Michael Phelps
I smiled down at Valencia, hoping that soon she would be completely mine, forever. I reminded myself that we just had to get through this Olympics and then we were both done. That thought, however, tugged the corners of my smile into a frown. What if Valencia didn’t want to be done yet? She hadn’t been competing for as long as I had and she could have another good four years left in her.
“What is it?” Valencia asked softly, tracing the worry lines that graced my forehead.
“Are you sure that you’re going to be done after this? You could have another successful four more years if you wanted them.” I asked, leaning down so that my forehead touched hers.
“Michael,” She whispered, smiling up at me, “I am done. I could have done happily without even coming to London. I knew you weren’t done and the fact that I couldn’t dance made me want London. That’s why I’m here. I got the opportunity to combine my love for swimming and dancing for these games. All I want after London is to sit around our house with our babies, Stella and Herman. I just want to actually be with you.”
“Good.” I said, smiling down at her. She was always so good at reassuring me. I leaned down to kiss her, but before we could actually get into it, Ryan pounded on the door asking if he could actually be allowed back into his room. Laughing, Valencia and I broke apart and called for him to come in.
“I swear, if you two spend all of your time off holed up in here going at it like rabbits, I’m going to kick you both out of here permanently.” Ryan grumbled.
“Aw, but Ryan! That would just give you a reason to asked Rebecca if she wouldn’t mind you hanging out in our room.” Valencia smirked as Ryan’s face turned scarlet.
“Aw, does little Ry-boo have a cwush?” I laughed in my best baby voice.
“Michael! Valencia!” Bob’s voice called, causing us both to sigh. “You have an interview in twenty minutes, get ready so I can drive you two there.” Bob said, sticking his head into the room. We just nodded, throwing on sweats and a jacket so we at least looked decent.
When we arrived at where we would be interviewed, just outside of the Olympic Village, we were immediately rushed to our seats, side by side. I smiled over at Valencia, knowing that she still got overwhelmed when we got interviewed, especially when we were interviewed together. We were always bombarded with personal questions. She weakly returned the smile, glancing down at her hands.
“Hi! I’m Sally Fisk! I’ll be interviewing both of you today.” A tall blonde woman, who had way too much hair spray in her hair, said, shaking our hands. We politely replied to her greeting, waiting for the questions about our personal lives to be shot at us.
“So, I have a few questions about your goals here in London, and I also have some questions from fans, some of them get personal, so if you don’t want to answer the just say pass and we’ll edit that part out of the segment.” Sally said, we nodded, shocked that we were even given that option.
“So first, Michael, what is your goal for London? You have the chance to break the record for most medals held by one Olympian. Are you going to try and break that? And how have you prepared to do so?”
“Well, I would love to be able to break that record. I’ll have to see if I can do it. Honestly, I’m not as prepared for some events as I’d like to be, I had decided to retire after Beijing and it took me almost two years to figure out that I wasn’t done.”
“I heard that Valencia had something to do with pulling you back into the pool.” Sally said, smiling.
“Yes. I believe she finally snapped because I hadn’t even gotten dressed that day and she had already completed several hours of practice in the pool.” I replied, smiling over at Valencia who laughed in return.
“I knew he wasn’t done, he just didn’t know it yet.” Valencia added, smiling over at me. I grabbed her hand, squeezing it in silent thanks.
“So Valencia, you also have the chance to set a record. You could be the first Olympian to ever medal in two different sports. Swimming and synchronized swimming. Is that your goal?” Sally asked, turning her attention to Valencia.
“Honestly, swimming has always been my passion, so I’m hoping to get a couple of medals there. As for synchronized swimming, it is still very new to me. If Sofia and I medal, we will be very happy. I really joined up with her because I could no longer dance and it was a chance to combine the two things that I am very passionate about one last time before retiring.” Valencia smiled, rubbing the palm of my hand with her thumb.
“Well good luck to both of you with your goals, and I hope you both have a happy retirement. Now I have a few questions from some of your fans. One is ‘I’m a huge fan of Valael, I can’t help but wonder when you two are getting married!’” Sally said, reading off of a card.
“Honestly, we haven’t talked about it. At all.” Valencia said, laughing at our couple name.
“We just wanted to focus on London. We’ve been so busy training that we just want to get through this last Olympics before we can get to such a big step.” I finished, smiling at Sally politely.
“We know that you have two dogs, Stella and Herman, does that mean you’re both dog people?” Sally asked, causing Valencia and I to burst out laughing. We had often argued about which was better, dogs or cats.
“I’m a dog person. Valencia is more of an animal person. She just loves every animal that she can play with.” I started, getting interrupted by Valencia.
“I however am more of a cat person. I grew up with a cat all of my life. Michael and I often argue about which one is better, but I love my babies, Stella and Herman, more than anything.” She laughed.
“Speaking of babies, has there been any talk of kids in the future?” Sally asked, not missing a beat.
Valencia, glanced over at me, before answering, “I’ve always wanted kids, but honestly, that’s something that we haven’t really figured out yet.”
“I want kids someday, but as we’ve said, we just want to focus on London and figure out the rest of our lives once we actually have time to.” I answered, smiling over at Valencia. I remembered the first time I asked her if she ever wanted kids. She had replied saying that she planned on having a ton of kids and that I better love her even while she was pregnant and fat.
The rest of the interview went along much of the same lines; Valencia and I actually relaxed, enjoying an interview for once. When we were finally let go from the interview, we walked hand in hand back to the Village, stopping to kiss often.
