Another glance at the screen at the front of the pool made my heart skip when I recognized that I had.
I’d won gold.
At the Olympics.
At the fucking Olympics.
I was a champion.
More importantly, I was a record breaker. Olympic and world. The little ‘OR’ and ‘WR’ beside my name and time proved that.
My heart, already beating thanks to the exertion from the race, took another battering.
To calm myself, I dunked my head under the water. It cosseted me like always. The satinesque texture slipping over me, sliding over my face, my latex-covered hair, centering me in a way that nothing else could.
In my lane, there were torrents from other swimmers, waves that buffeted me, further calming me down, and when the officials declared the race over, when I broke the surface once more, I did so explosively. Leaping up and clambering over the side until I was sitting there, my feet still in the water as the craziness of the moment sent me soaring.
A wide grin split my face in two as I tugged off my goggles and cap. The latex pulled at my hair, but it was a familiar pain, and it kept me grounded as the moment was captured on camera. Ignoring the fact that I was being watched by tens of millions of people, I looked through the crowds, searching for that one face, the one connection that could center me as quickly as the water did.
I hadn’t looked for him before. I couldn’t. Every athlete had a pre-game/race ritual, and mine was to listen to the soothing sounds of the rain through my AirPods before I slipped out of my training gear and did a few stretches.
I always ignored the crowd because they made me feel frantic. People always did. They came with expectations and moods, had needs and desires that wanted fulfilling, and required conversation and energy.
So I ignored them.
I focused on the water, on me slicing through it, and that was it.
It took me a few seconds to find him, but when I did, the link arced between us as it always did. He wasn’t smiling, but I saw the fierceness in his gaze, watched the explosive nature of his applause, and sensed his pride in me.
That pride was hard won, but I’d earned it. Achieved it as much as I had the medal they’d be stringing around my neck soon.
Someone slapped me on the back, and I jolted, the connection shattering into a million pieces as I peered up at the person congratulating me.
“Lori,” I breathed. “I did it!” Lori was my friend, had been since I’d started at Stanford. She was a year older than me, but somehow, in maturity, I was about a decade older.
“Well done,” she praised, crouching down at my side. “You totally fucking did it.” She slipped an arm around me, hugging me with one arm. “Did you see your time?” She whistled as she squeezed me. “22.07, babe. You whooped the shit out of the last record. The last men’s record.”
I grinned at her, exultation flowing through me. “Fuck.”
“That about sums it up.” Another squeeze. “You’re in the record books for sure.” She laughed a little. “I should have known you’d do it.” This time, she shoved me. “And I get to watch you snore at night. I’m so honored.”
“You going to sell the story to the papers?” I teased, my lips twitching at her fooling around.
“Oh, you bet. I have to make money somehow.”
That brought things back down to Earth. “How did you do?” I asked, concern lacing the question.
Her nose wrinkled. “I didn’t break a record, but did well enough to stay on the team.”
Lori’s place wasn’t as secure as mine on the U.S. Swim Team. “Came in fourth.” Her face puckered on the whole, making me want to smile because she looked like she’d been sucking on lemons.
“That’s damn good,” I argued, but we both knew that the swim team was a competitive place.
This entire world we inhabited was.
“It is, but not good enough.” She shrugged. “It’s cool. I never imagined I’d get to the Olympics, so to make it through to the final heat? I’m damn proud of myself.”
“As you should be.”
Her lips curved. “Loyal to the last.”
“Always,” I agreed, and when she curled our hands together, hauling me up at the same time as she stood, I clasped her in a tight embrace. “You okay?”
I knew her boyfriend had dumped her before the Games. He’d said she was too focused on