Love Game - Season 2011 (36 page)

              “Lulu?” Sasha stared with wide-open eyes at the twin who looked back curiously.

              “No,” the Galloway said curiously. “I’m Gabriella.”

              Sasha laughed with relief.

              “Are you going to the gym?” Gabriella asked. She herself had a bag over her shoulders revealing her own destination. Sasha nodded and Gabriella flashed her a smile gesturing to go there together.

              But Sasha didn’t move. Even though it was a relief that this wasn’t Lulu she didn’t feel at ease at all. Would Lulu have told Gaga about the nighttime incident at the vending machine? Probably, since they were twin sisters. Meaning there was a good chance Gaga knew about Sasha. Would she talk to other people about it? Was she gay herself? She had hung out a lot with Elise lately. But then again these two hung out with Morgana, so Gabriella was probably not gay but only a book worm like Elise and Morgana. Or maybe, Sasha thought, it had not been Gaga at all in the hotel talking to Elise and Morgana, but Lulu. Why hadn’t she thought about this possibility? She looked up but Gabriella had already run ahead to the gym.

              Sasha sighed. When she entered the gym she looked for Gaga. The Galloway twin was training in the middle of the huge hall, so Sasha decided to go to the back and hide behind one of the red square columns.

              Since the night in Cincinnati she had been completely lost in the Galloway mystery again. But it had taken a bitter-sweet turn now. She not only wanted to know what was going on with the twin for reasons related to tennis. She wanted to know because she had enjoyed what had happened.

              Everything had been like a sweet sweven, almost unreal in hindsight. Only the taste of peanut butter left in her mouth made her believe that it had actually happened. Sasha had tried to remind herself that she didn’t like Luella. But she couldn’t deny that the kiss had unfurled desires she had subdued for her career’s sake. If Lulu hadn’t vanished all of a sudden they would have probably spent the night together. She had to admit, she liked the thought. She even had to admit that more than once her mind had wandered and she had imagined herself with the dark-haired beauty.

              Suddenly exhausted from racking her brains, she stepped from the treadmill. What was going on with her? Sasha shook her head. Before she could figure out the Galloway mystery, she obviously had to figure out herself.

***

Comfortably sitting in a leather armchair, Amanda accepted the cappuccino from the waitress and turned back her attention to her friend Natsumi on the other side of the coffee table. It was a relaxing day for the Australian after an extremely tough match the day before against Stephanie Moeller. She had come back to the hotel sore and exhausted, so today she had had only a light hit in the morning.

              Spontaneously, she had decided to chat with Natsumi in the hotel lounge while she waited for Elise to return from Flushing Meadows. They would later have dinner in the hotel restaurant, as Amanda didn’t feel like going out tonight.

              “I will spend some time at home, then fly directly to Tokyo,” Natsumi mused. “How about you? Looking forward to going back to Japan?”

              Sipping on her coffee, Amanda just shrugged timidly. Natsumi was surprised. She knew that Amanda liked Japan and was always eager to play there.

              “Elise will skip Tokyo,” she explained. “Hadn’t planned it due to her low ranking before Wimbledon. She will play the European indoors instead.”

              This meant they would spend several weeks apart from each other. Amanda had been convinced that she had gotten used to this life, but apparently now she had to admit that the prospect of not seeing Elise made her feel doleful. The whole situation seemed to be at a dead end, since Elise had made no move yet to come out to her parents and they were still crossing corridors late at night.

              A few seconds passed before Natsumi bent over the coffee table. With a big grin, she winked at Amanda.

              “I know exactly what you will need when in Japan.”

              Amanda frowned and began to play nervously with her coffee spoon, turning it around in her drink. If she kept on doing so, she would start digging into the cup itself.

              “And what is it?”

              Over-enthusiastically, Natsumi raised her hands up in the air and literally shouted in the hotel lounge, catching the attention of some clients.

              “A girls’ night out! In town! Like in the good old times!”

              Amanda grinned. They had had a good time in Tokyo, and she wouldn’t be able to turn down this opportunity. Of course, she would have preferred Elise to be there with her but perhaps it was even better this way. Nights out with Natsumi could turn pretty wild, pretty fast. Amanda looked at Natsumi and nodded in confirmation.

              “See? That’s a deal!” Natsumi grinned. “But before Tokyo there is this little tournament called the U.S. Open and it requires all our attention first. How do you feel after yesterday? It was one hell of a match!”

              Amanda giggled and put down her empty cup on the table.

              “It was tough but I loved it out there. The fight, the crowd supporting me. I really enjoyed my time on the court and when I was down a break in the third set I just kept on fighting.”

              Natsumi cracked up laughing and shook her head. A bit taken aback, Amanda frowned and bit her lower lip. What was so funny now? What had she said to make Natsumi laugh so hard.

              “What is it?” Amanda wanted to know. Natsumi grinned.

              “Nothing, really,” she answered. “It’s just that you sound like Elise. That’s totally something she would say!”

              Amanda felt her face grow hot. Natsumi was right. She was adopting Elise’s way of speaking. But Elise made no effort to adopt Amanda’s. Natsumi cleared her voice and tried to come back to more serious matters.

              “So. Kovalenko tomorrow?”

              Amanda nodded gravely. Yelena could be a dangerous opponent.

              “Yes, a tough one but I’m ready.” Amanda lifted her head. “I can’t miss out on the opportunity to gain as many ranking points as possible here. It might be too late in the Asian swing,” she explained. “I’m here to give my best and I want to get back into the Top 10.”

              “Oh, and I thought you were here to win a Grand Slam,” Natsumi teased her.

              “Sure,” Amanda replied with a chuckle. “Who isn’t?”

***

He had to do something! Anything! Ted jumped up from the hotel room chair and began to walk around the small room. Why hadn’t he tried to prevent this from the very beginning? He should have never let Tom get away with it in the first place.

              This was the first time since their break-up that Ted had allowed himself to think about Tom again. He had turned on his computer, braced himself and looked for Tom’s blog on the web. He was surprised to find that Tom had already published several blog entries and he was relieved that they didn’t contain any confidential information about the players. So far, nothing compromising had been posted, but his ex-lover had given an insight into players’ routines, pointing out the difficulties faced by gay players in general. Still Ted was worried. He had no way of finding out what Tom was planning or if he had abandoned the idea after their break-up. The uncertainty was killing him. But what could he do now? Frustrated he slammed the laptop shut and headed for the door.

              Prior to booking his hotel in New York he had made sure that is wasn’t the same as Tom’s. Not that Tom’s earnings allowed him to book a hotel of Ted’s standard but he had to be careful nonetheless. Even now he looked around himself when he entered the lobby. But the red-haired journalist was nowhere to be seen.

              Ted entered the restaurant and making a beeline for the bar he looked around the dining room. In one of the tall booths he recognized Amanda Auster, a soft drink in front of her. She was alone.

              All of a sudden Ted felt bad for her. He had persuaded Felicia to stop seeing Amanda half a year ago. Since then the Australian had had a topsy-turvy year and had dropped in the rankings. Instead of heading for the bar he decided to walk over.

              “Hello Ted,” Amanda greeted him, raising an eyebrow. Her aloofness didn’t surprise him. He had done her wrong and she probably didn’t want to have anything to do with him. He took a deep breath.

              “Can I sit down for a minute?”

              She nodded and he slipped onto the bench. Only then did he notice that there was another glass with juice on the table. Was there someone else with Amanda? He hadn’t seen anyone when he came in. Amanda was waiting and he himself had no intention of prolonging this.

              “I just wanted to say I’m sorry about this whole thing with Felicia,” Ted muttered.

              “Oh, Felicia,” Amanda seemed surprised. “You know, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

              She looked up and casting a glance into the room she suddenly smiled. Her eyes followed someone through the room causing Ted to turn his head. Elise Renard was walking towards them. It suddenly dawned on Ted that this was Elise’s glass of juice, and that she was probably the reason that the disaster with Felicia didn’t bother Amanda anymore. He laughed in surprise. He certainly would have felt bad if Amanda was still mourning over the singer. Elise seemed neither surprised nor bothered by his sudden appearance and soon they engaged in a friendly conversation, with Ted ordering himself a drink at the table. Not for long though as there were new guests arriving in the restaurant and all of a sudden he heard the voice he wanted to avoid like nothing else. He turned around and looked with a wild stare. Tom was sitting at a table near the entrance and was talking to Candice Crantz, his boss.

              “I need to get out of here,” Ted spluttered moving back and forth on his chair. Elise and Amanda looked at each other, then at Ted again.

              “What’s the matter?” Amanda shook her head amazed to see Ted so erratic and nervous.

              “This guy,” Ted replied pointing at the table. “I must not be seen by him.”

              “Tom?” Elise turned her head, recognizing the redhead.

              “Yes, Tom,” Ted said uncomfortably. Of course, the girls knew Tom as he was working for the WTA. Ted didn’t want to tell Amanda and Elise about him and Tom, but he had already revealed too much about it.

              “He is stalking me,” he lied.

              “Really?” Amanda laughed. “I know that he’s into guys. He is definitely interested, yes. But he never struck me as the stalking kind.”

              “How do you know he is into guys?”

              “Martina Rodriguez told me,” Amanda replied. “She also told me that Tom was very curious about the male players but Martina and Antonia didn’t say a word to him about them.”

              “He wanted to know which guys are gay?” Ted was shocked. Amanda nodded. The table fell silent as Ted seemed to be mulling something over. Then suddenly he looked up with an intense look in his eyes.

              “I need to stop him,” he whispered. Then he looked at Amanda. “You will help me.”

***

Sitting on the balcony of one of the Arthur Ashe suites, Gabriella counted in her head how many times she had played on Ashe compared with her sister. She had played seven times when Lulu had only played five times. Moreover, Gabriella had managed to win two of her matches on Ashe.

              Being American, the twins had been scheduled on Ashe quite often but never for themselves alone. It had always been partly about the opponent – a Top 5 player at least, or the defending champion – they had to play when stepping out onto the U.S. Open center court. When they had played lesser opponents the twins had been scheduled on a show court but not on Ashe.

              This year it was different. At least for Luella it was. Due to the ranking points she had gained with the Wimbledon title she was the highest ranked American woman right now. As the eighth seed she was now scheduled on Ashe entirely because of herself.

              Gabriella had waited with Lulu in the locker room and she could tell that her sister was terribly nervous. Suddenly all eyes were on her. She was a Grand Slam winner and had to perform at her best in her home slam.

              Gabriella however was still ranked in the Top 20 and played her matches on the outer courts or on Grandstand, the second largest show court. Since Stanford they hadn’t switched matches and she felt much better that way. She was slowly working herself up the rankings, she was training harder and was hitting with Elise, Amanda and Natsumi in practice now.

              She had had a good win today, and the good thing about it was that it was all hers. She would win or lose on her own terms now. No analysis of the draw to be made in advance, no Luella who made her play the tricky opponents, no heartbreak when Lulu played for her and lost the match. Regarding her tennis, she couldn’t be happier. But there was something she thought about all the time. Someone.

              Down on the court Luella had just hit a very good winner down the line and the crowd roared with excitement. Gabriella sighed. Yes, she would have liked to play that match here on Ashe. But there was no reason to abandon her plan at the U.S. Open, not even a possible clash between Lulu and Sasha.

              Once again she thought back to the night in Cincinnati. It had been pure luck that she had had a sudden craving for sweets and had taken the elevator to the next floor. In hindsight the kiss in front of the vending machine had been a brilliant idea, as Sasha had lost the following day in Cincinnati and never reached the quarterfinal where she could have played Lulu. Gabriella was suddenly in a very comfortable position.