AFTER THE FALL

People assume that falling on my butt at the Olympic Games is the worst thing that has ever happened to me. But those people are wrong.

Yes, my fall off of the uneven bars, my best event, hurt my pride and my chance at an individual gold medal. But it’s my broken heart that hurts the worst. And all because of Marcus Scott.

I was just fourteen-years-old the first time I laid eyes on Marcus. He was nineteen, a senior men’s national gymnastics team member and too old to pay any attention to me, a junior on the women’s squad. But over time, we connected, although we were never more than friends. Until one day when he just disappeared, not only from gymnastics but from my life.

So imagine my surprise when, over a decade later, Marcus walked into the gym I owned to apply for a coaching position. I told myself that my silly childhood crush was in the past and that I could work with him. That there wouldn’t be any problems between the two of us.

But I never could have foreseen what would transpire once we were reunited.