The Thomas Flair - E.J. Russell

When I wrote the first draft of The Thomas Flair, the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t even a blip on anyone’s radar because the novel corona virus hadn’t appeared anywhere on the planet. We were all going about business as usual, and (at least in my case) eagerly looking forward to the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Then things changed.

As of this writing, the Tokyo Olympics have been postponed to 2021, but the pandemic isn’t close to being contained. I thought very long and hard about what to do with this book. After several months of waffling, I decided to move forward as if the 2020 Summer Games still happened as planned.

My decision was based partly on the fact that we don’t know what the next year will bring—the 2021 Olympics might be postponed as well. But what ultimately pushed me to publish the book as it stood was hope: hope that we’ll be able to return to a normal world, a better world, and things that give us joy (like the Olympic Games) will once again be part of our lives.

That being said, any sports romance has an element of fantasy about it—fictional teams, fictional athletes, fictional results. In The Thomas Flair, I’ve altered the results of the 2016 Games as well as inventing the outcome of the 2020 Games-that-might-have-been for the purposes of my story. Although I reference some public figures—like the late Kurt Thomas, who invented the move that inspired my title, and Tim Daggett, a member of the 1984 US gold medal men’s team who is a regular commentator at gymnastics meets—the novel’s story and characters are completely fictitious and are not intended to represent any real person.

So… let the Games begin.

It’ll take more than medals to mend their relationship.

Diabetic gymnast and team alternate Sol Ashvili had one thing on his agenda when the 2016 Rio Olympics wrapped up—confess to his teammate and best friend Tony Thomas that he’d been in love with him for years. But Tony took a major deduction in Sol’s heart when he jetted out of Rio and turned his back on an almost-finished college degree, international gymnastics meets… and Sol. The first two Sol could forgive—barely. The last? Not a chance.

Tony’s crowd-pleasing, no-holds-barred, high-octane gymnastics style stole its nickname from a legendary gymnastics move—the Thomas Flair. After the 2016 Games, he vaulted into a career as an internet celebrity, specializing in extreme sports and risky stunts. When Tony decides to battle his way into competition shape to earn a spot on the 2020 Olympic team, he has to survive the most extreme risk of all: facing Sol again.

For the sake of the team and the reputation of US men’s gymnastics, Sol and Tony must leave the past behind and get a grip on working together. And as the Games draw closer, they realize that being more than teammates might be the only way they can truly fly high and stick the landing.

The Thomas Flair is a 64,000-word friends to enemies to lovers second-chance rom-com set around the Tokyo Olympics that might have been, featuring a thrill-seeker who needs reining in, a perfectionist who needs to let go, redemption, rowdy teammates, and a few risky moves that will never make it into the Code of Points.

Rio, 2016

Sol Ashvili lifted onto his toes and craned his neck, searching the crowd in the Rio Olympic Village Plaza, but it was pretty much a lost cause. A gymnast like Sol couldn’t hope to see over a basketball player or around a weightlifter to find another gymnast.

But miraculously the crowd parted for an instant and Sol glimpsed the person he’d been searching for.

Tony Thomas.

In the ambient light from the big screen monitor, Tony’s smile was brilliant white against his brown skin, his signature bleached curls topping his high-top fade like a crown. Tony turned to say something to Luiz Fonseca, one of the Brazilian gymnasts, and when he threw back his head to laugh, exposing the strong column of his throat, Sol’s mouth dried. Beautiful.

Sol downed the last gulp in his water bottle and dropped the empty in the nearest recycling bin.

Tonight. I’m telling him tonight.

The Rio evening was pleasantly warm and a little humid, but Sol shivered anyway, longing for the parka he’d left at home in Colorado.

Yeah, admitting to your best friend that you’ve been in love with him for years was a sure-fire way to spawn terror-induced chills.

Hadn’t he waited long enough, though? He’d been crushing on Tony almost since the day they’d met, before he’d even realized he