Two Seconds

Thirty-Five & Thirty-Six

PART THIRTY FIVE

And just like that the boys were on the road and I was preparing for my next race, in Norway. It was just a little invitational, not too many big names were going to be there, but Joe and I had agreed that since I’d missed out on a few races I needed to go and get some experience.

“Got everything?” Joe asked me, as we waited for the cab to take us to the airport. I’d driven over to his place and was planning on leaving my car there for the few days we were away.

“Yup,” I said, fiddling with my phone. Even though Aston had been insistent that it wasn’t a good time to be in a relationship, he hadn’t stopped texting me or calling on occasion. In fact, it almost seemed like he was contacting me more then before.

“You are so funny,” Joe said after we’d slid into the cab.

“What do you mean?” I questioned, uncertain of what he was saying.

“You’re sitting there with your phone in your lap, clearly expecting to hear from him!”

“Am not!” I retorted.

“Ok then, who else are you waiting to hear from?”

“Maybe I’m not waiting to hear from anyone?” 

Of course my actions in the next minute betrayed me as my phone buzzed lightly in my lap and I snatched it up to see the text. I could sense Joe laughing away at me, but I did my best to ignore him.

[You off yet? xx]

“Fine, you might be kind of right,” I sighed to Joe after replying to Aston that I was in fact in a cab on my way to the airport.

“It’s ok to like him you know,” Joe told me.

“I know.”

“Do you know how he feels about you?” Joe asked.

“I mean, other than what you’ve told me… He said the other night that he’d like to ask me to be ‘more’ but because he’s on Tour it isn’t a good idea just yet.”

“And how do you feel about that?”

“What are you, my Counselor?” I asked, my eyebrow raised as I turned to take in Joe’s smirk.

“How about your best friend,” he replied, “Come on tell me!”

“Well I was a bit upset, not gonna lie,” I sighed, “I didn’t realize they were going to be away for so long.”

“Awww you miss him!”

“Maybe I do!” I protested.

“Well there is nothing wrong with that,” Joe grinned, “Just don’t forget to keep your head in the race.”

“Course Dad,” I joked.

We spent the next few hours in full on travel mode, heading off to Norway for my race. I didn’t hate the traveling aspect of my job, but sometimes it could be a bit of a pain in the ass. Especially if we were headed somewhere where no one spoke English.

We arrived two days before the race since we didn’t have to worry about trying to get used to a massive time change or anything, and settled into our hotel. I’d done my workout for the day before leaving London, so we spent the evening just chilling out.

The next day we went down to the track bright and early for one of the allotted exercise times. Because there were races going on in the afternoon we could only be down on the track for a few hours. I always liked to go for the exercise time because it was a good chance to meet up with some of the other athletes, and scope out the condition of the tarmac.