Maybe Nice Guys Don't Always Finish Last

“Blake, you are not taking your second run,” Mira said sternly as he looked over his bike.

“Mir, I have to,” he said limping over to her.

“Look at you. You can’t ride.”

“Aren’t you cute?” he said and kissed her forehead as he passed her.

“Blake,” she said unable to hide a smile.

During his first run, Blake wrecked a backflip variation. Mira couldn’t remember exactly what he was doing. All she remembered was seeing him fall. She hated the feeling she got watching him fall to the ground as people rushed over to him. Thankfully, he got up on his own and limped away. He kept complaining about his knee hurting, but yet he was still going to take his second and possibly thrid run. Mira was still trying to talk him out of it. He hopped back on his bike and attempted to kick start it. It didn’t work too well.

“God damn it,” Blake said in frustration and got off the bike.

“Oh would you look at that? Maybe that’s a sign that you shouldn’t ride,” she said with a satisfied smile.

His response was hopping back on his bike. He stared at her as he gave it another try at starting. As it started this time, Blake smirked at her.

“And this is a sign that I need to take my second run,” he said riding over to her.

“I want to be so mad at you right now,” she said as her smile grew.

“But you can’t because you love me,” he said with a teasing smile.

“Just be careful. It scared me seeing you fall,” she said as she hugged him.

Blake smiled as he hugged her back. She looked up at him and he kissed her softly. Just as he was going to respond to her previous statement, the announcer’s voice boomed through the arena for Blake to take his second run. Mira looked at him with a pouty face.

“I’ll come back to you in one piece. I promise,” he said kissing her again.

“You better,” she said teasingly as she handed him his helmet.

Before he made his way to the course he gave Mira his notorious wink. She smiled as she watched him depart. Adam came over all geared up to watch his run with her.

“Do we have a Mrs. Bilko on our hands?” he asked as her gaze was still focused on Blake.

“Not yet,” she said with a smile.

Adam smiled as he shook his head just before Blake dropped in for his second run. Mira couldn’t help but think that his bike sounded funny. Even though she was terrified for him, she still had to cheer her man on. It was his typical flawless run… until his bike stalled. Right when he gassed it for the next jump, his bike stalled as he was going off the ramp. Mira was horrified. She thought that he was going to ditch the bike and fall again. But he held on and was able to save it for the most part. He ended up just sliding out at the bottom. Mira took a deep breath in as he got up.

“That guy is going to be the death of me,” Mira said as she brought her hand up to her head and rubbed it.

“You should have seen him when you crashed. I was more worried for him than you. He was that freaked out,” Adam said as Blake parked his bike.

“Piece of shit,” he said and kicked it in frustration.

“I don’t think banging it up more is going to help it there, hun,” Mira said with a small smile.

“Was Joey coming?” Blake asked as he took his helmet off.

“He should be about here.”

“Do you think he can fix it in like twenty minutes?”

“I don’t know. Joey can work a lot of magic, but I don’t know if he’s capable of this much magic,” Mira said.

“Joey is capable of all types of magic.”

Mira and Blake turned around and saw Joey standing there. Blake was so happy that he could have hugged the guy. They went straight to work on Blake’s bike. During that time Adam took his final run. For the time being, he was in the lead. With his two not so perfect runs, Blake was in eighth out of eight riders. All he had to do was beat Adam’s score of 92.00, which Mira knew he could do… if his bike was working properly.

“Give her a go, Bilko,” Joey said as he finished up.

Blake hopped on the bike and attempted to start it. It didn’t even sound like it wanted to start at all. Mira and Adam watched from the side. Deep down, Mira wanted his bike to work. She knew he was able to win this contest. He looked up at Mira and she gave him an encouraging smile. A small smile formed on his face as he gave it another try. With Joey working all the magic he could, his bike screamed to life. On cue, once again the announcer’s voice boomed through the arena for Blake. He looked up at Mira and motioned for her to come over to him. She went over willingly and he wrapped her arms around his waist. She looked up at him and couldn’t help but smile as she kissed him quickly.

“I got to tell you something before I go out there,” he said softly so only the two of them could hear.

“What’s that?” she said with a small smile on her face.

“That I’m not going to fuck up this run. I’m going to win this. And there’s this other thing…” he trailed off and looked down at the ground. Mira smiled. She thought he was too cute. He finally looked back up at her and went on. “So you know… I… I uh…” he stuttered out. “I love you,” he said as his eyes were locked with hers.

Mira smiled her full smile. She hugged him again and kissed him repeatedly. “I love you too,” she said as they both smiled.

“Now I have a contest to win,” he said as he slide his helmet on.

He winked at Mira again and made his way out onto the course. She wasn’t worried this time for him. He told her that he was going to win and she believed him. Every time he went over a jump, Mira’s smile grew. This was his run. He was going to win just like he said. She was so focused on Blake that she didn’t notice Adam standing beside her.

“Fucking Australians,” he said as Blake landed a 360.

Mira smiled. Adam just realized that he lost… to Blake. After his time was up, he took another lap around the course waving to the fans that were cheering the loudest they had been all day. He finally came back to them. His goggles and helmet were long gone. She smiled again seeing his hair sticking up in every way possible. He got off his bike and ran to her. He picked her up and hugged her tight as he started to spin her in circles. Blake didn’t care if he won the contest or not. All he cared about was having Mira in his arms… finally. He stopped his spinning after a few rotations and Mira looked into his eyes. The look he had made Mira melt. His eyes were sparkling so much and his smile was the biggest she had ever seen. She didn’t need the scores from the judges to know he won. All along she knew she found her nice and definitely didn’t finish last.