Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
SAM
The Wi-Fi on the train to Paris was spotty, and when my phone decided to connect to it, I got a flurry of notifications.
The only one I cared about was the one that came from @nsully.
Naomi:
If you were serious, you’ve just got yourself a new mixed doubles partner.
I’d been serious when I offered, but when she said she wasn’t agreeing to anything, I’d assumed she was going to make a decision closer to the US Open. Not the day after I brought it up.
You’re back?
Naomi:
The devil works fast but Wyatt Sullivan works faster. Queens confirmed they’re giving me a wildcard this morning
Queens? That means doubles at home?
The mere idea of sharing a court with Naomi as soon as July at Wimbledon made a rush of excitement flood through me.
Naomi:
A nice low key event. Although, if you want to wait until later in the summer, that’s fine.
I looked across the table at my dad. In a rare occurrence, he wasn’t studying up on my first opponent at the French Open or even making note of areas in my game I needed to work on.
Instead, he was reading a book. This slightly relaxed version of him seemed like a good time to bring it up. And most likely get turned down.
“Dad, can I talk to you about something?”
He stuck a finger between the pages and levelled his stare at me. “Sure.”
I started spinning my phone in my hand. “I want to add doubles to my Grand Slam schedules.”
“No.”
“It’s mixed doubles,” I clarified. Not that I thought it would make him change his answer.
“What for? I don’t know why you want to add to your workload when you have to play best of five.”
“Because I want to play doubles with Naomi Sullivan.”
He scoffed. “She doesn’t even play anymore.”
“But she will,” I replied, sounding borderline petulant.
“The answer is still no. It’s a distraction. You don’t need one at this time of the season. There’s too much on the line for us.”
My phone clattered to the table as he returned to his book, ending the conversation.
If he hadn’t said ‘for us’, I probably would have let it go and told Naomi that I couldn’t do Wimbledon. That maybe the US might work better because the format was different, and the mixed doubles happened the week before the singles. But the way he phrased it, in this moment, annoyed me to no end.
I wanted to feel excited to play tennis again. I needed something that wasn’t ‘for us’.
I opened my messages to Naomi.
Home is good
She started typing back immediately.
Naomi:
Excellent
Alisha is resurrecting her newsletter with the announcement that I’m returning before the vultures catch wind of my wildcard. Are you okay if she mentions it?
I flicked my eyes to my dad. If I said yes, then by the time we got to Paris, it would be out there that Naomi and I were going to play doubles together, which would make it harder for him to stop it from happening.
It would look bad ‘for us’ to go back on our word before the partnership had even taken to court.
Fine with it. I look forward to getting her newsletter back in my life.