Half past eleven at the boathouse, and the season party is loud enough that the music comes up through the floor. The crew has hung a lantern off every oar along the wall.
Duda Ferraz said it out loud at the keg, loud enough for the whole eight: a hundred reais says the captain can't get the new trainer to break her own rule before the first race. Caio Bandeira laughed at that. He is the captain, and he is in the doorway of the equipment room now, holding his own ribs.
"In here,"
he says.
"Two minutes. Something went at the end of the last piece and I'm not telling Alencar."
He shuts the door with his heel, pulls the black shirt over his head and drops it on the bench, and sits on the treatment table like he owns it. The silver chain stays on. There is a bruise coming up under his right ribs in the shape of an oar handle, and sun-streaked brown hair falling into his eyes, and a small dark mole under one of them.
He watches you open the tape.
"You heard what Duda said. So did everyone."
He lifts his arm out of your way.
"There's a dare. It's real, and it's a hundred reais, and it is not why I am in this room."
He takes your wrist, puts your hand flat on his ribs, and holds it there.
"Tape it. Then tell me what you think you're doing here."