Abdul arrived to fill their water glasses, tilting the bottle toward them one after the other. “Can I get you lovely ladies something to drink?”
Angie looked expectantly at her. Hannah ordered them a bottle of wine, Angie nodding when she named a red.
When Abdul was gone Angie twisted her earring around, quickly looking away from her.
Angie’s face was thinner, and there were subtle lines around her mouth. In the intervening years, Angie had only grown more beautiful, but buried under the woman’s face were the features of the girl she had loved.
She caught the silly thought. That was not love. She’d only believed that when she was a teenager who had no way of knowing any better. Since Angie she’d been in two long-term relationships, one with a woman who trained at the same gym and another with a woman Marie had introduced her too. Both relationships had showed her what love was, even if in some ways it had always felt like something was missing. She was slow to trust, and couldn’t help blaming Angie for that sometimes.
“You okay?” Angie said softly.
“Of course,” she said, wiping her palms on her jeans. “So okay, I’ll order us a pizza and pasta to share. What do you think?”
“Sounds great to me.”
Abdul was back a moment later, taking their order and removing their menus with an assurance that they’d ordered well—the best items in the house, as far as he was concerned.
Angie sat up straighter, and she took a deep breath. “How are your folks doing? Viv and Paul? Such nice people. And your brothers? How are they?”
“They’re good. Mark’s a carpenter and Ethan’s an accountant. Mark’s married now; it’s so weird.”
“They went in different directions, huh? They always seemed so similar.” She sipped from her wineglass, then checked the label on the bottle. “This is good.”
“Glad you like it. And yep, it’s funny. They’re still very close. And how about you? How about your parents?”
Hannah had only seen Angie’s parents from a distance at races or in the photos Angie sent her. No matter the occasion, Angie’s father always wore a suit. For her mother, it was all about dresses with matching scarfs and shawls, hair never out of place.
When Angie visited Melbourne to stay with Hannah’s family all those years ago, Angie’s dad sent her over and had her picked up in a separate taxi to the one he rode in. He didn’t even try to meet Hannah and her folks. Viv commented on how strange she thought it was at the time; she would never let Hannah stay anywhere for so long without checking things out.
At the mention of her parents, the corners of Angie’s mouth turned down. She toyed with the silver pendant on her necklace, dragging the circle back and forth. “I don’t really know.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re not talking. Haven’t for years, actually.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, that must be—”
“Yeah, rough,” Angie said, reaching for her glass. “Do you mind if we talk about that another time? Kind of a long story.”
The sadness in Angie’s eyes was jarring, when she was always so cheerful. Whatever had happened with her parents must have really gotten to her.
“Of course. So, Neil’s told me the plans for the lead-up to the Games. We’ll be coming up to Brisbane in a month, right?” Hannah said.
It was the right thing to say. Angie’s melancholy dropped away instantly. “That’s the idea. I’m looking forward to working with you and the others on the relay strategy. I’m so excited about the team. It’s going to be so good. I can’t wait to see how it all comes together. It’s super interesting to be on the other side of all this. I’ve done a little coaching over the years but nothing at this level. It’s a whole different ball game. You know what I mean?”
“Can I ask you something?” Hannah’s gaze followed Abdul as he deposited a bowl of fettuccine and a margherita pizza on the table between them. “Thanks, Abdul.”
“You can ask me anything,” Angie said, transferring noodles onto her plate. “This looks great, by the way.”
“Why did you decide to join the Australian coaching team and not the American one? I mean, I’m betting you got attitude from a few of your countrymen for that decision, right?”
“Of course, I did. But I’ve reached the point in my life where I don’t care quite so much what people think. Thankfully. People think the idea of me being a coach is a joke anyway. They assume I’m just here for decorative purposes. I’m not a real coach. Oh well,” Angie said.
Hannah knew that feeling. There were plenty of people who thought she was trading on her name, cashing in on old glory. “That’s bullshit. I bet you’re a great coach. I bet you’re the kind of coach who makes people feel good about the sport.”
Angie smiled gently at her. “Thanks. Anyway, if you want to know the truth, I wanted to get away from the whole scene over there. I know too many people, it’s all so incestuous and ugh! A lot of people were upset with me over the breakup with Trent. We knew all the same people, had a lot of the same friends. Even people who barely knew us seemed to think I was some kind of witch.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Hannah said. There was no point in pretending that she didn’t know who he was. The whole world knew that Angie had married a swimmer whose fame equaled her own. “I don’t understand, though, why are people upset with you? Isn’t it kind of none of anyone’s business?”
Angie swiped the side of her water glass with a thumb, watching the pattern she was making in the condensation. “Because we should never have gotten married in the first place. It’s the biggest regret of my life.”
She broke off and sipped her water, never looking at Hannah. “Well, one of them, anyway. It was foolish. But everyone loves Trent, and I’m the one who left him.”
“Nobody owes anybody a relationship. If you knew you made a mistake, you had every right to leave.”
While she played with her glass, she was free to observe Angie’s downcast expression. It was crazy, how much she wanted to reach across the table and take her hand even though Angie had hurt her too.
There was a trail of broken hearts behind Angie, but maybe it wasn’t all her fault.
“Can I take these plates for you, ladies? And would you like to see the dessert menu?” Abdul asked.
Angie’s eyes lit up. “Split one?”
“Sure,” Hannah said, cupping her hand around her mouth. “Don’t tell anyone else on the coaching team I have no discipline.”
They dipped their spoons into the layers of tiramisu, hunched close together over the bowl. Abdul had brought them share plates, which sat ignored on the table’s edge.
“You know, if you factored in a race this would feel just like old times,” Angie said.
“Shame you hung up your bathers. We could have swum together for old times’ sake.”
“That would be fun. Man, I haven’t even been in a pool for so long. I miss it. Did you miss it, before?”
She decided that if Angie could open up, so could she. “I did. I missed it a lot, and I just knew I wasn’t done. It was like I couldn’t think about anything else. I wasn’t going to be able to move ahead with my life until I gave it one more shot.”
“I get that,” Angie said, leaning over even further. “You know what’s weird? I miss stuff I used to hate about it. I miss the smell of chlorine! Even though we used to get so upset about chlorine burns, remember that? I miss the way I’d get so hungry, it’d feel like nothing I could ever eat would be enough. Are you hungry all the time now?”
“Did you see how much pasta I just ate?” Hannah asked, patting her stomach. “You really do miss it, don’t you? Why don’t you swim then?”
“Well, I’d be so self-conscious, there’s that. I’m way out of shape, and I’d feel like everyone was watching me.”
“What about just getting in a pool for fun? You could soak yourself in that chlorine smell. It might not be the same as racing but it’s something.”
“I h
aven’t done that in so long either! Maybe I’m a little scared. Who am I kidding, I’m a lot scared. If I do that, it’ll all come rushing back. I was looking at the pool at my hotel this afternoon, just daydreaming about it.”
Hannah wiped her mouth on her napkin and threw it onto the table. “All right, that’s it. You’re going to get in right now and rip off the bandage. Look at you. You’re desperate to get in the water. It’s right there at your hotel. Why not just get in there?”
“Right now? Isn’t it a little cold for that?”
“I’m sure the pool’s heated.”
Angie beamed. “Do you want to come?”
“Someone has to make sure you actually do it,” Hannah said, signaling Abdul for the check.
Angie’s face fell. “Oh, wait. Don’t get me wrong, I love this idea, but there are a couple of problems. One, I don’t have my bathers, and two, look at the time. I bet the pool’s closed.”
“You know what that sounds like? That sounds like loser talk.”
Angie threw down her napkin so that it landed next to her on the table.
“That’s it. Nobody calls me chicken. Let’s do this.”
Chapter Eleven
Angie was staying at The Albany, one of the classic buildings on the edge of Melbourne’s Central Business District. It was close enough to travel to on foot, and they walked briskly through the streets. She was humming a tune Hannah didn’t recognize. They passed a church with spires reaching toward the sky. Two grizzled older men sitting on the steps paused in their conversation to wave at them.
“This is such a beautiful city,” Angie said. “It’s got a really nice vibe. I like it a lot.”
“I know. I love it. Never thought about moving. I haven’t even asked you where you’re based these days when you’re not coaching? I mean, when you’re not here because of the Games?”
“Nowhere right now. After I retired from swimming I had this nice little Spanish bungalow in California that I lived in for a while, but I sold it because I was never there. For a few years I was picking up advertising and commentating work wherever I could get it. But now I’m footloose and fancy-free. I’ve got a lead on some work for when I get back to America, but I haven’t nailed anything down yet.”
“That’s an awfully clever way of saying you’re homeless.”
Angie shoved Hannah hard enough to make her stumble. She cackled, righting herself.
Should she be worried about how quickly they were falling into their old dynamic? She dismissed the thought. They were old friends having a little fun. Tonight was about trying to recapture what it felt like to be teenagers, that was all. When they were younger, they’d only felt free to be silly like this with one another.
“Come upstairs? I’ll get us some towels,” Angie said.
“Whoa wait, who said I was getting in the pool? I meant I’d come with you and watch. I don’t miss the water! I just got out of it a few hours ago. Too much water,” Hannah said, shaking her head.
Angie curled her fingers around Hannah’s bicep. “Are you kidding me? We’re breaking into a pool, and if I get caught, I don’t want it to be on my own!”
“Oh, so you want to take me down with you?”
“You bet I do. C’mon.”
Soon they were at the side of the gated outdoor pool, underwater lights casting a blue glow through the water. They quietly let themselves in through the gate, Hannah pointing at the sign affixed to it, which said the pool closed at eight.
Dim lights circled the fence, and there were deck chairs along the sides. From here, they could hear sounds of horns and cars rushing by, but there wasn’t a soul around.
Angie dumped the fluffy white towels onto one of the deck chairs and unfastened the strap of her shoe.
“Rookie mistake,” Angie whispered, stumbling as she pulled off a heel. “I should have left these up in my room so I could run faster if anyone busts us.”
Hannah sat on a deck chair to slip her shoes off, tugging her socks down and balling them together. It was only now occurring to her that she was going to be traveling home in sopping wet clothes. No taxi driver was going to let her get into their cab; she would have to climb into a tram like a drowned rat. That was the thing about being spontaneous. You had to clean up the mess afterward.
When her feet were bare and she turned back to Angie, it took a moment to register what she was seeing. Her coat and the emerald dress were pooled on the ground, kicked away along with her shoes. She looked back excitedly at Hannah and then put one hand across her lacy white bra and the other over her underwear.
“Aaaaand…I can see by your face that you did not expect me to do that. Do you want me to put it back on? I just thought that…I assumed? I wasn’t about to get in the pool with that dress on. The chlorine would ruin it forever. Oh wow. I’m so embarrassed.”
Hannah shook her head, smiled dumbly and looked away from Angie’s thighs. Angie’s hands weren’t doing anything to cover her toned stomach either. With a glance, Hannah had seen the curve under her navel, the lovely slope down to her pelvis.
Abruptly, she threw off her jacket and pulled her shirt over her head. “You know what? It’s not that big of a deal. It’s not so different from wearing a swimsuit, right?”
“Exactly,” Angie said, her gaze dipping from Hannah’s face. There was no reason for Hannah to put any thought into what she wore under her clothes tonight. Thankfully she’d worn a simple black set that wouldn’t be made transparent by the water.
The crisp night air prickled her skin. She carefully folded her clothes and laid them on the deck chair, pushing down self-consciousness. As she’d just said, people saw her in her bathers all the time, and this wasn’t so different. A splashing sound told her that Angie was already in the pool. When she spun around, Angie was treading water and looking up at her. She was pushing wet hair back from her face, already having ducked under the water.
“Come in! It’s so nice and warm in here. They must leave the heat on overnight.”
Hannah made a grand entrance. She cannonballed, her heart leaping when her body smacked against the pool’s surface. When she came up for air, Angie swam toward her, giggling.
“This is amazing. Thank you so much for encouraging me to do it.” She pushed water back and forth, watching it sluice over her hands.
“No problem. A little light breaking and entering never hurt anyone.”
“Technically we didn’t have to break anything. This place was wide open.”
“True.”
Angie floated on her back, looking up at the sky. “Wow, those stars.”
Hannah glided nearer to take in her expression. “What does it feel like, being in the water again?”
“Like I don’t know how I could stand being out of it for so long? Lie down with me?”
Hannah floated next to her.
“It’s so nice spending time with you again,” Angie said. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”
Why did Angie say things like that? She was the one who’d ruined their relationship, and destroyed any chance of a friendship.
“Yeah. It’s nice,” Hannah said.
Now there was no sound but the movement of water when they kicked or changed position. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken the time to appreciate the night sky. The stars were beautiful.
“Did you like coaching? Will you be going back to it when this is all over?”
She had put little thought into the future beyond the next six months. Everything was tied up in reviving her swimming career.
“I guess so. I couldn’t ask my boss to hold my job open or anything, but I do like it. I like helping kids and getting their confidence up in the water. Sometimes I think I’d like to explore something completely different, though. I’ve always been good with numbers and planning, stuff like that. I’ve considered doing something in business, but I’m not sure. You know Marie, my friend? She works as a consultant for restaurants, and I thought something like
that would be interesting. But it’s hard to pick a path.”
“I think you could be good at a lot of different things.”
“What about you? What are your plans? Are you going to keep coaching or go back to the advertising stuff?”
“I won’t be coaching forever, no. I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up, like, at all. I’ve got ideas, but right now they seem like pipe dreams. I don’t even know where I want to live.”
A sideways glance revealed Angie rising out of the water, her wet white bra leaving little to the imagination.
“You’ll figure it out, I’m sure,” Hannah said. She rolled onto her stomach and opened her eyes, letting the chlorine sting them. It was going to be weird trying to explain this to Marie tomorrow. Maybe she’d leave out the part about being half-naked; she could almost hear Marie shrieking about it.
She stood in the water, then walked up and down the length of the pool. Up in the hotel, there were lights on in many of the rooms, making the dark ones look like missing teeth in a giant mouth. If anyone could see them down here, they weren’t snitching.
“What are you thinking about?” Angie said.
She looked back over her shoulder at Angie. She was standing now, and it took all of Hannah’s willpower not to stare at her chest.
“Nothing. Just wondering how the papers would report this if we got caught.”
“Imagine the headlines…screw them. We can do whatever we want.”
“Yeah,” she said. Though she didn’t believe it, it felt good to say it. “Whatever we want!”
She swam to the side, leaning back against the concrete wall behind her and spreading out her arms. From here she could see both the stars and the neon lights on city skyscrapers.
“You’re not getting out, are you?”
“Nope.” She kicked her legs so that they drifted in front of her.
“Good. I’m not quite ready for this to end.”
Their eyes met, a wordless beat between them. Angie swam toward her, pushing hair back from her face again. She’ll stop now, Hannah thought, and she said it to herself once more when Angie was only a few feet away. And then Angie was so near, moving between her legs and standing right in front of her.
Running Deep Page 8