Dive

Ten

There are many things I should be doing on a Saturday at six o'clock.

I should be doing homework, for starters. School's been in session for a few weeks now, and I've devoted about as much time to my studies as usual, which isn't a lot, but this is my second senior year; no matter what happens, this will be my last year at college. It sort of feels like I should be putting in an extra effort, actually graduating with an acceptable GPA, and yet I have barely opened a textbook yet.

Or I should be visiting Ollie. Although I just saw him before afternoon swim practice, I could still have taken him to the skate park, giving Antonella a chance to catch up on all the realtor stuff. But the idea of her moving quicker makes it feel like a boulder placed itself on my chest, and assisting her in it would just be outright dumb of me.

Or I should be spending time with my team. Training or doing captain duties or something... Our first week as a Medley team concluded after practice about an hour ago, and it's been sort of... good. Yeah, it's awkward as fuck suddenly having two other guys talking to me while I change, instead of just Davis. And we're still trying to figure out how to balance medley team practice with regular team practice. But despite that, we're good. This might just work.

So yeah, there are plenty of things I could do right now. The last thing I should be doing is standing in front of the Michigan Lakefront hotel. However, that's exactly where I am.

It's been a week since I went here with the guys and ran into Sophie. A week with no way to get in touch with her, and way too long days of swimming and classes and dryland and whatnot that I've barely had time to think about her.

But Sunday is rest day. It's something Matthews has always been adamant about. We push ourselves like our lives depend on it - which for some of us it kind of does - for six days straight, and then, on the seventh day, we rest.

Like God or something.

So I have a little over twenty-four hours of beautiful time to relax, and what better way to do that than seek out Sophie Brooks.

What's the worst that can happen?

I step through the doors into the somewhat pretentious hotel - I mean, do they need chandeliers in the lobby? I think not - and find just the woman I was looking for sitting behind the front desk.

She's relaxed back in a comfy-looking chair, her gaze fixed downwards, and when I get closer, I recognize that she's doing sudoku. Who the hell relaxes with math?

I tap two fingers against the desktop lightly, and her eyes flicker up to mine. It's wild how fast her body language changes. Her face goes from impassive to surprised to smug in seconds, and she sits up straight in her chair before leaning forward a bit, throwing the sudoku aside.

"Hi," I say, scratching my neck. Why didn't I prepare what to say?

"Jayden." She licks her lips slowly, too slowly for my liking when you take into consideration that we're in public. "What are you doing here?"