Page 3 of Crashing into Love

“Nah. I wanted the opening ceremony, so I’m good. I just want to go home.”

“Well, first, dinner.”

Minutes later, they were down in the cafeteria shared by the Canadian, British, and US teams, and Selma did not want to be there. Drew Oakes was sitting at a table by herself, not really eating, more staring off into space – or rather, out the window in front of her – and Selma had done that to her.

“I’ll be right back,” she said, deciding that it was better to face it now because if not, she’d regret going home without at least trying to apologize.

“Shit. Okay. Yeah. I’ll save you a seat,” Miranda said and joined the food line.

Selma walked slowly over to the table as if hoping that her legs would somehow turn her around on their own, but when they didn’t, she stood next to Drew and closed her eyes for a second, gathering courage.

“Um… Hi,” she said eventually.

Drew looked up at her and seemed surprised to see her.

“Hey,” she greeted, looking and sounding less than enthused that Selma was there.

“Uh… Selma Driscoll.”

“I know who you are.”

“Right. I just thought I should introduce myself since we’ve never really done that. You’re usually wearing your headphones.” She mimed headphones, or rather, earmuffs more than anything on her own ears. “So, I know this is the sport and things like this happen, but I wanted to apologize because I don’t know what happened. I swear, I had enough space. Then, suddenly, I didn’t, and I was clipping you, and that caused me to fall and–”

“Hey, it’s the sport; like you said. It sucks, yeah, but it is what it is,” Drew replied. “So, whatever.”

“You were supposed to win.”

“What?”

“You were going to medal. I had you winning gold and me being lucky enough to make it to the final.”

“Well, thanks for the confidence, I guess,” Drew said. “Look, I appreciate this. I know it probably took a lot to come over here right now. But I’m waiting on someone, and we’re going to eat together, and I kind of want to be alone.”

“Alone with someone?” Selma asked and wished she could take it back immediately after.

“Andy Weinman, one of the other US boarders, is my girlfriend. So, it’s both alone and together, you know? She’s going to help me drown my sorrows tonight, so…”

“Right. Sorry,” Selma replied. “I mean, sorry again. I really don’t know what happened.”

“You were too tight on your turn.”

“What?”

“That turn wasn’t as tight as the one before it, but you probably took it like the previous one, which made your board twist a little, and there you go.”

“I raced that course. I know how tight the turns are.”

“Do you? Did your board have too much wax on it or something?”

“No, it was fine.”

“Then, it was how you took the turn.”

“How do you know that? You were in front of me.”

“You think I haven’t watched that video, like, a dozen times already? I was watching it before you walked over here. Look.” Drew picked up her phone and unlocked it. “Here. Want me to start at the beginning of the course or right before you took me out of the race because you didn’t know how to take a turn?”

“Babe…”

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