Abby threw something that thudded on the door, aptly saying that she wanted to stay in bed. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaabby. We’re going on the boat, and we need to leave in like half an hour! PLEAAASE. You can take your boy toy with you.”

Fifteen minutes later Abby was out the door, changed, and packed for a day on the boat. “Did you wake up Ian?” She asked Michael.

“Yes…while waiting for you.” Michael replied. “So what’s going on between you two anyway? Are you, like, dating? Or are you just ‘homies’”

“Oh don’t go ghettospeak, Mikey.” Abby said with a slight chuckle. “And to answer your question, I don’t know. He’s a really nice guy. But I don’t know if I want to do a long distance relationship.”

“Well, you know where he’ll be training in the fall, right?” Michael asked.

“No, where?” Abby asked. They stepped into the elevator, and she leaned against the wall while trying to get a little sleep in.

“France…Paris to be exact.” Michael replied. “He said he wanted to tour Europe for a year, but still have a home base. So I suppose he’d be touring every so often. Weren’t you going to do foreign exchange?”

Abby thought about this. “Yes, I was thinking of staying in Marseilles, or Lyon. But Paris is always a day trip away. Oh! Or I could go to Sorbonne!”

“Is that in Paris?” Michael asked as the elevator door opened to the lobby.

“Yes. The heart of it.” Abby grinned thoughtfully. “Oh, now I’m excited.”

“So that’s not long distance.” Michael said after a little silence as they headed to their limousine. Abby just looked over at her cousin and gave him a rather hearty pat on the back. “JEEZ! ABBY! You know I bruise like a peach.”

“Sorry…you remember what Bryan was like growing up, hockey player, wanted me to play with him…I had to fight back.” Abby grinned. They sat and waited in the limo until they saw Ian show up, behind him swimmers Amanda Beard, Natalie Coughlin and Aaron Peirsol, who was looking quite cozy with Amanda.

Abby was feeling quite small once everyone was in the car. The only good description for it was there was a lot of legs. The ride to the coast was long, at least two hours, not including the hour it took to get out of Athens.

The next thing Abby knew, she was being shaken. “What? Whaaat?!”

She heard Ian laugh, “We’re here, love. Come on, we’re the last ones in here.” Ian stepped out to help her out of the limo and onto the dock. “Watch it, don’t want you to be food for the fishies.” He lead her onto the boat, carrying her bag as well as his. To no one in particular, he said “I wonder if going on a Speedo boat will be a breach of contract.”

“Well you’re not wearing anything Speedo.” Abby replied.

“I’m not wearing anything at all.” Ian grinned at her. “Joking, joking. I’m wearing trunks.”

The boat floated off into the middle of the Aegean waters as the swimmers undid their outerwear to reveal their suits. Michael dove off the boat first beckoning for Natalie to jump in, who was quite apprehensive. Instead Ian dove off and tread the water. “Aaabbby…come on in.” Before he finished that sentence he saw Abby climb up to the top of the boat, which was, as Michael explained an Olympic style diving platform. “What will you do for us today?”

“Backward 1.5 pike.” Abby replied. Splashing fairly little she swam up to the top. “Okay…it was really yucky down there.”

“Abby, since when did you dive?!” Michael asked incredulously.

“Failed gymnast, remember?” Abby replied. “I got to the Junior Olympics, but you know, twisted my rotator cuff one too many times. So I played soccer instead.”

“So wait, you’re not necessarily a failed gymnast.” Ian replied. But by this time, Abby was racing Michael to a certain spot around the boat. He sighed and decided to follow.

This shindig went on for hours well into the night and continued even when they were back at the hotel. At Aaron’s suite the drinks flowed freely, and by her fourth drink Abby was already…interesting. Michael left the suite early to call his girlfriend back in Maryland, which left Ian who had one or two drinks but wasn’t feeling in the partying mood for some odd reason. He looked over at Abby who had a positively vacant stare.