Chapter 26
ELIAS
Itry to calm down before we go to the airport. I just want to be alone to gather my thoughts. I have so many missed calls from my father and brother, but I just can’t face having to tell them I failed. Not yet.
We didn’t win the tournament and I didn’t get signed by Richard Kingsley. Or anyone. But Ben was given an offer, and he turned it down. Because he doesn’t just have a perfect plan A, but a plan B, C and D probably, too.
I pack my things and get out of the hotel room before Nate can come back and tell me how much of an asshole—or a douchebag or whatever he wants to call me—I am.
I find a quiet place to sit in the lobby while waiting for the airport bus, hoping I don’t bump into any of my teammates until I absolutely have to.
I see Coach Sanchez walking towards me as my phone starts to ring again.
Noah’s name flashes up on the screen and I decide it’s better to talk to my brother than hear whatever platitude or criticism my coach may have for me right now.
“Hey! How did the tournament go? Did you kick those Stanford guys’ asses?”
“No, we lost.”
“Oh, sorry.”
I hear a female voice in the background and I scramble to change the subject. “Is Mercy there?”
“Yeah, she says hi. She’s just brought over a bunch of cake to try for the wedding, so she’s buzzed on a sugar high.”
I hear the sound of lips smacking and imagine her kissing his cheek. Either that or she’s chowing down on wedding cake.
Coach Sanchez has taken the hint that I’m busy and is currently talking to someone behind the reception desk. Probably checking where the bus is.
“I can call you back later if you’re busy,” I say.
“Hey, I called you, I want to talk to you.”
He whispers something to Mercy and it sounds like she leaves the room.
“You don’t have to send her away.”
He ignores me. “Eli, what’s wrong? Talk to me. You’re really disappointed about this loss?”
“I told Papa that Richard Kingsley came to watch my match, and now I have to tell him he wasn’t interested in me. He was interested in my teammate.”
“Ah, Eli, I’m so sorry. But there’ll be other coaches. I heard Kingsley can be a bit of a dick anyway. Maybe it was divine intervention?”
I roll my eyes. Ever since he met Mercy, my brother is suddenly into the mysterious ways of the universe—fate and destiny and all that crap.
“It’s not just that.”
“What?”
I think about Ben’s face in that corridor when I told him to leave me alone. When I basically blamed him for fucking up my chances with Richard Kingsley.
“I acted like a dick to a guy I like.”
“This wouldn’t be your doubles partner, by any chance?”
“How do you know that?”
He treats me to his trademark, annoyingly confident laugh. The one the press and supermodels like his fiancée go crazy over.
“He’s so your type, that’s why.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He looks like he stepped out of one of those Ralph Lauren ads you used to put up on your wall.”
“I put those up because they were tennis-related. They were the Wimbledon ones.”
“Okay, sure. And you never wanked over them? Not even once?”
I splutter when trying to protest. Of course I did. Those men were sexy as fuck, and I was a teenager. I once wanked over the men’s underwear section in one of Mama’s clothing catalogues … It was Y-fronts.
“Wait a minute, how do you know about Ben?”
“One—I’m your brother and I care about your life, so I checked out the college roster. He’s the captain, right? Cute as fuck. Two—you guys have been tearing it up. Princeton posted a video of you guys wiping the floor with Harvard.”
I don’t know what to say.
“Eli, I saw the way you looked at him. You like him, it’s obvious. And he likes you.”
I sigh, running a hand over my face. “What’s the point? I’m leaving as soon as I can get a coach.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why? For the same reason you’re playing in the Premier League and not some second division team. I want to be the best. I want to win trophies and be number one.”
“Yeah, but, why?”
“Because … because….”
“Because it’ll make you happy?”
“Yes.”
“It won’t.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I love playing football and I love playing for a Premier League team. The money isn’t bad, either. But it doesn’t make me happy, at least, not that alone. You know what makes me happy?”
“What?”
“Marrying the woman I love. Coming home at night, whether I win or lose, and curling up on the couch with her and watching whatever stupid reality TV show she’s obsessed with right now.”
“Noah, I—”
“Listen, I know. I get it, okay? I’m not saying I’d quit playing football for love or anything like that, because I don’t think someone who loves you would ask you to give up your dream for them. And … ”
I think about something I was too in my own head to notice at the time. Ben telling me he mentioned me to Kingsley. During his meeting with a tennis great, he mentioned me.
“Are you still there, Elias?”
“Yes, I just … I don’t know what to do. I think I had something kind of special with Ben.”
Noah makes a weird noise. Something between a squeal and ‘aww.’
“So, go get him. Aren’t you about to go to the airport? That’s always a cool place to win someone back.”
“That’s not going to work the way you think it is. We’re getting on the same plane.”
“Even better, you can corner him fifteen thousand feet in the air where he can’t escape.”
That sounds like Ben’s worst nightmare.
“No, I can’t do that. Anyway, he’s with all his frat bros, they’ll be cocooning him. I’m the bad man right now.”
“Wait until Carina finds out you’re in love with a frat boy.
You’re basically living her American rom-com dreams right now.
Go get a boombox and stand outside his bedroom window, it’ll work even better if he lives in a frat house.
Ooh, or you could put an Otis Redding song on and slide into the record store where he works and do a whole routine. ”
I see a few guys from the team start to spill into the lobby.
“I’m hanging up now, crazy.”
Noah laughs. “Let me know how you get on.”
“Okay.”
“And, Eli? Don’t stress about the future and being the best and all that, okay?
It’ll work out how it’s meant to. Just don’t give anything up that you’ll be sorry you lost when the tennis thing’s over, yeah?
Trust me. There are guys on my team who are on their third trophy wife and still talk about the one they left when they hit the big time. ”
Ben appears between Nate and Archer and my tongue feels suddenly too big for my mouth. I manage a goodbye before hanging up the phone.
Ben glances over, spots me, and quickly looks away.