Aquamarine

Jesse Austin’s life turns on a race she does not win and an attraction she cannot forget. As a young Olympic swimmer, she encounters Marty, an Australian rival whose presence changes the meaning of both competition and desire. From that decisive moment, the novel imagines three different versions of Jesse’s adult life. Each carries its own relationships, compromises and unanswered questions, while the memory of the pool remains a shared point of departure. Moving between possible futures, the story asks how much identity depends on circumstance and how much persists across choices. Jesse’s desire for women runs through a portrait of ambition, intimacy and the lives that might have been.