Kiss and Cry

“Hi, Henry!” Hannah Kwan gave a cheery wave as she passed the carousel with her rolling carry-on suitcase. The bags from our flight were arriving on the first carousel in a line, and people filed by as other flights arrived.

Weirdly tense beside me all of a sudden, Henry nodded to her. Then Anton Orlov rounded the corner, and Henry’s weird tension was dialed up to eleven as Bill always loved to say for some reason.

Anton had seemed about to say something to Hannah, but he skipped a beat as he saw Henry. He snapped his jaw shut, his gaze dropping to the ugly gray floor.

Whoa. What the fuck? Henry had never mentioned having beef with Anton, but his jaw was clenched so hard it was about to snap.

“Hey.” Anton lifted his chin toward us, looking at me.

I put on a smile. “Hey!” I didn’t really know Anton and Hannah, but we’d been at the same competitions before.

Henry disappeared from beside me, and I spun to see him powering back toward the bathroom. Maybe he actually did need to pee? I did, but was holding it since we’d already been in there.

Hannah watched Henry go with a pinched, sad expression as Anton tugged her hand, his gaze anywhere but on Henry. They continued on to get their bags, and I was left wondering what the hell just happened. Manon and Bill were deep in conversation and hadn’t seemed to notice.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think Henry and Anton had a history.

Did I know better? Despite his initial awkwardness, Henry had insisted it wasn’t his first time. Had he and Anton hooked up in the past? I searched my memory for gossip about Anton playing for our team but came up blank. Weren’t Hannah and Anton together off the ice too? Or maybe I assumed they were since so many ice dance and pairs teams dated.

“Theo, isn’t that yours?” Bill asked.

I dodged around the clumps of people waiting and managed to grab my suitcase before it did another lap of the belt. Was I reading too much into it? It didn’t matter if Henry and Anton had hooked up before. Or to be more accurate, it shouldn’t have mattered.

But I found I didn’t like the idea at all. Which was ridiculous! Henry and I were just…whatever. We’d been hanging out, and now we were at the Olympics and we weren’t doing anything but skating.

Besides, he didn’t owe me anything. Whatever had gone down between him and Anton had clearly not ended well. There was nothing to be jealous about. Since when did I do jealousy? I didn’t. It was fine.

Yet I hated the look that had come over Henry’s face when Anton had appeared. The expression had been…

Hunted. That was the word that popped into my head. Henry had a tense, hunted expression, and I didn’t like it one bit. I shot glances to the bathroom, wondering if I should go after him.

Did he want me to follow and find out what was wrong? Maybe I should go. But before I could, he returned, talking to Etienne Allard, the Canadian ice dancer dating his brother. Well, nodding as Etienne talked.

Etienne’s partner, Bree, appeared and gave me an excited hug, and I tried to focus. I said, “Congrats on making the team! You guys crushed it.”

She beamed, tucking her blonde hair behind one ear and clearly trying to be humble. “Anita and Christopher did so well even to compete. If they’d had more time after Anita’s injury…”

“That’s the way it goes,” I said. “Doesn’t change the fact that you and Etienne crushed it.” According to Henry, they really had improved significantly.

As Bree grinned, Etienne and Henry joined us. I gave Etienne a high five before hugging him, willing Henry to look at me and give me some kind of silent message that he was okay.

But Henry stood silently, his coat zipped up and his hands in his pockets. But not in a relaxed way. He was still…off.

Etienne gave me a grin. “I hear you and Henry have been getting along way better than anyone expected.”

I winced internally. Etienne and Henry were rooming together in the Village, and Henry would smother him with a pillow if Etienne wasn’t careful.

Henry didn’t look angry at the insinuation, though. Just incredibly tense. I wanted to massage his shoulders and cuddle and kiss him until he relaxed in my arms.

“No more teasing,” Bree said, pulling on Etienne’s elbow. “We need to get our bags. See you guys later.”

As they left, I stepped closer to Henry, but not too close. “Everything okay?”

Not looking at me, he nodded.

I wanted to huff in frustration and order him to spill it so I could make whatever the problem was better. But I tried to stay casual. “You’re not a big fan of Anton?”