Chapter 28 Drew
Drew
Drew almost dropped his phone in the middle of the café when he saw the message that had just popped up in his emails.
The team at Zeus had been sending him on assignments to photograph the athletes they sponsored all week.
And when those emails arrived, he picked up his camera bag, walked out into the snow, and immediately went to find and photograph the next athlete on their list. But this assignment was different. This athlete was different.
MESSAGE FROM: Zeus BTS team
Key people: Harrison Cavendish
Key sports: Snowboarding
Assignment: Harrison was the lead ambassador for our AW 25 campaign. He’s taken a few losses this week, but he’s still a fan favorite. So can you get a few shots of him at practice?
Drew was standing by the pickup counter of the coffee shop, racking his brain to find an excuse to get out of his next assignment.
He stared at his phone, wondering if he could find a loophole to avoid having to see Harrison in person.
But he knew he couldn’t avoid this, not when his career depended on acing each assignment.
“Double shot espresso?” asked the barista with the tone of someone on their third or fourth time repeating themselves.
Drew looked up. He couldn’t figure out how long he’d been waiting there.
But from the slightly irritated looks of the other customers, his drink had been called out more than just a few times.
“Thank you, and quick question. How well do you know the Village?”
The barista, who according to his name badge was J?rgen, gave him a knowing look. “I’ve been brewing coffee here since they started building it.”
“So, can you tell me the fastest way to get to the snowboard training center?” Drew asked.
He was dreading the assignment that lay ahead of him, but he was in St. Moritz for work.
So, he took J?rgen’s directions and rode a shuttle bus to the southwest side of the Village where the training centers were.
He had a brief panic at the security gates when he couldn’t find his press credentials, but he quickly recovered when he realized his lanyard had just found its way to the bottom of his camera bag.
He was handing it over to the security guard when he finally spotted the subject of that morning’s assignment.
Harrison was dressed in his Team GB uniform and standing in the middle of a group of people who seemed entertained by whatever story he was telling.
In any other circumstance, Drew might have thought he seemed like a nice guy.
He had an easy, carefree demeanor about him.
The vibe of the kind of person who breezed his way in and out of every room he entered.
However, Drew had gleaned enough from his conversations with Ari to know better than to take Harrison at face value.
But he still had a job to do, so he walked across the reception toward the group of athletes.
He was about to introduce himself to Harrison when he spotted a familiar face in the crowd.
“Thandie?” he asked, startled as he saw his sister among the group of athletes wearing training uniforms and carrying their kit bags.
He noticed a few of her other teammates, too.
When Thandie spotted him, she shot him the subtle don’t embarrass me look she’d been giving him ever since she was a little girl.
“Drew, you know the girls. But this is Harrison, he’s a snowboarder on Team GB,” she said, gesturing over to Harrison, introducing him as if she thought Drew would be excited to meet him.
“You know each other?” Drew asked, glancing over at Harrison, who was giving him a curious look.
“Yeah,” Thandie said, her eyes lighting up. “Me and Harrison might be doing a campaign together after the Olympics.”
Her voice was full of hope, and Drew understood why.
At twenty-one, his sister was already an incredibly successful athlete.
She was one of the best players in North America and skated for one of the country’s top professional teams during tournament season.
But that success had never translated to the kind of brand deals and sponsorships that the high-profile men in winter sports got.
He’d had a bunch of conversations with her over the years about how hard it was to build a financially viable career in sports.
She’d concluded that she would need to get a huge deal to sustain her career the way she wanted to.
“It’s still being confirmed, so don’t tell anyone, but it could be a game changer.” She smiled. “Wait, do you know Harrison?”
Harrison and Drew locked eyes. Drew could tell he recognized him. But to explain how they knew of each other would mean having to explain that he knew Ari, which was a conversation he didn’t want to have yet. So, he made sure to speak up before Harrison did.
“No, I’m just here on assignment. I’m Drew, I’m here to take photos for Zeus,” Drew said, pointing to his camera bag. “Shall we head out?” he asked, trying to remove his sister from the situation as soon as possible.
“Sure, let me just grab this,” Harrison said, picking his kit bag up from the ground but then gesturing between Drew and Thandie. “Wait, I forgot to ask, how do you know each other?”
“He’s my older brother, only by like eleven months, though. We’re kind of like twins, but I got all the athleticism,” Thandie teased before waving them off and heading over to her training session.
When she left, the two men stood in silence for a moment before Drew began to walk in the direction of the practice slopes.
Drew did his best to keep their conversation to a minimum as he begrudgingly took photos of Harrison walking through the snow and then directed Harrison to reposition his board so he could capture him in different types of motion.
“Your sister, huh?” Harrison said after Drew had gotten a few shots of him at the edge of a slope.
“Yes,” he said, hoping short answers would kill the conversation.
Drew took his second camera out of its bag and attached it to a special wide-angle lens. He wanted to ask Harrison to take a chairlift up the mountain so he could capture him snowboarding again, but Harrison kept pushing.
“Are you close?” Harrison asked, undeterred.
“Mm-hmm.”
“And she’s okay with you dating the girl who broke her leg?” Harrison asked, giving him a long, hard look. Drew had done his best to avoid the topic, but it was inevitable.
“Who told you that? Thandie or Ari?” Drew asked, trying not to give himself away.
“Your sister. We’ve been spending a lot of time together, you know,” Harrison said. The emphasis made Drew tense up and glare at him. Harrison put his hands in the air in surrender, but his mouth turned up into a smirk.
“For the campaign, of course. The sponsorship team wanted to see if we have enough in common to go on a PR tour together after the Games. And it turns out, we get along really well,” Harrison said.
Drew knew he was being weird and suggestive to rile him up.
And he might have been successful if Drew didn’t know his sister so well.
Thandie could generally only tolerate a few people, and guys like Harrison were the type she avoided at all costs.
She had zero patience for golden boys and false prophets.
So, if they were getting along as well as Harrison claimed they were, his sister was either just keeping it cute and cordial to secure the brand deal she wanted, or the two of them had hit upon a genuine shared interest.
“We realized we have Ari in common,” Harrison said, confirming Drew’s second theory. “She kind of screwed us both over.”
“Ari didn’t screw you over, you were just a shitty boyfriend,” Drew said without thinking. Harrison raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, so you’ve discussed me.” He looked pleased with himself. “Sorry, it probably sucks to be the rebound. But don’t take it personally, she just doesn’t know how to get over me.”
“Can you put your ski goggles on? The team at Zeus wants more photos of you in the merch,” Drew said, deciding to skirt the conversation Harrison was trying to pull him into.
But the distraction only made Harrison more curious.
He stopped and examined Drew for a moment.
He must have sensed his evasive body language, because his eyebrows raised and his eyes widened.
“Ohhh,” Harrison said knowingly. “Thandie doesn’t know, does she? That you’re seeing Ari.”
“It’s not—”
“Wow, they hate each other. You know that, right?” Harrison almost looked impressed. “I’ll hand it to you, even I wouldn’t hook up with someone my sister hates.”
“We’re not … Ari doesn’t…” Drew stammered. He couldn’t explain himself, especially not to Harrison. “I’m going to tell her later.”
Telling the truth proved to be a mistake, because as soon as the words left his mouth, a sly smirk crept up onto Harrison’s face.
“So neither of them knows?” Harrison asked, searching his expression.
“Neither of them needs to know,” Drew said firmly.
“So what are you willing to do to make sure they don’t find out, huh?”
“I’m not doing this with you. Could you hold your snowboard up?” he asked, trying to redirect the conversation back to the photo shoot. But Harrison wasn’t going to let it go. In fact, he seemed pretty pleased with this new information.
“I’m sure she’s probably told you all sorts of exaggerated stories about me. But me and Ari always end up getting back together. So cut your losses and break up,” Harrison said with the casual tone of someone used to getting what he wanted.
“Why would I do that?” Drew asked, irritated.
“Because if you don’t break up, I’ll tell your sister,” Harrison said. Drew shook his head as he took a photo of Harrison leaning against his bright red snowboard. He didn’t want to be here, but there was no way he would let this guy stop him from fulfilling an assignment.
“What are you, a twelve-year-old boy who thinks he can blackmail me by … reporting me to my little sister? Grow up,” Drew said, surprised that Harrison thought he could manipulate him so easily.
“Okay then, break up or I’ll make sure your sister doesn’t get the deal,” Harrison said, staring him down.
“You can’t do that,” Drew said, unaffected. “You don’t have that kind of power.”
“Yes, I do,” said Harrison with an ominously level voice. “I’m the lead winter ambassador. I have sway at Zeus. If I tell them that the girl they had in mind for the next campaign isn’t the right pick because she’s difficult to work with, they’ll believe me.”
“You wouldn’t,” Drew said. He liked to think of himself as a good judge of character and could tell that Harrison was used to throwing around empty threats.
“Oh, but you see, I definitely would.” Harrison smirked. “Don’t get me wrong, your sister is good at what does. But there are dozens of other female athletes. Why do you think Thandie got the offer in the first place? You think I just picked some girl my ex hated by accident?”
Drew stood still. Startled by Harrison’s calculations. He’d picked Thandie to get back at Ari?
“You would be that petty?”
“Not petty. Strategic.” Harrison shrugged.
“What better way of showing her what she’s missing out on than by making it clear how quickly I can replace her?
” Harrison smiled. It was ominous. The type of smile Drew could tell he used in equal parts to charm and disarm.
But Drew didn’t bow down to bullies, so he removed the lens from his camera, switched it off, and packed it away.
“I think we’re done here,” Drew said with an air of finality.
Zeus wanted photos, but Drew didn’t need to endure another moment with this guy to fulfill his assignment.
“Be careful, it’s icy out there. Wouldn’t want you to slip,” Harrison said, his voice dripping insincerity. “I mean it, Drew. Break up.”
“Or what? You’ll try and ruin my life?” Drew mocked.
“Fuck around and find out.”