Chapter 17 Ari
Ari
Ari’s best ideas only ever felt like good ideas in her head.
On her walk to the press office, she’d been pretty proud of the plan she’d concocted in the hour after her team’s first win.
It seemed totally logical, the perfect solution to both her and Drew’s problems. But now that she was standing face-to-face with Drew, she realized that the combination of postmatch adrenaline and the optimism of a bright blue day had deluded her into thinking a ridiculous plan made sense.
But it didn’t. If she’d watched this scene play out in a movie, she would have called it unrealistic.
If one of her friends had told her they were going to do it, she would have looked them dead in the eye and asked if everything was okay at home.
But the more she thought about it, the more she believed it was crazy enough to work.
“Your … boyfriend?” he asked in confusion.
“Wait, that didn’t come out right,” she said. “I’ll explain. But first, can we go somewhere quiet? Private.” There were hundreds of journalists scattered around the building and, while she was pretty sure they were all too caught up in their work to notice her, she couldn’t afford the risk.
Drew glanced around the press office, then nodded, gesturing for her to follow him.
They walked past a TV crew carrying cameras through the hallway and navigated their way around a reporter having a heated phone call next to the coffee machine.
The whole building was abuzz with activity, but as they got further into the building, things gradually got quieter.
She followed Drew through the maze of corridors until he opened a door and switched on the light.
It was a tiny room stacked floor to ceiling with camera equipment. Tripods, lenses, battery packs, and memory cards. Ari didn’t know that much about cameras, but she could tell it was a pretty impressive collection. Drew must have noticed her curiosity because he pulled one down to show her.
“This is my favorite, it’s a Nikon F3,” he said, opening a camera bag to reveal a chunky black camera with a single red line on its side. He handed it over to her like a proud father. Ari held it in her hand for a moment, slowly examining it.
“What do you like about it?”
“I almost never get to use them for work, but I love film cameras.” She noticed the way his eyes lit up as he spoke.
“You just get this instant sense of nostalgia when you look at the photos they take. I’m trying to convince the company I’m with to let me do a photo diary with the F3, but I haven’t found the right story for it yet.
” He put the camera away and looked over at her, leaning back against a shelf.
He seemed comfortable in here, as if he’d just welcomed her into his home.
“I could show you a few of the others, but I’m guessing you didn’t come here for a tour. ”
He was right. The door was still ajar, so Ari pulled the handle and shut it tight so they could talk freely, away from prying ears.
It wasn’t until she turned back around to face him that she realized just how small the room was.
There couldn’t have been more than a yard between them.
And with the door closed, it was quiet enough to hear her own heartbeat, notice the way he tapped his foot when he stood still, and smell the subtle scent of whatever cologne he was wearing.
While someone like Yasmeen could have given a detailed description of the formula, Ari couldn’t even identify the top notes.
All she knew was that Drew’s cologne reminded her of winter evenings and made her want to lean in.
They stood in silence for a moment, until she finally plucked up the courage to say what she’d come here for. “Are you secretly an athlete?” she asked.
“Unless carrying four cameras up the stairs counts as lifting, no,” he said with pride.
“Did you get back together with your ex-girlfriend?” she asked, trying to sound casual despite the fact that standing in a tiny low-lit room with a man she barely knew made her mind wander back to kissing boys at teenage house parties.
“No.”
“Are you seeing someone new?”
“Also, no,” he said.
“Is there a girl somewhere else in the world who thinks you’re her boyfriend?” Ari asked. She wanted to cover all bases to be sure.
“No … at least, I don’t think so,” he said, tilting his head. He smiled when he saw the skeptical expression on her face. “I’m kidding. I don’t have a girlfriend. I’m not talking to anybody, and there’s no one on the roster right now.”
She raised an eyebrow. “There was a roster?”
“No. I’ve been too busy thinking about this girl I met on New Year’s to speak to anyone else,” he said, looking into her eyes.
“You’re so full of shit,” she laughed, relaxing a little as she leaned against a shelf and he rested an arm against a different shelf.
“That’s true.” He nodded. “And so is the fact that I don’t have a secret girlfriend hiding elsewhere. Unless you’ve been pining after me since December?”
“Oh, I get it now,” she said, nodding.
“Get what?”
“Why you’re single. Fine boy, no game. It’s a tragedy.”
“I’m holding back,” he said, his lips twitching up, as if she’d just pressed a switch.
“Is that so?”
“Trust me, it’s for your own good.” He leaned a little closer and lowered his voice, the depth of it sending a tingle down her spine. Suddenly, the distance between them felt shorter, the air warmer.
“If I tried to flirt with you, and I mean really tried? You would want to see me again, and we already know that’s a bad idea,” Drew added.
He was right. As they stood face-to-face in the tiny, unseasonably warm storage room, she couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if she’d gone to an after-party with him last night.
The thought was so enticing that it made her want to open the door, leave the press office, and get as far away from Drew as she possibly could.
She was on a long streak of good decision-making, and he posed a threat to the progress she’d made.
But he could also be the perfect solution to a more pressing problem. So, she decided to outline her plan.
“Remember how we told each other all of those secrets on New Year’s?”
His expression turned uneasy. “How could I forget?”
“And remember how we concluded that because we’re both messed up in our own specific ways, there’s no way the two of us could ever work out?”
“Which is why you ran away.”
“I didn’t run away. Well, maybe I did run. But that’s not the point,” she said, slightly embarrassed.
“So, what is the point?” Drew asked. His eyes were searching for something. He leaned forward a little, the space between them shrinking. “Or did you just lure me into a closet because you wanted to see me?”
Under any other circumstances, she would have enjoyed this banter.
Ari liked flirting. It felt like playing a game.
Tossing the conversation back and forth until someone made the perfect move.
But she couldn’t let herself flirt with Drew, not like this.
Because she’d come to the press office with a serious proposal.
She was determined to lay it out without letting herself get distracted by the tension between them.
So, she took a breath, reminded herself to stay focused, and cut to the chase.
“What I came to ask you is, Drew … will you be my fake boyfriend?”
She regretted it the moment the words left her mouth.
“Your … fake boyfriend?” he asked, looking just as confused as he’d been the first time she’d asked.
“You know, Pretty Woman, The Proposal, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.”
He nodded, but she could tell he had no idea what she was talking about. “Okay, let me rephrase that. Why do you need a fake boyfriend?”
Ari sighed. She wanted to sugarcoat it, but there was no point in pretending.
“It’s messed up, but basically … my ex-boyfriend is kind of intense, and I know he’ll keep finding reasons to ‘bump into me’ for as long as we’re both in the Village.
Guys like that only accept that someone is unavailable if they’re in a new relationship.
So, I figured the best way to keep him out of my hair for the next two weeks would be to have a fake boyfriend. ”
“That … is kind of messed up,” Drew said, looking concerned. But Ari didn’t need his worry, so she shrugged it off.
“I’m a woman living in a patriarchal society; everything’s kind of messed up.” She shrugged again and forced a chuckle. “It goes against all of my feminist beliefs, but I spent the whole morning trying to come up with a solution, and this feels like my best bet,” she admitted.
“Me?”
“Yes, you.”
“Why?”
“Because he doesn’t know you and neither do my friends. So, it would be much easier to paint a picture of a secret whirlwind romance with someone who’s a complete stranger to them.”
“But I thought you said you’d sworn off men?”
“I had—I mean, I have,” she said, surprised he’d remembered.
“It’s just that my time in the Village would be a lot smoother if everyone knew for certain that me and Harrison weren’t going to get back together.
” She knew how ridiculous it sounded when she said it out loud.
Ari absentmindedly spun the watch Harrison had bought her around her wrist. A part of her wanted to give it back to him or give it away completely.
But it was almost like a reminder. Her way of never allowing herself to forget that, while the best parts of Harrison would always appeal to her, he wasn’t the man she wanted him to be below the surface.
“Do you want to get back together with him?” he asked, curious.
“No. Never again,” she said quickly. “But I’ve said never again before and then done it, so they don’t believe me anymore.”
“Why does it matter what they think?”
“It’s … complicated,” Ari said. She had no desire to explain the last two years or their effect on her friendships. So, she began the second part of her pitch to get Drew onboard. “You should know that this would actually be a mutually beneficial proposal.”
“Ari, if you want to ask me out, you can just ask me out. I don’t need a pitch deck to take you on a date.” She could hear the flirtation in his voice but she had to keep things straightforward. So, she stood upright and reminded herself that she’d come here for a reason.
“I’m not asking you out, Drew. This is purely business …
as per the terms of the conclusion we reached on New Year’s Eve,” she said.
He shook his head and smiled at her. It was a dazzling smile, but she needed to stay focused.
“You want to impress the people you’re working with, right?
Get some behind-the-scenes photos none of the other photographers could get? ”
“Yeah,” he said cautiously.
“Well, I can be your film camera project,” she said, gesturing at the camera he’d been holding just moments ago.
“I’m on the British women’s ice hockey team and this is our first Olympics.
We’re hardly underdogs in the grand scheme of things, but I could sneak you into places none of the other photographers could get into.
We could capture something good enough to build up a case to get Zeus to hire you for another gig. ”
“You play ice hockey?” he asked, completely missing the point.
“Do I not look like a hockey player?” she asked, defensively. She hoped he wasn’t the kind of guy who’d be weird about that.
“No, I just…” He shook his head. “Nothing. But is that a fair trade? Pretending to be your boyfriend for a couple of days is pretty easy, but having a photographer follow you around seems like more of an intrusion.”
Ari thought about how nice it would be to have a friend outside of her teammates for the next two weeks. “Trust me, you would be doing me a huge favor. A few mini photo shoots in my downtime won’t get in the way of training. In fact, it could be a lot of fun.”
“But at the end of this, wouldn’t I just seem like a guy who pretended to like you to get ahead in his career? Doing that once was a mistake. Twice would feel kind of toxic,” he said, suddenly self-conscious. She put her hand on his shoulder to reassure him.
“Drew, I’m the one planning to lie to everyone I know for two weeks. If anyone’s toxic here, it’s probably me.” She shrugged.
“Well, I do need to do something to stand out if I’m going to try and get a job after this,” Drew said, mulling it over.
“Two weeks, all access. I could even get my teammates to join in,” she said, knowing they would need no convincing. They loved taking photos and speaking to the press. They would do whatever it took to put Team GB ice hockey on the map. But Drew still looked hesitant.
“And you’re convinced this would work?” he said, skeptical.
“Yes,” she said plainly. “You’re working at the Olympics. You’re obviously good at what you do, so the photos are going to come out great. And that kiss? We have enough chemistry to convince my friends that we’re dating.”
“So, we just need to make sure nobody finds out and neither of us catches feelings,” he said. She hadn’t even factored in the second part, but she quickly convinced herself there was no risk.
“Exactly. Best-case scenario, we both get what we want … if that’s what you want?”