Chapter Sixteen

Theo

The rice and beans at the Mexican restaurant are very good.

I reread Henry’s text again. And again. I’d replied with a lame “Cool, thx!” I wanted to say so much more. Every time he tried one of the international restaurants in the Village’s huge eating hall, he texted me a mini review.

The first time, I’d replied with a joke about him trying to make me fat, and he’d immediately responded:

Make sure you eat.

Waiting in the bowels of the practice arena, I scrolled back to that message. Henry was so good about eating healthy food and not junk, but he never seemed to feel deprived. It wasn’t a big deal to him the way it was to me. I’d replied with a winky face and:

Don’t worry, I love food way too much to starve myself.

Immediately, he’d responded again:

Make sure you eat.

It was weird how those four words made me stupidly happy.

I missed our dinners in his condo so much. I missed Henry’s matching pajama sets and watching HGTV while we iced our aches. I missed Esmeralda and hoped she wasn’t too lonely even though the cat sitter hung out for a bit every day. I mean, she wasn’t my cat, so I shouldn’t have really been worrying about her, but I did.

“Group B! Ready in five,” a volunteer announced.

Manon and Bill were out with Henry now. The short program of the team event was tonight, and we were both competing. My teammate—and roommate in the Village—Justin Lee would be doing the free skate.

I didn’t want to blow my wad in the team event, and it was unlikely we’d beat Russia for gold even if I did both programs. We were solidly going to take the silver medal unless we imploded, and this way Justin would get a medal too. But doing the short was a great warm-up for the real thing.

Not that a team event medal wasn’t real. I had a bronze from the last Games, and it had been really fun. But it just wasn’t the same as an individual medal. It would make more sense to have the team event after the individual events, but it all came down to what the TV networks wanted and their ratings.

The opening ceremony was tonight, and it was weird to be trying to focus on competing this afternoon, but whatever. I’d crush my short and then get to have fun and—

On cue, a text from my mom appeared:

I want you to rest tonight. You went to the opening ceremony four years ago. You don’t need to go again. You have to focus. Sakaguchi probably isn’t going. He’s jumping well. Too well.

Actually, he was going, but I didn’t tell her that. I asked:

How’s his quad Lutz?

She replied insanely fast:

TOO GOOD. The best it’s looked.

Luckily, she couldn’t see my grin. I didn’t reply, jogging around the concrete holding area. The other four guys in my group, including Kuznetzov, stretched and listened to their headphones, getting in the zone.