Chapter 25
When I wasn’t doing any better by the following morning, Kay’s doctor came to have a look at me.
Dr. Chen said that I was suffering from an intestinal infection and that I had to stay in bed until I was better.
Which made me feel even worse, naturally.
I would miss valuable days of training and be back on the courts in a weakened state.
It would probably take a week for me to get back to where I had been fitness-wise and to be able to give it my all.
A week I didn’t have. The thought alone was enough to make me start to panic.
An invisible weight began to press down upon my chest, and it grew even heavier when I counted the days until the US Open.
“That won’t work,” I muttered grimly toward the ceiling.
Self-pitying tears burned my eyes as I rolled into fetal position.
Like a shrimp, a voice in my head whispered, and I lost it.
Because Vince hadn’t been in touch. Because he’d said those things to Laurie.
But, above all, because it all meant far too much to me.
I pulled the blanket over my head and wallowed in my misery until I fell asleep.
By the time I woke back up, the reddish light of dusk was coming through the window.
Kay had put a pot of chamomile tea and some crackers by the side of the bed.
I was pouring myself a cup when my phone began to vibrate.
Unknown number. I never answered when I didn’t know who was at the other end, so ignored it.
The tea had steeped too long and grown bitter, but it made my throat happy all the same.
My chapped lips too. I was putting my cup to the side when my phone started to vibrate again.
This time it was a message, though from the same number.
Hey! I just tried to call you.
I hope you’re doing better?
I furrowed my brow and sent a question mark. The reply came almost immediately.
Sorry. It’s me. Vince. ??
My heart skipped a beat though it should have been upset.
I don’t answer unknown numbers.
Understandable. Second attempt? ??
I wavered. He wanted to call? Now? Undecided, I looked at my phone for a few seconds before sending a thumbs-up. The call came instantly, but, before answering, for some odd reason I straightened my hair.
“Hey,” I replied in a neutral tone.
“Hey. How are you feeling?”
I couldn’t lie. It was nice to hear his voice.
“Well, I’m not vomiting my chamomile tea back up. That’s progress, right?”
“Man, I really hope it wasn’t the shrimp.”
“It’s just a frigging totally normal intestinal flu,” I shot back.
Silence.
“I would’ve been in touch sooner, but I didn’t have your number, and I didn’t want to ask Laurie.”
“But we’re getting along much better now.”
“Huh?”
“Oh, nothing. Who gave it to you?”
“Gabe. I hope that was okay.”
“Of course.”
Silence again.
“Umm…listen, I know it’s not the best time, but there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
Oh! Wow! This was the direction he wanted to take things. Just what I needed today. A guy dumping me, or tossing phrases at me like “Everything’s still cool between us, right?” I decided to beat him to it.
“It’s fine. We don’t have to make a big deal out of it. All that stuff between us was nice and all, but…”
“Nice?” he interrupted, sounding slighted.
Unbelievable. Did he need his tummy rubbed? Hear how good a kisser he was?
“Yeah, nice,” I repeated, a tad aggressively. “But don’t worry about it. I didn’t read anything into it.”
Suddenly the line went completely still. For at least five seconds. Five seconds for me to congratulate myself on my aplomb and theatrical abilities. Five seconds for me to consider whether Vince wasn’t slighted but hurt? But why…?
“Well, I read something into it.”
I gasped and my heart began to pound.
“That’s why I wanted to ask you whether you wanted to go to beach with me on Saturday, a place you can swim with sea turtles.”
Now it just jumped out of my chest completely. I swallowed so loudly that he had to have heard it.
“But seeing as that, in your eyes, all it was was nice…”
“No!”
“No, you don’t want to go with me to the beach?”
The sound of his voice gave him away. He knew what I was responding to; he just wanted to hear it out of my own mouth.
“It was more than just nice…” I said, grinding my teeth.
“Good. I think so too. Why did you think otherwise?”
“Nice isn’t the opposite of good,” I countered.
He laughed. “Yeah. Nice is worse.”
I sighed. “I thought you wanted to dump me, and I just wanted to beat you to it.”
“Why?”
“Because I feel like shit, and…”
“No. Why would you think that? I didn’t say anything like that.”
“Exactly. You didn’t say anything,” I said and could feel my frustration looking for an outlet. “For almost two whole days exactly.”
“We didn’t see each other, and I didn’t have your number. How was I…”
“You could have asked your sister. Instead, you told her, what was it again? We’re getting along much better now.”
A sigh came through the earpiece, but it didn’t sound annoyed, just…sorry.
“I only said that so she wouldn’t get suspicious.”
“Suspicious? What would be so bad about that? I mean, I’m surely not the first person you’ve ever…made out with.”
“Yeah, but I’ve never made out with one of her friends. On top of that, Laurie is super nosy, and I have no interest in sharing my love life with my little sister.”
Hearing the words love life from his mouth sent a nervous tingling through my body.
“Nor did I think she’d share that with you straight out of the oven, so to speak.”
“She didn’t. In your driveway I’d told her that I’d give her a call and explain everything, but this little flu got in the way. And when I wanted to apologize, she mentioned it.”
“What would you have told her?”
Hmm. Good question. I hadn’t even thought of how I might explain to her what was going on between the two of us.
He could have savored my continued silence as victory. Instead, in a soft voice he asked, “So, what do you think? You want to come with me to that beach?”
Although I’d long since made up my mind, I decided to drag it out a bit.
“Are you sure we’ll see some sea turtles?”
“Absolutely.”
Trying to slow down my wildly jumping heart, I suddenly realized that I’d overlooked something.
“When would you want to get going? I can’t lose another day of training.”
“How long do you train on Saturdays?”
“Just until noon. But I’ve lost a few days that I have to make up…probably until afternoon.”
“Then we’ll go as soon as you can,” he replied, totally at ease. “It’s not far from here. About half an hour by car.”
It might not sound like much to him, but the thought of sitting in the car with him for half an hour made me feel warmer.
“You have snorkeling gear?”
“Umm…no.”
“No problem. I’ll bring some extra stuff along.”
“Do I need anything else? A wet suit for the full-moon jellyfish?”
He laughed. “Sturdy shoes would be good. To get to the beach, we’ve got to climb over some rocks.”
That sounded adventurous. Remote too.
“Don’t worry. There aren’t too many. We’ll pay attention to your ankle.” In addition to a wink, there was a clear sense of caring in his voice, and that did something to me. Maybe it also had to do with the we in his sentence.
“So, we have a date?” he said, and my heart raced with excitement.
“We have a date.”