Chapter 8
The rest of the week went by in a blur, and slowly but surely a routine established itself.
Every morning after getting up I’d have a smoothie and go for a leisurely jog on the beach before heading off to training.
Most of the time, Kay and I would train for an hour or two on the courts.
I’d follow that up with interval or strength training in the fitness studio.
I’d use my lunch break to eat a snack and take a power nap and sometimes a dip in Kay’s pool.
In the afternoon I’d either have another training session or a match against Malia.
My day would reliably end on Gabe’s treatment table.
With the power of his hands and his torture device disguised as a foam roller, he helped my body to regenerate quickly enough to be able to go full throttle again the next day.
I liked his deeply relaxed manner. How he brought me down when I was unhappy or frustrated.
And I liked our conversations about everything under the sun.
I told him about Germany, my life in Munich and my parents, about the tournaments, all the flights and hotel rooms, about strange encounters with fans and outrageous interview questions.
In return, I learned more about Hawaii. The ancient traditions, the modern influences, the efforts to live in harmony with nature, and the many challenges that gentrification brought in its wake.
The low wages and the high cost of living, which particularly affected many native Hawaiians.
He attempted to teach me about the aloha spirit, to explain that aloha wasn’t just a word but a kind of attitude to life.
And I finally learned what the shaka sign was all about.
It expressed the Hawaiian stance of taking life a little easier.
I never went to bed any later than nine thirty.
As a competitive athlete, effective sleep was as important as effective training; that was one of the first lessons I had learned.
Sometimes Kay and I would discuss the training day beforehand or set goals, sometimes I would just lie in bed and binge-watch something on Netflix.
Meanwhile, I’d Zoomed with my parents. Dad had joined in from London.
I’d given them both a brief summary of my first few days on the island but mainly told them about my progress.
After answering almost every one of their questions (How warm is the ocean?
Have you tried shave ice yet? Anyone your age around?
Any plans for the weekend?) with no idea or simply no, my mother had reeled off the old line that tennis wasn’t everything and that I should allow myself to have a bit of fun.
My father had agreed with her and cracked a few dad jokes about surfer boys.
Even if their expressions of care could be a bit annoying at times, I didn’t hold it against them.
I mean, just like Kay, they’d grown up with overly ambitious parents who’d made it their life’s mission to breed Olympic athletes.
They’d supported my interest in playing tennis and even becoming a professional but had never forced it.
On the contrary. As a kid I even had the feeling every now and then that they would have preferred my interests to have gone in a different direction.
One that wouldn’t expose me to comparisons.
To the pressure to fulfill expectations.
But my love for tennis and their love for me turned out to be bigger than any reservations.
After I’d promised my parents to reduce my workload a bit, at least on the weekends, we’d talked about all manner of things for a few minutes before finally saying goodbye.
“I’m busy tonight, so you’re going to have to cook for yourself or pick something up from Duke’s,” Kay said while I was warming up for my training Saturday morning.
It was just a little past eight, and we were the only ones at the center.
The sun was still low in the sky, but from minute to minute the air was growing heavier.
“Do you have a date?”
“Come on!” She dismissed my question with a quick hand movement. “Adrian is an old friend and is spending a few days of vacation in Honolulu.”
“Adrian,” I repeated, a little too interested.
“For a long time, he was the tournament director in Cincinnati. We’re meeting up for dinner to talk about the good old days.”
I made a deep lunge with my left leg, which caused my tennis skirt to hike up and reveal the tan line on my upper thigh.
“Some people would call that a date.”
She rolled her eyes, but I added, “If you’d rather have the house for yourself, I can…”
“Louisa Herzog-Riggs!” she cried, half-appalled, half-amused. “We are simply having dinner. And anyway…where on earth would you go?” She snorted. “To Vince Greenfield’s party?”
I stopped midway into my stretch. “Party?”
She pulled the hopper to the service line and said, “The hostel isn’t even open yet, and the dude is already throwing the first party. And then he has the nerve to invite me.”
“He invited you?!” By now, I felt adequately warmed up. We’d agreed to work on serves this morning, my not-so-secret Achilles heel. My serves weren’t bad, nor were they slow, but they were easy to see through and therefore easy to attack.
“Me and all the other neighbors, from what they say. Total provocation.”
“Or maybe an attempt to meet you all halfway?” I mumbled, reaching for a ball.
* * *
“Have fun on your date!” I called out toward the bathroom later that afternoon.
I waited for Kay’s snort before tossing my towel over my shoulder with a grin and making my way to the beach.
Sunset Beach was buzzing. Local families and tourists were having picnics, kids were making sandcastles, and surfers were facing down some pretty tall waves.
I spread out my towel, weighed it down with my backpack, and started putting on a heavy layer of sun cream.
At long last, I was ready to go down to the water.
It was a pleasant temperature, still cool enough to be refreshing but without being cold.
I waded into the water, which was so clear you could see the shells on the bottom.
I ran my hand across the surface and lightly wet my arms. Drops of water pearled off my oily skin.
“Louisa?”
The voice was familiar though it wasn’t someone close to me.
I looked to my right and shielded my eyes from the sun.
It took me a sec, but then I recognized Laurie lying on a bodyboard and paddling over to me.
She was wearing a fuchsia bikini, and her hair was longer and darker than I’d remembered—which had to do with the fact that it was wet and clinging to her shoulders.
“Hey!” I said, raising my hand.
“Hey,” she replied, almost out of breath, with a smile that was as timid as mine. She stopped paddling and let herself drift over toward me. “I wasn’t sure if it was you or not. In the water, everybody looks so different.” She made a face, and the space between her teeth flashed.
Apropos different. “You’ve got bangs,” I observed once I could see her up close.
Laurie’s hand shot to her fringe. “Yeah, since yesterday.” Her cheeks turned red. “I’m still getting used to it.”
“It looks great.”
Flattered, she smiled. For a moment neither of us said a thing. Then she said, “Listen. I wanted to apologize.”
That wasn’t something I had been counting on. “What for?”
“If it hadn’t been for me mentioning your godmother’s name, Vince never would have gotten so caught up in this whole thing. He definitely wouldn’t have made such a scene.” She rolled her eyes, and I felt a sense of relief.
“You couldn’t have known that.”
“Still.” She sighed heavily. “Everything really went downhill. I haven’t been here all that long myself and only caught bits and pieces in passing.” It wasn’t hard to see how much it was all still eating at her.
“Has he calmed down a bit in the meantime?”
She raised her eyebrows. “Was it that bad?”
I lowered my head. “He was kinda pissed.”
“I wanted to keep him from going, but he just stormed off when he got the letter.” Her eyes sank to her board. “So, like, well…I know the situation with Vince and your godmother is super complicated and all, but…that doesn’t have to come between the two of us, does it?”
Her “does it?” arrived a second later and with a touch of insecurity.
“No,” I answered firmly. “It doesn’t.”
Laurie looked relieved and put her chin to her board.
Only now did I notice the colorful flowers decorating its surface.
“Sadly, I can’t do much more than a bodyboard,” she said, misinterpreting my glance and self-ironically shrugging.
“Vince has tried to teach me how to surf a hundred times, but I’m hopeless. You ever tried?”
“To surf?” I shook my head and let myself slide into the water on my back.
“Standing up and staying up is so hard,” she said with a sigh. “No idea how he…”
But I didn’t hear the rest thanks to a wave breaking over me from behind. Huffing and puffing, I laughed, while trying to wipe my hair out of my face.
“That would’ve been a funny photo.” Laurie pointed to my iPhone, which was hanging off my neck in a waterproof sleeve.
I dipped underwater for a second and then back up, so all my hair would hang down my back.
“Could you take one for me, please? My parents are constantly getting on my case for not sharing any in our WhatsApp group.” I rolled my eyes before realizing—too late—how insensitive my words had been.
Laurie’s parents were dead and would never complain about anything to her ever again.
To my relief she answered with a relaxed “of course” and lifted her hand.
“Your bikini is an awesome color, by the way,” she said, while aiming my phone. “Goes perfectly with your tan.”
Her compliment made me happy, and I returned it. Unlike Vince, she had a tendency to sunburn, and she was covered with a thick application of suntan lotion.
“So, about tonight… Do you all know if you’re going to show up or not?”
I looked at her questioningly.
“To our barbecue. I sent you and your godmother an invitation but didn’t hear anything back.”
Wait. Hadn’t Kay been talking about a party? And why hadn’t she mentioned that we both had been invited?
“You invited us?” I asked, confused.
“On Vince’s behalf, of course. But inviting the neighbors was my idea. I thought it might be a good occasion…to smooth things out a bit.”
“And your brother agreed?”
She nodded. “It took a bit of convincing, but he realized that things can’t go on like this.”
“Hmm,” I murmured thoughtfully, feeling Laurie’s eyes on me. “So…Kay’s got an appointment this evening. That’s probably why she didn’t respond.”
It sounded so lame that I felt uncomfortable.
“Well, what about you? You’re coming, right?”
Her question caught me off guard. For a moment my head was completely empty.
“There are gonna be spareribs on the grill.” She wiggled her brows. “Or are you a vegetarian? We’ve also got corn on the cob and potatoes. And I bought some marshmallows. And graham crackers and chocolate, too, so we can make s’mores.”
“Umm…well…”
The sloshing of the waves saved me and swallowed my stammering.
At almost the exact same time, Vince appeared on the beach and drew Laurie’s attention with a gesture.
He was wearing his bright-red swimming shorts again, and I fought against the memory that shot through my head.
Against that strange tingling in my stomach.
“Oh, shit, is it already that late?” Laurie said with a glance at her watch.
“I promised Vince that I’d help out with getting everything ready.
” She slid off her bodyboard into the water and tucked it under her arm.
“See you later,” she called as she waded back onto shore.
It took me a few seconds to realize that it hadn’t sounded like a question at all.