It was late and the dark night sky was clearly visible through the high windows at the Rock. They stayed late all week and tonight was no exception. Sasha had pawned off the entirety of the Rock's membership on various gyms around Boulder so the only gymnasts currently training inside the spacious Rocky Mountain Gymnastics Training Center were the Olympic bound, with one exception. Lauren's eyes flashed across the gym to where Kaylie was working through her floor routine. She grimaced as Kaylie landed barely landed her double arabian. Lauren shook her head, Kaylie the Inconsistent. It was a title she'd granted her best friend, in her head of course, after managing to go from National Champion to anorexia patient to fourth in the World All-Around at an Olympic test event and then back to just seventh best in the United States. The year Kaylie won her National Championship had been the beginning of the end. Her best friend had always been painfully consistent, she played it safe, kept her nose clean and landed her routines, but after Payson broke her back and Kaylie won, everything changed.
Or maybe everything changed after Carter cheated on her, with me, a tiny voice echoed in the back of her mind, but she shook her head, ridding herself of the thought. Kaylie was long over it, they'd talked it out and that was that. Lauren's eyes shifted from the floor to the parallel bars were Austin, Nicky and Carter were all stretching, preparing to complete their sets under Sasha's watchful eye.
Sasha Beloff, the best coach in the world, the coach she and her father brought to the Rock and made this club in the country the best in the world, seven athletes going to the Olympics, eight if Kaylie could just get her head out of her ass. Her eyes drifted over to Kaylie who was getting a drink at the water cooler with Payson.
Lauren sighed, pulling her arm over her head, stretching her shoulders out for the vault. Payson Keeler, the best gymnast in the world. Why everyone was so surprised by that was completely baffling, it didn't shock Lauren. Payson had always been the best, since they were little. That was the way things were. A fracture in her lower vertebrae wasn't going to stop Payson Keeler. It was one of the few constants in Lauren's life, almost comforting. When in doubt you could count on Payson to come through, to win, despite the odds. Which was why, after the initial shock had worn off about thirty seconds after Payson told her, Lauren hadn't been all that put off by the idea of Payson and Sasha's relationship being more than what it seemed to the rest of the world. Payson and their coach, on the surface it should be appalling, but really, it made sense. They were so similar in their approach to life that it was like kismet. She watched as Kaylie moved away from Payson and back towards the floor, while Payson hovered near the men, not too close, but not too far from Sasha's side. Plus, they looked great together. Lauren was absolutely sure their children would be gorgeous.
Ugh, children, she shuddered. That had shocked her, when Payson mentioned they'd talked about getting married and starting a family. That was something Lauren had absolutely no intention of doing to herself, her body and most of all, the poor kid. She'd be a terrible mother; Payson on the other hand would probably be phenomenal at it, just like she was at everything else. Payson was exactly the kind of girl Lauren usually despised, except she was Payson, so she couldn't hate her. She focused her eyes back on Sasha and Payson who were standing next to each other now, arms crossed over their chests as they both studied Austin's parallel bars routine, the same thoughtful expression on each of their faces, analytical and critical, then as he finished they both nodded in approval. Payson said something Lauren couldn't hear to Austin who nodded and then looked to Sasha who nodded his agreement as well.
In sync, that's how Payson described their relationship, two separate people who operated as one. In sync was an understatement, Lauren thought, especially after the juicy details she, Kaylie and Emily had dragged out of her the night of their sleepover.
She watched a light blush creep over Payson's cheeks as she asked the one question that popped into her head as soon as she'd made the connection. Payson and Sasha were sleeping together and she had to keep it a secret, the least Payson could do was share a little.
"It's," Payson shook her head and rolled her eyes, "I can't believe I'm saying this…"
Lauren leaned forward on her knees and looked to Emily and Kaylie, both of whom were staring at their friend and captain, hanging on her every word. Apparently she wasn't the only one who was curious. "You haven't said anything yet," she scolded lightly.
Payson glared at her, though mockingly and then her smile changed. It was an expression Lauren hadn't seen before. "It's," Payson finally attempted, "it's like…I can't even think of a word to describe it adequately."
"Oh c'mon, Pay. At least tell us what type he is." Payson gave her a blank look and Lauren rolled her eyes in frustration, "You know, hard and fast, slow and gentle, wham, bam, thank you, ma'am? Every guy has a style. Like Carter, he's all about being submissive, letting me take control. Emily, what's Damon's style?" she asked her new step sister, who blushed and then smirked to herself a little.
"Slow and intense," Emily said, dreamily. Lauren snorted. It figured, he was a musician.
"Wait, you've had sex too?" Kaylie suddenly burst out. "Am I the only virgin left on this team?"
Lauren looked to Payson and then Emily. "I'm pretty sure Izzy's a virgin," she said, trying to be helpful and Payson shot her a scathing look. "What?"she asked, not sure what she'd done wrong.
"Izzy is fifteen," Kaylie shot back.
Lauren had enough, "Well, it's not our fault you didn't sleep with Carter or Nicky or Austin and this isn't about you, this is about Payson," she said, redirecting the conversation back to their blonde teammate who'd grown silent, probably hoping they'd forgotten about her. "So, Payson, what's Sasha's style?"
Payson glared at her for a moment, obviously annoyed the spotlight had refocused on her relationship, but then she turned serious, no blush in sight now, "He doesn't have one," she said simply.
"Huh," Lauren said, "sorry, is it, is it not that good? I mean I know guys hit their sexual peak at eighteen and Sasha's what? Thirty? I guess it's understandable if he doesn't really…"
"Twenty nine," Payson corrected absently, cutting her off, "and you misunderstood me. When I say he doesn't have a style, it's because his style is whatever we're feeling in that moment, intense if we've had an emotional day, hard and fast if it's been a little while or if we're fighting, slowly if we're apologizing. It doesn't matter, I always feel like I'm the most precious thing in the world to him, even when we're in such a frenzy we barely make it inside the house," she said, nodding towards the front door, a wicked grin appearing on her face, morphing quickly into a softer, almost sentimental smile, "My favorite is making love in the mornings, barely awake, exploring each other slowly, taking our time…." she trailed off, her eyes cloudy and unseeing, until she snapped out of her reverie. "Does that answer your question?" she asked, innocently, too innocently to truly be so.
Lauren cleared her throat. She hadn't expected that. She kind of pictured Payson as a lie back and think of England kind of girl, she was so stoic most of the time and Sasha didn't seem like he had the patience to wait for someone else's pleasure before his own, but what her friend just described, it sounded…perfect. She didn't know why it surprised her though of course Perfect Payson Keeler would break one rule, albeit a big one, but still end up with a man who was an apparent sex god.
"Wow," Kaylie muttered, breaking the silence that reigned in the room for almost a full minute.
"Yeah," Emily concurred, "wow."
Lauren narrowed her eyes, "It sounds too perfect."
Payson laughed though she detected little humor in the sound, "Perfect? It's not perfect, Lo. It's messy and insane, but we're just sort of in sync. We always have been, in almost every way, I don't see why you'd expect it to be different with this."
Lauren considered that for a moment and decided she was right. She was insanely curious now, even more so than before, "So is he as good with his tongue as he is with his…"
"Enough, I don't want to hear about it," Kaylie interrupted and Lauren glared at her in disbelief. It was plain as day that she was just as curious as both she and Emily, but Payson saw her out and took it.
"No problem," Payson said, falling back on to the couch with a relieved sigh.
Lauren bit her lip. She and Carter had tried the up against a door thing, but she couldn't imagine what Payson had liked about it and Carter hadn't exactly been into it, complaining about having to hold her up to even their heights and they'd given up quickly enough.
With a sigh she stretched her core for just a moment longer and worked in on the beam after Izzy finished up.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sasha approach and begin to observe her routine. She'd been hitting it solidly for months. He should be over watching Kaylie on bars, not worrying about her nearly flawless beam routine. She worked through confidently and dismounted. "Good Lauren," Sasha said, almost mechanically from his position just off the mat. She nodded in his direction and then went to grab a drink of water. Payson joined her from the bars seconds later and they watched as Kaylie moved to begin her set. They both saw Kaylie's eyes flash to them, then to Sasha and then to Austin who was standing a few feet away still working in on the p-bars with the other guys. She swung up onto the bars and it was good, but it was obvious to anyone who knew Kaylie well that her focus wasn't totally on her routine.
"Damn," Lauren heard Payson curse lightly under her breath and their eyes met. The frustration in Payson's eyes was clear. The World Champion just shook her head and moved away, towards the bars to work in on her own set. Lauren couldn't help but agree with Payson's assessment. Routines like there weren't going to be enough if Boris was worried about Kaylie's consistency. She needed to hit everything like she had at the trials, not sleep walk through her routines. What was wrong with her? Did she want to go to London? Hadn't they been dreaming about this together since they were little girls? Why couldn't she just put all the drama out of her head and just – at the risk of sounding like Payson – focus.
Kaylie dismounted cleanly and raised her hands above her head in salute before unwrapping her grips and moving to join her at the water cooler.
"Hey Lo," she murmured.
Lauren felt something in her snap, "And what the hell was that?" she said between clenched teeth.
Kaylie blinked at her, "What are you talking about?"
Lauren shook her head and it took all her willpower to not grab her best friend by the shoulders and literally shake some sense into her, "You need to get over it, Kay. Everything, all the drama, all the guy crap with Carter and Nicky and Austin, the anorexia and all the other shit, everything. What's the matter with you? This is the Olympics and Boris is making his decision tomorrow. You've gotta either use it to power you through or push it out of your head because the shit we saw from you today, it's not good enough and you know it."
Kaylie's mouth dropped open, but she didn't respond. Then suddenly her eyes shifted from Lauren to something just over her shoulder. "What?" Lauren asked, turning and seeing Austin standing behind her, looking less than pleased.
"Okay everyone, that's enough for the night. Cool down and get a full ten hours tonight," Sasha suddenly called out from the center of the gym and everyone began to disperse.
Lauren turned back to Kaylie, but her friend was already fleeing towards the locker room, her posture rigid. "Crap," she muttered to herself.
Their training was intense and mostly they showered and changed in silence, not rushing, but no one wasting time. Everyone simply wanted to get home and get some rest, but Lauren had other plans. She and Carter were going to have a romantic dinner at his place and then some dessert.
Unforutnately, as silent as the girls were in their locker room, the men were the exact opposite.
"How could you say something like that to her, Lauren?" Carter asked, the food she brought over growing cold in their Styrofoam boxes on his kitchen table. Apparently, Austin had gone straight to her boyfriend and told him exactly what she'd said to Kaylie as practice ended.
"I was trying to help her. She'd been choking big time and it's because she's letting all the crap in her life get to her."
"So you thought that throwing it all in her face was the best way to help her stop thinking about it?" he accused. It wasn't his words, but his tone of voice that made her jaw clench. "Kaylie isn't strong like you, Lauren and you've already made the team. Don't you think she knows how important this is?" This time a word did hurt, just the way he said her name. Maybe she imagined it, but she always felt like whenever Carter said her name, his lips formed it more carefully than any other word he could utter and it meant so much more than simply her name. Kaylie was his first love, the one that got away and that would never change, no matter how much they loved each other or how long they were together.
"Well she isn't acting like it and if she can't take me being honest with her – "
"Then what?" Carter asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "If you think that was going to help her, you're crazier than I thought."
"You think I'm crazy?" she shouted at him, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
"Lauren that's not what I…"
"Then when did you mean?" she asked, though she didn't want or expect an answer. "Forget it. I'm out of here." She stormed out of the apartment, anger coursing through her veins. Once she slammed the door shut behind her she let out a frustrated groan and then huffed before she marched furiously to her car.
Where exactly did he get off lecturing her about how to treat Kaylie? He was the one who'd cheated on her in the first place. Lauren hadn't known they were seeing each other, at least not officially, but Carter had knowingly slept with his girlfriend's best friend and when you boiled Kaylie's problems down, they all began when Carter cheated. And now, three years later, he was still defending her, still taking her side, even though Lauren was his girlfriend and they'd been dating for twice as long as he and Kaylie had.
She came to a major intersection and began to signal left, towards home, but then a split second later she changed her mind. She didn't want to go home. Shifting her car into reverse, she backed up quickly and cut across two lanes of traffic into the right turn lane. The jerk behind her leaned on his horn and she rolled her eyes, some people thought they owned the road.
Payson's house wasn't far from Carter's apartment complex and she pulled into the driveway, noting that most of the lights were out except for one of the front windows on the second floor, Payson's bedroom. Good, she's still awake.
Lauren raced up the stairs and rang the bell three times in succession before pounding on the door with her fist. She waited a minute and then two, before ringing again, this time pressing the bell five times. What was taking so long?
She lifted her fist to pound on the door again when it flew open, a very disheveled looking Payson Keeler on the other side. Payson rolled her eyes and sighed, "It's just Lauren," she called over her shoulder and Lauren peered into the room to see Sasha standing in the living room, shirtless, pajama pants riding low on his hips, his hair sticking up in several directions. It was a far cry from the intimidating man that stomped around the Rock all day or even the well-groomed side of him that surfaced whenever they had a gymnastics function to attend. Lauren Tanner wasn't the blushing type, but the expression on Sasha's face made her bite her lip in contrition. She looked at Payson again and saw her friend was wearing a t-shirt that looked suspiciously like the one Sasha wore during their training sessions today and her hair was in even more disarray than Sasha's.
She's obviously interrupted something. Whoops.
"Yeah, it's just me," she said, sending an awkward wave in Sasha's direction before turning her attention back to Payson. "Can we talk?"
"Oh, um, sure," Payson said and steps back to let her into the house, closing the door behind them and then following Lauren into the living room. "What's up?"
"I, uh," she stumbled over her words, her eyes moving towards Sasha, who lifted an eyebrow ironically at her and shook his head. The anger she was feeling at Carter momentarily shifted to Sasha. Who the hell was he to look at her like that? She knew his dirty little secret, in fact he was standing shirtless in the living room of one of his gymnasts, an inappropriate relationship in the extreme, where did he get off looking at her with that level of disapproval. All it would take was a phone call to the right reporter to send this little game of house he and Payson were playing right to the front pages of every major newspaper in the world.
Payson stepped into her field of vision, laying a hand on Sasha's arm lightly. His eyes moved from her down to her friend and his expression softened immediately, "Go on, I'll be up I in a little while," Payson whispered.
He murmured back, "Nu fi prea mult timp.*"
"Just a few minutes," she said, obviously understanding the gibberish Lauren guessed was Romanian.
It struck her that she'd never seen them like this, together. They were incredible at hiding this at the Rock. No wonder no one guessed they were more than just a coach and athlete. They hid this side of their relationship so well. The look of complete devotion of Sasha's face was stunning. No man had ever looked at her like that, certainly not Carter. They really loved each other. It wasn't just an infatuation, not for either of them like she first thought. This wasn't Sasha wanting a sweet, young thing in his bed, saying what he had to, promising a future together simply to get what he wanted and it wasn't Payson lusting after their hot coach, attracted to his experience and the excitement of a forbidden relationship. This was love and in that moment Lauren knew she couldn't out them, not if it was real.
Sasha nodded in her direction, this disapproval still there, but more muted now. He disappeared up the stairs and they both watched him go.
"You understand Romanian now?" she asked, avoiding the subject of her unexpected arrival.
"A little. He's teaching me."
"Sorry if I interrupted." She wasn't actually sorry and they both knew it.
"What's up, Lo?" Payson asked, folding herself into the large armchair, motioning for Lauren to take a seat.
She spilled her guts, practically throwing herself on the sword, confessing how harsh she'd been with Kaylie at practice and how Carter called her out on it and how maybe he didn't love her after all, while Payson listened patiently, making appropriate noises of understanding and sympathy as she wove her tale of woe.
Finally, when she finished, Payson sighed and ran a hand through her hair, doing nothing to calm the mess Sasha had obviously made, only making her look more thoroughly ravished than she already did. "There's only one thing for it, Lauren."
Lauren rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I know."
Payson smiled, "Text her and apologize. She's your best friend and you two have been through worse things than this. And Carter, I don't know, Lo, but maybe just tell him that you apologized to Kaylie and…"
"That's perfect," Lauren said, cutting her off and shooting up off the couch. She practically ran towards the front door, seeing herself out. "Thanks, Pay. See you tomorrow," she called behind her, leaving her friend in the living room, probably stunned and wondering what exactly just happened.
She didn't want Payson's advice about Carter. While she wasn't about to out her friend and their coach to the press, she also wasn't going to settle for anything less than what they obviously had. Lauren wanted someone to love her, the way Sasha loved Payson and she'd always been very good at getting what she wants.
Translation:
Nu fi prea mult timp - Don't be too long