Going for Gold (2 page)

"Right, okay. Be right in," I said.

With my eyes still glued to the screen, I got up and made my
way towards the locker room.

"Alright, it's time to see if Chris Hamilton can do it
again. If he can match his time from yesterday, he'll almost certainly come
away with the gold," said the announcer as the swimmers all got on the
blocks.

A voice on the PA said, "On your marks," and then
the buzzer sounded and the swimmers were off. The screen zoomed out to show all
the swimmers. Chris had gotten off to a decent start. He was maybe one arm's
length behind Claude.
Not a big deal. He always finishes strong.

I pushed through the locker room door as the swimmers hit
their first and only turn. Chris had caught Claude and looked to be a few
fingertips in front of him.

"You got this," I whispered.

Chris was two strokes away from the wall when I walked
directly into someone. My phone flew out of my hands and crashed to the locker
room floor.

"Whoa!" yelled a guy. "What are you doing in
here?!"

I looked up for the first time since the race had started.
The guy in front of me had his hand on his junk and was scrambling to put his
towel back on. My mouth dropped as my eyes landed on his chiseled abs. His
chestnut hair was shaggy and stopped right above his baby blue eyes.
His
bewildered baby blue eyes.
Oh my God.
I had wandered into the men's
locker room.
And I'm staring at a naked man that's not Chris!

All I could think to do was scream and run away.

Saturday

Alina

"Did he win?" asked Kristen as I sat down next to
her at our lockers. "And why is your face so red?"

I shrugged and tried to play it cool. "I dunno."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Don't worry about it. Hey, can I borrow your phone for
a second?" I had accidently left my phone on the floor of the men's locker
room, but I couldn't tell her that.
God, why do I always have to do the most
embarrassing stuff?

"What do you need my phone for? I already put it in my
locker."

"Mine uh...stopped working."

"So you didn't see if he won or not?"

"Nope. I was just sitting on the bench when you told me
I should hurry. When I looked back down, the screen had gone black. I tried
turning it off and on again, but nothing happened. I even tried to take the
battery out. I'll tell you, those iPhones just aren't made the way they used to
be."

"Okay, you can use my phone. If you tell me what really
happened to yours."

"What do you mean? I already told you."
Shit!
How does she know I'm lying?

Kristen raised an eyebrow at me. "Oh come on, you always
ramble when you lie. And you can't take the battery out of an iPhone."

"Damn it, fine. I accidentally went into the men's
locker room while I was watching the race and I bumped into this guy in a
towel. Then I screamed and ran out."

Kristen started laughing hysterically. "Oh my God, are
you serious?"

"Yes."

"So you missed your boyfriend's race because you were in
the men's locker room?"

"Yes."

"What did the guy do when you bumped into him?"

"He screamed and covered himself. He was as surprised as
I was."

"So you knocked his towel off? Did you see his
junk?"

Blood rushed to my cheeks as I thought back to the incident.
All I remembered was that his abs were amazing. "Not really. I was too
busy being shocked that I had wandered into the wrong locker room."

"Did you recognize him? You might have just seen a
famous athlete naked! Was it LeBron James? Please tell me it was LeBron."

"Can we please talk about this later? I really need to
see if Chris won his race."

Kristen started to open her locker, but just then Coach
Hammond poked her head into the locker room and blew her whistle. Practice
time.

***

It was impossible to focus during practice. Not only did I
not know if Chris had won his race, but I was on edge the whole time hoping
that the guy I had bumped into wouldn't show up at the gym. I would have to run
away from practice if he did. I couldn't face him after that.

After what seemed like the longest practice of my life, Coach
Hammond finally dismissed us. Kristen sprinted with me back to the locker room
so that we could get to her phone and see if Chris had won.

There was only one problem. Chris was waiting for me right by
the door to the locker room.

Shit.
"What do I do?" I whispered to
Kristen. I didn't know if I should be comforting him or congratulating him.

"Just play it cool."

"You know I can't do that. Let's pretend like we don't
see him."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

Kristen and I stared at the ground as we approached the
locker room.

"Hey," said Chris. I couldn't tell if he sounded
happy or sad, so I continued with the plan to ignore him.

Kristen pushed the door open and walked in first. I followed,
but Chris grabbed my arm before the door closed behind me.

Crap.
I looked up. "Oh, Chris. You snuck up on
me."

He gave me a funny look. "Really? I was standing here
the whole time."

I wiped the sweat off my face and let out a long sigh.
"Are you sure? I feel like I would have seen you."

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Weird. I guess I'm just super tired from practice. And
you must be wiped after your race." I looked at him to try to get a read
on how it had gone. It looked like he was smiling slightly.

"I really am. I can't believe Claude broke the world
record."

Damn. He lost.
"I'm sorry, babe," I said as
I gave him a hug.

He pulled back and gave me a funny look. "Why are you
sorry?"

"Because you..."

"Beat the world record too!" interrupted Kristen.
She had grabbed her phone and apparently checked the results.

"Yeah!" I said. "Gold medal winner!
Wahoo!"

Chris laughed. "For a second I thought you had forgotten
to watch it. You really had me going."

"Yeah. I thought that would be a fun prank to play on my
gold medalist boyfriend. Gotcha." I punched his arm playfully.
Who does
that?
"So what do you want to do to celebrate?"

He glanced down at my breasts and smiled.

I laughed. "How about a nice romantic dinner instead?"

"What, are you worried Kristen is going to tattle on
you? You wouldn't do that, would you, Kristen?"

"Tattle on her for what? I have no idea what you're
talking about." Kristen winked at us and went back into the locker room.
She may have hated Chris, but she hated cock-blocking even more.

Chris turned to me and raised one of his eyebrows. "So
what do you say?"

I was torn. On one hand, I knew that Coach would bench me if
I had sex and she found out about it, which she had an uncanny ability to do. Nina,
one of our best servers, would angrily attest to that as she watched our first
four games from the bench. But I was also ridiculously horny. I wanted so badly
so say yes. I wanted to jump on Chris and kiss him and fuck him right there in
the locker room.
Shit! My phone is still in the men's locker room.
"Let's
just see what happens. I'll meet you in the village square at six." I gave
him a quick kiss on the lips and then disappeared into the locker room.

I immediately ran over to Kristen.

"Sounds like you're in for a fun night," she said.
"He's going to be so thrilled when you tell him you want to do it in
public."

"What?!"

"You know, because you lost the best. Don't think I
stopped counting after you ran ahead."

"Oh God, I never agreed to that. And anyway, I didn't
see any more couples banging on the way here, so really you're the one who has
to have sex in public."

"Don't give me that. There were at least three or four
more couples banging."

I shook my head. "Not that I saw. So who are you going
to bang? Some rando?"

Kristen laughed. "No one, since I didn't lose. Believe
me, if I lost, I'd happily admit it. I would love an excuse to bang some hot
athlete."

"Do you have video evidence of these people you claim
you saw?" I asked. "Pics or it didn't happen."

"No. What kind of pervert do you think I am?"
Kristen put her hand over her mouth to pretend to be shocked that I would think
such a thing about her.

I shrugged. "Sorry, I win. I'll tell you what though,
I'll let you off the hook with the whole public sex thing. Just go into the
men's locker room and get my phone and we'll be even."

Kristen scrunched her mouth to the side to make it look like
she was actually considering not doing it. "If you insist, I guess I have
no choice. How far did you get before you dropped it?"

"I can't remember."

"Oh right, you were too busy ripping some guy's towel
off."

"I didn't do it on purpose!"

"Suuure. Alright, let's get your phone back."

I followed Kristen to the entrance to the men's locker room.
She opened the door and pushed me in.

"Hey!"

She kept pushing me farther into the locker room. "If
I'm going in, you're coming with me."

Oh God.
I tried to spin around to get past her and
escape, but I didn't stand a chance. She was an outside hitter and I was a
libero, which meant she was super tall and I wasn't. She kept pushing me until
a group of half naked guys came into view. Some of them were in their
underwear. A few of them had towels wrapped around their waists. They all had
ridiculously sculpted muscles. It was like I had walked into a museum filled
with Greek statues that had all come to life.

"Hey guys," said Kristen, as if it was totally
normal for us to be there.
How can she be so confident just walking in here
like this?
I wished I had even half her confidence.

Everyone in the locker room turned to look at us. Half of
them tried to cover up, while the other half didn't even seem to be phased.

"Alina was in here earlier and dropped her phone. Have
any of you seen it?"

One of the guys wearing only a towel looked at me. "So
you're the hot girl Bryce was talking about at practice today, huh?"

"Where is he now?" asked Kristen.

The guy stroked his chin dramatically. "I can't
remember." He pulled his towel off and put his leg up on a bench to give
Kristen and me a perfect view of his penis dangling between his legs. "But
maybe you could do something to make me remember."

I put my hand out to block my view of it. "Dude,
gross."

"Hey, you're the ones who came into the men's locker
room. I'm just trying to get changed."

"Uh, yeah. I'm not going to blow you just to get my
friend's phone back. Anyway, your penis is kinda small." Kristen grabbed
my arm and pulled me out of the locker room as all the other guys laughed.

When we were safely back in the hall, I turned to Kristen.
"So how do we find my phone now?"

"It sounds like some guy named Bryce has it. How many
athletes here can be named Bryce? If we search for Bryce in a list of athletes,
I'm sure we can narrow it down to two or three guys."

"Good idea. We'll have to do that later though. I've
gotta go get ready for dinner with Chris."

Saturday

Alina

Chris was waiting for me in the village square, an area in
the middle of the athletes' village featuring a fountain sculpture of a soccer
player. It was surrounded by benches and places for athletes to get free food.
He looked amazing, as always, in a slim fit, shiny gray suit. Even though he
could pull off a swim cap, I always thought he looked the best when he was
dressed up. His brown hair was still wet. It looked like he had just ran his
hand through it, because it was sticking up in that sexy way I liked so much.

"You look incredible," he said, staring right at my
cleavage. I would have preferred he looked at my face after I spent thirty
minutes on my makeup, but I couldn't blame him for focusing on my breasts.
After all, I had worn my nicest pushup bra and a low cut dress.

"You too. So where do you want to eat, Mr. Gold
Medalist?"

"I don't know. So many options." He looked around.
Pizza, fast food, Chinese, Mexican. The junk food options were endless, which
seemed crazy in a place full of athletes that should have only been eating
healthy food. "Let's grab some pizza so we can eat it while we walk."

"Walk? Where are we going?" I kind of expected he
would want to go to a fancy restaurant outside of the village. A nice romantic
dinner apparently wasn't what he had in mind though.

"I heard Sword Body Wash is hosting a party at Club Blue
over by the water."

"Oh, okay." I wasn't a big fan of parties. I found
them sweaty and crowded and gross. But if that was what Chris wanted to do to
celebrate winning gold, I wasn't going to argue. This was his big night.
"Pizza and a party it is."

We walked over and ordered some pizza. It was cheesy and
delicious and everything I had been craving during the past few months of
training. Well, not
everything.
I was really craving some sex, but I had
decided I couldn't risk Coach finding out that I had done it and benching me.
Eating pizza and going to a party would have to be enough for Chris until the
volleyball finals were over.

"So why weren't you answering my texts?" asked
Chris as we walked and ate. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to
show."

"Oh, was I late? Sorry, I lost my phone earlier. And I
didn't account for the fact that wearing these damn shoes would slow me down so
much." I pointed at my black stilettos.

"Well, I'm never going to complain about you being late
because of those." He slowed his pace to let me get a few steps ahead of
him. "They make your ass look so good."

"That's exactly why I wore them." I looked back at
him with a seductive smile and made sure to shake my ass as much as possible as
we approach Club Blue.

The club looked insane. We were still at least 30 yards away
from the building, but I could already feel the ground vibrating from the
music. There were neon lights everywhere and a line snaked around the side of
the building.

"You really want to celebrate by waiting in that
line?" I asked.

"No way. A hot girl and a gold medalist? They'll let us
right in."

We walked right up to the two gigantic Brazilian men dressed
in jeans, black T-shirts, and sunglasses positioned at the entrance to Club
Blue. One of them stuck his beefy arm out to block the door as the other one
looked me up and down.

"Go ahead," said the bouncer to me in a thick
accent. Then he turned to Chris and pointed to the back of the line. "You
wait."

Chris opened up his suit jacket to reveal the gold medal
around his neck. The bouncers immediately waved us through.

When I saw the inside of the club, I kind of wished they
hadn't let us in.

The club consisted of a dance floor in the middle filled with
sweaty people and more foam than a professionally drawn bubble bath at a five
star hotel. In the front, a DJ with crazy dreadlocks spun records while girls
in bikinis and neon colored boots danced in cages on either side of him. The
bar to the left was manned by tan men in bike shorts covered in far more oil
than could ever be considered appropriate, while the bar on the opposite side
of the club was operated by girls dressed just as slutty as their male
counterparts.

Chris grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the bar with the
female waitresses.
Shocker.
After a few seconds, a brunette in a black
bikini approached and smiled at Chris, ignoring me completely.

"What can I get you?" she asked, leaning over the
table and pushing her breasts together.

"Let's start with a round of shots. Vodka."

"Sure thing." The girl jotted down his order on a
sheet of paper and then put the back of the pen in her mouth. "If there's
anything
else you need, just let me know."

"Do you really think I should be having shots?" I
asked. "I don't want to be hung over for my game tomorrow."

"Come on! Don't be such a party pooper."

"But my game..."

"Your game doesn't matter."

"What do you mean it doesn't matter?"
Asshole!
Just because you have a gold medal doesn't mean I don't want one too.

"You've already qualified for the quarterfinals so it
doesn't matter if you win or not."

He was right. Kind of. We had won all of our games so far and
qualified for the quarterfinals, but Brazil hadn't. The only way for them to
avoid being eliminated was to get a victory against us. "Of course it
matters. We have a chance to take down Brazil."

"I know. But one shot isn't going to hurt you. You're so
good that you could beat Brazil even with a hangover." He flashed me his
stupid charming smile that always got him what he wanted.

"Alright, fine. One shot. So how does it feel to have
your gold medal?"

"It's pretty awesome. But really I'm just excited to be
able to bang you again."

"Uh, about that..."

The slutty waitress interrupted me by putting a tray of vodka
shots on our table. I grabbed one and raised it. Chris and the waitress did the
same.
Really? She's going to do shots with us?

"Here's to your first gold medal!" I said and
emptied the shot glass down my throat. It burned as it went down. The alcohol
hit me almost immediately. I was never much of a drinker, but during training I
hadn't been drinking at all. My alcohol tolerance was basically nonexistent.

"Oh my God, you won gold?!" asked the waitress.

"Yup." Chris pulled his medal out and smiled.

"That's so awesome. Come with me." The girl grabbed
his arm and started dragging him up towards the DJ booth. He pulled back and
downed two more shots before letting her pull him away. I awkwardly followed
behind.
What the hell is this girl's problem?

She whispered something to the DJ. He nodded and then turned
down the volume on the record and jumped over the side of his equipment with a
microphone.

"Alright, alright people!" screamed the DJ.
Everyone stopped dancing and looked up. "Tonight we're joined by another
gold medal winner. What's your name, man?" He held the microphone over to
Chris.

"Chris Hamilton."

"Let's give it up for Chris!"

The people on the foamy dance floor cheered.

"Any song requests?" The DJ asked.

"Hmm...how about the thong song?"

The thong song was the first song we danced to the night we
met in college. At first I thought it was sweet that he would choose that song
tonight, but then I realized it meant Chris was going to want to dance with me
in that horrible pit of sweat and foam.

"Excellent choice, my man." The DJ jumped back
behind his booth and hit a few buttons on his laptop. He turned the volume up
and waited for a spot to blend the beats. After a few seconds I heard the
familiar sound of Sisqó sounding creepy talking about "the finer things in
life." The bumping and grinding immediately resumed on the dance floor.

"Shall we dance?" asked Chris.

I sighed.
Do we really have to?
"Okay, one
dance."

The dance floor was even more disgusting and loud than I had
imagined. I just kept telling myself that all I had to do was hang in there for
one dance.

Chris spun me around and pulled my ass back onto him as I
moved to the rhythm. The warm foam on my legs was repulsive, but I tried to
ignore it. It didn't take long before I started to feel his erection push
against my ass. That combined with the vodka I had drank and his fingers
digging into my hips gave me a familiar pull in my stomach. One of his hands
wandering up to my breasts just made it even worse. I dipped low and then
pushed my ass up against him hard.
God, I'm so horny.

Chris kept one hand on my back to keep me bent over while his
other hand slid down and pushed the hem of my dress up over my ass. I put my
hands on his to stop him.

"What's wrong?" he said.

"You can't just pull my dress up in front of all these
people!"

"No one will notice. Come on." He grabbed at the
bottom of my dress with his other hand.

I pushed him off playfully. "Sorry, babe. You know that
I can't until after the tournament."
Shit, he just wants sex tonight.
I
had to find a way out, and I couldn't just suggest we leave or he'd try to come
back to my dorm room and bang me there. I looked around the club for ideas.
After a second I spotted a group of guys from his swim team. I pointed over at
them. "Hey, did you see that Bill and Adam are here?"

"Nope. And I'm not interested in them." He grabbed
my hips to try to get me to grind on him some more.

"Come on, let's go say hi to them." I pulled him
off the dance floor towards their table.

"Yo, Chris!" yelled Adam over the music as we
approached. He scooted further into the booth to make room for him.

"Let's see that gold," said Bill. "Maybe
that's what we need to get some girls over here."

"First we need to do some shots!" Adam stuck his
hand up to try to get the attention of a waitress.

I leaned over and talked into Chris' ear. "Hey, I think
I'm going to get going. I'm starting to get a headache and it's kind of late.
Congrats again on winning your race." I kissed him on the cheek and walked
toward the exit.