Matchpoint

by Gus Ralthocco

  “Really?” asked Diego. He couldn’t detect any hard feelings between his mom and Marina. In fact, they looked at one another and shared a laugh.

  “Of course. I had to make sure I knew who I was trusting my son with, and I’m glad I didn’t make a mistake.” Roberta looked from Marina to Caio and then turned to Diego. “I wanted to see you happy and playing the sport you love. There were twists and turns along the way, and I’m sure it was a bigger change than you expected, but you make me proud with how much you’ve grown in the past two years.”

  Caio curled a hand around the nape of Diego’s neck, and elation unfurled inside his chest. Caio brought him closer, and Diego could imagine how the two of them looked at that moment.

  “I’m glad I got to chance to play with him,” Caio said. Diego could feel the vibrations of his words, so close he was to Caio’s chest. “I thought I wouldn’t get to be at the Olympics again, much less fighting for a medal. But Diego surprised me. He’s incredible. I can’t imagine not having him beside me. So thank you for believing that we could make something great together.”

  Diego tried his best not to look at Caio, because he wanted to kiss him. But to save the day, Marina cleared her throat and broke the heavy spell between the two.

  “The ice cream is melting with all that talk,” she said.

  The table laughed, and they went back to savoring their snacks. Soon the conversation dissolved into topics that had nothing to do with their personal lives.

  But Caio never moved his arm away from where it was.

  At some point Diego leaned his back into Caio’s side. He could smell that the two of them needed a shower, but he was used to that.

  The table fell into a comfortable lull in the conversation by the time they were done eating. Spending moments with the family was the best thing to get away from the pressure of the competition, because as soon as they got back to the village, that feeling would take over.

  When they were done, Marina insisted on giving them a ride to the village over the protests of Diego’s parents.

  “We could drive them to the gates,” Roberta reasoned while she hugged Marina goodbye. “You know it’s not a problem.” She moved on to Alice.

  “I know, but I still have some stuff to talk to them about training tomorrow. You guys are free to go and see the city. No need to lose this chance because of us,” she told them.

  “Well, if you insist.” Roberta laughed.

  When she went on to hug Caio, Júlio engulfed Diego in a hug. “You two take care, all right?” Júlio lowered his voice, the words almost inaudible.

  “Yeah, Dad. We will.”

  “I love you, son.” His father kissed him on the side of the head.

  “Love you, too.” He squeezed his father between his arms, enough so that Júlio groaned in pain and then laughed as Diego released him.

  When his mother came to him, her eyes were alive and happy. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said as she brought him close to her.

  “Yeah, Mom.”

  “Be safe,” she advised in his ear, and Diego was glad he could look the other way because his cheeks warmed up again.

  When his parents left, Diego felt as though a weight had lifted off his shoulders. He knew they would never say anything about his choices in life, because they weren’t inherently bad or ill-advised. But having their blessing, wordless as it might be, seemed to be what he wanted and needed at the moment.

  On the way back to the village, Marina didn’t have anything important to discuss with them. In fact, they never even touched on any important subject and mostly just talked about mundane things.

  Marina found a place to stop the car a block away from the gates to avoid the constant traffic in front of the village. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow, all right? Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

  Diego huffed out a laugh but looked away from her to say his goodbyes to Alice.

  “There’s not much you won’t do,” Diego heard Caio say to his sister.

  “That’s exactly what I meant.”

  “Goodbye, Princess Jellyfish.” Diego leaned down to kiss Alice on her forehead, and she wound her small arms around his neck and pet his hair.

  He released her so Alice could turn to her father, and Diego opened the door to get out. A minute later Caio joined him.

  Marina drove away with a honk, and then it was just the two of them. Side by side they quietly made their way to the gates of the village. Diego’s right hand was almost touching Caio’s left as though they wanted to touch and wrap their fingers around one another but refrained at the last moment.

  They were taking one step at a time.

  As the gates came into view, Diego noticed a couple of photographers taking pictures of the athletes coming in and out. When they saw Caio and Diego, they turned those cameras their way.

  It was a good thing they weren’t holding hands.

  “Do you have anything to say about the video, Caio?” one of the reporters asked, rapid-fire.

  “Do you know who leaked it?” the other asked. They both were speaking perfect Portuguese, so they might have been from the Brazilian press, although Diego didn’t know them.

  “I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Caio said, his voice hesitant, but his face was almost an emotionless mask. He kept walking, which kept Diego from asking what the reporters were talking about.

  “Didn’t you know you were being filmed?” Another question came at them, but thankfully they were right at the gates. Inside the village they’d be protected from that.

  Diego could see surprise in Caio’s eyes and panic at being bombarded by those questions.

  “You have any idea what they’re talking about?” Diego asked, dread forming in his chest, but Caio shook his head.

  Right then, Caio’s phone buzzed with the sound of an incoming message. They stopped in the middle of the village plaza as Caio took his phone out of his bag.

  He tried not to intrude on Caio’s privacy, but Diego was anxious as Caio unlocked his screen and checked the message. He pressed play on a video on his phone, and his features went from surprised to disappointed and then sad.

  Caio’s eyes filled with tears, and he put a hand on his mouth.

  Without a word, he let Diego see it.

  In the silent video, Caio was sucking on someone’s hard cock, and he looked like he was enjoying it. From what Diego knew of him, that would be a very intimate moment, not meant to be shared with anyone else, and although the front-row view of that was fascinating, Diego’s feelings changed from interest to disgust… and rage.

  Diego had an inkling of who might be the one behind the video, especially knowing what happened in Caio’s past. And he could imagine who was behind the camera.

  Diego paused the video, not wanting to know how it would end.

  He gave back Caio’s phone and then stepped closer to him. Caio had tried to dry his tears.

  Without saying a word, Diego pulled Caio toward him, and they embraced in silence. He wasn’t sure how to act, and he could only imagine what was going through Caio’s mind right then.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “PLEASE, don’t let Alice see it,” Caio pleaded on the phone, his voice as tired as his body. The rest of the apartment was empty, and Caio was glad they were alone, because he had no idea what he was going to do if he saw Adônis right then.

  “I won’t, don’t worry. I’m sure it’s going to blow over in a few days, weeks perhaps?” Marina sounded unsure, and Caio could only imagine what awaited him outside. “We can get in touch with the family lawyer, if you want.”

  “No… I don’t know.” Caio shook his head and lifted his eyes to where Diego was watching him with a worried expression. Diego came to him and sat on the bed right at his side. “I don’t want to turn this into a show. I just want it to go away.”

  “But we have to do something about it, Caio. Someone can’t just go around and do stuff like this. It’s one thing
to stoke a rivalry between teams, it’s another to leak private stuff with intent to hurt you.”

  Caio knew she was right, but he’d rather just forget about it, although the images were burned in his brain. That video should have been long gone, and Caio thought it was, but now the most sordid gossip mags had it as a headline. Caio could see that as Diego perused some of those sites.

  “Can we at least wait until the Olympics are over?” he asked. “If you want to contact our lawyer, go ahead, but I just—” Caio sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face.

  They were so close to the end of the competition that Caio wasn’t sure anything else could happen. He’d hoped that this experience at the Olympics would be different from the last one, but it seemed like he couldn’t catch a break.

  “I’m going to talk to Mrs. Marinho. And when we get home, we can decide what to do, all right?” Marina’s voice was much more gentle than usual.

  She sighed on the other end of the line, and Caio couldn’t say another word.

  “Alice is coming out of the shower, so I’ve got to go. But I love you, right?”

  “I love you too. Take care of her for me.”

  He finished the call before he heard his daughter’s voice. Caio wasn’t sure if he could talk to her right then.

  He was ashamed at the idea of people seeing him like that, not that he had any choice in the matter, of course. He threw the phone on the nightstand, and then let his body fall to the bed, face to the ceiling.

  Diego leaned over him and looked into his eyes. “What do you want to do?” he asked.

  Caio wasn’t sure how to answer. He moved aside on the bed to make space for Diego and patted down the covers for Diego to lie down next to him.

  Turning to the side, Caio wrapped Diego in his arms and brought him close. He didn’t want to talk or let his thoughts mess with his head. He just wanted to be with Diego, but he was afraid Diego would push him away.

  Caio was selfish for once. But he shouldn’t have worried. Diego wound his arms around him.

  “Do you think I deserve this?” Caio asked, too many emotions behind those words.

  Diego shook his head. “No. Never. You might have trusted the wrong person, but you never did anything to deserve this.”

  “But he still did it anyway.” Caio tried to bury his nose in Diego’s hair, to drink him in so he could forget about everything else, but it wasn’t that easy.

  “You know who it is?” Diego asked.

  Caio nodded. Only one person had that video. And somehow, Caio couldn’t fathom the idea of anyone else doing that to him. Caio knew what Adônis was capable of. He knew how fast Adônis had spun those stories about their relationship so he could garner special attention from the Fed in the past. Caio never expected him to do something like this, but that’s where they were.

  “I wish I didn’t let Adônis film us doing it.” Caio sighed.

  “Are there more of those?” Diego asked reluctantly.

  Caio pressed his lips tight, afraid Diego wouldn’t like the answer. He tried to look away. “Adônis liked doing them. And I went with it because it felt good,” Caio admitted. “Who knows what else he’s got. At this point….” Caio shook his head.

  It wasn’t dark out yet, and they hadn’t had a meal since the ice cream that afternoon. Caio’s stomach was unsettled, though, and he wasn’t sure food would help. He wanted to just bury his head under the bed and never come out.

  The worst thing was that the video would likely never disappear, and anyone could see him in one of his most intimate moments. Caio wasn’t ashamed of who he was—far from it—but he didn’t like to give away so much of himself, and now he had no choice.

  He felt like crying, and some tears escaped his eyes.

  Diego hurried to wipe them off with his fingers and brought Caio’s face close to his.

  “You know nothing is going to change between us. I’m with you no matter what. If you said you wanted to go home right now, I’d do it, you know?” He paused, and Caio could see how it pained him to say that.

  Caio shook his head because that wasn’t what he wanted to do. After all the work they had put in to get where they were, it wasn’t fair to him, to Diego, or to anyone who had supported them.

  “If you want to go out there and train tomorrow, play the game the day after, I’ll be there for you. And we’re going to win, no matter what happens. We’re not going to let them take this away from us. We’re not going to—”

  Diego stopped when the door to the apartment opened.

  The two of them looked toward the living room, but it was impossible to see anything from where they were on the bed. Caio jumped up, not listening to what Diego said, his words lost in the air.

  He felt a deep need to confront someone, to see Adônis face to face, to hear him admit to what he’s done, just to have confirmation that he wasn’t wrong about who Adônis was… maybe ask him why he did it.

  But Adônis wasn’t the one in the room. It was Elton, closing the door after himself. As Caio approached him, the guy looked down to his feet, and shame and guilt came off him in waves.

  Caio stopped in front of him, and for a moment he stayed where he was, breathing in and out to control the turmoil raging inside.

  “I didn’t have anything to do with it.” Elton looked up as he pleaded his case. The effort to speak seemed to take a toll on him. He just about confirmed Caio’s suspicion. “I tried to tell him not to do it, but….” Elton shook his head. “I’m sorry. I really am.”

  Their eyes met, and Caio believed him.

  “Why should we believe you?” The question came from the other side of the room, and Caio and Elton turned to see Diego leaning against the wall.

  For a moment Elton was at loss for words. Then he bit his lip, his eyes unfocused, and he centered his gaze on Caio.

  Elton shook his head. “I just wanted to—” He stopped himself, as though he couldn’t reason with what his partner did. His hand came up to cover his lips, and Elton sagged against the door.

  “You wanted to…?” Caio urged it to come out.

  “I never wanted to hurt anyone, but a part of me just wanted to win, no matter what. I thought if we got onto the podium, Adônis would finally come out. And maybe I’d get to do it too,” he admitted. Caio could see how truthful those words were because they seemed to hurt Elton when he said them. “I’ve been living a lie ever since I partnered with him, and I just hate it,” he spat. His eyes welled up, but Elton didn’t let the tears fall.

  Caio sensed Diego getting close to him, and his arm wrapped around Caio’s waist. Diego leaned his head on Caio’s shoulder.

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Diego said. “But that doesn’t give anyone the right to destroy someone’s life, does it?”

  Elton shook his head. He hit it against the door a couple of times.

  “I don’t know how I’m going to look him in the face,” Elton murmured resentfully.

  Caio didn’t know if he should be making the guy feel better, but they had all been in the same boat once, rushing to get out.

  The energy in the room was heavy, because they weren’t friends or enemies now. They were just victims of the same system of oppression.

  “Well…. Hm, what do you say about getting dinner with us?” suggested Diego to the room at large, and as soon as he did, Caio twisted his head to look at him. A protest almost fell out of his mouth, but Diego stopped him. “I can go down and get some takeout. You don’t need to go with me,” he said, which was exactly what Caio wanted.

  “Aren’t you guys mad at me?” Elton asked, a sudden naiveté appearing in his eyes.

  “Would it change anything to say I am?” asked Diego, answering for Caio. “We might as well stop something before it starts, because it won’t lead anywhere.”

  “He’s not coming here, right?” Caio asked.

  Elton shook his head, but he seemed to still be hiding something. When Caio and Diego stared at him for another few secon
ds, he opened his mouth again.

  “The president paid for his room at a hotel. He came to get all his stuff from here in the afternoon.”

  At that, Caio opened his mouth in surprise. “And you didn’t go with him?”

  Elton shrugged. “I couldn’t do it. And this is going to be my last night in the village, because I’m not playing the game anymore. I’m withdrawing from the competition.”

  “What?” Caio and Diego said at the same time.

  “How did they take it?” Diego added.

  “They don’t know yet,” Elton said. “I’ve only talked with the officials from the competition so far. I applied for a withdrawal myself. I didn’t even tell my coach about it, but I don’t think he’s going to be against it. I speak for a lot of people when I say we’re tired of them—Adônis, the prez, all that talk about money.”

  “Money?” Diego asked.

  “Why do you think we’re the favorites for the prez?” Elton shook his head. “I heard him talking about his gambling on our results, and I tried to keep away from all of that. I’m not sure how much Adônis is involved in it, but even if he is, this goes beyond our team and our sport.”

  It wasn’t a surprise that corruption existed in sports, much less from a country like Brazil.

  Caio was stunned into silence.

  “It’s all falling apart, just like they wanted it to.” Elton was on the verge of tears.

  And Caio knew well how he felt. He’d lost the gold medal because his partnership with Adônis imploded before the final, and now he was seeing it happen again, and getting caught in the crossfire would hurt.

  “My parents don’t know yet. And they couldn’t even come to watch us.” Elton shook his head. A tear fell from his eye, but he sniffed and tried to keep more at bay.

  There was so much raw emotion in Elton’s face that before Caio knew, he stepped close and put his arms around him.

  “Sorry it had to happen like this,” he told Elton, who nodded.

  Their hug was nothing like how it felt between Caio and Diego, but they were all kindred spirits. They were going through similar things, just not at the same time. While Caio and Diego had already come out, and their careers were different because of it, things were the way they were.