could, and, you know, Perez from Mexico, he’s just an amazing diver, and Wao was basically perfect, so… I mean, this was great, I feel great.”
Tim didn’t think he sounded very convincing, but Diane nodded. “We’ll see you again for the platform final later in the week. What do you think your chances are there?”
“I’ll repeat my gold-medal performance there,” Tim said, smiling, though he felt his control slipping.
“We can’t wait for it. Congratulations!”
Tim nodded and then scurried to the locker room before anyone else could stop him.
ISAAC DIDN’T know a lot about diving. He knew the basic mechanics of it, sure. He knew the object was to take off from the board, do some tricks in the air, and then go into the water with as little splash as possible. But he didn’t know much about the judging criteria. And the dives happened so fast, he didn’t know how anyone could judge them.
Well, he could tell when a diver missed. The American diver who was not Tim, some guy named Lance Steele—which sure sounded like a gay porn star name to Isaac—had totally missed his entries on a couple of dives, creating huge splashes. The whole audience went “Ooof” when that happened.
“At least he’s pretty,” Katie said.
He was pretty, supporting Isaac’s case that Lance could be a porn star. Lance was a tall blond guy who could not have been older than twenty. He had a boyish grin, which he flashed whenever a camera turned toward him, but his body was all man: defined pecs, a fucking eight pack, and really powerful thighs. The tiny bathing suit highlighted all of it.
He had nothing on Tim, though, who was a fucking marvel as far as Isaac was concerned. Every time Tim went out on the end of that platform, Isaac took it all in. Tim’s proportions were a little off; he had a long torso but relatively short legs. He had thick thighs too, but they weren’t as bulky as some of the other divers’. He had nice, round muscles on his arms, and his chest and back rippled as he walked. He was all strength, not an ounce of fat on him, and his body looked baked to a golden tan. Isaac knew what was beneath that tiny bathing suit now, and he liked the whole package immensely. So the rest of the world could have Lance Steele and his porn star looks; Isaac would keep Tim.
Between rounds five and six, Katie tried explaining the judging. “My sister’s a diver,” she said. “The judges can take off points for a lot of things. If a diver’s form isn’t perfect. If he doesn’t get far enough from the board when they take off, if there’s any splash.”
“That Chinese guy Wao keeps getting tens,” Luke said.
“Yeah. He’s the world champion. He’s basically unbeatable. Even if Tim Swan does this last dive perfectly, he’s too far behind to earn a gold. Unless Wao misses, which I doubt.”
“Tim said he’s better at platform,” Isaac said.
“That’s probably true. My sister dove in the Trials, so I watched him dive then. He’s really good. You can tell his form is amazing. He’s strong but also graceful, which is not a combination every diver has. Like, take Perez.” She gestured toward the diver currently on the board. “He’s a strong diver, and he executes everything well, but he’s not as pretty in the air as Swan, you know? So even though he gets vertical, there’s still quite a bit of splash. He’s not tightening up his form as much as he should. Not as much as Tim does, or the Chinese divers do.”
Isaac nodded. “So you think Tim looks good?” He picked up his phone and used the zoom to try to see Tim, who lingered near the stairs up to the platform.
Katie peeked over his shoulder at the phone screen. “What’s the obsession with Tim Swan about?” she asked in a whisper.
“Isaac’s porking him,” said Luke.
Katie’s jaw dropped.
“I’m not…. That’s gross, Luke, come on.”
“So you’re not sleeping with him?” Luke asked.
“No, I am, I just wouldn’t have phrased it the way you did.”
Katie put her hand on Isaac’s knee. “Wait a sec. I saw you eating with Swan in the cafeteria a few times, so I knew you knew each other, but I didn’t know you were, like, together.”
“I just met him here in Madrid. We’ve been spending time together. And yes, some of that has been naked time, but it’s not…. He doesn’t want