Chapter 4: Pass

Dex stood up and came down the bleachers with both coffees.

"Hey," he said, like it was a normal Monday. "I thought you'd want this. Extra hot."

Twenty referees stopped stretching to watch.

"Put it down," I said.

"Meg, come on. I came to support you."

"You came with him."

The agent didn't look up from his phone.

He just raised two fingers in a little wave.

Cody walked over with his clipboard and stood next to me.

He didn't say anything.

He didn't have to.

He was four inches taller than Dex and he had the face of a man about to give a detention.

"Mr. Lovell," he said. "Spectators stay in the stands."

Dex laughed.

"You know who I am, right?"

"I know who everybody is," Cody said. "Stands."

Dex looked at me.

I looked at the start line.

He went back up to the third row and set my latte on the bench beside him, where I could see it.

The sprints were first.

Six times forty meters, a referee every lane, the assessors at the finish with their watches.

Junie had moved to the end of the front row, as close to the finish as she could get.

She had her stopwatch up.

The whistle went.

I ran.

"Six point one," the assessor said.

On the bleachers Junie punched the air.

Between the second and third sprint, Dex came down to the rail.

"Meg. Two minutes. Please."

"I'm working."

"I talked to Courtney. It's not what it looked like. She's a friend. She's helping with my image."

I walked back to the start.

"Six point zero," the assessor said.

Between the fourth and fifth he was at the rail again.

"You can't just walk out on five years over one dinner."

"It wasn't one dinner. It was one letter."

"I said I was sorry."

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