Perfection Is Just an Illusion (Swimming Upstream #1)

by Rebecca Barber

  “You mean that gorgeous young man standing out there in the cold and snow? The one whose eyes haven’t left you?” William asked, pointing to where James was standing.

  Anna looked up and saw him. He looked as incredible as he always did. James gave her a small tight smile before heading for the door. Anna turned around to thank William for making her see sense, but he was gone. Anna smiled to herself as she stood up and watched James waltz through the door. People in the café instantly recognised him. James grinned at them as if he didn’t have a care in the world as he approached Anna’s table. Without exchanging a word, they fell into each other’s arms. The customers in the café cheered and clapped as Anna blushed from head to toe. She could see everyone’s gaze following their every move.

  As much as she didn’t want to let go, reluctantly, she did. James looked at his watch, he had just less than an hour before his first race. Anna knew what he was thinking and nodded her agreement. James grabbed her suitcase in one hand and took Anna’s in the other and stepped out onto the street. Hesitating, Anna raced back inside, straight to the counter where William appeared. Anna leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everything you said.”

  “Anytime, Aussie. Anytime.” William smirked and with that Anna rushed back to James’s side.

  The taxi ride was silent. James sat with an arm tightly around Anna’s shoulders, his eyes closed, breathing steadily. Anna was so relieved to be back in the comfort and safety of James’s strong arms. They both knew everything had changed but neither wanted to acknowledge it. James and Anna both hoped that if they ignored it long enough, then it would simply go away and everything would go back to the way it was. It was every child’s false hope, and one Anna shared.

  James and Anna ran up the stairs to his hotel room. He was running out of time. Joel would kill him if he failed to show up. He threw Anna’s suitcase onto his bed. By the time Anna caught up with him, he was already stuffing his swimming gear into his bag. “We really need to talk, but I have to be at the pool in ten minutes. Can we do it after the finals tonight? I’m really sorry but there’s just no time,” James apologised, dropping everything and wrapping his arms firmly around her waist.

  “Tonight will be good,” Anna reassured him.

  “Promise you’ll be at my races. I can’t do this without you.” He looked deep into her eyes, pinning her.

  “Promise.” Anna kissed the end of his nose lightly. “Now go, you’ll be late.”

  ***

  Michael

  Diana and Michael had been at the pool for over an hour and were becoming increasingly concerned. Where was James? Why wasn’t he here yet? What could he be doing? Joel had worked himself into a frenzy. Michael had spent the early part of the morning searching for Anna but had come up empty-handed. He had his suspicions that James was still out doing the same but he had no proof. Michael held a not so secret desire for his son to find Anna rather than turn up to swim without her.

  James ran through the doors and crashed straight into Joel almost knocking him on his arse. After helping him up, James scurried into the change rooms. Joel looked up into the stands to where Diana and Michael were sitting and nodded silently. They all knew what that meant. James had arrived and everything was going to be okay.

  A few moments later, after having received her official accreditation pass, Anna clambered into the stands and sat down next to Michael. “Hi,” she cooed sweetly. She didn’t know how they would react to seeing her after everything she had put them through in the last twenty-four hours.

  “Thank God he found you,” Michael said, letting out a sigh of relief. He stood up and gave Anna a huge hug. Just then James appeared on pool deck and shot his father a disapproving look.

  “Hey! Hands off,” James called to his father. Both men’s face broke out in wide smile. Diana stood and gave Anna a hug before they all took their seats waiting for the first race to start.

  “Would you please welcome the competitors in the first race in the Manchester 2001 World Championships? The men’s four hundred metre freestyle. In lane one, representing America, Bronson Smith. In lane two, Charles Clancy, representing Britain. In lane three, Kenneth Brennan, representing South Africa. In lane four, representing Australia, James Thompson. In lane five, Jiro Takashi, representing Japan. In lane six, Ian Gray, representing Australia. In lane seven, Giovanni Van Bronkhurst, representing the Netherlands. And in lane eight, Pedro Sosa, representing Brazil,” a sultry voice boomed over the microphone system.

  It was only the heats and no one really expected anything extraordinary from anyone. This was simply a race to ensure they qualified for tonight’s final. In the men’s four hundred metres there were only four heats, each containing competitors from every corner of the globe. James had drawn heat one alone with Ian. This was the first time James and Ian had been pitted against each other at an international meet. They often raced each other at training but this time it was serious. Just as Ian knew all of James’s strengths and weaknesses, James knew his.

  They dived in and James came up stroking first and in front. This was what everyone had learnt to expect from James. To lead early and maintain that position the entire race. By halfway James held only a slender lead over Ian, but it was the back half of James’s swims where he would usually bury a competitor. At the final turn James had moved two body lengths ahead before he eased off and glided into the wall. When he spun around and looked at his time, something that was an ingrained habit, he saw that he had just broken the meet record by more than a second. James was in sensational form and now all that was left to do was wait for his competitors’ times to be registered and make sure he was in the top eight. Even eighth would secure him a place in tonight’s gold medal final.

  As it turned out, James had nothing to fear. He was safely through, ahead of all the competition by more than a second. A wave of relief flushed over both James and Anna’s faces simultaneously. In the past twenty-four hours they had overcome so much and now everything was as it should be. James was doing what he did best. Swimming. Competing. Winning. And Anna was sitting in the stands ready to stand by his side no matter what. Now that he was through to the finals they could breathe again.

  ***

  Anna

  After the heats had all finished, Anna decided that she needed some air, just to calm her nerves. Michael insisted that he accompany her for her own safety. Together they walked through the cold, damp streets of Manchester, past an oval where small kids tried to play soccer but kept tripping over their own feet, before arriving at a small church. Anna’s face lit up as she marvelled at the beautiful sixteenth century chapel’s stained glass windows.

  “Come on.” Michael smiled, grabbing her hand and leading her towards the door. “Let’s get out of this cold for five minutes.”

  Blowing on her hands to warm them, Anna didn’t hesitate to agree.

  Chapter 13

  Anna

  The old wooden doors groaned as they forced them open and stepped through. Inside the church, Anna saw a minister standing in the centre of the aisle dressed in his white robes. A tall man stood just off to his right, while a woman was standing in the second row of pews. It only took a brief moment for Anna to recognise them. James and Diana were here. As they headed down the aisle, Michael took Anna’s arm in his own and walked her slowly down as the bridal march began.

  James saw Anna and Michael walking down the aisle arm in arm and simply smiled widely. Ian appeared beside him and Joel lingered further back. When Anna reached James, Michael leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “This is your official welcome to the family.” He grinned before taking his place next to Diana.

  The minister performed a very brief ceremony in front of the intimate few. Anna knew in that precious moment all her dreams had come true. She was marrying the man of her dreams in a romantic little chapel. Life couldn’t get any better. The only thing missing was her family and fri
ends, but in that moment, Anna couldn’t summon the energy to care. Her dream had come true. She would make it up to them when she got home.

  After a short ceremony the minister announced, “You may kiss the bride.” Without missing a beat, James bent down and clasped her face in his hands. He kissed her gently before looking up to see smiling faces surrounding them. Anna reluctantly climbed out of his arms and darted over to Diana and Michael.

  She wrapped one arm around each of them and hugged them tightly. “I can’t thank you enough. For everything. Thank you for making this possible,” Anna cried on Diana’s shoulder.

  Michael smiled and kissed her forehead. “Now we officially are family,” he whispered into Anna’s ear. Despite Anna’s joy and relief, Michael saw through her act. He saw just how much she wished that her own family had been here with her. “We’ll do it all again properly once we’re home. I promise,” he reassured her, sensing tears. “Family and friends. The whole shebang.”

  ***

  James

  Anna and James strolled out of the church hand in hand. Neither of them wanted to let go, but James’s time was nearly up. He had to be at the pool within half an hour, preparing himself for his finals campaign. Tickets were sold out and James himself knew just how big the night would be. Not only did he have his individual swim in the four hundred but also, less than an hour later he had to back up and anchor the men’s relay team against the much-fancied American outfit.

  What felt like minutes later, James was changed and walking out on the pool deck to be greeted by a deafening roar. People were screaming out words of encouragement and distraction. Some waved banners while others held up photographs of him. James was a very popular personality on the pool deck. The rest of the Australian swimming team started up their war cry led by the female squad. Anna watched James as he walked out and was introduced to the crowd.

  The race started and Anna sat in silence. She couldn’t cheer, she couldn’t clap. She was frozen in her seat as she watched intently as James raced up and down the pool. Halfway through the race and he was already ahead by more than three body lengths. His nearest rival was his friend and training partner, Ian. But James was determined that this race was not going to become the one that got away. At the final turn James was more than three seconds clear and still almost half a second under his world record. He seemed to be cruising down the final fifty but when he touched the wall, he glanced up at the time and was honestly surprised by his own time. He’d been pushing hard, and as a result James had broken his own world record by one-point two seconds.

  As he climbed from the pool he stuck his arms up in the air, saluting the crowd. The English crowd was on their feet, cheering and clapping the Australian hero and New World Champion. Ian had managed to hold on to take second place, with the British swimmer Charles Clancy finishing to take the bronze. James looked over to where his parents and Anna sat. They all had wide smiles plastered across their faces. Diana and Michael were beaming with pride. James had faced hell but he had won. It hadn’t stopped him from achieving his goal. It just happened to be that on this day, James’s best was better than everyone else’s. Better by over three seconds.

  Anna’s beaming smile showed James how truly happy she was for him. She stood beside him earlier in the year when he had considered giving it all up, but thankfully she had managed to talk him out of it. James just flashed a perfect smile directly at Anna. After a quick press conference, he dived straight down into the warm pool. He had to swim the lactic acid out of his body before his next race otherwise he would cramp and be completely useless. He swam two and a half kilometres before joining his team-mates to swim the relay. It was the best team Australia could enter. James, Ian, Justin, and another swimmer from Western Australia, Tyrone. When you combined their personal best times they were only point five outside the world record and more importantly only point two three behind the arrogant Americans.

  Justin led off with a fantastic swim. He had an arm’s length lead when he touched the wall and sent Tyrone into the water. Tyrone was the slowest of the four, but he was by no means a slouch. He touched the wall barely an arm’s length behind the American. By now it was a two horse race. The Netherlands were sitting comfortably in third but trailed the Americans and the Australians by more than two seconds. Ian hit the water and went as fast as he could. Forty-seven seconds later he touched the wall on exact terms with the Yank. Now it was James’s turn to do something magical and bring it home. The crowd rose to their feet, chanting and clapping like people possessed. James came to the fifty-metre wall and was only half a length behind Jason, his American nemesis.

  The chants grew louder. The commentator was standing on his tip-toes in his booth on the pool deck. Anna gasped. She had seen James do some amazing things but even she didn’t know if James could come back from this far down. He was just too far behind. America had a strangle hold on first, but someone forgot to tell James. It was almost as if he could hear their doubts and that was enough. All of a sudden he lifted. As he pushed himself harder he passed under the fifteen-metre rope. He had clawed his way back until they were shoulder to shoulder with the feisty young American. At this point they were going stroke for stroke towards the wall. The crowd fell silent as the screen went blank. No one knew who won. Then a roar went up. Australia had done it. They had just broken America’s grip on the one race that they’d never lost. It was a race that the Americans had dominated since its inclusion many, many years ago. Now, not only were the Australians World Champions, but they’d also taken the world record off the cocky American team.

  They were ecstatic. The coaches were doing cartwheels in the stands. They embraced in a hug before turning and bowing to the crowd.

  One young lady sitting next to Anna was screaming at the top of her lungs, “James, you’re my hero. Marry me!”

  It was strange, ever since Anna and James had been together Anna had listened and laughed away comments just like this one, but now she was filled with something she’d never felt before. Jealousy. Anna felt her fist clench and for the first time Anna found herself wanting to punch someone. That had never happened before, and she didn’t like the feeling.

  The boys went over to do their press conference. As they were introduced the crowd fell silent. It was as if someone had just cut off their voices and now they were unable to speak. Justin spoke first. He told of how he wanted to get the team a good lead so he could set it up. Tyrone spoke of how his main focus was to hold his own and hope the boys could finish it off. Ian admitted that he just wanted to make sure that James hit the water on equal terms. He knew what he could do. As long as James went in at the same time as the American, he had every confidence James could pull off the miracle. He knew what James would do. Then it was James’s turn to speak.

  “I needed to finish it off for the boys. They set it up for me and I couldn’t let them down. It was a great win. I would also just like to thank the crowd for their support. We could definitely hear you out there. Especially in the final fifty, and we just hope that you will be back tomorrow night to support us again. Cheers.”

  As soon as James had finished speaking, the cheer went up. “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!”

  By the end of the night James was exhausted. He’d barely slept at all last night, tonight he had swum two races and in both races he had broken world records. Then he had to wait around for almost an hour for drug testing before he could get to Anna, who was waiting patiently in the stands.

  “You should have gone home,” he said, slumping down in the chair next to her.

  “Why is that? I didn’t mind waiting. Your parents left a while ago. They said congratulations and they will talk to you tomorrow.” James laid his weary head down in Anna’s lap. “You were amazing tonight. Congratulations,” she said, kissing his forehead lightly.

  James smiled up at her. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For being my friend. For putting up with all my shit for the past few yea
rs and for knowing me better than anyone else. I love you.” James sat up. He was staring deep into Anna’s eyes. “Let’s go home. I could use a shower.”

  Anna just laughed. “Yeah, you smell like chlorine.”

  James threw her over his shoulder. “Really? You love it.” He smirked, smacking her bum playfully as he carried her down out of the stands and out the front door.

  It was after eleven o’clock when James and Anna found their way out of the aquatic centre, and more than an hour since the competition had finished. James stupidly had thought that everyone would have already gone home, but he was wrong. The car park was still filled with television crews, newspaper reporters, and a flock of screaming girls waiting for him to appear.

  As he stepped through the door, he was still laughing and looking at Anna. They were caught up in their own exclusive bubble. “There he is!” someone screeched. James stopped dead in his tracks. Before he could comprehend what was happening, he was surrounded. Questions were being fired at him from all directions. Reluctantly he put Anna down and she instinctively stepped behind him, still clinging to his hand. Despite the gold medals and world records, most of the questions weren’t about his swims earlier but instead they focused on the woman he had just carried out of the arena.

  James wasn’t in the mood to deal with questions about his personal life. All he wanted to do was to go home, shower, and spend some quality time with his new wife.

  “James! Who’s that woman with you?”

  “Excuse me, Miss, are you from England?”

  “What’s her name? What is the status of your relationship?” One fan was even proposing to James. He was used to being interrogated about his performances in the pool, but these questions were blunt and straight to the point and some were downright rude. But worst of all they were about his personal life. James quickly became infuriated, as he wished that everyone would just leave them in peace.