Page 51 of Let the Games Begin
Zeke had known Coach Adam since he was fourteen years old. So, he knew him well enough to know that when he’d made his mind up about something, trying to convince him otherwise was futile.
“All right, Coach,” Zeke said, accepting his fate.
“Right, get some rest. Training starts tomorrow morning at six thirty,” Coach said as he got up. “And, Zeke? I hope whatever made you stay out late last night was worth it,” he added before leaving the room.
Zeke sat down on the bench and drank another bottle of water. Last night wasdefinitelyworth it. He’d been texting Olivia ever since he’d kissed her goodbye at the gates of the Village that morning and thinking about her every other moment in between. Waking up next to her left him feeling the kind of joy he’d only felt a few times in his life. He couldn’t stop thinking about how much he liked her, how beautiful she was, how perfect last night had been. They’d kissed like each other’s lips were their only lifeline, gripped onto each other’s bodies as if the world was seconds away from ending, held each other through the night like there was nobody else in the world except for them. It was passionate, it was tender, it was hot, sweet, reckless pleasure.
But then, instead of falling asleep, they’d spent the whole night talking. Telling each other about their favorite memories and the moments that had shaped their lives. The longer he stayed there, the clearer it became that he was falling for her. He wanted to take her to all the places he loved, introduce her to his favorite people, and get to know every part of her mind, body, and soul. He’d seen a flicker of forever. Imagined what it would be like to dance with her in the kitchen and wake up to her on Sunday mornings.
But the fear always came back around again.
Whenever things were really good, his immediate reflex was to start listing every single thing that could go wrong. The euphoria and the anxiety were dancing hand in hand. But the memory of the way the moon lit up her eyes wouldn’t let him go.
42Olivia
DAY SIX OF THE 2024 OLYMPICS
“You’re different today,” said Arlo, looking over at Olivia.
“What do you mean?” Olivia asked as she took a sip of her coffee. She and Zeke had left the house at the crack of dawn that morning so that Zeke could sneak back into GB House and Olivia could get to the Village for her seven a.m. start. She and Arlo were scheduled to help the volunteers at the registration desk hand out press passes to the photojournalists covering that day’s competitions.
“I don’t know, you seem more peaceful than usual,” Arlo said, looking at her. Arlo knew what she looked like after her busiest days on the walkie-talkies. So, there was no doubt this was probably the first time he’d ever seen her look relaxed.
“I’m like a sleeping newborn before eight a.m.,” she said truthfully. Oliviawasat her most peaceful in the morning before the day clouded her clarity. But there was something else on her face and Arlo could see it.
“Did you really end up spending last night filling in job applications?” Arlo asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well… I got distracted.”
“Distracted?” he asked curiously.
“Yeah, you know how it is,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.
“Olivia, you’re doing a bad job of trying to sound casual,” Arlo said, scanning her face to try to figure her out, but she turned away so he wouldn’t see the story in her eyes.
“Has it got anything to do with why you keep looking at your phone?” he asked.
“I’m not looking at my phone,” she said indignantly. But she was definitely looking at her phone. She and Zeke had been texting back and forth ever since they’d left the apartment. About last night, about his semifinal win, about when they would get to see each other again.
“Has it got anything to do with that tall, gorgeous hunk of an athlete who’s clearly obsessed with you?” Arlo said, teasing her.
Olivia hadn’t told him about the elevator kiss, or all of the overwhelming thoughts and feelings that had been bubbling ever since. About how last night she’d felt like her body had been set alight. She was pretty sure the image of Zeke kissing her inner thigh would be seared into her memory for the rest of her life. And that when she’d woken up this morning in Zeke’s arms, to the tender sensation of him gently running his fingers through her hair… she’d realized with complete, unflinching certainty that she was in way over her head. And that it was unlikely she’d be able to shake the feeling off.
But Arlo was good at reading people.
“Did you even go to sleep last night?” he asked, tilting his head to the side in amusement.
She opened and then shut her mouth.
“Olivia!” he shrieked, excitedly peppering her with questions as they began their shift.
It quickly became her busiest day yet. Her walkie-talkie went off nonstop. She spent the whole morning and afternoon on her feet, going back and forth across the Village. She went to South Korea House to deliver a stack of VIP tickets for that afternoon’s archery contest, then rushed off to the equestrian field to help a truck of delivery men figure out where to drop off thirty-eight boxes of hay. After hours of running around, she finally got the chance to sit down for a few moments and drink a glass of water, but then her walkie-talkie buzzed again.
“On a scale of one to ten, how busy are you right now?” asked Arlo. “Because there’s another evening reception that forgot to…” She already knew how Arlo’s sentence was going to end.
The Olympics was all about sports, but the sheer scale and scope of it meant that there were always at least a dozen different nonsporting events happening in the Village on any given day. Receptions for international diplomats, tours for kids from local schools, and huge marquee events for big-money sponsors. Each event required catering, risk assessments, and security checks. But everybody always forgot to order goodie bags until the very last minute. Which is when Arlo or Olivia stepped in.
The office at the back of the Hub was essentially a Santa’s workshop–grade goodie-bag-packing room. There were boxes and boxes of official Olympic merchandise: shirts, pens, notebooks, sweets, water bottles, and basically anything you could print a logo onto. So, Olivia grabbed 150 paper bags and began to fill them up. And as she did, she thought about Zeke. If she was honest with herself, she hadn’t once stopped thinking about him. Whilerunning errands, she’d replayed all of their conversations. Each time she saw a Team GB uniform, she hoped it was him. She even found herself smiling at elevators.
