Love Game - Season 2011 (44 page)

Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

“These are the locker rooms,” Candice said opening the door, then stepped inside and sighed. A clean locker room was a formidable sight. Only in the days before the tournament and in the early morning was it as clean and tidy.

              “Take a good look at it now. In two days you will not recognize it,” she said to the young woman, who laughed.

              “I know,” Alice said. “I would have never thought that people can mess up a place so quickly.”

              Walking through the locker room into the hallway that led to the court, Candice glanced over at the girl next to her. Alice had wandered into Candice’s office and applied for the job in Luxembourg only an hour ago. Usually Candice did not accept any new on-site employees at the last minute, but two of her staff members had called in sick this morning and Luxembourg was a small tournament, therefore easily manageable, so she decided to give the young woman a chance. Moreover, Alice had already worked for the French Open earlier this year and even though she had worked for the players’ service rather than in communications she must have made a very positive impression, at least to Amanda Auster. Along with her résumé came a recommendation full of praise from the Australian player and her management. It sounded as though Alice had rescued Amanda with a ‘special service’?

              While entering the Center Court through the players’ entrance and pointing out the players’ and corporate boxes she watched the woman who inspected everything with thorough attentiveness.

“So what did you do for Amanda? Did you bring her chocolate in the middle of the night?”

              Alice turned her head. “Flowers,” she laughed. “She needed a bouquet as soon as possible. I gave her the flowers Yelena Kovalenko’s disappointed ex-lover had left at the help desk earlier.”

              Candice cracked up laughing. She suddenly remembered what Agnes had told her in the summer. That Elise had been taken to the infirmary after her knee gave her problems at the French Open and that Amanda had shown up with flowers. Agnes and her had had good fun imagining Amanda clandestinely plucking flowers from Court Suzanne Lenglen’s corporate boxes for her new love interest. Now it had turned out that Amanda and Elise’s love story had quite a different beginning. How hilarious was the fact that the flowers, intended for Yelena, the biggest drama queen of the WTA had landed in the hands of shy Amanda Auster and had resulted in a dinner invitation that had changed two people’s lives?

              Candice shook her head in amazement. Life – and flowers – took some interesting turns sometimes. They walked back to the office and turning a corner almost bumped into Tom Richardson.

              “Tom,” Candice smiled. “I’m glad we ran into you. This is Alice. She will work with us for the week.”

              Having introduced them to each other and seeing that Tom was carrying his heavy camera bags, Candice suggested that Alice could start right away by helping Tom shoot some footage of the tournament grounds.

              With an excited nod Alice took one of Tom’s bags, shouldered it and followed him outside. Candice watched the young people chat until they disappeared behind a corner. She had really begun to like Alice and with the season coming to an end and some of her staff members leaving the team she had to consider recruiting new team members. Opening the door to her office, Candice decided to wait until the end of the week and if Alice turned out to be a good worker she would offer her a permanent job on the tour.

***

Mint checked her watch. It was early afternoon and she had just finished her practice hit. She walked to the locker rooms and took a shower. No need to rush. She would have enough time before her delivery arrived in this laid-back part of Europe.

              Two days ago she had spent the whole afternoon searching for a 1-hour-photo store, without success. Luxembourg didn’t seem to be in any hurry to develop their inhabitants’ pictures. In the end she had to opt for a little convenience store. The pictures should be ready this afternoon, the owner had told her. It was quite an adventure, she had thought. Usually she would just ask one of the girls who worked for the tournament to do this for her. But these were her special pictures. She had to do it herself, and it turned out to be a good challenge.

              She had spent the last weeks looking through all of the pictures. There were about three hundred of them. All showed players with other players or in the guys’ cases sometimes with random guys unknown to her. Some of the scenes were pretty graphic like the pictures of Antonia and Martina in a hallway. Most intriguing was the fact that photos were obviously taken to reveal the players’ hidden tendencies.

              Mint got out of the shower and picked up a towel. Yes, she was certain that even the rather harmless picture of Sasha looking at one of the Galloways was intended to point out a desire unknown to the public.

              She still couldn’t believe how she had gotten the pictures. Ted Curry. On a balcony. It was ridiculous. Had he taken the pictures all by himself? Mint had a hard time imagining Ted waiting in the early morning for players to come back from the Wimbledon Winners Ball. Or following the players around to finally catch them in a dark corner. He didn’t seem the type to do that. In a few cases, she had figured out that the pictures were taken at WTA tournaments and concluded that Ted couldn’t have possibly been there. It was more likely he would have had someone do it for him. But why was he there on the balcony that night in New York? He must have found out about Mint and Chili and must have tried to get photos of them that night. It seemed the only good explanation for this weird encounter. However, she couldn’t remember if he had had a camera with him that night.

              Mint shook her head and began to dress. What did Ted want with these pictures? She could think of only two possibilities. Either he wanted to jerk off to the pictures or he intended to blackmail the players. In the first case, Mint wondered why there were male players’ in the pictures. Was Ted bisexual? She almost laughed at this thought. He seemed a bit oversexed sometimes and it would shed a totally different light on the whole thing with Felicia and Amanda, Mint thought. It was funny to think of Amanda as part of a threesome. Then again there were these pictures of Amanda and Elise in Wimbledon. They were not exactly jerk-off material. Mint had taken a long look at them herself. They were not overly sexual. In fact, they looked more like movie stills. Two people completely absorbed in each other.

              So it must be the latter. Blackmail. Mint shuddered. But why? Why would Ted do that? He didn’t need money and he didn’t need to buy wins against any other player. Besides, why would there be pictures of the girls? It didn’t make sense.

              Mint shouldered her bag and headed outside. Whatever Ted was up to, if these were the only copies of the pictures, she was glad she had them. She wouldn’t blackmail her fellow players. Just have a little fun with them. She chuckled.

              Just as she left the building someone called out to her. Mint turned around, surprised to see Polly Duke running after her. Mint had never had much to do with the Canadian player, but she secretly admired her. Polly had short hair and always wore shorts instead of skirts, something Mint would have loved to do but didn’t dare.              

              “Mint,” she yelled, catching up. “I wanted to ask you if you’d want to play doubles with me. The deadline is in two hours and I thought you might be free as Chili is not playing here.”

              “Oh, I’m sorry, Polly,” Mint answered. “I’ve already teamed up with Natsumi.” Since Tokyo Natsumi and Mint had been hanging out more frequently and for Luxembourg they had decided to play doubles.

              Polly looked disappointed. She wasn’t very highly ranked in singles and playing doubles at tournaments helped her gain a few extra bucks. The Canadian was about to turn away, when a voice made them both jump.

              “Perhaps you want to play with me?” To the surprise of both girls, Bernadette LeBlanc stepped out of the shadows of a doorway. She was also Canadian, and now Mint remembered that the older player’s doubles partner had been injured during practice two days ago. Bernadette didn’t play singles anymore, so she needed to find a new partner for the tournament. Mint nodded to Polly for encouragement, but the younger Canadian already had made up her mind. Bernadette was a very doubles specialist and with her Polly Duke was likely to get a better result than with Mint. Polly agreed.

***

For the thousandth time in what must have been only five minutes, Carina Gnocchi looked outside the window of the small restaurant and sighed loudly.

              “You want to talk about it?” Stephanie looked at Carina annoyed by the blatant attention seeking. From the corner of her eye she could see Elise and Angela chuckle. The No. 1 shrugged.

              “This must be the most boring place on earth,” she answered. “Especially, if you come here year in, year out like I do. I shouldn’t be here at all.”

              Everybody understood what Carina was implying. The Year End Championships were starting soon and she wanted to do her best there. She should be preparing for it right now. Instead she was stuck at such a small, insignificant tournament in Luxembourg. She sighed again.

              “But here I am, because it is so close to my hometown and people expect me to win this little tournament.”

              “Don’t you forget mentioning a little matter called the appearance fee?” Antonia remarked. Carina looked up. She seemed shocked.

              “Is that jealousy speaking?” She looked around. “No offense, girls. But if you had qualified for the Year End Championships, you would think like me.”

              Nobody said anything. Their fellow German’s arrogance stirred up a deep discomfort in the rest of the group. What a stupid idea, Stephanie thought, to offer her to come along for lunch. Obviously Carina wasn’t only the No. 1 in tennis but a No. 1 party pooper as well.

              “I think I will stick to monogamy,” Stephanie broke the silence. Her revelation had the promised effect. The girls looked up in wonder. “You know, for a try. Dating two guys at the same time is awfully exhausting.”

              It should do the trick, Stephanie thought. Not that she really intended to stop seeing her two favorite ATP players. At least her remark got a reaction from Angela who, unconvinced, burst out laughing.

              “Have you lost your mind? How can you say good-bye to your two eye-candies?” Antonia laughed. Everyone was relieved Stephanie had given the conversation a turn.

              “What about you, Angela? You’ve spent quite some time with your Latin cutie, lately,” Carina chirped, unaware of the maneuver that had been necessary due to her. “I mean, that’s what I hear.”

              Angela made a face and snorted. “Rumors, rumors.”

              As Antonia and Carina engaged in a mocking conversation about the advantages and disadvantages of dating fellow ATP players, Stephanie looked at Elise. Whenever all four of them met Elise would keep quiet about her relationship with Amanda, while the other girls would talk openly about their adventures or misfortunes with boys. If it wasn’t for Carina they could have openly talked about all their relationships. Moreover, Elise and Stephanie’s relationships had a few things in common. Neither of them saw their love interests that often and they had to keep their relationships a secret. Stephanie regretted even more that she had invited Carina for lunch. Stephanie gave Elise a little wink. They would find a better time to discuss secret love affairs. Elise grinned and finally joined in the conversation. She laughed, smiled and nodded when required, as if she had no story of her own to tell.

***

Paola checked her watch. She had arrived late and it had taken a while to get the camera ready, so there was time left but for only one or two question. She looked up at Gabriella Galloway, who sat on a lounge chair and smiled politely. She was much easier to work with than her twin, Paola found. The Galloway twins had had a reputation for being difficult and arrogant, but since the last interview the journalist had felt that this was only true of Lulu. Gaga seemed perfectly nice and affable.

              The WTA, Supersport Channel and the twins’ sponsors had come up with the glorious idea to have a series of features with the sisters in which they would function as narrators and presenters for entertaining stories about the WTA tour.

              Being unique as twins and yet being so different the producers expected a good show, with Lulu as a new Grand Slam champion and extroverted Top 10 player and Gaga as the little sister, who was fighting her way up to equaling her sister.