Training in Love (12 page)

I
smile. “I like you plenty, but not in that sense.” And seeing his long face I
add, “And you don’t like me.”

Nic
looks at his shoes, frowning and then visibly relaxes. “Maybe it’s true, but it
would still bug me if you went out with Gianca…”

“Why?”
I ask curiously.

“Because…
he’s not right for you.”

Linda
bursts out laughing and I chuckle too. “Everyone’s really good at knowing
what’s right for me, huh?” I shake my head as they smile.

“So
that means I won’t go out with him,” I conclude shrugging my shoulders with a
smile on my lips.

“Wow,
you really liked him a lot, huh?” Linda teases me and Nic laughs.

“I
hope you’ll be able to point out someone right for me, because those who aren’t,
aren’t terribly useful…” I say, feigning bitterness and taking both of them by
the arm.

“I
have someone in mind,” says Nic.

“Me
too,” Linda adds immediately.

But
I don’t have the heart to inquire.

9.

It’s
Sunday again and I’m standing outside of the pool. I’m waiting for Linda. This
week I haven’t been going as I should have either and she, as promised, is
coming to encourage me, but she’s really late. I send her a message and after a
few seconds I get the answer –
I’m late, go ahead and start, I’ll get there
right away.

I
roll my shoulders and go in. I calmly change, put on my bathrobe and leave the
locker room, heading towards the pool. Before taking off my bathrobe I look
around for a moment, I don’t know why I do it. If Linda had arrived I’d have
seen her in the locker room… I’m shaking my head over my stupidity when I see
him.

He’s
a few steps away from me and he’s looking at me with a small satisfied smile on
his lips. He’s already taken off his bathrobe, because those who have a body
like his haven’t any problem being in a bathing suit in front of perfect
strangers.

I
should have known right away that he was here by the number of female faces
turned in his direction.

I,
however, am furious. Furious.

I’m
furious with him and with myself. With him for obvious reasons. With myself
because I wasn’t able to stop blushing in front of his perfect body. His
pectorals popping out over his crossed arms -
hollow
my eye! –  his
shoulders are sculpted and his biceps are a little larger because of his
position. His skin has a golden hue to it, uniform over his whole body. For
once, his magnificent hair isn’t visible because he’s wearing a blue swim cap.
But, good grief, who is it that actually looks good in a swim cap? It’s unfair to
be that beautiful.

And,
most of all, it’s not fair that he ignores my wishes every blessed time.

I
march towards him belligerently, as much as the plastic flip-flops will allow
me to. Along the way I thank Jesus, Joseph, Mary and all the saints in heaven that
I didn’t take off my bathrobe right away.

“What
the hell are you doing here?” I greet him politely, crossing my arms in turn.

He
continues to smile as if nothing was wrong. “Why? This is the public swimming
pool so anyone has the right to come and swim here. I came to swim.”

I
narrow my eyes, “Don’t be sly with me Andrea, you might as well confess right
now.”

He
drops his arms to his sides, leaving his chest completely exposed.

Oh.
My. God.

I
swallow, concentrating on his face, but with my peripheral vision I can see
perfectly the lines of his pectoral muscles, his upper, lower and lateral
abdominals. When I get home I have to start doing those exercises I found once
in a women’s magazine for developing peripheral vision - you can never know
when they might turn out to be useful.

“I
wanted to check in person,” he says simply, totally unaware of what he’s doing
to me. To me and all the other girls present.

“I
told you that I would follow your program. I’ve done it up to now and I would
have continued to do it,” I lie shamelessly. “I told you there was no need for
you to come. Well then, why are you here?” I respond, still furious.

“Come
on, don’t be a baby Olly,” he has the courage to reply.

“Andrea,
I’m serious. I didn’t want you to come. You never do what I ask you to do… You
aren’t showing  me any respect like this.”

When
I say this last phrase his eyebrows shoot up and he almost takes a step
backwards. He seems embarrassed. “No… I… I respect you Olly. You must never
think something like that…”

Hell,
beautiful people have it easy. I’m on the verge of forgiving him because of his
contrite face, which is, in any case, beautiful. Contrite looks good on him.

I
don’t say anything.

He
raises his hands, and I ask you, how can a person stay focused?

“If
you want me to go, even if I paid the entrance fee…”

I
regard him for a moment, trying to understand if he’s serious or not. “Would
you really?” I decide to ask him.

He
just nods.

I
sigh. “You just couldn’t resist checking to see if I did it correctly, right?”

He
smiles and says, “That’s it, and then someone who cares about you told me you
were having a little difficulty sticking to it by yourself…”

I
sigh. What a traitor!

I
drop my arms, taking great care to not let my bathrobe fall open. “Ok, you can
stay.” And as I say this his smile widens. “But!” I raise a hand and he pretends
to stand at attention. “But - first, you have to get in the water now and stay
turned around towards the windows until I’ve taken off my bathrobe and gone in
too, second, you can take off your swim goggles and leave them on the bench,
and third, if you want to swim too, you have to always be in front of me and
I’ll follow. Is that clear?”

“Yes
ma’am!” He says brightly, taking off his swim goggles and going to put them on
the bench on top of a white bathrobe.

“I
forgot…” I say when he comes back towards me, “For today I’m not paying you.
You know that, right?  You wanted to come of your own free will, so…”

He
tilts his head and looks at me as though I’ve stated the obvious. “Olly…”

I
nod and just say, “Fine.”

He
gets in the water and stays turned towards the large windows. I take off my
bathrobe, still keeping an eye on him and slowly get in the water without
letting him out of my sight. Then I get closer, satisfied.  “Here I am.”

Andrea
turns right around. “But I’d like to see how you swim first of all. If I stay
ahead, how can I correct your posture?”

I
look at him darkly. “Well then, stay out completely, but just for enough time
to see how I swim and then get back in and do as I say.”

He
nods happily. “Ok, do me two laps of freestyle, two of breast-stroke, two
back-stroke and two butterfly.”

I
nod reluctantly and start to go.

“Where
are you going?” He grabs me by the wrist.

“I’m
going to number four. I hate swimming in the lanes by the edge.”

“Ok.”
He gets out of the water, going to position himself near the number four diving
board. Now he’s half nude and wet, with drops of water that sparkle all over
his body.

A
number of heads turn in his direction and I can’t help asking myself what I’ve
done wrong in this life.

I
sigh and quickly reach lane four. As soon as I get there I shoot him a last
look. He makes a sign with his head and I begin to swim. The sooner I begin,
the sooner I’ll finish and the sooner he gets in the water the less he’ll see
me in my bathing suit from above.

When
I finish the second lap of butterfly, I find him already in the water. He seems
very close, so I hang myself on the floating divider opposite from him in order
to put some space between us.

He
has a dismayed look on his face. “Well, I have to say that I didn’t expect
this…”

“What?”

He
shakes his head. “Technically… you’re perfect.”

This
time it’s me who displays a satisfied smirk. “I know.”

He
looks at me a little annoyed. “Why didn’t you tell me anything?”

“I
told you I did it well…”

“You
said you did it well, not that you were perfect…”

I
shake my head. “Come on, let’s get on with it. I don’t want to stay in the
water all day…” Quite the contrary, I want this moment to end as soon as
possible.

As
usual, he loses no time laying out an insane program. I’m afraid I’ll vomit
once I get out of the water.  Since by now it’s useless to argue, we begin.

Andrea
swims as he does everything else – elegantly powerful. I have the feeling he
holds back for my sake. The last laps, however, he lets me do by myself. I
accept only because he assures me that he’ll wait at the end of the pool.

When
I finish the workout I feel hot in the face, breathless and wiped out. Tomorrow
I’m sure I’ll be hard pressed to lift my arms to wash my underarms in the
shower.

“Good,
now rest for a minute and then we’ll do the last thing before going.”

I
look at him wide-eyed. “What more? I can’t do any more!”

He
smiles. He smiles that smile that doesn’t promise anything good. “You and I
will race.”

“I
don’t think so!” I almost yell.

“Oh
come on… I’ll let you pick the stroke…”

“I
don’t give a crap about picking the stroke, because we aren’t doing any race,
you can forget it!”

Andrea
sighs theatrically. “Her first answer is always ‘no’, always a complaint,
always a problem…”

I
limit myself to glaring at him.

“Let’s
make a bet, to make things more interesting.”

I
laugh sarcastically. “Andrea, we aren’t even going to talk about it. And I’ll
tell you why right away. First of all, it makes no sense to race when the
difference between the two participants is so complete that you already know
who will win from the start. For the above mentioned reason, it’s even more
idiotic to make a bet, you’d do better to tell me right now what you’d like me
to do. And lastly, it’s totally unfair to make me do a race now, when I’m
completely wiped out from the workout that you made me do. And I’d also like to
point out that you’re nice and fresh compared to me because for the last six
laps you’ve been sitting around.”

He
nods. “Well then, let’s do just two laps and I’d say breaststroke, since you
don’t want to choose the stroke.”

“No,
breaststroke no!” I almost yell. Again. Then I catch myself and look around.
Luckily the noise of the water has muffled my volume a little and no-one is
looking at us. “I told you before that I hate breaststroke…”

He
shrugs his shoulders. “You said you didn’t want to choose the stroke…”

I’m
practically grinding my teeth. “There are times when I seriously believe I hate
you, you know?”

He
laughs.

“Ok,
if you really want to humiliate me let’s do this race. And we’ll do crawl,” I
inform him, deadly and cold as ice.

Andrea
smiles triumphantly. “And what shall we set as a prize?”

I
huff, “I already told you, you’d do better to tell me what you want…”

“If
I win, we’ll go out one evening and you’ll answer all my questions – all of
them. And truthfully.”

He
has the guts to say “if I win…” Heh. Besides, I don’t like this thing one bit. Not
one bit. I have to win.

“And
what would you like?” He asks me sweetly.

I
stare at him. I glare at him blackly. I reflect. What could I ask of him to
make him pay for this? To make him pay for everything? “If I win, you have to
do everything I say for a week. Everything. Whatever I decide.”

He
just smiles. He’s not even worried, the creep.

He
extends his hand towards me. “Ok, it’s a deal.”

I
have to win, I have to win, I absolutely have to win.

I
put my hand in his and shake. He answers my handshake with a vigorous pumping
of his right bicep.

I’ll
never win.

Andrea
looks around and since by now the pool is almost half empty, he changes lanes
and goes to the fifth and nods towards me. “On the count of three.”

I
nod.

“I’ll
give you a half pool advantage,” he tells me at the last minute.

“I
am moved,” I reply with a grimace.

He
counts to three and I take off. I concentrate on pulling out all my remaining
energy and strength. I push, push, more and more. I clench my teeth and give it
my all, my best. I don’t look towards lane five. I don’t want to know where he
is, it would make me lose precious seconds. But unfortunately I see him anyway
when he enters my field of vision as I breathe in his direction. My lungs are
bursting and my muscles are crying out, but he’s here, almost right next to me
so I push even more.

It’s
almost done my dears, a last effort, don’t let me down now. If you let me win
I’ll even give you a present. I don’t know what – two days in a spa, what do
you say? But despite this incentive my muscles, as foreseen, just can’t do it
against Andrea’s. I see him as he passes me and when I get to the end I find
him already there.

If
we weren’t in a pool and he weren’t a rotten health freak, he would probably be
smoking a cigarette. He isn’t even out of breath.

“I
hate you,” I tell him breathlessly.

He
laughs and then turns serious. “Anyway, I saw you, you sneaky thing…”

“What?”
I look at him dismayed.

“You
did a flip turn to switch laps…” He says as though this should make me
understand everything.

“And
so?”

“Why
didn’t you do it even once the first time around?” He asks, climbing over the  floating
divider and returning to the fourth lane.