Chapter 27 Ari
Ari
When their lips finally parted, three things became abundantly clear:
Drew was an excellent kisser.
“As” by Stevie Wonder was one of the greatest love songs of all time.
Ari was in big trouble.
The kiss cam had left them long ago, but her hand was still tracing the stubble around Drew’s mouth.
Her lips were still tingling from the intoxicating effect of his lips, and as they held each other’s gaze, she realized that there was nothing she could do to stop her feelings for him from multiplying.
The arena was filled with music and conversation, but they sat in what felt like silence.
Looking at each other as they adjusted to the clear distinction between who they’d been before the kiss and what might become of them after it.
But then a horn blared to mark the start of the next round, breaking the spell.
Ari and Drew pulled apart, looked away, and redirected their attention back to the ice rink.
Ari tried her best to focus on watching the curling competition and letting the slow progression of the game bring her back down to earth.
During the breaks, she encouraged Drew to use her teammates all being in one place as an opportunity to get some more photos for his behind-the-scenes photo diaries.
She watched as he asked them questions and captured them in one of the rarer moments of the Games when everyone genuinely seemed to be having a good time.
But as much as she enjoyed cheering with her teammates and watching the curlers sweep, the game wasn’t enough to distract her from the fact that she and Drew were still leaning against each other, their shoulders side by side.
She was supposed to be watching the competition, but her mind kept replaying the kiss.
She’d told him to kiss her like he meant it, but all she’d meant by that was to make it look convincing enough for her teammates, and Harrison, who was still in her eyeline, to think they were in a real relationship.
Not to kiss her in a way that made her feel like it was real.
But it had felt real. Like a genuine, tender, and romantic moment.
A natural culmination of the tension that had been lingering between them since New Year’s Eve.
Every time she reached for her drink and they brushed hands, she felt a pleasant tingle run down her arm.
When she explained a convoluted curling rule and he looked at her with those gorgeous, intent brown eyes, she felt like placing her hand on his cheek and kissing him again.
Her teammates must have sensed the fact that she wanted to be alone with him because, when the game ended and he put his coat back on, Izzy winked at her, Yasmeen smiled, and Sienna gave her a knowing look.
They made excuses to speed ahead and told her they’d meet her at GB House at the end of the day.
“Do you have anywhere to be tonight?” Drew asked once they left.
“No, I’m done with training for the day. Do you want to take more photos?” she asked, grateful for an excuse to keep hanging out with him.
“Yeah, we could do something in the arena?” he said, looking out at their surroundings.
The arena was littered with half-empty cups, discarded flags, and scattered decorations.
The seats were emptying out and the lights were down.
It was like the moment you realized the party was over—the strange, euphoric but slightly melancholic limbo between one moment and the next.
Ari and Drew walked around the arena taking photos and talking about all the other times they’d experienced similar feelings.
Ari told him about some of the best and worst postmatch moments she’d had in the last few years, and he told her about some of the strangest things he’d witnessed while taking photos at parties back in California.
“Can you look to the left for a sec? As if you’re watching that screen?”
“Why, is this my best side?” she said, turning.
“They’re all your best side. I just want to get a shot of your jacket.”
So, she posed in the middle of the bleachers and smiled as she watched him climb up and down the stairs, switching between cameras and lenses to get the perfect shot.
She could tell how much he loved what he did.
It was evident in how much care and attention he put into framing things just right.
It was her favorite trait in a person: loving something enough to go all in.
When they took their final photo, left the stadium, and stepped outside, the sky was deep dark blue.
The air carried a crisp chill. Ari could see the snow-capped mountains in the distance, hear the crunch of gritting salt beneath her boots, and feel the icy chill in the air coating her skin.
It was February in Switzerland, and the Olympics was experiencing one of the coldest Winter Games in years.
But she instantly felt warmer when Drew put his arm around her shoulders.
Like she would brave the harshest of winters if she could just find a way to stay in the gap between his arm and chest. She looked up at him, but he was looking in the distance.
She followed his gaze until they landed on the same sight: a group of Team GB snowboarders on Harrison’s team who had just walked out of the arena and onto the same path.
When one of them glanced over, Drew pulled her in closer and kissed her cheek.
She knew that this, like the kiss cam performance, was only for their benefit.
He was just playing the role of the romantic interest in her two-week charade.
But she couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like for him to do it just because he wanted to.
Just because he liked her. She wanted to extricate herself from the early onset of complicated feelings, but she couldn’t help but lean into his shoulder.
She told herself that she was just doing it to play along.
But the wave of butterflies she felt each time he glanced down at her didn’t make it feel like they were just playing along.
As they walked past a bar, Ari spotted a TV screen broadcasting the other competitions unfolding across the Village and sighed a little as she remembered that the Games would be over soon.
She and Drew would be on different sides of the Atlantic in less than two weeks.
Each yard they walked took them one step closer to the end of what they’d barely begun.
It was a fake relationship with real parameters and a clear expiration date.
But while she knew that there were a dozen reasons why she and Drew wouldn’t last past the closing ceremony, she couldn’t help but want to stay in this moment with him for a little while longer.
They walked away from the arena, out into the Village, and down a long, icy path. Talking about everything except the lingering tension in the air.
“My teammates like you,” Ari said. “Which is pretty high praise, because they don’t like anyone.” She smiled as she thought back to all the questions he’d gotten right in their interrogation.
“I’m glad. I get why you’re friends with them. They seem tough but loyal, funny, too. The right people to have in your corner.”
Things had been so tense between them since January that sometimes Ari forgot that their friendship was ten years deep. They only called her out because they loved her, but it was hard to know she wasn’t living up to their expectations.
“Well, thank you for stepping in back there, with Harrison watching and everything.”
“Have you spoken to him since you saw him outside the office?” he asked curiously.
“No. To be honest, I think I’ve fixed it. He hasn’t tried to call or come up to me. I think the combination of confronting him and being seen with you sent the message.”
“So, I guess my work here is done.” His eyes were searching for a response. Ari didn’t want their arrangement to be over. She knew that they probably didn’t need to go on any more fake dates or play things up for Harrison’s sake. But she liked spending time with him.
“Do you have everything you need for the photo diary already?” she asked, trying and failing to sound nonchalant.
“Oh, you’re not getting rid of me that fast. We’ve got a contract to fulfill, remember?” He smiled.
“Good, I don’t want this to end yet,” she said without thinking.
“Me neither,” he said softly as Ari glanced away from him for a moment and looked up.
It was snowing. Tiny crystals were falling so gently that they were almost imperceptible.
But as Ari and Drew walked down the path, the snowfall got heavier.
A rush of snowflakes floated down from the sky and danced around them.
The glow from the streetlights made the flakes glisten as they settled on treetops and coated the Village in bright, white dust. Ari looked up in delight.
Thinking that sudden winter snowfalls were the closest thing to magic.
“We’re still doing no consequences, no judgment, right?” he asked.
“Always.” She nodded. He paused for a moment, then looked down at her reluctantly and began to speak.
“If we were going home to the same city after this, would this still end with your final game?”
“This?”
“Us.”
“You’d want to keep on fake-dating after the Olympics?” she asked, knowing that’s not what he meant.
“Dating dating. For real this time,” he said, looking down at her. As she watched a snowflake melt on his skin, she felt a short pang of hope.
“If we were going back to the same city, yes. But we’re going to be on opposite sides of the ocean in a couple of weeks,” she said, reaching out to hold his hand anyway. “So, I guess this will have to be enough.”
It was a beautiful night. The path was lit with streetlights, and the sky was sprinkled with stars.
But nothing above them came close to rivaling the moon.
It covered everything with a silver, shimmery glow, making an ordinary night dreamlike.
Ari was wearing a bunch of layers and thermal gloves.
But she’d accidentally left her scarf in the locker room that morning.
She spent her whole life on the ice, so she was used to the cold, but there was a particularly sharp chill in the air that night, and as much as she loved the snow, she could feel herself starting to shiver.
Drew must have noticed because he unwrapped his arm from around her shoulders, stopped in the middle of the path, and wordlessly took off his scarf.
“It’s okay, I’m not that cold,” she began. But Drew gently traced his finger against her cheek and looked her in the eye, the sides of his lips curving up.
“Goosebumps,” he said, tracing a small circle at the bottom of her chin.
Ari wasn’t sure if they’d been caused by the snow or the lightness of his touch.
So, she stood still as Drew draped his huge blue scarf across her shoulders, lightly grazing her skin as he wrapped it around.
The scarf was soft and woolly with the texture of something well loved.
It smelled like fresh laundry, firewood, and hot chocolate.
When he was done wrapping her up in it, he started walking again.
His footsteps left gentle marks in the snow.
For a moment, Ari just stood there and watched him, struck by how much that small gesture had affected her.
But then Drew turned around, realizing they’d fallen out of step.
He smiled at her, reaching his arm out as if to offer her his hand.
The side of his face was highlighted by the moon, and his silhouette was framed by a thousand tiny snowflakes.
Against the backdrop of the night sky, he looked exactly the same way he had on New Year’s Eve.
Like the boy she’d met on a whim and told all her secrets.
She knew there were at least a dozen reasons not to make a move, differences that would make for a rocky journey, and truths she would hold close to protect herself from hurt and hurting.
But she decided that if she was only going to know Drew for another eleven days, she was going to do everything she could to stretch them out into the kind of memory she could spend the rest of her life replaying.
So, she ran across the icy path before she could change her mind.
She put a hand on either side of his face and pressed her lips to his.
Fast and urgent, as if he’d disappear like the snowflakes on her skin if she dared to hesitate.
She kissed him like she meant it, and he quickly reciprocated.
Leaning in and parting. One of his hands slowly slid around her waist, clutched her side, and drew her near with a grip that brought their bodies closer and made her feel a deep pang of longing.
His other hand cupped her chin, gently tilted it up, and traced small, delicate circles against her skin as he kissed her, deep and slow.
Taking his time, as if she was something to be savored.
They were outside in the middle of a snowfall, and she was wearing seven layers of clothing, eight if she counted his scarf.
But the way he held her made her body think it was summer, a searingly hot wave of desire washing over her as his teeth met her bottom lip.
The delicious dizziness pulling them even closer together.
If the first kiss had been a question, this kiss was a series of answers.
Yes, I like you. No, I don’t think this is a good idea. But yeah … we’re definitely going to do this again.