Austin stared at the television, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. He'd never met the woman, but from both Payson and Sasha's description of her she certainly fit the profile. Blonde hair, slightly out of shape, approaching fifty with a smug, superior expression without the brains to back it up, it was definitely her.
"And how is your family reacting to all this?" a reporter on the screen asked.
"We're just absolutely heartbroken and devastated. My sister must feel so blind. This was going on right under her nose. What a tragedy. I knew there was something off about that man when I met him, but to know he's taking advantage of my niece," she sighed dramatically and wiped away what appeared to be a crocodile tear, "and it's just so sad that it has to be pasted all over the news and the internet the way it's been."
"When you say off, what do you mean?" another reporter asked.
"Well," she said with a smirk, "I don't want to speak out of turn, but at first I thought that maybe he was, you know," she lowered her voice, "a homosexual, but obviously it's even worse and his urges aren't what they ought to be."
Austin flicked off the television, Payson's Aunt Cathy's face fading to a dark screen as he shot off a text to Payson to warn her about her crazy relatives coming out of the woodwork. Sure, his family was nuts, but off the radar nuts. It looks like Aunt Cathy was looking for her fifteen minutes. Payson would talk to MJ and MJ would be able to handle it.
A knock on his door had him bouncing out of his bed. He smirked at the tiny girl standing in the hallway, arms crossed over her chest, looking extremely put out to even be standing there at all, "Satan," he acknowledged, trying to maintain his serious countenance. It wasn't that difficult. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Kelly Parker rolled her eyes and fought a smile as she pushed past him into his room. "I was wondering if you knew what time Payson'll be back. She's not answering her texts, again and we're supposed to be having a team meeting in fifteen minutes. Some captain."
Austin shrugged, "Did you nominate her for captain?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Kelly snorted, "That's when I thought she was screwing you, not Beloff."
He rolled his eyes, "One kiss and people blow everything out of proportion. If she said she'd be here, she'll be here. Payson doesn't flake on commitments."
"I know, she's Perfect Payson Keeler, at least that's what Tanner calls her when she gets all superior." Kelly tossed herself down on his bed, reclining comfortably against his pillows. "Your bed is bigger than mine," she muttered, but Austin ignored her.
"Yeah well we have a nickname for Lauren too." Austin said, sitting down on the edge of the mattress.
Kelly quirked a brow in curiosity and smiled wickedly at him, causing him to do the same.
Huh, he thought, are you flirting with Kelly Parker? Not good, Tucker. What about Odette? Why do you flirt with other girls whenever you start a real relationship? You always do this. Well, except that one time…with Kaylie. It was Payson's voice in his head and frankly, it disturbed him that his best friend was also his conscience like a little blonde Jiminy Cricket whispering in his ear.
"And it is?" She sat up leaning in conspiratorially, drawing his attention back to her.
"Bitch of the Beam," he said and shrugged. "Not the most original, but it fits."
"And what do Rock Rebels call me?" she asked, leaning back on her hands and pouting.
"I wasn't kidding before," he said, shifting closer, invading her personal space. "We call you Satan, though maybe we've been a bit harsh with that one. You're not so bad, Parker."
She tilted her head and studied him carefully and he took her silence as an invitation, leaning in slowly nearly brushing her lips with his when…
"Whoa!" the voice that'd just been in his head was suddenly coming from feet away. He turned and saw Payson standing there, mouth open, simply staring.
"There you are, PK" Kelly said, bouncing off the bed, nearly knocking him on his ass in the process, completely ignoring the possible awkwardness of the moment. "We have a team meeting in ten minutes." With that she strutted out of his room and Austin stood quickly.
"She's right," he said, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably as her eyes narrowed. "You should go."
Payson shook her head and frowned, "But what about? I thought you and Odette…Austin I don't get it."
"I told you, Pay, not everything is love," he said, feeling guilty, maybe more for disappointing her than anything else. "We've never judged each other for our decisions, before. Are you going to start now?" It was a guilt trip of epic proportions, he knew that, but it was the only way he could think of to get out of this conversation.
Her frown didn't disappear, but she sighed and shrugged. "I know that. I'm sorry, I just like Odette and I thought…well never mind what I thought."
He sat back down on his bed and looked up at her, "Did you stop by for a reason?" he asked.
She blinked and then smiled, "I did actually," she said, sitting across from him on Carter's bed. She reached behind her neck and unclasped a gold chain tucked into the collar of her Team USA t-shirt. She dangled it between them for a moment before he fully understood what he was looking at. She slid the ring from the chain and slipped it onto her left ring finger.
"Wow," he managed to utter. "So he went with the diamond solitaire after all."
Her eyes widened in shock and she reached out, punching him in the bicep, "You knew!" she accused and he nodded, quite proud of himself for having kept the secret.
"Ow," he said, massaging his arm. "Yes, I knew. He wasn't sure which ring to buy and I had no idea either, so I asked Odette."
"Tell her thank you, it's absolutely perfect."
"I didn't know he was going to ask you now though. It's been a surreal couple of days for you, hasn't it? You dealing okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay, better than okay actually," she said, flopping backwards. "We told my parents this morning."
Austin coughed meaningfully, "And how did that go?"
She sat up on her elbows and smiled, "Not too terribly. Apparently my mom caught a glimpse of the ring last night, which was the worst part about it because that means she saw us practically having sex on his kitchen counter." Austin cringed and she nodded. "Anyway, she gave my dad a heads up this morning before they came down from breakfast. Honestly, I think they finally get just how serious we are now. I know my mom does. She was all teary eyed and she made me cry after she hugged Sasha and my dad shook his hand, which was huge for my dad. It was just…it was really emotional. My family has been through a lot in the last day, I was glad to give them some happy news." She fiddled with the ring looking down at it, a small smile crossing her face.
"Speaking of your family…" he trailed off. Obviously she hadn't gotten her text message about her crazy Aunt Cathy. "Your Aunt Cathy made an appearance on TV this morning."
Payson's eyes grew wide, "I've got to call MJ," she said quickly, slipping her cell phone from her pocket and finally turning the damn thing on. It sprung to life, beeping with so many text message notifications it didn't give her a chance to make a call. She sighed, tossing it to the bed as it continued to light up. "Or not." Then she looked at him and sighed. "I have some other news too. You might not like it, so just…"
"You're not pregnant, are you?" he cut in immediately. He knew they were careful, but nothing was one hundred percent fool proof.
She chuckled, "No, Austin. I'm not pregnant. Sasha and I we…we decided that instead of going to New York, we want to stay here, in London, well Wimbledon really, where he has a house." She bit her lip waiting for his reaction.
He shrugged, "New York, London, doesn't make a difference to me, Pay. I go where Sasha goes. I plan on winning gold here and in Rio 2016 too."
"You're not mad?" she asked, her brow furrowed.
"Nah." And he honestly wasn't. Payson could think what she liked, but Odette's move to New York had little to do with him and more to do with her career and he'd been honest when he told her he was moving because he wanted to train with Sasha. "Your parents can't be thrilled though. What about Columbia?"
"I'm going to Kings College here and they were still on the engagement high to really be too upset I think. It's a long plane ride either way and this is where Sasha wants to be. It's his home and I've…I've never really had one of those. I grew up in Minnesota and then we moved to Boulder when I was twelve, but I'm not all that attached to Colorado."
Austin nodded. He'd been in and out of elite gyms since his childhood all over the country and understood where she was coming from. "So London it is then," he said with a smile.
Her phone finally stopped spazzing out and allowed her to send a text message to MJ who responded almost immediately that she was already taking care of it.
"You've gotta go," Austin said, nodding to the clock. "Your meeting starts now."
Payson stood up with a sigh, pocketing her phone. "Time to put all this crap behind us. I can't wait until that stupid interview later today is over and then we can finally focus on what we came here to do."
She stood and made to leave the room, but he stopped her, "Pay?" he called, taking a step closer to her.
She turned and looked up at him, "What, Austin? I have to go."
He leaned down and wrapped his arms around her tightly and kissed her cheek, "Congratulations."
He felt her relax into the embrace and hug him back, "Thanks," she said quickly turning her ring so the diamond pressed into the palm of her hand and then flying from the room towards the small meeting room at the end of the hall where her teammates and coaches were waiting.
Payson was the last one to enter the room and everyone turned as she entered, not exactly glaring at her, but definitely staring.
"Hello Payson," Boris said, waving her over to the table they were sitting at. "We must go over the schedule for this week…"
"Coach Beloff," she interrupted formally. "Before we do, could I speak with my team privately?"
Boris looked to her and then to Sasha, who kept his face passive and neutral. "Quickly," he said and nodded to Sasha and Marty who both left the room.
Payson watched as they shut the door behind them and then took a steadily breath. "I know I said this yesterday, but I just want to say how sorry I am that all this happened. It's all my fault and I promise I'm taking care of it as far as the media is concerned and that'll be the last time it's an issue for us. I won't be talking about it again, but you all, you can talk about it all you like, it's up to you."
"We won't be talking about it either, will we?" Emily piped up from the end of the table. "We'll answer gymnastics questions and Olympics questions and that's all and we'll make that clear to every reporter who asks about it." Payson smiled as her friend and one of the first people who discovered the truth about her and Sasha made firm eye contact with the rest of the girls all of whom nodded their agreement.
"Thank you guys," she said, a huge weight leaving her shoulders.
"Was that it? Boris looks kinda impatient," Lauren said, nodding towards the glass wall of the conference room where Boris had his arms crossed over his chest as Sasha spoke to him.
"Give it a minute," Payson muttered and as she spoke the words they watched Boris's eyes light up. The old man pushed off the wall and shocked them all as he pulled Sasha into a hug, pounding his back rapidly.
"Whoa," Izzy said, "what did Sasha tell him?"
"The second thing I wanted to tell you all," Payson explained and they all turned to her again. She fiddled with her ring, twisting it so the diamond was visible again. "The other night Sasha asked me to marry him and I said yes."
For a moment silence dominated the room, much like it had earlier that morning when they revealed their engagement to her parents.
"Mom, Dad, Becca," Payson said as they all sat silently digging into the breakfast Mrs. Peters prepared for them. Her family's eyes rose from their food and looked at her expectantly. "There's something I…Sasha and I want to share with you."
Sasha reached out and put his hand over hers, squeezing lightly and she looked to him quickly, taking in his reassuring smile and encouraging gaze. Despite that, she hesitated. He noticed and took the lead. "The night before last, after the Opening Ceremonies I asked Payson to marry me and she agreed," he said, looking each of the Keelers in the eye quickly before turning back to her.
The silence grew around them for a moment before her mother smiled and said simply, "We know."
"You know?" Payson said, her brow furrowing. She'd been very careful to hide the ring, it hadn't been on her finger until long after her parents and Becca went to bed the night before.
"We know," her father added and Payson saw a mischievous smile creep onto her father's face. Her relief was palpable. She hadn't begun to associate conversations about her relationship with Sasha and her father's smile.
"Last night I couldn't sleep so I came downstairs for a glass of milk and I saw you and Sasha in the kitchen," her mother said meaningfully, her eyes flickering to Becca quickly before back to Payson who could feel the blush fly to her cheeks. "I didn't want to intrude."
What had her mother seen? Things had begun innocently enough in the kitchen the night before, but they'd rapidly progressed into something much more. She decided, for her own sanity, that her mother wouldn't have mentioned it, especially in front of Becca, if what she'd seen had been too shocking.
"Can I see the ring?" Becca asked from the other end of the table.
Payson beamed at her little sister and extended her hand towards her, finally removing it from her lap where she'd studiously kept it until now.
Hugs and tears, a very meaningful handshake between Sasha and her father later and they also told her parents about their decision to remain in England for the foreseeable future. Despite the obvious initial disappointment about their daughter being six thousand miles away rather than three, they were relieved she had plans to attend school in London and the slightly tense moment was disrupted when Becca asked about them all coming to visit at Christmas.
The silence reigned in the room until Lauren of all people squealed, leapt out of her chair and raced to grab Payson's hand. "God, Pay, it's gorgeous," she said and the dam broke, all the girls surrounding her admiring the ring and gushing about how romantic it all was. Payson finally had enough and found Sasha, Boris and Marty looking into the conference room all with expressions of horror at entering the room now that the girls seemed to be a mushy mess rather than the stoic group of elite athletes they'd been moments before. Payson smirked and nodded to them, letting them know it was time to get on the with the meeting. After all, this was the Olympics and it was time they got back to business.
Sasha emerged from his room showered and dressed well, but casually. The teams, both men and women, had gotten in a phenomenal practice at the Olympic Village's decent enough training facility. It would have to do until the basketball competition at the 02 arena wrapped up later that week and the gymnastics equipment was set up for their required podium training.
He looked down the hallway and smiled when he saw Payson emerging from her room as well, dressed in similar fashion to him, a pretty sky blue top and a cream colored skirt. Her hair was pulled back, just her bangs loose, framing her face softly, giving the illusion she was older than her nineteen years. She closed the door behind her and met his eyes.
"You look great," he said, meaning it. He knew she was worried about this interview. They both were. It was one thing to win over the gymnastics and Olympic establishment who were highly invested in their success, but this was about winning over the public, not just for their own sake, but for the sake of the athletes on both teams. The sport of gymnastics didn't need yet another stigma attached to it.
The interview would be in the same conference room that they held their team meetings in and when they arrived, the crew was already setting up. Payson was in the makeup chair having some foundation applied when he saw MJ arrive.
Immediately upon meeting her eyes he knew he was in trouble. She immediately pulled her ever present cell phone from her ear and marched straight towards him. "Crap," he muttered under his breath, before raising his eyes to hers as she stopped just in front of him. "Miss Martin."
"Cut the bullshit, Beloff," she snapped. "What were you thinking screwing one of your gymnasts?"
"I'm not talking about this with you. Payson is your client. You work for her. Thanks for setting this up," he said quickly before turning his back to her.
"Is this about Austin?" she asked, grabbing him by the arm and practically forcing him back around to face her. "Was it your little way of getting back at me for seeing someone like him?"
Sasha snorted, "Don't flatter yourself, MJ. This isn't about you."
He began to move away again, but she stepped around him, pointing her finger into his chest, "You don't get off that easy. What were you thinking?"
He narrowed his eyes. He knew she thought the worst of him and maybe she was right, but he also knew she wanted the truth, even though it would hurt her. "I'm in love with her," he said, quietly. "I asked her to marry me the other night and she said yes. We'll be telling Hanover in the interview, so you should be prepared for that once it airs."
The only time he'd ever seen MJ stunned into silence was over a decade earlier when he came into Sydney and won his four golds. She cleared her throat and in one split second he saw the vulnerability in her face, but very quickly the mask of professionalism was back. She nodded and stepped away towards Payson. He stood there, hands in his pockets watching them chat, MJ giving nothing away in her expression this time.
"Sasha," he heard a female voice from behind him and he turned to see Meredith Hanover standing just behind him.
"Ms. Hanover," he said politely, extending his hand.
"I see Payson's almost done with makeup. Let's get you both mic'd up and get the ball rolling, shall we?" she asked.
Sasha nodded and looked around, moving towards where the camera was setup facing a love seat and an armchair. He saw Payson stand from the makeup chair and take a deep, cleansing breath and then look up and smile at him. Suddenly all the anxiety in his body was gone, replaced by a quiet confidence. It was like she said, they were much stronger together than apart.
"Now, I know you both must realize that I'm not just a journalist, I'm also a fan, but I want to make it clear from the outset that I don't intend to go easy on either of you. I think it's important that the world understand exactly what happened here," Meredith said, as her crew checked their equipment.
Payson nodded, "We do too. It's why we wanted to do an interview."
"Exactly," Sasha added, reaching over and taking Payson hand in his.
Meredith nodded and then smiled. "I'll be doing an voice over introduction when this airs on Outside the Lines, so we can just simply start with questions."
She paused for a moment, allowing the crew to tape a few seconds of silence and then began. "I think the first thing the American and probably the International public want to know is, how did this happen?"
Payson turned to him for a moment and shot him a small smile. "I think I'll take this one since it's entirely my fault," she said, laughter in her voice. "I kissed him. We were working on one of my routines late into the night and I finally landed it perfectly. I got so caught up in the moment that I kissed him. He pushed me away of course, but that was how it began."
Sasha continued for her, "We agreed the next day to simply forget about it, pretend like it never happened, but obviously that didn't work because here we are."
Meredith nodded and continued, "Of course there's been a lot of concern out there because of your relationship as a coach and athlete and the age difference between you two…"
Payson nodded. "I think we both understand those concerns and honestly, I truly appreciate them. The idea that so many people care about me and are upset because they think I've been taken advantage of in some way is so truly humbling. That's why we're here today, to assure people that that's not the case. Sasha and I are very much in love."
"You say you understand the concerns?" Meredith asked, obviously wanting her to elaborate.
"I think a lot if stems from the stereotype of who elite gymnasts are. People think of Olympic gymnasts as very young girls, children even, but that's just not the case with me. I'm nineteen years old and I know that's very young, but I want people to keep in mind that I'm not the average nineteen year old. I've had a professional athletic career since I reached the elite level at age thirteen. I'm very much an adult in every sense of the world. I own my own house, my own car, I pay my own bills and have done so for a very long time."
"And the age difference?"
Sasha felt he should jump in at this point, "It's eleven years, um, ten years, eleven months and what? Six days I think," he joked lightly, both ladies smiling. "It's a gap, but not unheard of."
"What about the potential conflict of interest, you are after all not just Payson's coach, but the personal coach of four other athletes on the women's gymnastics team and three of the men. How did your relationship impact your professional lives?"
Payson snorted and smiled, "People are going to think we're lying, but it didn't, at all. We kept everything extremely professional at work, in fact, for a long time no one knew. Everyone we told was completely shocked by it, except for Austin. Austin was the only one who guessed."
"Austin Tucker, weren't you two an item at one point?"Meredith asked immediately, possibly believe Payson had opened a door she hadn't intended to.
"No," Payson said, shaking her head with a smile and a sigh. "Austin is my best friend in the entire world and our relationship is completely platonic. He's the older brother I never had, which is probably why he was able to guess what was going on. No one else did though. We had to tell everyone."
The reporter raised her eyebrows in surprise, "So this wasn't a secret? People knew about your relationship?"
Sasha smiled. Despite his general loathing of the media, this interview was going extraordinarily well. "Of course we did. We told our friends and family, the people closest to us, they all knew."
"And how did your parents react to the idea that you were in a relationship with your coach?"
Payson nodded and smile sheepishly, "They weren't thrilled with the idea, especially at first, but they've had some time to get used to the idea and I think they understand now just how much we love each other."
Sasha reached out and took her hand in hers, squeezing it tightly, the overhead light for the camera reflecting off her ring.
"And what is that?" the reporter asked, her eyes drawn to the sparkling diamond.
"He asked me a couple of days ago," Payson said, extending her hand, which Meredith took without hesitation, "just after the Opening Ceremonies."
"So wedding bells are definitely in the future then?"
"Eventually," Sasha said. "Our lives are going to be so busy after the games. Payson wants to finish up school, which is a huge commitment considering the insanely difficult things she studies," he said, proudly. One of the things he loved most about her was just how incredibly intelligent she was and he wanted the world to know it.
"Biomedical Sciences. I'll be completing my degree here in London actually at Kings College." Payson said it casually, as if it were no big deal, but Sasha knew it would go over well with both the reporter in front of them and the audiences that would watch the interview.
"Impressive," the reporter said, nodding. "Now, I'm sure you were upset when the pictures of you two appeared in one of London's most notorious tabloids." She held up the paper with their pictures on it. "Do you know how the pictures leaked?"
"We do," Sasha said, "and we were upset that our privacy was invaded, but at the same time, we're both public figures and it comes with the territory."
"Do you want to comment on the leak itself?"
"We know who it was, though I still don't understand the motivation behind it. I don't want to say much more than that about it. I will say though, I do love the pictures themselves. I think they came out pretty well."
Payson had the reporter eating out of her pretty little hands and Sasha smiled.
"I know you're both extremely private people so I want to thank you for being with us today to discuss this."
Sasha nodded, "We were happy to do it," he said, lying through his teeth, but pulling it off reasonably well."
"There were so many stories floating around, we wanted to make sure that the truth was out there for those that want to listen."
"And for those that don't? There will be people out there who won't believe what you say. People who think that your relationship is wrong."
Payson shrugged, "I can't control that any more than I can control how my competitors perform in competition. The only think I can worry about is myself and the people I love."
"Well said." Meredith paused for a beat and then another before turning to her camera man and signaling for him to cut the feed. "Wow, that was great you two," she said, extending her hand to each of them shaking it firmly. "Congratulations on your engagement, thanks for that little bit of breaking news by the way and good luck next week. I'm rooting for you. We're just going to have Steve here with the steady cam shoot some footage of you two leaving the building, be affectionate, casual, whatever, we just need a little extra for when we put the piece together."
So after they return the tiny microphones and Payson wiped off the majority of the makeup, they walked down the hallway his arm around her shoulder, hers wrapped around his waist, towards the exit which led to one of the gardens. They milled around for a few minutes, sat on a bench, talked and laughed while the camera man got them from every angle imaginable.
Sasha leaned his forehead against hers, "This is it then. Now we focus on what really matters." He laced his hand with hers, the metal of her ring cool against his skin.
"Finally," she said, the relief obvious in her voice as she pressed a small kiss to his lips. "You and me, one last time, for the gold."