Here Comes the Flood - Kate McMurray Page 0,115
commentators were probably saying about all this.
Jason had returned as his synchro partner once again. His diving had improved immensely in the past four years, and now he was a seasoned pro instead of a wide-eyed newbie, which was probably why he did not look amused by the delay.
“It will be a few more minutes,” said an official in a clipped, accented English. “If you need to go back to warm up, please do.”
Tim sighed and walked back to the showers, signaling for Jason to do the same. As he dipped under the spray, he thought about the network filling the time. Probably with clips from Tim’s victory in Madrid. Tim was a long shot for the platform medals this time around—the competition was too intense, his diving hadn’t been as strong the past couple of seasons, and some of these divers were doing dives Tim couldn’t even conceive of making his body perform. But he still had a shot if he dived cleanly and consistently, and he intended to take it.
The network cameras would also probably pan over the stands. They’d find Jason’s family, and Tim’s. They’d zoom in on Tim’s parents first, and then they’d pan to Tim’s husband, Isaac, and remember how Isaac won all those swimming medals at the last Olympics and how shocked, shocked they all were when it turned out he was dating Tim Swan. And now they were married.
Old news, Tim wanted to tell them. Tim’s wedding ring was tucked into a protective pocket of his gym bag because he was paranoid about losing it in the pool when he dove, but that ring was two years old. Tim and Isaac had sat through a half-dozen interviews in the weeks leading up to this Olympics. Tim had just wanted to talk about diving, and Isaac had opinions about the prospects of USA Swimming—one of the girls he coached at Colorado had turned out to be something of a swimming phenom and was a favorite to dominate the middle-distance races—but all anyone wanted to ask them about was their relationship.
Yes, Tim would say, they met at the last Olympics. They fell in love there. The press photos of them kissing in the rain during the Closing Ceremony weren’t staged; the act had been spontaneous. And yes, now they were married. It was all so very cute and wholesome.
Isaac had stuck it out through one more year of competition, mostly to put some money from his sponsorship and endorsement deals in the bank. He’d gotten another Wheaties box and a pretty lucrative deal with Speedo that could have paid for him to live a comfortable life for many years to come. But Isaac didn’t like idle time, so after he’d retired and moved into Tim’s house for good, he’d taken that coaching job at Colorado and seemed to genuinely love it. He still flew back to Raleigh every few months to see his family, but he seemed happy up in the mountains. He said the setting suited him better.
Isaac wasn’t on the official Team USA coaching staff, but as the coach of one of its stars, he had some privileges and had been spending a lot of time by the pool. Still, Isaac kept swearing to Tim that he was really here to support him more than anything else. He wasn’t allowed in the athletes’ dorms, though, so Tim had to settle for nightly phone calls, something that annoyed his roommate, Jason.
Well, whatever. Tim would cope. He could limit his spousal visits to dinners at the America House like everybody else. How was that for equality?
“Okay, we’re ready,” the official said.
Jason and Tim toweled off again and got ready to climb the dive tower. “You ready?” Tim asked.
“Are you?”
Tim rolled his eyes. He gave Jason a fist bump; then they climbed the tower. When they got to the top, Tim sought out his family. They were all sitting in the second row wearing matching Team Swan T-shirts, which Isaac hated but gamely went along with. They were bright yellow at Tim’s mother’s insistence, which made them all easy to find.
Tim reflected that it didn’t matter if he did well today. He planned to retire after this Olympics and had a job waiting for him at the newly opened USOC Aquatics Training Center in Boulder. He and Isaac had been talking about adopting a baby in the near future, something Tim was ready for now that his diving career was waning. He liked the idea of Isaac as a father immensely and knew Isaac would excel at it, even if Isaac himself had doubts. They had their house and their life together in the mountains outside of Boulder and Tim had never been happier, so what happened here was immaterial. If he won, great, but if he didn’t, that was okay too. He’d put his all into this, although age and a back injury the previous season meant he didn’t dive as well as he once did. He and Isaac joked about Tim needing to win a medal in order to have spousal privileges with Isaac, but Tim knew it didn’t really matter to Isaac as long as Tim went out there and put everything he had on the platform.
Tim glanced at Jason. They walked to the edge of the platform. Their first dive was the lowest in difficulty, a way to ease into competition. Tim took a moment to push his thoughts aside in favor of mentally picturing the dive and how it needed to go. He got into position and, as agreed, would count the lead-up to the dive.
Jason nodded, so Tim counted.
“One, two, three, go!”