I squeezed his hand. “Sure, but I still should have done better. Many times.”
“Which is why it means a lot to me that you said it. Wow.” He laughed and let me go. “This is way more honest communication than I’m used to. After last night too. I’m not sure I’m a fan.”
“We’ve got time to work on it.”
“That’s not the kind of hard work I want to do this week,” he purred, his come-fuck-me eyes brightening. Because he would always rather bury his emotions in physical needs.
“You know, we can do both,” I said. “I’m versatile, remember?”
Twenty-Three
I FLEW OUT to New York a day before Miles, leaving him to pre-tournament preparations and a collection of media commitments. He’d refused to do any in the week we had together, leading to more than one frustrated call from Tina as she sought to smooth over the abrupt termination of his team. I wouldn’t have minded, but it had felt important for him to set a boundary and hold to it after a lifetime of being steamrolled by his family.
Katie was already at the hotel when I arrived. She’d gotten through the first two rounds of qualifying and had one more to go, her mood one of mild optimism.
“It’s been good!” she said, releasing me from a tight hug. “It might all go to hell tomorrow, but that’s just tennis, right? Oh, you want to put your bag down – Tomas had your suitcases put in the bedroom so hopefully everything is there.” She led me along the short hallway that bisected our suite. “This room must be costing you a fortune, Mat, I swear. There’s only the one bedroom, but we each have a double bed and there’s a lounge with a whole fake fireplace in it. And the bathroom is huge! It even has lit mirrors thatmake me feel like an influencer.” She paused to squeeze my arm. “Thanks for letting me stay with you.”
It was far from the finest room in the hotel, but I wasn’t going to say so. “No, thank you for staying with me. It wouldn’t be a grand slam without my partner. Although, this definitely beats the tiny place we stayed in last year that was over an hour away.”
“It’s about twenty minutes in from here and cars head over all the time. There’s also a gym! And—” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “—they do laundry service.”
With a skip in her step, she gave me a tour. It wasn’t a huge suite—slightly smaller than our apartment in London had been—but extra space was unnecessary when we didn’t have to cook. We’d shared a bedroom before too, but for the first time she gave me a worried look as I sank onto the bed she’d indicated was mine.
“Is this going to be okay?”
“If you mean can I afford to—”
“No, I mean with Miles,” she interrupted. “Surely, having me here will cramp your style.”
“It didn’t in London. Besides, he knows, and just like in London you can always kick us out if there’s horny noise. He has his own room we can go to.”
Katie’s smile turned reminiscent. “You can be sure I will. I’m super happy for you, Mat. Both of you.”
I’d messaged her the most important update from San Diego and called her from the airport – a call to congratulate her on her first-round qualifying win having become an hour long talk about Miles during which she’d smugly said she’d told me so at least a dozen times.
“Andvery happy to share in the spoils of your success,” she added. “Tomas and Ben have been great while you were away.”
“Ben? Just call him Macca like everyone else.”
“Never. My cultural cringe will not allow me to be that intensely Australian.”
Boyfriend
hey, not going to be there until friday afternoon
Everything ok?
yeah, just coming via miami
Seeing your parents?
unfortunately, but i can’t avoid them forever
Well, I’m here if you want to talk about it. Call me anytime
sure, but it’ll be fine. except seeing you a day later, that’s not fine
I’ll find a way to make it up to you
