Chapter Seventeen

It defied the laws of nature, but somehow sitting at a giant table in a conference room was more nerve-wracking than playing in the gold medal game. Natalie’s right leg bounced up and down underneath the table while she waited for Raquel and the other producers to come in to watch the edited segment they shot the day before.

It wasn’t a championship game, but her immediate future depended on what those producers thought of their mock segment. If they didn’t like it, she was going to have to find a regular job. The boring kind that didn’t involve a trip to the Olympics and the chance to be made instantly famous. Women’s hockey players aren’t generally household names. Maybe during the Games every four years, fans might learn a few names, but that wasn’t the kind of fame that might help her pay her bills.

Once the Games ended, most of the fans in the U.S. went back to watching men’s sports. Being on TV, even doing something silly like learning how to play other sports for entertainment, would make her more famous than winning gold ever could.

The door swung open and Raquel walked in, trailed by a group of white men in matching suits. She plugged a flash drive into the computer at the front of the room. “Okay, are you ready to see this?”

“Where’s LaCroix?” Natalie looked toward the door in time to see her question answered.

“Aw, did you miss me?” Darcy said, taking a seat across the table.

Natalie sighed. “No, just wondering if royalty had to be here or not.”

Darcy rolled her eyes and leaned her chair back. “This would be a lot more annoying if it wasn’t so obvious how jealous you are. Get over it, Carpenter.”

Raquel flicked the lights off and on. “If you two are done shit-talking, we can get started.” She looked at them with the air of an incredibly disappointed teacher. “We pulled together what we think is a good intro for your new segment and then we cut together some of the footage from yesterday so you two can see what we’re looking for from this. Any questions?” She made it clear that she didn’t actually care if anyone had a question.

The intro began with still photos of Natalie and Darcy along with highlights of their careers. Natalie squashed the jealousy rising in her at the sight of “three-time Olympic gold medal winner” next to Darcy’s name and only “gold medalist” next to her own. She should have been on the team this year to win that second gold. That was the plan, not sitting here watching a list of all the ways she was second-best scroll across the screen.

The intro quickly morphed from photos to footage of Darcy and Natalie playing against each other. The montage seemed to contain every time the two of them had collided on the ice. The final shots, of each of them receiving their gold medals, were the proudest and hardest to take. Each time one of them received gold the other had gotten silver. It sucked to know that one of them winning meant the other had lost in the biggest game of her life.

The final clip was of the two of them, looking like kids, from their college days. Together, they hoisted the NCAA championship trophy and skated around the ice. It ended with two pictures, side by side. One from college with their arms around each other’s shoulders and one of them shoving each other in the Olympics.

“The tagline is ‘Friends or Foes?’” Darcy asked, her voice full of skepticism. “Come on, Raquel, why trot all this out?”

Raquel clicked on the lights. “We’re here to sell a story and you two have a good one. Teammates turned bitter rivals now joining together on our show to try out a bunch of sports you know nothing about. It’s going to be great TV.”

Natalie scowled. It had been a long time since she and Darcy hoisted that trophy together, but it still brought back memories of what happened after. She didn’t want to share any of that with America. They didn’t need to know.

“Do you want us to pretend to like each other or hate each other?”

Raquel shrugged. “Whatever the public likes better, honestly. Like I said, we’re here to tell a story and if that means you two have to play up the fact that you took a second run on a bobsled that made you throw up the first time because you refuse to back down, that’s fine with me. If it means you want to show America that you’re besties, I don’t care. All I care about is that people are invested in the two of you as friends or enemies. Just as long as they’re invested enough to tune in.”

“Jesus Christ,” Natalie muttered under her breath. She wasn’t an actor. She could play to the crowd but she couldn’t fake how she felt about Darcy. No matter what Raquel decided, it would be complicated between the two of them.

Darcy cocked her head to the side. “Can we see the rest of the segment before we decide whether we’re BFFs or blood enemies?”

Raquel smiled and rolled the rest of the video. First, it was them introducing Liz to the audience and getting tips on how to ride the bobsled along with Liz explaining her history with Team USA and how she ended up at the training center. Then it showed footage from the GoPros attached to their helmets as they hurtled down the track. Someone had added a graphic that showed how fast they’d been going.

“No wonder I got sick,” Natalie said when the screen showed them going over forty miles an hour.

They cut to the two of them agreeing to another race, complete with a short intro from Liz about how she didn’t think it was the best idea for Natalie to do it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get sick and still want to do it again,” Liz told the camera with a shake of her head. “She’s some kind of competitor.”

Finally, it ended with their second runs and final times. Even though she knew the outcome, Natalie still hated seeing the confirmation that Darcy beat her down the mountain.

“I’ll get her next time,” Natalie told the camera.

“We hope you’ll tune in to all of our coverage,” Darcy said to end the segment.

Raquel paused the footage. “It’s rough and far from perfect, but whatever competitiveness you two have going on, friendly or not, we think it’s going to make people want to tune in. We’re going to run with it. First of all, it should be obvious that we want you two to do this job. Congratulations.”

Natalie let out a breath. Thank god she could put off being a real adult for at least a few more weeks.

Darcy smiled, big and dazzling. “You’re going to put us on the broadcast?”

Raquel smiled back. “Yes, we all agree that the two of you will be an excellent change from our usual coverage.”

One of the other producers, Gerry, chuckled. “Yes, it will be nice to have athletes learning how to play these sports instead of Chip.” The other producers all laughed; some looked nervous about doing so, though.

Natalie raised her hand. “Okay, so the angle is that we’re athletic but still making an ass out of ourselves trying these other sports? And you want us to be cutthroat with each other? Am I getting all of this right?”

Darcy shot her a warning look. Natalie didn’t care. She wasn’t planning on fucking this up but she wanted to know what she was getting herself into before she agreed. Making a complete ass of herself on television wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. If she was going to do it, she wanted to make sure it was worth her while.

Raquel adjusted her glasses. “We aren’t asking you to do anything that will damage your brands but we’re hoping that the audience will love watching the two of you compete against each other, and if you look silly trying sports you’ve never played before that will be good TV, too. But I promise, we’re not trying to make anyone look stupid.”

Darcy looked across the table. “You know how hard it is to play at a high level. Of course, we’re going to look silly doing stuff we’ve never done before but think of how much more respect the other athletes will get if people can watch world-class athletes sucking at sports that look easy on TV.”

Natalie nodded slowly. “That’s fine. But I draw the line at goofy outfits. I will not wear a tutu. Understood?”