More Titles ~ 9

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Chapter Nine

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The next day Anna Margaret worked. She had brought things to read and she replied to emails. Frederick texted her that Rick had a little something for Alex and asked if she could meet him while he trained.

She agreed to meet Rick in a café in town and he gave her a package. It contained the mascot and a small Olympic outfit.

“My wife made that,” Rick said proudly. “Now can we do a vlog with you?” After he had done a vlog with Frederick, he had done a few with other athletes. He was seizing every opportunity he could get. “People want to know.”

“Alex should wear this right now,” she said. “Wait.” Alex deserved to be shown and Rick’s wife deserved to have her creations shown. And Rick, while his questions were sometimes impertinent, was someone she believed she could handle.

When they were ready, Rick began. "I'm here in a café in Vaires with our prime minister Ms Rendinger and we're going to chat. How are you experiencing the Olympics so far?"

"I've not yet been out of Vaires and it’s an hour from the centre, so I don’t know what it feels like in other places. But this mini uniform Alex is wearing –“ She held Alex up. “Rick’s wife made it for him. That’s so nice. And so skilled.”

“My wife is making some for everyone’s small children until she runs out of fabric.”

“But she’s really good at it. Is she a seamstress?”

“No, we’re parttime farmers with a B&B,” Rick said with a snort. “She practised on the little B&B curtains, though.”

“But did she take a sewing machine to Paris?”

“She did. Didn’t you?”

“I don’t have one.”

"Have you seen Frederick yet?"

"Yes."

“Today?”

“You know I didn’t, because you probably came with him. I was working today, except for this little break. Yesterday.”

"How was that?"

"Good."

"Did you also meet in a café, or in private?"

"In public and in private."

"Coaches don't recommend that, usually," Rick shot back.

Anna Margaret blushed and said nothing.

"But if there's no race the day after, it might be OK," said Rick.

"I'm one of his coaches."

"Now that we share an apartment in the village, I am too. He and I have an agreement about winning medals. I don't know if I'd recommend physically draining activities."

She had regained her composure somewhat. "Cooling down."

"Is that how you call it?"

"Yes. How do you cool down in archery, Rick?"

"Not like that!"

"But I haven't said how."

"Meeting your so-called coach in private...yeah, right. Are you in a hotel?"

"No, I'm in a house with 8 in-laws."

"You mean the queen. That's great. She can watch Alex while you and Frederick analyse his race."

“I don’t do race analysis.”

“Do you understand rowing?”

“Well, it’s very simple. You need to be the fastest getting to the other side,” Anna Margaret remarked.

“But the format. Why so many races?”

“I think because conditions may vary from heat to heat, so it may not be fair to be only ranked on time.”

“But that’s a lot of races.”

“That needs a lot of training,” she agreed.

“On TV you didn’t want to say if you were actually going.”

“You have far too much time on your hands if you can watch TV.”

“Well, my wife is sewing baby outfits. She doesn’t have time to meet up.”

Anna Margaret laughed in sympathy. “Aww...”

“So, you didn’t want to say if you were actually going.”

“I said Frederick would see us, which means I was going. I merely couldn’t say where or when. That all depends on the weather and the baby, which I thought was so logical that I wouldn’t have to spell it out. It’s all outdoors. I’ve never tried to sit in public stands with a baby in the pouring rain or blazing sun before, so I really could not say if that was something I could try to do. I also didn’t know, for example, if there was a place to shelter. But people always demand certainties.”

“Maybe they think you would leave the baby somewhere else.”

“I think they think a baby is a thing. But look at him.” She looked down at Alex. “He wants to be there.”

“Do you, Alex?” asked Rick.

Alex turned his head and looked at him instead of the camera.

“No, Alex. Camera. There.” He tapped it.

Alex stretched out a small hand.

“You should use full sentences with him,” said Anna Margaret. “It’s better for his language development.”

“Maybe you don’t want that to go too fast, because I see Alex will be vlogging in no time. Best watch out,” Rick warned. “By the way, did you check Frederick for tattoos yesterday?”

“He went swimming with Alex, so that was easy.”

“In swimwear?”

Anna Margaret looked at him, trying to decide what he was after. “What other options are there?”

“There was no swimwear on our laundry line in the apartment. Did he pack swimwear then?”

“No, I packed his swimwear and it’s on our laundry line. But, er, do you have a tattoo?”

“No.”

“Would your wife object?”

“I don’t know.”

“You took more than 35 hours and you didn’t even get this checked?” She looked astonished. “Suppose you get home and you shower together and she finds a tattoo on you?”

“First, I never said I took more than 35 hours,” Rick defended himself.

“You implied it.”

“Implications are now truths? OK, Mrs Cooling Down Coach.”

Anna Margaret wisely decided not to go there. “So what will happen if you decide to get a tattoo?”

“I’d have to ask her about it first before I decided,” Rick admitted. “Because I have no idea. I don’t believe for a second that you discussed this either. You probably just looked really well when he took something off.”

“It’s a way.”

“Would it have been a dealbreaker if you’d found out after 37 hours that he had a tattoo under his speedos?” Rick looked as if he was thrilled to gain back control. “Or doesn’t one do speedo checks on a king?”

“Ideally, one doesn’t have to.”

“Because he can undress himself? Or so he said.”

“Ideally, by the time he undresses himself, you will have talked enough not to be surprised.” Anna Margaret explained. “There is a difference between a man hiding a tattoo and saying he has a hidden tattoo. When it comes to dealbreakers.”

“That’s true, I guess. So, in those 35 or whatever hours, a man should say, ‘listen, I have a hidden tattoo, so don’t be surprised if you find it after 38 hours?’”

Anna Margaret opened her mouth and waited until she spoke. “Ideally.”

“But how would he know it was a thing?”

“If you hide something, it’s a thing for you, so it’s not unreasonable to think it might also be a thing for someone else. Hiding is a thing.” She paused. “So you shouldn’t get an Olympic tattoo and then wait until your wife finds out. If you want one, you ask her where she wants to see it.”

“But your man didn’t know you were going to be his wife.”

“No, so it was very smart of him never to get a tattoo before he met me,” Anna Margaret said dryly. “And he did not get one since then either.”

“OK, so he did not resign and then you sat him down with your list to cross off any dealbreakers?”

“That sounds like work,” she said in amusement. “But no, a relationship is not a political negotiation. That’s between different parties. With a relationship you’re in the same party.”

“And how did you know?”

“Well, I saw the general framework of how he approaches life. Someone who’s fed up with pretending swings in the other direction. But he’s still attached to the framework, so there’s always a constraint in how far he can go.”

“It’s all very deep,” Rick said to the camera. “I’m too shallow for all these people talking physics.”

“My physics are flawed.” She pulled a pacifier cord from her pocket and held it up. The pacifier dangled off it. “This is a person’s default state. OK, now pull it towards one side,” she instructed, because she was holding Alex in place with her other hand.

Rick obeyed.

“That is the state under pressure to be restrained. See what happens if you release it.” The pacifier swung to the other side and back. “My physics are flawed because it stays more on the unrestrained side until it slowly falls back to the default state.”

“Good lord,” said Rick.”

“It’s still attached, so it doesn’t actually fly to the next table when the pressure is off. And if the observer is also on the restrained side, she will see the outswing for what it is.”

“I think you’re saying taking the speedos off would have been further than this thing could swing, but I’m not sure. But you could have done like Alex,” he said, when Alex seized that fun thing that was being dangled especially for him. “And just interfered in how far it could go.”

“I have the same amplitude. No need. You want the bare facts, but they simply don’t become very bare,” she said in amusement and took a second to attach the clip of the cord to Alex’ shirt.

“Do you always get it right immediately?”

“Oh, no. It was 35 hours, wasn’t it? I thought the ‘I’m going to resign’ was happening on this side –“ Her hand followed the trajectory the pacifier had taken earlier. “So I was like, ‘we’ll see when you calm down’, but the decision had in fact already been made on the other side, so it was not going to change.”

Rick was too bemused to press on. “And how is your rowing?”

“My rowing has also significantly improved since I have a husband and child,” she said, referring to the vlog with Frederick.

“He mentioned his wife multiple times.”

“I noticed the counter.” She sipped her water.

“How was your rowing before?”

“I’d never done it before.”

“But you have now? How did you do?”

“I didn’t fall out of the boat. But I haven’t tried to get to the other side yet. I was mostly practising going straight.”

“I expect he forced you into a boat during those 35 hours,” said Rick.

“He forced me to go running at zero hour minus three.”

“That’s very bad for the timeline,” said Rick.

“Why?”

“People will say you forced him to resign after he forced you to go running.”

“Oh, like that. No. I wouldn’t wait three hours to do that. If I were so inclined, it would be no running and immediate resignation. Come on, I wouldn’t wait three hours for payback.”

“But you did go running?”

“Yes, I went running. The expectation that I would not, forced me to.”

“Other people call that flirting.”

“Fine,” Anna Margaret said with a shrug. “It probably was. I was concentrating on completing the run.”

“Was there any cooling down?”

“What?” she cried, but with a laugh. “You won’t give up, will you? There were two bodyguards. I was dead. And it was not in the framework.”

Rick tilted his head as if to say that made sense. “I appreciate you sitting down with me to show us the perspective of an athlete’s wife. It’s not easy for the partners and family, because they’re not allowed in the Village and sometimes they’re relatively far away, like you.”

“Yes, I have to wait until he comes out here, really. Theoretically I could travel into Paris, but I would need to take Alex, because we are breastfeeding every two to three hours. More like two, usually. You can’t take a car into Paris, so it would have to be the train. And if I take the train, it’s only me and Alex. In theory, I could. In practice, I won’t.”

“And if you’d taken a hotel in Paris?”

“I still wouldn’t be next to the Olympic Village or the rowing course. Besides, if I’d come by train, just imagine what I’d have to drag along. The pram, the bouncer, the travel cot, and ideally a suitcase full of my gala dinner outfits, because people think I have to officially represent on a private holiday as well. But I left the dresses at home.”

Rick laughed. “I’m with you on the baby stuff. Some people just don’t realise. You forgot the car seat in case you need to take a taxi. The inflatable baby bath.”

“What? Inflatable baby bath? We’ve been using a laundry basket. But your wife must have come by car as well, because she took a sewing machine.”

“Which means she also has to travel quite a bit on public transport if she wants to come and watch.”

“I’m here on a private visit, not to work or represent, so I will avoid that if I can.”