“Didn’t I tell you to go home?” Tim asked, pushing past him.
“Can we talk? Somewhere less public? Like your room maybe?”
“No.” Fury rose up in Tim’s belly. How dare Pat be here like this? How dare he interrupt whatever was growing between him and Isaac? How could Pat be so presumptuous as to think Tim would just dump everything to be back with him? “First of all, only athletes are allowed in the dorms. Second, I have nothing to say to you.”
“I’ve changed, Timmy. I made a terrible mistake. I never should have treated you the way I did, and I’m here to make up for that now.”
“Your timing is terrible. I’m due at the gym. Because, you know, I’m here to compete and fulfill a lifelong ambition, not to sort through my old dirty laundry.”
“Timmy.”
“Fuck off, Pat. I have things to do.”
“I flew all the way here for you. Doesn’t that mean something?”
What would it take to make Pat go away?
Well, if he wanted to talk, they could talk, but not here, not with the media setting up to film the next competition, and not with so many onlookers. Tim kept walking, Pat on his heels, toward the athlete exit. A bus idled outside. Tim started to calculate whether they could have it out on the back of an empty bus if the driver didn’t speak English, but then Pat said, “I rented a car. You want a ride back to the Athlete Village, at least?”
He didn’t, but at least the car was a place they could argue out of the public eye. “Yeah, all right.”
Luke Rogers, of all people, strolled out of the Aquatics Center then. “Hey, Tim,” he said.
“Hi, Luke. You just missed Isaac.”
“I know. He told me he had to go do some big interview. We both got called here for drug testing, which is dumb now that the competition is over. Whatever, nature of the beast.” Luke glared at Pat.
Pat stepped forward and thrust his hand out aggressively. “I’m Patterson Wood.” His tone indicated that Luke should have understood who Pat was.
Luke just stared at his hand.
Pat withdrew it and threw it around Tim instead. “I’m Tim’s boyfriend.”
Tim ducked out from under the arm. “Ex-boyfriend.”
“And hopefully boyfriend again. I’m here to win him back. We’re gonna go talk now, sort things out, you know?”
Luke tilted his head. “You okay, Tim? Need me to rough this guy up a little?”
Tim laughed, trying to sound lighter than he felt. “No, that’s all right. Pat offered me a ride to the gym, so we’re gonna talk, and then he’s going back home like I told him to.”
Pat shrugged.
Luke stepped toward the bus. “All right. See you later.”
“Who was that?” Pat asked as they walked toward the car.
“A gold-medal-winning swimmer. And a friend. Not that it’s any of your business.”
Pat led Tim to a car, a fairly nondescript black sedan. Tim tossed his bag into the back seat and got into the passenger seat. God, what a mess.
After Pat slid into the driver’s seat and was about to put the key in the ignition, Tim said, “What the hell are you doing here, Pat?”
“There’s no pleasing you, is there? You spent so much time during our relationship moping about how I never came to meets, so I finally came to one and then you were mad I brought the press. So I came without the press this time.”
Tim took a deep breath, determined to make this as clear as possible. “Patterson. Hear me, okay? I don’t love you anymore. You spent all those years of our relationship treating me more like a prop than a boyfriend. You didn’t love me, you loved what I could get you. And you stole money from me. Explain to me why I would ever want to get back together with you.”
“It’s different now. Okay? It’s different. Yeah, I did those things, but I realized how wrong I was to let you go. I love you, Timmy. I really do. And I want for us to be together. No pretenses this time. Just you and me and love. I’ll move to Colorado if you want. I’ll still have to travel back to LA, of course, but I’m also in talks to be a lead on a TV show that will be filming in Vancouver. I know you hate LA, but Vancouver is pretty.”
“Pat….”
“You’re mad and I deserve that, but our time apart has made me realize how wrong I was.”