Page 73 of Your Pace or Mine
“Come on, mate. I know you’re down about Jamie, but you’ve got to remember why this all started in the first place. The Olympics, Darius, you’ve been working towards this forever.”
The Olympics had been his dream since he was small, but now, the idea of competing at that level seemed to pale in comparison to the cloud of doom he was ensconced within. When Darius was silent, Jackson continued.
“Anders is still not coming around on you, but the rest of the selection committee are,” he began. “All this media attention lately, well, even the most press-wary of the selectors have seen something about you lately. Anders’s whole argument against you centred around your ‘making other athletes uncomfortable,’ he really pushed the homophobia idea, even if he didn’t say it outright… and now, well, you made him look daft in front of the other selectors.”
“You think they’ll override his vote?”
“I think they’ll convince him to see things their way. If begrudgingly. You just need one more big push.”
“Like what? I don’t exactly have a relationship to flaunt anymore,” he sighed.
Jackson laughed. “Is that what you were doing, flaunting your relationship with dates in hidden restaurants and holing up in your townhouse?”
Jackson might have had a point, for all that they’d intended to use their fake relationship to generate publicity, they’d quite deftly avoided too much of the spotlight up until the catastrophic awards night. Still, fake or not, there was no relationship to speak of now.
Jackson smiled. “My vote is for a grand gesture.”
“Your vote is always for a grand gesture, Jax,” Darius replied with genuine fondness for his friend’s sunny outlook.
But he didn’t have an idea for one of those grand gestures Jax was so fond of.
“I’ll think about it.”
That was the most he could offer right now.
Before leaving, Jackson stopped him once more. “Do, because if you don’t come up with something, you could end up losing out on the OlympicsandJamie.”
Darius felt frozen after Jackson left. He didn’t know what to do. He leaned against the counter and tried to open Jamie’s Instagram, but it came up asUser Not Found.He’d blocked him. The only evidence of Jamie still existing was on Cressida’s profile, where she’d posted another call to support his fundraiser.
Darius clicked.
It looked like it was nearly there. Maybe that was one thing the added publicity from the last few days, however negative, hadn’t hurt. Darius had never believed the saying ‘all press is good press.’ He’d been burned too hard, too young for that. At least in this case, though, something good seemed to have come of it.
His finger hovered over the donate button.
He might not be able to get Jamie back, but at least he could ease this one burden for him.
Chapter 19
Jamie
1 week to the London Marathon
Jamie didn’t care about anything anymore.
His career was a shambles, and he figured he’d thrown away his shot at fixing it when he’d run out on the awards night. Networking opportunities like that didn’t just come around every day.
And then the articles had started.
He’d never seen his name and photo in the papers as much as he had in the past few days. Previously, he’d appeared in theatre reviews and the occasional West End feature. The handful of positive articles about Darius had been the closest he’d come to featuring in tabloids, and that had been kind of nice…but this was unbearable. It was finally completely apparent that fame wasn’t something he wanted—not at all. Everyone had an opinion on his life, on what he’d done in the past, on his relationship,or lack thereof.
Jamie groaned as his phone buzzed on his nightstand. Jonathan,again.
Realising he wasn’t going to fuck off if he kept ignoring him, he angrily tapped the green button and waited for the bollocking he was sure to be on the receiving end of.
“I don’t have time for pleasantries, Carter. You have an hour to get to Upminster for a dance call—this is it, Jamie, and it cost me a lot to get them to keep you in consideration with all the shit circling right now.”
“Ok, okay, Jonathan. I’m on my way—anything I need to know?”
