Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
SAM
“Naomi Sullivan is in the headlines again,” my dad said casually as he stood idly by while I stretched after a more intense training session than I wanted.
“Okay,” I replied, just so he knew I’d heard him, as I pressed deeper into a hip flexor stretch.
“They’re saying she doesn’t look like the player she was.”
I switched sides. “Uh-huh.”
“You can still pull out of the doubles, you know. If you do it now, then they can easily fill the spot. It’s not like the draw’s happened yet.”
“I’m not doing that, Dad. Naomi hasn’t even played a match yet. How do they know she’s not the player she was?”
If the way she was hitting the other day was any indication, Naomi very much still had it. In fact, it might have been better now because she wasn’t carrying any fatigue from being halfway through a season like most players.
“According to this, she looked sluggish during a practice session.”
“Right, yeah, because we all give it our all in a practice session.”
“If you’re only there for thirty minutes, then you should.”
I rolled up from the floor slowly, masking my huff of laughter as a long sigh.
“Just because that’s how you would deal with a short practice time, doesn’t mean that’s everyone’s approach. More isn’t always best.”
“It’s working for you, isn’t it?”
It felt like a loaded question. If I answered honestly with a no, that it wasn’t working for me anymore, and every time I stepped on court, I felt like the weight of the world was sinking down on my shoulders, and I found it hard to catch a breath, then we’d have to have a conversation that I wasn’t mentally ready for.
But if I told a half-truth, then I was basically agreeing to his methods, and I’d stay on the conveyor belt, always moving forward, never stepping off.
Getting further and further from remembering why I wanted to be a tennis player in the first place.
“I’m getting results,” I answered.
“Exactly. Take it easy for the rest of the day,” he said with a clap on the shoulder, and then he was gone, and I was left wondering whether I should’ve just been honest.
I don’t imagine my dad thought I would end up at Queen’s when he told me to take it easy, but it was where I was. Much like over the weekend, I was drawn to places I knew my new doubles partner was going to be.
It didn’t take long for me to find Naomi. She was in the player’s lounge, a large black hoodie on, her curls spilling over her shoulders, a shredded pile of napkins next to her, and a bowl of pasta in front.
“Fancy seeing you here,” I said as I dropped into the seat opposite her.
Her fork clattered into the bowl, and her eyes widened as they darted around me.
“Shouldn’t you be in Stuttgart or something?” she asked harshly before taking a deep breath and shaking out her shoulders, before trying to slyly bury the evidence of her napkin slaughter. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like that. I’m a bit on edge.”
“It’s fine. I’m not competing this week. I was gonna ask how you’re feeling, but I think I have my answer.”
“The fact that I’m notorious for liking being last on or a night session is really biting me in the arse right now.
The tournament director thinks she’s doing me a favour, and I mean, she is, but the wait is killing me.
This pasta tastes like dust. Do you know how sad that is?
That my favourite food in the world tastes like I’m eating sawdust? ”
I was not like Naomi in that sense. If I got the choice, I’d play early. So, I could relate to hating the waiting. My routine was to drill down into what I needed to do in the match, but that didn’t seem like the best approach with Naomi.
“I imagine it’s quite devastating. What is your favourite thing to do on a day off?” I asked. It was a shit question, but the first one that came to mind.
Naomi blew out a long breath. “Don’t. That’s a reminder that I’m giving up my new favourite thing, which is a whole Sunday to myself.”
“Oh, sorry. I thought it might help.”
A cool, slightly calloused hand rested on my bare forearm, and goosebumps erupted under her touch. “Don’t apologise for that. I appreciate you trying to get my mind off it. I was mostly joking, but nuance is getting lost right now.”
“What will get your mind off things then?”
She leaned back in her seat, and my arm felt cold where her hand was.
“I’ll answer your question. Lie in, pastry and a coffee, with a book in the bay window of our living room, which I’ll be honest, is the only reason I bought the house.
It’s the perfect reading nook, and it also looks out into the garden, which is nice.
Then we take Logan out for a long walk that ends at my parents’ house, where Dad will have made a roast. Then we get into a fake fight over a board game, go back home, and get ready for the week again. ”
“You know, I know nothing about your dad.”
She smiled fondly. “That’s how he likes it.
He’s just my dad, you know? He taught us how to cook, and he’s a whizz with numbers.
He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of most sports and can hardly believe that he has a daughter who was the best in the world, even though he was the first person to ever believe I could do it.
He’s steady. He rights the ships when they stray off course and makes the best roast potatoes in the world. ”
Part of me ached at the idea of having that kind of relationship with my dad.
I’d had it once, but it was buried somewhere deep under expectation now.
If I weren’t trying to get her to stop thinking about tennis, then I would’ve asked Naomi how she dealt with it, as maybe our situations were similar.
Wyatt appeared before I had to think of another question.
“Hey, you two. Mimi, we’ve gotta go. The match on court is in the end stages, so you’re on, buttercup.”
Naomi groaned loudly. “Alright, marigold, let’s do this.”
She pushed her mostly finished pasta away and stood up, stretching her arms overhead, before making another noise as she let them drop.
“Thanks for that, it helped,” she said, and then she walked away, leaving me with Wyatt.
“You sticking around to watch her play?” he asked.
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
“Awesome. Can you try to stay hidden? Trying to minimise the number of people she knows that she can see.”
I nodded. “I can do that for her. And good luck.”
With a smile, Wyatt followed his sister, and I went to find the perfect spot to watch Naomi make her official comeback.