Page 25 of Your Pace or Mine (Running for the Romance #1)

Darius shifted uncomfortably. He was fine with his body and had always cared more about performance than aesthetics, but he didn’t live in a vacuum.

He knew his body type, especially around major races when he was at his leanest, wasn’t exactly the traditional muscular standard of male beauty society prescribed to.

“Thanks,” he replied, the sarcasm lacing his voice. Jamie winced.

“I didn’t mean, I don’t. I like how you look, Darius. I just... I don’t know, meant that you could probably risk a bite of cake.”

Flustered Jamie was cute as hell.

“Thought you weren’t sharing?”

“I’m feeling particularly generous today.”

“Because you like the way I look?” Darius teased.

“Because I like you,” Jamie replied, flushing pink right down to the collar of his shirt.

Darius was suddenly overcome with a need to know how far down that colour extended, but he held back.

Not real , he reminded his frantically beating heart.

No matter how sincere Jamie sounded, he needed to remember that.

“So, what makes this place so special to you?” Darius asked, hooking a foot around Jamie’s under the table. It made him feel like they were two teenagers at a malt shop in an old American film. Jamie didn’t move away.

Jamie shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it’s just been… constant. Whenever things are too much, I come here. There’s no pressure. No expectations.” He looked down at the table.

Darius watched him for a moment, then nodded. That made so much sense. “I get it. I think I could use a place like that.”

Maria arrived with their treats and drinks. Darius did find himself immensely jealous of the mocha cake; he wondered if he’d be able to taste it on Jamie’s tongue if he kissed him. Was he allowed to kiss him now? They were in public, so technically...

“It must be hard,” Jamie said, interrupting Darius’s runaway daydream. “Training for something as massive as the Olympics, I mean. Was that always the plan?”

Darius nodded. “Always. Like, from the day I knew I could handle the long distances, the Olympic marathon was the goal.”

“Why? There’re other races, right? Like prestigious ones. Boston and stuff? Chi’s obsessed with Boston.”

Darius laughed. “They’ll probably qualify for it.”

“God, it would make their whole life to hear you say that, you know.” Jamie shifted so he was trapping Darius’s leg between his knees. “You want more than Boston, though?”

Darius chewed on his bottom lip. “It’s stupid.”

“Oh, I doubt that.”

“One of my best memories with my dad was when the Olympics came to London. Did you see any of it?”

“Nah,” Jamie replied. “I was still up North. London felt really far away back then. Reggie’s family got tickets to a couple of football matches in Coventry, but I don’t think my parents even tried for the ballot.”

“We were at so many of the events, I guess I thought it was normal at the time to have that level of access. Or maybe I wasn’t thinking about it at all.

It was just a chance to spend a day with my father, away from the house where my parents were constantly fighting.

I didn’t stop to consider whether it was normal to sit in a box with Prince Harry watching the athletics or not. ”

“I’m sorry, back up to how you know Prince Harry. Can you introduce me?” Jamie winked.

Darius glared. “He is straight, married, and you are in a relationship .”

Jamie smiled coquettishly at him. “I am, am I?” He pressed his knee against Darius’s harder under the table, and Darius met his eyes. Nobody could see that; the contact was just for them.

“So, is that what inspired you then? A day out with the royals?” Darius rolled his eyes. He did know how ridiculous it was, but at the time, all he had been thinking was that he got to spend a day out of the house with his father.

“It was incredible, but not because of them. I remember sitting there with my father, watching his eyes light up as athletes, who looked more like him than anyone else in our box, took the podium. And I remember him telling me that if I worked hard, I could be there one day too. So I did. I trained until I couldn’t breathe, started winning local races, then regional ones.

For once, he was proud of me. Maybe I wasn’t the son he wanted in every other way, but this I could do.

I could go all the way to the Olympics.”

“Darius, that’s...”

Jamie looked sad, and that wasn’t at all what Darius wanted.

“Obviously, by the time I was a teenager, a lot had changed. I wasn’t trying to get my father’s approval so much as just survive boarding school, but the Olympics goal sort of stuck.

And now it just feels like… like the thing I have to do, it’s the biggest international stage, the only time the rest of the world pays any attention to niche sports, and no matter how many people run marathons these days, the elite field is still pretty niche.

We don’t exactly rival football for media coverage. ”

“Yeah, that’s fair. I don’t think I could name a single runner other than Mo Farah before I met you.”

“Exactly, and I’m willing to bet you first heard of him because of the Olympics.”

Jamie nodded. “I suppose.”

“How about you? Dance must be similar, right? Competitive, demanding, no guarantee of success, no matter how hard you train. So you work yourself to the bone, and then some dickhead with a chip on his shoulder gets to decide it wasn’t enough.”

Jamie reached across the table and took Darius’s hand, tracing patterns on his palm. “It is, similar, I mean. Talent alone is never enough.”

There was a shift in Jamie’s posture, as though he was uncomfortable with the turn their conversation had taken. Darius hadn’t meant to bring down the mood, but thinking about Anders and his Olympic chances always did that for him lately.

Jamie rallied and fixed Darius with a teasing grin as he took another bite of cake. “Okay, serious talk,” Jamie said, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “What was the most embarrassing moment you’ve had during a competition?” he asked.

Darius groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. “You’re relentless.”

“Come on,” Jamie urged, leaning forward. “It can’t be worse than spinning the wrong direction at press night and knocking down three fake trees, you should’ve seen the reviews— Timber! A Spin-tacular Fiasco comes to the West End. ”

Darius laughed, shaking his head. “You’re having me on!”

“No, I swear, I cut out the headline and stuck it on my wall with blue tack,” Jamie laughed easily in reply.

Darius’s laughter turned unmistakably fond. “Of course you did,” he conceded. “Fine. Nationals, a couple of years ago. I was warming up, and my shorts split right down the middle. Didn’t notice until I was halfway through stretching. The entire team saw, probably most of the spectators as well.”

Jamie laughed. “That’s amazing. Please tell me there’s photographic evidence.”

“There isn’t,” Darius said, his mock-serious tone earning another bout of laughter from Jamie. “And if there were, I’d burn it.”

From there, conversation naturally stuck to lighter topics, though Darius couldn’t help but notice the light hadn’t completely returned to Jamie’s eyes.

Darius’s phone started to buzz on the table. He ignored it the first time, but it was incessant.

Jamie glared at it. “Someone’s popular,” he groused.

“I should…” Darius started.

Jamie nodded tightly. “Yeah, don’t keep them waiting.”

He shot an apologetic look at Jamie and slid out of the booth to take the call outside. It was his father. Again.

“Darius, I have been trying to get hold of you all day,” his father said as soon as he answered.

Darius swallowed. “Apologies, Father. I’ve been training.”

“You’ve been up to plenty other than training. I’ve seen the articles, Darius. A warning would have been appreciated; I could have put my press team on this.”

Darius tried to get a word in, but his father was nowhere near done.

“And what do you even know about this man? Where is he from? Who are his parents? Have you made sure…”

“Father, Stop. Please,” Darius interrupted. “Jamie is one of the best people I’ve ever met. I understand that you’re concerned, and I’m sorry about the papers, but it was unavoidable.”

“What if this affects your chances for the Olympics?”

“I don’t think my chances could get much worse at this point.”

“You need to run London, Darius. A strong win is the only thing that will sway the committee now.”

“I don’t think that’s true. I know what I’m doing, we have a plan.”

“Darius, please take this seriously.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Darius saw Jamie exit the tea shop and peer over at him, eyebrow arched in askance.

Darius sighed. “I have to go. I am taking this seriously. I’m serious about him, and there’s no taking this back, anyway.”

He hung up and sagged against the wall. Jamie was over in a flash. “Are you okay? I’m sorry, I thought… Well, it doesn’t matter, but… God, I haven’t even checked if you’re feeling okay after the articles. I’m the worst fake boyfriend ever.”

“I’m fine, Jamie. Just, my father is worried about me. Or at least, he’s worried about my career.”

“Why?” Jamie asked. “Your career hit a setback, fine, but you’re dealing with it, and you’re like so together. Like a proper grown-up. What could he possibly have to worry about?”

Darius scoffed. Was that really how Jamie saw him?

“I have two friends, total. Haven’t been in a relationship since uni, and I let my father dictate everything about my life; from the house I live in, to my coach, the races I take on, and the sponsorships I accept.

So, I don’t know if I’d really qualify for the proper grown-up category. Certainly not a very impressive one.”

“Darius, you’re still very impressive,” Jamie argued.

“Trust me.” He leaned forward and kissed him.

It was soft and slow, a complete contrast to the frantic clash of tongues in the clubhouse a few days before or the soft kiss they’d shared at Haven.

Darius could taste the mocha cake on Jamie’s tongue as he responded, melting into the kiss as he slid his arms around Jamie’s waist.

When they broke apart, Jamie rested his forehead against Darius’s.

“I had Maria box up the rest of the cake and your sad little flapjack.”

“Hey, that is the best flapjack I’ve ever eaten.”

Jamie pulled his head back, and Darius mourned the loss of connection for a moment. “We should plan more, but well, at the risk of really putting you off—we’ve been talking so long I think my sweat’s started to crystallise, and if I don’t shower soon I’ll be scratching like a stray dog.”

Darius nodded, resigned to a long trip home alone but reluctant to leave Jamie just as he felt a real connection sparking.

“My place is just down the street, we could head back there, I could have a quick rinse and then, if you have time, maybe plan our next move?” Jamie continued.

“Yeah,” Darius breathed, squeezing Jamie’s hip where his left hand had fallen to rest. “I’d like that.”

They walked in quiet, companionable silence, Jamie leading Darius through the unfamiliar streets. Darius kept his arm wrapped around Jamie’s waist, his focus narrowed on that single point of contact that felt like an anchor, holding him steady in the whirlwind of the past few days.

Still, in the back of his mind, there was the nagging reminder that this was nothing more than a charade.

Jamie caught his eye, noticing the shift in his mood. “You good?” he asked, his voice soft.

Darius smiled, a little more genuinely now. “Yeah. I’m fine.” He took a deep breath, feeling lighter than he had in a while. “Thanks for today. It… I loved every minute.”

It was true. Spending time with Jamie, one-on-one like this with no buffer, had been a daunting but enticing prospect. Just as he had at the centre, though, Darius felt at ease in his company.

Jamie nodded; his smile was easy, unforced. “I’m glad, I, I loved it too.”