A Swimmer's Love

Sweet and Sour Secrets

I quickly turned to Joao and exclaimed "YOU'RE JOAO SANTOS!"

A silence fell across the room as Laura, Natalie and Ryan all turned to stare at Joao.

"Yeah..." Joao chuckled nervously "and you're Michael Phelps. You're the more famous one here"

"No no no, I mean...I was saying to Laura that I recognised you from somewhere... " I went on to explain myself before being interupted by Ryan.

"Is he the Joao Santos? You know, silver medal trampolinist from Portugal that we met four years ago?"

Laura and Natalie looked at each other in complete confusion. Surely he must have told them at some point, why would he hide such a big thing from his two best friends. I feel like I've just revealed some sweet and sour secrets that Joao didn't want me to share with them just yet.

"Yes" he sighed, turning to Laura and Natalie. "Four years ago in Beijing, I represented Portugal at the Olympics"

"Oh...my...goodness" the two girls exclaimed, falling back down onto the sofa in shock.

"In trampolining, where I achieved a silver medal" Joao said.

"So THAT'S what the silver thing on your bedroom door is" Natalie jumped up excitedly.

Joao sounded confused "Yeah, what did you think it was? Some chocolate medal souvenier that I never bothered to eat?"

"No..." Natalie shyed away nervously as she snuggled up to Ryan

>Laura's POV<

Listening to Joao talk about competing at the Olympics in 2008 and his silver medal success, one question kept coming back to me; why didn't he tell Natalie and I sooner? Did he think that we'd be ashamed because he only won silver? Did he think that he'd be too cool to be seen with us common folk? I just didn't understand why he'd want to hide it from us.

"Why didn't you tell us?" I asked. "I thought we were friends?"

"And we still are, Lozz..." Joao smiled at me reassuringly. "It's just...well...I'm here now."

"Yeah, why is that?" Michael asked. "I mean surely, after your silver medal success, you'd be wanting to train for London...and yet you're not competing this year"

"Yeah... about that." Joao nervously chuckled. "Since the Olympics, I've been travelling the world a lot and decided to move to London. And I didn't really want to represent Team GB after winning silver for Portugal, so I said to my coach that I would not compete in London 2012, but will continue my training so I'll be gold medal ready for Rio 2016"

I suppose it made sense, but I never did get a solid answer to my question. I suppose he'll tell us with time.

"Oh my..." I exclaimed as I looked at the clock. "It's getting late, I suppose you should head back to the Olympic Village"

"Awwww" Ryan sulked "Can't we stay just a little bit longer?"

"No Ry, Laura's got a point. We both have races to train for." Michael pointed out as he tried to separate his best friend from mine.

" Well, we all know that you get lost very easily Phelpsy" Ryan joked as he playfully punched his friend in the arm. "Hey maybe Laura can drive us back"

"Could you?" Michael squealed with excitement. How could I resist that gorgeous face. As he took my hand into his, he smiled and said "You know I don't want this night to end, but we know it has to"

"OK, OK, I'll take you guys back" I smiled.

"Can we come too?" Natalie and Joao said in unison.

I heaved a heavy sigh "Sure, why not. And Natalie, next time we have Ryan here...make sure any NSFW activity is done in your apartment"

"YOU live here too?" Ryan exclaimed to Natalie.

Natalie smiled "Yeah, did you not notice the US flag with a blue balcony just below Laura's apartment and just above Joao's?"

"Seriously, dude" Ryan said to Michael "I LOVE this block of apartments"

"Which you only found out existed a few hours ago" Michael laughed as the five of us headed down the garage.

Arriving at the secure underground car park, we all got into my purple Nissan Serena. I know, I probably don't need an 8 seater car, but it was a birthday present from my parents when I got my teaching job and having a big car has come in handy for school trips and for taking my friends and family away somewhere. As we pulled out of the car park and into the bright lights that illuminated the London night sky, we began our long drive back to the Olympic Village.

Not liking the awkward silence that occured, Michael was the first to chime in with some conversation.

"Ryan, please tell me for the love of all that is good and holy that you wore protection" he asked Ryan.

"Protection from what?" Ryan asked, a vacant expression fell across his face. "It's not like Natalie was going to attack me"

"DID YOU USE A CONDOM?!?" Michael exclaimed. Luckily enough, nobody could hear that outburst except for us.

"Oh no, I knew there was something" Ryan exclaimed.

"That's OK Ryan, as long as Natalie remembered to take her pill this morning, you should be fine" I smiled reassuringly before hearing a sudden 'Ooops' from Natalie.

"Yeah, I kind of just forgot about it this morning" Natalie shyly said. I'll be keeping my eye on her over the next few weeks, just in case she might be pregnant.

Pulling up to the gate of the Olympic Village was quite nervewracking as I knew that my Games Maker accreditation only allowed me to go to certain places and the Village was most likely not one of those places, so to avoid getting into trouble, I just parked at the gate while Michael and Ryan exited the car.

>Michael's POV<

I didn't want tonight to end. I had the most amazing time with the woman I fell in love with, and was surprised to hear that she'd felt the same about me. I wanted to see her again, and again and again for as long as I could while I'm here.

I turned back to her car and said "Thanks for an amazing evening" as I kissed her hand.

"Anytime" she smiled and blushed. She looks so adorable when she's shy.

I suddenly had an idea; "Hey, tomorrow's my final race. How about you come up to the Aquatics Centre and meet the rest of my family while you're up there"

"I'd like that" she smiled.

As we leaned in for one final kiss, Ryan ran back to the car and honked the horn to get us to stop. He sure does know how to ruin a perfect moment.

"I'll see you tomorrow night" I smiled as I ran back to the Olympic Village and watched her car drive away into the moonlight