[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Writers Note: The first person who correctly identifies the right placement of the incorrectly pasted line that showed up in Part 4 (earlier post) wins a purple face icon...lol"

Zach slept like a baby. He fell asleep while we were studying and talking, mostly talking. He was laying on his stomach reading his Chemistry book, wearing nothing but this really cute pair of forest green boxer briefs. I wasn’t really a boxer brief guy, or even boxers for that matter, but if Zach was wearing them, well they just looked cute. I was telling him about Scott between reading and when I looked over he was face down in his book and he sound asleep. It was late and I knew he did not have any tests the next day, so I quietly got up and went over to his side of the room. I gently slid the book out from under his face and laid his head on the pillow. I grabbed his sheet, which he had bunched up at the end of the bed and pulled it up over his shoulders and gave him a gentle kiss on the back of his head. He mumbled something incoherent. I shut off his reading light and slipped back to my bed and crawled in.

It was an awesome workout. Joe and I were the only ones in the pool. In fact, when I got there, the whole pool was empty. “It’s always like this on Friday” Pete the lifeguard said. “Guess people are gearing up for weekend drinking.”

“You’d think that would make them get here, get a good swim in before the beer.”

Pete wasn’t in his tower seat since no one was there. Even he was dressed more relaxed, not in his red guard shorts and T-shirt. He had on this really tight fitting shirt and a pair of soccer shorts. Pete really was a muscular guy.

“What’s with the outfit?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah, my guard stuff was dirty. Wasn’t suppose to work today, but Mark called me late and he has a big exam today.”

“You should have worn a Speedo” I said smirking, a bit joking, but mostly serious.

“Got that on under, always do” Joe said. And with that he pulled down the side of his short to reveal a solid red suit.

“That would look more guard-like, at least it’s red” a big grin as I said it. I'd love to have seen what he looked like in just his red briefs.

Pete got up in the tower seat, “Need to be here to spot you floating on the bottom,” he jabbed back at me.

“Might need to,” I said. “I am going for a straight hour swim, today. Maybe more."

I dove in, kind of a off the block start, despite the rule saying you can’t dive. I had on a real bright black and gold print Speedo. I really love bright color suits. “This one is going with me to the beach” I thought as I put it on. It also felt so awesome on. Sometimes you get a suit that just feels incredible when you are wearing it like a well fit pair of jeans. This one was one of those suits. I thought it looked hot on me and I felt hot wearing it.

“You were in your zone” Joe said to me as I leaned on the wall. I had just finished 80 minutes of straight swimming. I lost count of laps somewhere around 70, but figured it had to have been well over 100. I had never swam non stop that long before. I was kind of worried about it before I started, but it was really cool. I just locked in a pace and went. After a while I just had time to think. I thought about Scott for quite a bit of the swim, about Zach, about my Economics paper, everything.

“That was awesome,” I said to Joe. “Never done that, now I know why you like it.” Looking back, it was on this morning that I began my transition from short event swimming to wanting to do open water.

“No, I do it because I am old” Joe said.

Friday’s were great. I didn’t have classes on Friday this semester. It was hard to work my schedule that way, but it was worth it. I never missed classes for swim meet travel, which was almost always on Friday, and if we were not traveling I had three day weekends. With no class, Joe and I hung out in the pool right to the end. Well, I should say the hot tub.

“You must have lots of swimsuits?’ Joe half asked and half stated. “You’ve worn a different one every day.” Joe had on the same blue and gold Tyr he wore every day.

I blushed. “Yeah, I have this thing about suits, I guess.”

“How many?”

“Oh I don’t really know, quite a few, some of them are at home” I avoided a direct answer. I think I was up to about 30 at this point. I had at least 15 between my dorm room and swim locker. “I wear them a lot, between swimming and stuff”

“Well, if I was as young and handsome as you, I’d wear them all the time, too.” he smiled. “You must have to chase off the girls.”

“Not really,” I said back. “I’m not much into girls right now, with swimming and all.”

Joe didn’t bat an eye. Our conversation meandered all over the spectrum of topics, from swimming to classes to growing up. Talking to Joe felt like talking to my dad, with whom I had a great relationship (despite the times he pushed me to date some girls). Joe was a diver in college, which I found fascinating. I admire the diver guys, as I have mentioned before. Joe confided that he lived alone “in an assisted retirement place.” He had never married, but he said he lived with a long time friend for over thirty years, “but he was gone now.” Swimming was his highlight.

“I look forward to tomorrow all day after I leave here,” Joe said. “I come watch most of your team’s meets, especially the divers…… and now I will cheer you”

I was sitting up on the side of the spa, my feet in the water. Joe made me blush with his cheer comment. His eyes kept fixed on me. Not a creepy fix, more a sincere fix. Like a grandfather watching his grandson fishing. I felt sad for Joe. Despite his enthusiasm for swimming, I guessed he was really lonely. I smiled back at him.

“Hey guys, sorry to bust your bubble, but I get the pool ready for the swimming class.” Pete said. We were again the only ones there. As Pete went about his stuff, Joe and I climbed out, grabbed our goggles off the bench and headed into the locker room….

To be continued....