“I was going to come out anyway.”
“That doesn’t make it right. Why’d you tell him in the first place? He’s not exactly a friend of yours.”
“He was joking about you being my boyfriend. What was I supposed to do? Deny it? You’re my boyfriend.”
Rather than agree with him, Spencer continued scowling in Ashley’s direction. He was way over in the opposite corner because with only six of them competing in this round they had plenty of space to spread out. And no one felt much like talking. Shino was the closest to them, sitting on a bouldering mat with his shoulders hunched and his head hanging low like he felt sick.
“You don’t owe anyone your truth,” Spencer said.
“I figured I owed it to you.”
Spencer finally stopped glaring at Ashley to look at him. “Is that really why you said something? Or were you trying to sabotage yourself?”
“Sabotage? Where’s that coming from?”
“Climbing instead of resting, re-injuring your ankle, coming out. It’s like you’re trying to lose.”
“That’s a really unfair accusation.” He thought they’d gotten past all this shit. “I may not care about winning as much as you do, but I’ve never done less than my best. The ankle just happened.”
“Flynn is hero,” Shino said. “He save little boy, yes.”
“What little boy?”
“A kid.” Flynn held his hand down at knee height in illustration. “He wandered onto one of the mats.”
“Flynn rescue.” Shino mimed swooping someone up.
“Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“Because you weren’t in a mood to listen last night, not until you were in a mood for, you know, more important things.” He shot a glance over at Ashley who didn’t seem to be paying attention to them. “Besides, I kind of like it when you yell at me. You’re magnificent in your fury.” That earned him one of Spencer’s patented scowls, but the scowl only proved Flynn’s point. Hot. He gathered Spencer into a hug with a snicker and a low-voiced, “Don’t ever stop yelling at me, baby.”
“Could you please not,” Ashley said. Apparently he’d been paying attention after all. “Some of us are trying to concentrate.”
“So?”
“So there’s a reason competitors are separated by gender.”
“I don’t think this is it.” But he released Spencer who’d been a semi-reluctant participant in that hug anyway. Spencer tugged him over to the hall that led to the bathrooms, as far away from everyone else as they could get in a space that was about thirty by fifty.
“You really didn’t climb yesterday?”
“I did a V0 a couple of times, but that’s not how I hurt my ankle. I turned it on the edge of the mat when I went to grab that kid. It was an accident, not willful self-destruction. Promise.”
“And you didn’t come out because you want your sponsors to drop you?”
“I came out because I had someone to come out for.” Now wasn’t the time to tell Spencer the rest of it. Later. After he’d won a medal. “Because you’re my boyfriend. Right?”
“Right.” Spencer gave him a quick kiss. “Now let me concentrate. One of us has gotta beat Ashley.” He settled into a meditation pose on a yoga mat just as the first warning bell sounded.
Kurt was up first, so he gathered his shoes and chalk bag and went out to the tunnel to kick off the bouldering event. Flynn was next, thanks to his crappy speed performance, and bouldering was an event worth warming up for, so he used the little wall to get some blood flowing in his arms and overwhelm the pain receptors in his ankle. His ankle was going to have to shut up, because he was climbing on it whether it liked it or not.
Another bell summoned him to the tunnel. Out on stage, Kurt was working on the final bouldering problem. Flynn couldn’t see him, because they weren’t allowed to get any helpful information by watching each other, but he could hear the crowd respond to his attempts—the excited cheer as he started up and the disappointed groan when he fell back down. Kurt’s time ran out before he made it to the top, and the announcer sent him offstage to a round of applause.
His turn. With the sun coming from behind him, he could make out faces in the crowd today, but once he turned to the wall, the spectators became nothing more than noise as his focus narrowed to the wall and the holds arranged across it.
All four of the boulders were excellent—challenging and captivating. Only the last one gave him any real trouble, but just before time ran out, he managed to top that one too. He hung from the finishing hold by one hand, waving his other hand to exhort the crowd to cheer louder, then dropped to the mat. No one could accuse him of not giving his all after that performance.
But the moment the adrenalin faded, the pain was back. He yanked the elastic out of his hair so at least his head wouldn’t hurt and allowed himself to limp as he made his way to the row of folding chairs where they were sentenced to sit and watch while the rest of the competitors took their turns.
Shino was up next. Not only did he top every boulder, but he did it in fewer attempts than Flynn, which placed him in first. Spencer only managed to top two of them, regardless of how hard Flynn tried to ESP him advice on the other two, but he got the zone hold on the two he missed, and Ashley didn’t do any better. By the time the bouldering event was over, Shino and Dai were positioned in first and second, just like everyone had expected them to be, with Flynn and Ashley in a tie right behind them and Spencer in a close fifth.
The six of them tromped backstage to wait out the mandatory rest time in their isolation area, but now they sat together in the center of the space, talking instead of pacing. With rubbery arms and only one event to go, they were all more tired than nervous, and they had those four boulders to talk about. It was normal climber chatter, and though Flynn’s ankle was killing him, his heart was light. Comps were actually pretty fun from a pure climbing point of view. Nowhere else on earth would you find such innovative problems. And though it was likely that Shino would take gold easily, silver and bronze were still up for grabs. No reason Spencer couldn’t be on that podium.
“You got this,” Flynn told him when he caught him checking the clock one too many times. “Lead climbing is your event, and today is your day.”
“No pressure,” Ashley said sarcastically. “It’s only your career, after all.”
21. Spencer
For once, Spencer wasn’t bothered by Ashley’s taunts. He’d made it to the Olympic finals. There was no way his career could be anything other than bolstered by his performance, even if he finished dead last. And though he was currently in fifth, points-wise the bottom four were all super close and his best event was still ahead of him. Which meant Flynn was right. If he climbed well in the lead event, he would end up on the podium. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t. It was all up to him.
“Ignore him,” he told Flynn who was bristly the way only Ashley seemed able to get him. “I’m not worried about my career.”
“Not yours,” Ashley said. “Or didn’t Flynn tell you about that little bet he made?” Spencer cocked his head. The IOC would not be happy about athletes betting on the games. “Your champion here offered to stop climbing if you didn’t medal.” Ashley flashed a tattletale grin, happy to be making trouble.