Love Game - Season 2011 (13 page)

Nowadays she seemed more guarded, and even though Agnes was sure the main reason was Elise’s long injury break and the following struggle to make it back up the rankings, the older player couldn’t help feeling that Elise’s coming to terms with herself was a big part of her new humbleness and maturity. It was a process that took its time and very often needed isolation to unfold.

Laying her arm over Elise’s shoulders she turned her head to the young German.

“By the way, are you still looking for a doubles partner, Elise? Entry deadline is today.”

Smiling brightly at the question, Elise shook her head.

“No, I have found one! I will play with Angela.”

Agnes raised a surprised eyebrow but she smiled back at the young player. Angela Porovski was Elise’s German Fed Cup colleague and fun to be with. Elise would be in good hands and she should enjoy her time on the court. Agnes might have had other plans in mind for Elise but she would find another way to introduce her to the doubles girls eventually.

***

Amanda felt great. Her practice had been going great. She was hitting the ball with incredible precision and power, even Dan Metic, her coach, was impressed. In one rally she moved Dan from one corner to the other until she finished him off by hitting one of her infamous inside-out forehands while a huffing and puffing Dan was crying out for mercy. It was great fun and Dan gave her a wink afterwards knowing that Amanda was looking forward to an evening on cloud nine.

Smiling to herself Amanda entered the hotel lobby. She had been smiling all day and it seemed everyone was smiling with her. Her happiness had already provoked a funny incident earlier on the practice courts. All of a sudden Natsumi Takashima came running towards Amanda, waving her arms like a mad woman.

“It’s your birthday, isn’t it? I missed it again!” Natsumi had flung her arms around a surprised Amanda begging for forgiveness. No, Amanda explained to Natsumi while peeling her Japanese friend off her neck. Her birthday was only tomorrow. There was something else that made her smile.

While she approached the reception desk of the hotel, Amanda wondered if Felicia was already waiting for her in bed. Her plane had landed when Amanda was still cooling down from her practice and they had agreed to meet directly in the hotel room they had decided to share. Using her magic smile, Amanda asked the receptionist for the keys. She was just about to ask if Miss Del Castro had already taken the room, when the young woman handed her the keys and a little envelope.

“Here’s also a note for you,” the receptionist explained with a smile. Thanking the girl Amanda turned away and walking to the elevator she ripped open the envelope. The note was from Felicia and it made Amanda stop in her tracks. Her racquet bag slipped to the floor but she hardly realized it. Felicia was unable to make it to Charleston today, the note said. There were urgent matters she had to discuss with Ted Curry. Felicia would call her tomorrow.

Amanda went up to her room and sat down on the bed. She took out her mobile from her bag beginning to dial Felicia’s number. Then she put it down quickly. Ted Curry, she thought angrily. What could be more urgent than celebrating her birthday tonight?

She lay down on the bed. Why didn’t Felicia call her? What was she discussing with Ted? She shook her head. Suddenly she felt dead tired. Slowly she pulled off her sneakers and slipped under the sheets. Rolling over to the side she wondered if Felicia was finally about to ditch Ted, so she and Amanda could spend more time together. Maybe Felicia wanted to tell her tomorrow as a birthday present. Convincing herself that this must be the reason she fell into a fitful sleep.

***

The Danny’s on Ann Street was one of the few gay bars in Charleston and the small room was packed with a crowd of chatting male and female patrons. Tom had decided to head out tonight as he had finished typing his article early and for once had no desire to hang out with the rest of the communications staff, he had become friends with. He sat down at the bar and ordered a beer. Just one or two more, he told himself, then he would go back to the hotel. He had to be fit tomorrow for two pre-match interviews and some fun stuff with Mint Rickenbacher and Cecilia García López.

He looked around at the bar and glancing over at the tables in the back almost spilled his beer upon the cute bartender. There was Candice Crantz, his boss. He felt a sudden hot rush of blood streaming to his head but then steadied himself. What did he care if she saw him in a gay bar? She was probably a lesbian herself, sitting here with two other women. Tom took a closer look at Candice’s entourage. They were doubles players – that much he knew. But as he was assigned to work mostly with the younger, upcoming players he couldn’t come up with their names.

“Do you know them?” a voice behind him asked. Tom turned around. A young woman with big glasses was standing behind him. She nodded over his shoulder in the direction of Candice and the two doubles players.

“Maybe,” Tom replied, curious about the question that had come out of the blue. The girl smiled.

“I thought so,” she said complacently. “I’ve never seen you here before, so I guessed you worked at the tournament.”

Tom nodded.

“It’s always very busy here during the Family Circle Cup,” the girl continued. “You might even get a chance to pick up a player.”

“Is that what you are here for?” Tom asked with a grin. He liked the self-assured woman. She laughed at the thought shaking her head. No, she was on holidays with her family who lived here, she explained. But she would cover some of the matches on her blog site.

“You write a blog?” Tom loved the idea.

“Yeah, it’s called Urban Skies. Just thoughts and tidbits about my life,” she said with a shrug. “Mostly my love life, I should say. But as I live in New York it’s also about the city. Hence the name.” She gave him a wink.

“You write about your love life?” Tom wondered.

“It’s anonymous,” she laughed. Now, that was interesting, Tom thought. He raised his eyebrows as a thought crossed his mind.

“I’m Melanie, by the way. See, now you know more than most of my readers do.”

Tom also introduced himself and explaining what he did in Charleston they sat down at a table.

“So you do interviews and photo shoots with the players?” Melanie inquired.

Tom nodded.

“Have you done interviews with Monica and Agnes?” she asked. Tom was dumbfounded. He knew most of the players by now, but he had not heard of these two yet. He shook his head.

“Who’s that?” he asked. Now it was Melanie’s turn to look flabbergasted.

“Well, them, of course,” she nodded in the direction of the doubles players. Tom shrugged in embarrassment.

“Sorry, I’m only catching up now with doubles players. They are not my focus, you see,” he explained.

“Doubles my ass,” Melanie snorted. “Monica Jordan and Agnes Lion are legends, dude. They won several single slams in their prime. You really should do your homework.” She shook her head in amazement. “Who employed you for heaven’s sake?”

Tom laughed at the thought that his boss was sitting in the same bar but kept it to himself. He directed the conversation to Melanie’s blog again. An idea had taken hold of him and he needed to know how he could set up his own.

***

The knock on the door made Elise jump up. Smiling she opened the door and let Angela in. They had rooms next to each other and had decided to spend the evening watching a movie and talking doubles tactics. Angela was holding up two bottles grinning mischievously.

“Beer?” Elise was slightly distressed. They had a match tomorrow.

“
Amiplörre
,” Angela corrected her. “It’s basically water.”

Angela sat down on Elise’s hotel bed while Elise began to take out her DVD collection. She was reading the titles out loud but Angela shook her head. None of the movies seemed to interest her.

“Can I ask you something?” Angela finally said.

Elise nodded without looking up.

“You don’t really like talking about guys, do you?” She looked at Elise who suddenly felt her hands sweating. That question had come out of nowhere. She didn’t dare look up.

“Sure, I do,” Elise answered.

“I was wondering – ,” Angela began with a questioning look, but then stopped.

“What?” Elise could hear her own voice and the panic in it. What was Angela wondering? Hopefully, she only assumed that Elise was simply inexperienced. Elise had the feeling, they all believed she was still a virgin, which was completely embarrassing – and true. But the other thing? They would have never guessed that. No one ever had. Probably Angela wanted to set her up with a male player. That must be it. Elise breathed in deeply and tried to relax. Yes, that must be it. She could handle that. Just say no, she decided.

“What are you wondering,” she asked again, this time more friendly.

Angela shook her head. It looked like she had changed her mind. Elise picked up her DVD box again. She was just about to read out a title again, when Angela opened her mouth.

“Are you into girls?”

Bingo! This was the worst case scenario! Elise was baffled. Staring at her DVD box she was silently reading the DVD title a hundred times over until finally she looked up to meet Angela’s eyes. There was not one reasonable word coming into her mind. She could say yes, of course. But she couldn’t. On the other hand she didn’t want to lie to her friend. She knew she had to say something soon. But she was paralyzed.

“Wow,” Angela finally said reading Elise’s silence correctly. “Who would have thought?”

Well, Angela obviously. Had the other girls been talking about her, Elise wondered. They probably had placed bets on her. She hated the thought that Carina knew about her and probably told others with that look of disgust on her face. But what could she do about it now?

Elise looked at Angela and shrugged in defeat. If they all knew, so be it. Angela was still sitting on the bed holding the two beer bottles but upon seeing Elise’s distress she laughed compassionately.

“Oh, Elise. You know, I’m cool with it, don’t you?”

She slipped from the bed and sat down next to Elise. She looked at her friend until Elise nodded. Yes, Angela seemed fine with it.

“Do the others know?” Elise feared the answer, but Angela shook her head.

“I don’t think so, and I won’t say a word. Come on. Take this.” Angela handed Elise the beer bottle. “Let’s talk girls for a change, alright?”

Elise wasn’t sure she wanted to. What could she say anyway? But Angela had already placed her arm around Elise’s shoulder and clinked their bottles.

“Now, tell me, Miss Renard, what’s your type?”

***

There had been a cake with candles and a flower bouquet from the tournament director. The attempt of a dozen fellow players to sing “Happy Birthday” for Amanda went down in cackles as they switched into their respective native tongues one after another. Besides that, the athletes were horribly unmusical. The cacophony brought fits of laughter to everyone who attended Amanda’s impromptu birthday celebration and it took Amanda’s mind off of the worrisome thoughts she had had all night. Felicia hadn’t called yet but for a short moment the redhead had forgotten about it. Now she sat down on the couch to gather her breath and all her concerns came flooding back to her.

“This cake is a dream,” Monica sighed. She approached Amanda chewing on a mouthful of the strawberry cake. “I just cannot stop.”

“I just hope there will be some left after my match. I only had half a piece,” Amanda said checking her watch. She was scheduled first on center court to play Robyn Lawrence in less than an hour.

“Well, the match should be a piece of cake itself.”

Monica sat down next to Amanda. Robyn was a good player but still no match for Amanda. However, Amanda only shrugged. Monica looked her young friend over, realizing that something had to be wrong. Wasn’t Felicia supposed to be here?

“How’s my little Wiz Kid doing?”

The nickname made Amanda smile. Ever since she was 12 years old she had been called that name. Yet, her Australian fans seemed to fancy calling her “Oister” for obvious reasons. She didn’t like it. She still preferred “Wiz Kid”. Before she could give Monica an answer her phone rang. She looked at the display and – as if a light bulb had been switched on – she had to smile. Giving Monica a little sign that she would be back in a second she got up and hurried outside to take the call.

“Happy, happy Birthday, baby,” Felicia was singing as soon as Amanda had answered the call. It was actually the first time Amanda heard her sing apart from the records she had bought eventually even though the music was not her taste. She had a lovely voice, Amanda thought. Suddenly she felt all better.

“When will you arrive,” Amanda asked after the serenade. She checked her watch again. Only forty minutes left. She needed to get ready but first she wanted to know if Felicia finally had ended the charade with Ted Curry.

“Darling, I hate to tell you, especially since it’s your Birthday today, but I won’t be able to come.”

Amanda felt her heart slump.

“Why?” she asked weakly.

“You know I talked to Ted yesterday. Apparently, there are rumors about you and me, Amanda. We cannot have that.”

Amanda was confused. We? Of course, she didn’t like rumors, but most rumors would die on their own. She knew that from experience.

“Where did these rumors originate?” she demanded to know.

“Well, all the players seem to know,” Felicia explained.

“But that’s alright.” Amanda laughed in relief. “Nobody will say a word. That’s just a rule, you see. You don’t have to worry.”

“But I do,” Felicia said impatiently. “And Ted is also concerned. So, we have decided that I won’t see you for a while.”

The sudden realization that ‘we’ included Felicia and Ted instead of Amanda felt like a punch in Amanda’s stomach.