Oh how Ian relished five a.m. practices. Donning his swim cap, he took a deep breath before he started with a 1000m warm up. He did his whole series, 200s, 400s, each stroke, twice before finally doing an 800 cool down. It was now 8 a.m.

A steam room and one shower later, Ian took to the locker rooms. He sleepily managed to get his boxers on and was haphazardly trying to get his leg through his shorts when he was interrupted. "You might wanna be awake to do that, you might, you know, lose all future generations by falling on that bench right there."

"What?" Ian asked, finally getting his shorts on. "Oh, hi Michael."

"You were looking a little sleepy, did you have a hard work out?" Michael asked as he was putting his warm ups away and grabbing his swim cap and goggles.

"Nah, spent too much time in the steam room. The work out was fantastic." Ian replied.

"Oh…before I go, you need to find Abby. All morning before my race all she could talk about was you. I mean, come on it's not exactly the best pre-race stuff to hear." Michael said, the slight irritation in his voice.

Ian, who wasn't facing Michael, was grinning cheekily from ear to ear. "Well what did she say, in particular?"

"I don't know, I stopped listening, especially after she said something about underwear." Michael said. "Well…I'm off. I've gotta do a cool-down." With that Michael put on his headphones and walked off to the pool.

Ian made his way back to the hotel, sunglasses on to brace for the blazing Mediterranean sunshine. Dropping his stuff off at the hotel, he needed to find a place for breakfast. As he entered the hotel lobby, he found a rather miffed Abby and an unrelenting Aaron Peirsol. "Not even out for coffee?"

"Aaron…to make things clear to you...you're just not my type." Abby answered. "You're cute…just, not my cute."

"Ah come on give me a try." Aaron said, putting on a grin.

Ian chuckled to himself, `At least he's persistent.' He walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Mate, the sheila said no."

"Oh, hi Ian." Aaron replied. "Well…I guess I'll listen to the Thorpedo, or else he might give his teammates more reason to try and catch me." He winked at Abby who returned the look with a face of disdain.

"Thanks." She replied. "I thought he'd never leave. Nice guy…just…"

"Not your type. I know, you said that." Ian snickered. "Come on, I just got back from my work out, and I'm famished. Maybe today we can go sightseeing. I've always wanted to see the Colosseum!" Instead of correcting him, Abby slapped her forehead and took out her wallet so that she was ready to purchase a book on the historical sites of Ancient Greece…not Rome.

Later once they settled chose a local bakery outside of the village. While waiting in line, Abby asked "Please tell me you weren't serious about seeing the Colosseum."

Ian grinned at her. "I was wondering when you'd correct me. Michael told Lenny, and he told Aaron, who in turn was overheard by Matt Welsh, who told me, just today after I brought up your name, that you have a habit of correcting people."

"That was the longest game of telephone I have ever played in my life. Let's not play that again." Abby said, looking at him oddly. She looked at the storeowner to place her order, and in broken Greek she asked for a quarter of a pound of baklava. Once she finally understood that he didn't sell in pounds, she asked Ian for a conversion.

Ten minutes later they walked out of the store with their baklava. "My personal favorite moment is when you told the owner that you would like your baklava in a stool sample."

"How was I supposed to know that the word for box and stool sample were just two consonants different?" Abby asked, opening up her box. "And don't mock the baklava…it'll hear you."

Ian laughed before he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. "Wait…we haven't eaten yet."

"Well spotted." She grinned. "I just wanted to buy authentic baklava. I was going to have breakfast at the hotel." Ian looked at her incredulously before following her back to their shuttle.

"You could've told me before we walked 3 kilometers." Ian groaned.

"Oh, come on…you're an Olympian! Suck it up." Abby replied. "Michael's like this whenever we have to go Christmas shopping. And now I can tell him he's gotten 6 medals at the Olympics, and that he should shove it."

As they found their seats in the hotel restaurant, they were each handed papers. Ian, a paper from Sydney, and Abby a paper from Hartford CT, where she and her parents live. They went silently through the paper up until Abby read a certain article that read: "Let's not forget about the guys. Swimmers Ian Thorpe and Michael Phelps are hottie poster boys, with their nearly sprayed-on body suits and obliques-revealing hot pants."

". . . But it's not just the Olympic observers who have sex on the brain. The Olympians themselves, perhaps fueled by Greece's storied erotic nature or even the perfection of their own flesh, are prepared for love among the rubins. Condom manufacturer Durex has donated 130,000 condoms (as well as 30,000 tubes of lubricant) to the Olympic village. The 17,000 athletes and officials can help themselves to as much as they need.

"Go slow, Olympians, we don't want a repeat of the Sydney Games where condom supplies ran short and 20,000 additional condoms had to be rushed to Australia." (This is an actual article from the Hartford Courant)

Abby looked up at Ian and back down at the article. "Ian…"

"Hmm?" He asked while looking up from the latest cricket scores.

"Did you know that Durex has donated 130,000 condoms and 30,000 tubes of lubricant to the Olympic Village?" Abby asked. She found it rather difficult seeing as she didn't know whether to laugh or not.

"Oh yeah, we got a pack of ten and two bottles of lube along with all the other free stuff." Ian said nonchalantly.

"Yes…but have you used it?" Abby asked. "Eewwww. Michael's got this too!!" She made a weird face as she stirred her coffee.

"That will remain confidential." Ian replied, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh gross." Abby said with a face as the waiter came and served her a plate with English muffins, jam and hashbrowns.

"I'm kidding, I haven't used them. Sex messes up my swim." Ian answered matter-of-factly. "But…now I'm done, so maybe I'll…"

"Shh, don't finish that sentence. Please, I want to enjoy this English muffin without having to think about…" Abby didn't finish. "Wait…the article says 20.000 condoms were emergency shipped to Australia."

"What can I say?" He grinned cheekily.

"I am going to put jam on these English muffins and I'm going to eat them, and enjoy them." Abby said, focusing on her breakfast.

"If we hurry, we can catch rhythmic gymnastics." Ian grinned. "Grant tells me that that's when he uses---"

"My these hasbrowns are delicious!" Abby yelled for the whole restaurant to hear. After an awkward silence and a meek smile to the other patrons, the two laughed their way through their breakfast.