrison would be living just one floor apart.
It was only a matter of time before she bumped into him again at the canteen or outside the gym.