“Let’s move on to some volley-ing and overhead practice,” Anthony says, assessing us with his wise brown eyes. “You’ll get the hang of it, I’m sure.”
Four hours later,we do not get the hang of it. Rowan narrowly misses my head with his racquet more than once, and we both forget to call the ball almost every time. We’re both too much in our heads about it, trying to play the game solo, when we need to communicate.
“Well, that was…a good start,” Anthony says, scratching at his short beard.
“Really?” Rowan asks, incredulous.
“No, that was terrible.” He sighs and I wince, looking over at Rowan. He deflates a little and lets his head drop.
“But you can help us, right?” I ask.
Anthony nods but it doesn’t look very convincing. “I’ll be honest, you two are clearly amazing players individually, but your communication needs some work and that’s not something I can magically fix. You need to do things together, some bonding activities.”
“Bonding activities?” I ask, frowning. “Like what?”
“Couples yoga, trust exercises, something along those lines. Learn to rely on each other. If you do that, I guarantee you it will help your game in doubles.”
Rowan nods and looks at me with a mixture of hopefulness and puppy dog eyes. Fuck, I can’t say no to him.
“Okay, we’ll try some things. But you’ll be here to coach us through the whole process,” I add and Anthony nods.
“Of course.”
“Right,” I say, placing my hands on my hips and nodding at Rowan. “Let’s find some bonding activities.”
Three hours later,after scouring the internet far longer than intended, I cave in and pick up my phone. I push the video call button in my ‘Athlala Girl Bosses’ group chat and wait.
And wait some more.
One, two, three more rings until someone picks up.
“Blair, I need help,” I say frantically, running a hand through my long, wavy hair.
“Is this boy related?”Blair asks, grinning at me.
“Not exactly—” I say and the call disconnects. Did I justlose signal? I tap the screen and realize that my so-called friend just hung up on me.
She pops back in a moment later. “Kidding, what do you need babe?”
Isla jumps in at the same time as I say, “I need advice. And yes, it’s related to Rowan but not in the way that you think.”
“The answer is yes, you should totally get together,” Isla replies, chewing a piece of gum.
I roll my eyes at them both until they stop snickering. “I agreed to be Rowan’s doubles partner for an exhibition match in a couple weeks,” I say, chewing on my fingernail.
“That’s wonderful!” Isla exclaims. “Spencer did mention that Rowan was interested in doubles, I didn’t realize you were gonna be his partner,” she says.
“I’m not his permanent partner, this is just for one televised match. It’s for charity,” I explain. Rowan and Spencer have known each other for years as they met at a campaign photoshoot for their sponsoring brand. In fact, Rowan and I introduced Spencer and Isla and the two of them became a figure skating duo.
“So what’s the issue?” Blair asks, teasing me. “Afraid you’ll fall in love with him if you share the same side of the tennis court?”
“You two are incorrigible. I think the problem is…” I say, gritting my teeth. “My control issues,” I mumble, too low to hear.
“What was that?” Blair brings the phone closer to her face.
“Come again?” Isla asks.
“I said, it’s my control issues. We can’t seem to get a good flow going when we play and I think it might be entirely my fault.” I slump on the couch, sighing. “Our coach said we need to do some bonding activities, but I don’t know what would even help.”
