Page 100 of On the Button

“Hey,” Evan said, stopping as he passed me. “Breathe. It’s the Olympics, baby. You already made it.”

I did breathe, crouched to take my shot, and paused, just long enough to meet Perry’s gaze. He smiled. It was fine. We absolutely could do this.

My shot was a little bit light, creating a cluster in front of our shot rock.

Perry squinted at the configuration a moment, then shrugged. “The right hit could take it all out,” he decided. “But it would be hard.”

“As hard as the shot you made?” I asked.

“Almost.”

“You are…”

“What? What am I?” He was smirking at me, waiting.

“We made the right choice when we picked you three,” I said.

“Of course you did.” He shoulder-checked me lightly, but then remained there, his shoulder against mine as he leaned on his broom and watched the Swiss Skip take his shot.

He tried to take out the mess I’d left him and came within less than a centimetre of our shot rock.

Everyone groaned. Even us.

“Dude, that was so close!” Evan said as the Skip watched his stone glide out of play.

“Sadly, close does not count,” he said, holding out a hand to Evan. “Well played. It has been a pleasure.”

“Likewise!” Evan grabbed his hand and shook it hard. “Amazing game. Thank you!”

I could only make out what they were saying because I could see their lips moving. The crowd was on their feet, and seconds later, the announcement made that we had won. There was no need for me to take my last shot since we had that one lovely red stone of Perry’s right on the button.

“This was a good day,” Carol said.

“Ya think?” I grinned at him.

Standing on top of the podium later, it was a relief to have the freedom to finally hold Perry’s hand and know he was holding onto Evan on his other side. We’d come into the event open about who we were to each other but professionalism kept us from being very demonstrative through the games. Now we were done. We were still respectful but we could be less rigid.

The weight of that medal hanging around my neck as our anthem played was like nothing I’d expected. Sure we’d said it didn’t matter, win or lose, but we had won.

At some point during all the press interviews, Michael grumbled at us to stop mentioning his name but there was no denying we wouldn’t have made it as far as we did without him. If he didn’t get to wear the medal he’d worked so hard to help us get, he sure as hell was going to get the credit he deserved.

Standing up there, basking in the actual glory of being a champion Olympian, holding Perry’s hand, feeling the confidence radiate off him, it was hard to believe that wasn’t even the best thing I’d experienced in the past twenty-four hours.

I glanced over at him and he grinned. When I met Evan’s gaze, he had teared up, but happiness glowed from every pore. We had climbed the mountain, to the pinnacle of our sport, and still, we could look down on that height from our personal perspective.

It felt like there was nothing we couldn’t achieve together.