To their credit, Kinsley and Becca didn’t berate me when I finally made it into the van. They directed the driver to the airport and I stared out the window, mesmerized by the rolling waves. If I closed my eyes, I could still feel them lapping against me. Kinsley pressed her hand to my shoulder and squeezed. I shook my head and brushed her off. It was too early for condolences. I wasn’t ready to accept that I was actually in a van, on the way to the airport, leaving Rio without Freddie.
We arrived outside the empty airport and the driver popped the trunk to grab our bags.
“Thanks for packing my stuff K—”
“Andie!”
The sound of my name shouted from a few yards away nearly sent me into cardiac arrest. It didn’t matter that the British accent was light and feminine, or that I knew Freddie was still in dreamland. I heard my name called outside of an airport and I assumed it was Freddie running after me until I turned and saw Georgie nearly falling out of a cab to get to me in time. Her brown hair whipped in the wind and her flip-flops clapped against the concrete.
“Wait!” she yelled, though I wasn’t going anywhere.
“We don’t have a ton of time, Andie,” Kinsley reminded me. I nodded and turned back to Georgie just as she’d made it to me.
“Give me a second.” She leaned over and clutched her knees, calming her breath. “I know you wouldn’t know it, given my enviable physique,” she said. “But I’m quite out of shape.”
I laughed and shook my head. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard you were leaving early, and I needed to tell you this in person. I know Caroline’s faking the pregnancy. I KNOW IT. I just have to prove it.”
Her determination made my heart break even more.
“It’s okay, Georgie,” I said, pulling her up to stand so I could wrap her in a hug. “Caroline has won the battle. I’m going home.”
“The battle, yes, but not the war. You can’t give up.”
I smiled, a wistful, flat smile. “Maybe you’re my true love, Georgie.” I laughed. “You chased me down at the airport in the middle of the night. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.”
“Stop, that’s not funny.” Her light green eyes implored me to take her seriously. “You’re the one he’s meant to be with, not her.”
I inhaled a shaky breath and took a step back. “I’ll call you when I land. Look after him for me, will ya?”
“Don’t give up yet, Andie.”
I shook my head as Kinsley nudged my shoulder. The plane wouldn’t wait for me.
“I’ve got to go, Georgie,” I said, taking a step back.
“He’s a complete knobhead if he lets you slip away, Andie.”
I laughed and shook my head, letting Kinsley pull me toward the airport doors.
“Do you hear me, Andie?!” Georgie shouted after me. “A COMPLETE KNOBHEAD.”
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Freddie
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
I threw my hand over to silence my alarm, feeling for my mobile on the bedside table where I usually left it to charge. Nothing was there. I sighed and sat up, realizing as I blinked my eyes open that I wasn’t in the Olympic village. Andie and I had fallen asleep in the hotel, on old scratchy blankets that had seemed like clouds at the time. I tried to recall the last moments of the night, when I had Andie tucked into the crook of my arm, pressed so tightly against me that she’d complained about not being able to breathe. I’d eased up and let her fall to her side of the bed, and she’d smiled over at me in the dark.
“Think we can manage one more time before I have to leave?”
I’d nodded and draped my arm around her stomach. She spooned against me and we must have fallen asleep soon after that.
Now, I sat up and rubbed my eyes, calling out her name into the dark room. The blackout curtains were doing a fairly good job of keeping the sun out, but once I whipped them open, there was no denying that Andie was gone. The hotel room was quiet and stale—and as the dust settled, I realized she hadn’t woken me up before she’d left. She’d told me her flight was in the middle of the night and instead of waking me up, she’d snuck out while I was asleep.
We’d pushed off the goodbye so long that I never got one. I didn’t get the chance to beg her to wait for me. I never told her I loved her, not in a way that would fade once I left Rio, but the real kind, the sort of love you fight to keep. I wanted to promise her that as soon as I had my life in order, I’d fly across to America and drag her out to see me if I had to.
I didn’t get to say those things because Andie had left and I was alone in that room.