Isaac’s chest. “And you care about me genuinely, just as I care about you. Somehow I just know that. Probably we weren’t destined to be together or anything like that, and I’m sure once the bubble of the Olympics pops, we’ll have problems and arguments and, I don’t know, couple stuff. But I also think we’ll have something really great together.”
Isaac closed his eyes and tilted his head away. He brought a hand up to his mouth. He looked back at Tim and said, “You’ll help me.”
“And not because you depend on me, but because I want to, because I care about you, and because I know that even if you are an alcoholic, and even though I know vodka and beer call to you, I also know that you want so much more from life than that. You didn’t even sip that beer. I know you want to be sober, to live your life the way you swim. Right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s true.” Isaac swallowed. “God, how you get me. You see right through me.”
Tim was on a roll now, convinced more than anything that this was right, that this would be good. He knew they’d struggle. He knew putting up with post-Olympics media attention would be the worst. But he also knew that he and Isaac could weather the storm. His gut told him that it would be worth it in the long run. “You’ve said a dozen times since I’ve met you that the key to being an elite athlete is pushing your body to its limit, and I think that’s how you approach life. You partied like there was no tomorrow, then you drank like it, and now you live like it. You pushed yourself to do the impossible last week, and you did it, you pulled it off. That’s how I know we’ll be okay, even if you’re an alcoholic. Because you, Isaac, can do anything.”
Isaac nodded slowly. “That’s not true, but I’ll go along with it. You’re pretty fucking amazing too, by the way.”
“Well.”
Isaac lifted his hand and smoothed the fringe of Tim’s short hair away from his forehead. “I know that I’m a better man than your ex, for the record, but I’m glad you can see that too. And I’m glad that today, you have no regrets, that you got up on that ridiculously tall platform and made your body do things no human body should do, and that you were rewarded for it. I don’t have the words to express how great you are. How sweet and smart and talented.”
Tim flushed and ducked his head, feeling suddenly bashful in the face of all this praise.
But Isaac put his hand on the side of Tim’s face and moved him until Tim was looking right at Isaac’s eyes again.
“I don’t believe in destiny,” Isaac said. “I think you make your own way in the world. I don’t really understand all the science behind alcoholism, but part of it is probably genetic, and I suppose you could argue I was destined to have a problem with booze. But I can choose being sober over being drunk now. And I am so glad I did, because it meant that I met you.”
Tears stung Tim’s eyes. He leaned down and kissed Isaac.
This man.
If Tim had been given free rein to choose his mate, he wasn’t sure Isaac would have been the man he’d pick, but now that he’d gotten to know Isaac, he couldn’t imagine being with anyone else.
“The media attention is going to suck,” Tim said.
“Fuck ’em.”
“Eh. It’ll be worth it.”
Chapter 26
Day 16
THE USOC had furnished everyone with official Closing Ceremony outfits. Isaac’s Opening Ceremony uniform still hung in the plastic he’d received it in, but he looked at the Closing Ceremony uniform—a crisp navy blue collared shirt to be worn over a red-and-white-striped T-shirt and tucked into white shorts—and shrugged, figuring it could be worse.
As he slid the official belt through its loops on the shorts, there was a knock at the door, so he hollered for the knocker to come in.
It was Tim. He wore the same outfit, except his shirt was red and his undershirt had blue-and-white stripes.
As they walked down the hall together, Isaac said, “Not for nothing, but I feel like we’re one of those tourist couples who wear matching outfits.”
“Well, it’s you, me, and several hundred other American athletes stuck in this getup.”
Indeed, as they reached the lobby, they got pulled into a mob of other athletes looking to board