Making a Splash

Mackenzie stared at her clock for the fifth time in as many minutes. She sighed as it only read 6:45. Her stomach was currently in knots and she had no idea why. There was no way she could actually be nervous for this date. But from the way her stomach felt, you would think this was her first date or something. She walked into the bathroom, checking her hair and makeup once again before walking back into the living room, taking a seat on the couch.

Before she knew it, the doorbell was ringing, and she glanced at the clock to see it was exactly seven. She had to give Ryan credit for being on time. She stood up, making her way over to the door, opening it up to see Ryan standing on the other side, wearing a blue dress shirt with a pair of jeans. Mackenzie was suddenly happy that after four other outfits, she had chosen a simple red shirt with dark, form-fitting jeans.

“Smile,” Mackenzie ordered, and Ryan furrowed his eyebrows, confused by her request. “Smile,” she repeated. “I need to make sure you held up your end of the deal.”

Ryan started laughing, showing off his white teeth, minus the silver metal. “You don’t trust me?” he questioned, feigning hurt.

Mackenzie shrugged. “I just had to make sure. So, what’s the plan for dinner?” she asked, grabbing her purse and keys and then followed Ryan out the door, locking it behind her.

“Well, I hope you don’t mind, but I actually thought we could do dinner at my house. It’s already made and sitting in the kitchen, waiting for us,” he told her as they got into his car, taking off towards his house.

“We’re going to your place?” Mackenzie inquired, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Well, if you don’t want to, we can go out somewhere,” Ryan told her. “It’s just, I really don’t want to be seen out in public without my grill.”

Mackenzie couldn’t hold back her laughter. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?” she asked. “And, if it’s that big of a deal, we can eat at your house. But, you better not try anything. There better not be any drugs or anything in the food or drink,” she joked, glancing over at him to see him smiling.

“Don’t worry, no drugs,” he assured her. “But, don’t count out me trying to get you drunk,” he smiled.

A few minutes later, they were pulling up to a nice, large house. Ryan stopped in the driveway, turning the car off. Mackenzie looked up at the house and then over at Ryan. “This is your house?” she asked in disbelief.

Ryan laughed at her reaction. “Would you like to see the inside?” he asked, opening the car door. “Or, would you prefer to stay in the car all night? Because if that’s the case, I can bring the food out to you.” Mackenzie didn’t reply, but instead she opened the door, stepping out of the car. She stared up at the house in awe, frozen in place. She suddenly felt Ryan grab her hand, pulling her towards the front door. He unlocked the door, ushering her inside.

Mackenzie was immediately met with the smell of food wafting from the kitchen. She looked around the living room and into the dining room, surprised by how nice and neat everything was. “Wow,” she whispered before she could stop the word from escaping her lips.

“You like the place?” Ryan asked her.

Mackenzie nodded her head. “This place is amazing,” she told him as she followed him into the dining room, where he motioned for her to sit at the table while he went to get the food from the kitchen.

After grabbing the last dish and setting it on the table, Ryan sat down across from Mackenzie, who was eyeing all the food. “Did you make all this by yourself?” she asked, looking over at Ryan.

“Would you be impressed if I said I did?” Ryan responded.

Mackenzie seemed to contemplate it for a moment before answering. “Yeah, I would,” she told him with a small smile.

“Well, I didn’t make it, any of it,” he admitted.

Mackenzie burst out laughing at his confession. “Well, at least you’re honest,” she told him, smiling.

“I figured with my luck that if I did lie to you and told you I cooked all of this food by myself, in an hour, you’d find the empty containers from the restaurant in the trash and I’d be caught anyways. Plus, my mother always taught me that honesty’s the best policy,” he said with a boyish grin that made Mackenzie melt.

“What makes you think I’m staying for an hour?”

“What?” Ryan asked, confused.

“You said I’d find the empty containers in an hour,” she explained. “But, what makes you think I’ll stay here for that long? I agreed to dinner and that was it. Which means whenever I’m finished eating, I’m free to go,” she said. She noticed Ryan was at a loss for words, and she smiled. “You know, I love seeing you flustered,” she laughed. “It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does happen, you’re so cute,” she told him.

“Did you just call me cute?” Ryan asked.

Mackenzie thought back to what she had just said. “Yeah, I guess I did,” she said.

“Good, because I think you’re pretty cute yourself,” Ryan said, causing Mackenzie to blush as she cut into the piece of lasagna on her plate. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” Ryan suggested.

“What do you want to know?”

“Why don’t you start with your family, where you grew up, stuff like that?”

“Okay,” Mackenzie said, taking a sip of water before continuing. “Well, I’m an only child. I was born in New York City, but my parents and I moved to Washington when I was two because the business my dad works for transferred him. And, then when I was eight, we moved to Illinois. I started really getting into swimming when I was twelve, and that’s when I first started with my coach, Jack. Jack’s swimmers mainly trained at Northwestern University. So when I was seventeen, I started training there, and I’ve been there the last seven years. Well, up until my shoulder injury,” she added sadly.

“Jack?” Ryan suddenly blurted out. “Jack Marlons?” he asked, and Mackenzie wondered what was so interesting about her coach. “Wow! He’s a damn good coach. I thought he only coached men, though.”

“Usually,” Mackenzie replied. “I’m the only girl he’s ever coached.”

“You’re special,” Ryan said, and Mackenzie knew by the way he said those words that he wasn’t just referring to the fact that Jack Marlons was her coach.

“Tell me about yourself,” Mackenzie said, trying to fight the blush that she knew was creeping into her cheeks.

“Like you, I was born in New York. Rochester to be exact,” he began. “And, then we moved down here to Florida. I have two sisters, Megan and Kristin, both older than me, and two younger brothers, Devon and Brandon. I started swimming when I was still in Rochester. My dad was actually my coach back then,” he added.

“Wow!” Mackenzie exclaimed. “Big family!”

“Yeah,” Ryan nodded. “I couldn’t imagine not having them around, either,” he told her. “What about you? Do you wish you would have had brothers and sisters or do you like being an only child?”

“You know, I never actually thought about it too much,” Mackenzie admitted. “I mean, I’ve only ever known being an only child. And, I was still around other kids a lot growing up because of swimming. I don’t know if I would change it if I could.”

Ryan smiled in understanding. He looked over and noticed she had finished eating. “So, does this mean you’re leaving now?” he asked jokingly, pointing to her empty plate, remembering her words from earlier.

“You know, I’d actually like to stay a little while longer if that’s okay with you,” Mackenzie told him.

“I’d like that.”

After watching television for a little while, Mackenzie found herself dozing off, her head lying on Ryan’s shoulder as he continued to watch the movie that was playing on HBO. As the credits began to roll, he glanced down at Mackenzie, noticing she was asleep. He tried to move ever so slightly without waking her up, but he couldn’t do it, and Mackenzie stirred awake. “Did I fall asleep?” she asked softly as she stretched.

“Yeah, you did,” Ryan said with a laugh. “What do you say I take you home?” he asked her.

“Yeah,” Mackenzie said, nodding her head. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” he said, standing up and walking towards the table to grab his keys.

Twenty minutes later, Ryan had walked Mackenzie up to her door, and he leaned his shoulder against the wall as he watched her unlock her door. After successfully opening it, she turned around to look at him. “You know, I had a really nice time tonight,” Mackenzie said honestly.

“Good,” Ryan smiled. “I did, too.”

“Now, if only I could get you to keep that metal out of your mouth,” Mackenzie commented.

“I guess that just means we’re going to have to make more deals. What about dinner on Thursday?” Ryan asked.

Mackenzie smiled in response. “I’d love that,” she told him, nodding her head.

Ryan slowly inched forward, his lips a mere inch away from Mackenzie. “Good,” he said before pressing his lips to hers. Moments later, he was taking a step backwards, leaving Mackenzie practically breathless. “So, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Mackenzie said, biting her lower lip. “Tomorrow.”

***

Skye and Mackenzie sat at a table outside, waiting on the waiter to bring them their lunch. “So, are you ever going to tell me how your date went last night with Lochte?” Skye questioned, taking a sip of her water. “I mean, that is why we had this lunch, isn’t it?”

“It was fine,” Mackenzie said vaguely.

“Okay, I’m going to need more details then that!” Skye exclaimed. “Come on! You went out on a date with Ryan Lochte. That doesn’t happen very often. I want to know the details. At least tell me if you and him kissed or not!”

“First of all, I don’t get what the big deal is with going out on a date with Ryan,” Mackenzie began. “And, why does it matter if we kissed or not?”

“Which means you did!” Skye said excitedly. “Come on, Mackenzie. I don’t have a lot of girl friends, as we’ve already discussed, so please, just make me happy and discuss your night with Lochte!”

“Fine,” Mackenzie sighed as the waiter came and delivered their food. “We had dinner at his place, and we had a nice conversation. Then, we watched a movie, and he took me back home, where he kissed me goodnight. Nothing else happened, though,” she quickly added.

“So, are you going to go out with him again?” Skye asked, smiling.

“Yeah, we are,” Mackenzie said, biting her lip. “We’re planning on going out Thursday night.”

“I’m so happy for you guys!” Skye exclaimed.

“Thanks,” Mackenzie said, laughing at Skye’s enthusiasm.