‘We thought we’d get our own place for this bit,’ Johnny said for her, seeing how she’d stalled. ‘Give you guys some peace. It’s been pretty full-on the last few weeks.’

‘It’s been pretty full-on here! You shoulda come out with us. We’ve had a non-stop partay since getting here.’

‘Well, we’ve been really buried with work,’ Clover said carefully. It was true. She and Johnny had been editing yesterday’s interviews until long after midnight last night while Matty continued her deep dive into Kit’s romantic history. ‘But another time.’

‘Clo, any time! Look, I gotta go. Tipper’s calling me but I’ll get Ari to hook you up with our plans. He’s got your numbers, right?’

Johnny and Clover nodded, watching as he slid away.

‘He doesn’t know?’ she whispered, looking back at Johnny.

‘He so doesn’t know.’

‘But why wouldn’t Kit tell him? I thought it’d be the first thing he’d do?’

A sudden slicing of snow made them both jump as another boarder came to a hard stop right in front of them.

‘What are you doing here?’ He didn’t remove his goggles. He didn’t need to. She’d recognize that contemptuous manner anywhere.

What are you doing here? So then, he had expected her to give up? Leave?

‘Working,’ she said quickly. ‘You?’

The comment was pithy and bullish, a push-back against his arrogant expectation that she would walk from her job while he continued – uninterrupted – with his own. She stared at her own reflection in his mirrored goggles, hating that while she was plainly visible to him, she couldn’t see him at all. She couldn’t see what he was thinking, only the image of the last time she’d seen him, the last time he’d seen her . . .

For several moments, he said nothing. Then, with a single twist of his ankle, he was gone again, catching up with his brother, who was talking to the coach.

‘Shit . . .’ Clover stammered, visibly slumping from the sudden ordeal. She hadn’t realized she had become so erect in his presence, as if braced for the next onslaught – verbal, physical, emotional, whatever it might be.

‘You okay?’ Johnny put his hand on her arm.

‘Of course.’ She nodded, trying to let the adrenaline settle. ‘. . . It’s good. It’s done now. Like you said, now we’ve seen each other, we can move on.’

Johnny was quiet for a bit. ‘Yeah. You did well, Clo. He never would have known.’ He pulled his goggles down. ‘I need the loo. Just look after the camera for me. I’ll be back in five.’

Clover watched as he too sped off, frowning as his words sank in. ‘Johnny, wait!’ she yelled after him. ‘He never would have known what?’