Page 38 of Let the Games Begin
“Zeke! It’s her!” Haruki said with a grin.
“Who?” asked Zeke, coming out of the haze his moment with Olivia had swept him up into.
“The girl!” said Haruki, as if he was talking about something completely obvious.
“What girl?” said Zeke in confusion.
“The future love of my life! The one I bumped into outside the Village, the one I’m going to the outdoor cinema with. Her!” said Haruki, smiling from ear to ear.
“Where is she?” asked Zeke in amusement.
“In the Hub! Should I say something? Ask her if she’s still on for Sunday? I should definitely say something,” said Haruki, seeming uncharacteristically flustered. But Zeke was lost; there wasn’t anybody else in the Hub. He was sure this time. The only person in the room, when he’d walked in to get tickets, was…
“Olivia?” asked Zeke in confusion.
“Olivia… yes, of course, that’s her name!” Haruki said, as if he’d just found the missing piece to a puzzle. But then he looked over at Zeke, perplexed. “Wait, how do you know her name? I never told you her name.”
Zeke closed his eyes for a moment, then looked at his best friend. His hopeful, lovestruck best friend. Luckily, Haruki didn’t seem to think there was anything suspicious about the fact that Zeke knew her name, so he said nothing.
“Okay, I’m going to go back to the Hub and talk to her tomorrow, but we’re going to be late, Zeke, let’s go,” said Haruki, walking cheerfully off.
Zeke felt his heart sink.
The girl Haruki had been talking about had been Olivia all along. Zeke was completely and thoroughly screwed.
32Olivia
DAY FIVE OF THE 2024 OLYMPICS
Olivia usually hopped onto the first shuttle bus out of the Village when her shift ended. She and Aditi were renting in the center of Athens, and Olivia had slipped into a nightly routine of going home and sitting in bed writing out job applications until Aditi convinced her to leave her room. Because, while she was having a better summer than she’d expected to have when she’d found out about the lost internship, September was just three weeks away and she knew that she needed to have an idea of what came after she caught her flight back home. But that evening, instead of worrying about jobs, Olivia decided to take the long way home.
Athens was still bathed in sunlight. As she wandered through the busy streets, she stopped to listen to the sound of a Greek folk band playing music in the middle of a square of busy restaurants. She wandered down a road lined with lemon trees and followed the sound of cheers that led her past a bar where a whole group of people were gathered to watch an Olympic sailing race. Then shetook a left turn, and walked down a quiet street until she reached her destination: Meraki—a tiny hole-in-the-wall shop.It was a legendary art shop that Olivia had read about while planning her trip. It had been open for over a century, and Olivia could feel the history as soon as she walked through the door. She heard the bell tinkle above her and was immediately immersed in a room that smelled like old books, sweet tea, and paint. She greeted the kind older woman at the counter, then filled her bag to bursting with everything that caught her eye. She definitely didn’t have the money, and she knew she should probably be saving for whatever September held, but she’d decided to let herself do one thing that was just for herself. For her present-day self, not some idealized future.
“Olivia, I haven’t seen you painting in years,” said Aditi when she came home to find the kitchen table covered with paper, paintbrushes, and colorful glasses of water.
“I shouldn’t have stopped,” Olivia said as she put the final touch to the postcard-sized portrait she’d been working on and handed it over to Aditi. It was a painting of Aditi drinking coffee outside Café Kalopsia. Aditi stilled for a moment as tears pricked her eyes.
“Liv, you made me look so happy.” She squeezed Olivia’s shoulder. “I almost forgot how talented you are at this,” she said, taking a seat on the other side of the table.
“I was supposed to be doing that,” said Olivia, pointing at the laptop filled with incomplete job applications. “And I should probably get back to it.”
“But it’s summer,” said Aditi knowingly.
“It’s summer,” said Olivia.
“And Summer Olivia has decided to join us this year?” Aditi said, a quick smile appearing on her face.
Olivia knew where the conversation was going. When Olivia had gone home after getting stuck in the lift, Aditi had cornered her at the front door and convinced her to divulge every single detail of the night.
“Your skin is glowing, you’re wearing cute little dresses, you’re painting? I know Summer Olivia when I see her,” said Aditi.
“It has nothing to do with Zeke,” Olivia said, sounding a little more defensive than she’d meant to. “Okay, it has a teeny bit to do with him,” she conceded, throwing her hands up in defeat. “But it’s more about summer.”
“And issummera code word for hot athletes? Just checking we’re on the same page.” Aditi hadn’t got any less excitable in the almost twenty years they’d known each other.
“No, I mean actual summer. It wasn’t the boy last time and it’s not the boy this time, it’s the way I feel when the sun comes out.” Olivia put her paintbrush down.
Aditi went to the fridge, cut up a bowl of mango, and placed it in the middle of the table. They always got the fruit out when they needed to have a long conversation.
