Love Game - Season 2012 (5 page)

Sneaking out of the locker room and through
the player area Sasha quickly boarded one of the tournament cars and ordered
the driver back to the hotel. She had an appointment with her manager, Kurt,
who was already waiting in the hotel restaurant, sipping on a glass of red
wine.

“I’d rather not,” she said, sitting down at
the table.

Kurt looked up and raised his eyebrows. “I
don’t understand.”

“I don’t want to do the photo shoot.”

“Why?” he asked slowly. But they both knew
the answer. When Sasha didn’t say anything Kurt leaned forward.

“Listen, Sasha, your nose looks fine. I’ve
told you a hundred times. Nothing to worry about.”

Sasha clenched her teeth. What did Kurt
know about it? It wasn’t his nose. She
knew
that it was bigger now. Even
though nobody else seemed to notice the fact, it made her uncomfortable in her
own skin, and this was a feeling she had never experienced before. She used to
be immaculate. Her legs, hips, boobs, and shoulders were perfectly
proportioned, topped off with a face that had already graced the cover of every
prestigious magazine.

“Can we postpone it?” she asked.

“No, not again!” Kurt leaned back, waving
his hands. “Really, what is going on with you? We’ve cancelled Brisbane, we’ve
cancelled the sponsor meeting two days ago, you wear this huge visor which
looks absolutely ridiculous – I’m getting asked about it all the time. And all
this for no good reason, because there is nothing – I repeat – nothing wrong
with your nose.”

He leaned forward again and took Sasha’s
hand. “I wouldn’t send you out there if there was a problem. You understand?”

Sasha looked at her manager. In the last
six years since they had been working together his hair had gotten thinner and
his body had grown stout. Soon he would be a big, bald man.

“Yes. Understood,” she said.

Yes, he would be really bald and really big
while she only had an imaginary big nose.

***

“So?”

“So what?”

Gabriella looked up at her twin sister who
was sitting opposite herself and tried to look bored. They had been waiting in
the offices of Supersport Channel for almost ten minutes now – without speaking
to each other.

“So, will you tell me what’s going on?”
Lulu almost yelled. “You move out without explanation. You don’t answer my
calls. You get a new team. You play Auckland. Something you want to tell me
maybe?”

“No,” Gabriella answered flatly. “I just
needed a change.”

“Is it the Wimbledon title?” Lulu spat out.
“Are you still jealous?”

“I don’t care about that title. I know that
it was me who actually won it. I don’t need that dish in my living room to
remind me of how well I played.”

“Gaga, please, you sound like a ridiculous,
huffy cow. You didn’t like the dish in
our
living room because it bears
my
name. That’s why you moved out.”

“Firstly, don’t call me Gaga anymore. My
name is Gabriella. Secondly, I moved out because I don’t like your attitude.
Thirdly, I don’t need you anymore. Unlike you, I have friends now.”

With satisfaction Gabriella noticed that
her last comment had struck home.

“Great friends you have,” Lulu remarked,
but she had toned down her voice. “Elise Renard. I hear she is a lesbian.”

Gabriella felt her head grow hot. “I don’t
care about rumors.”

“And not surprisingly your new best friend
Sasha Mrachova is also a rumored lesbian. She didn’t say a word about what
really happened in Istanbul.”

Now Gabriella looked up in surprise. She
restrained herself from moving uncomfortably in her chair or biting her lip.
Why would Lulu think she was friends with Sasha?

“I’m not friends with Sasha.”

“You seemed really concerned about her
well-being.”

“You knocked her out, Lulu!” Gabriella was
getting annoyed. She didn’t want to talk about Sasha. For most of the
off-season she had successfully managed to avoid thinking about her. Moving to
St. Petersburg, hanging out with Elise and Amanda and the little love affair
with Kiara over the Advent season had pushed the Czech to the back of her mind.
Of course, the first thing Lulu did was bring all the memories back. Her sister
had a knack of being one huge pain in the ass.

“It was self-defense, you know that,”
Luella snapped. “She tried to make a move on me.”

Gabriella sighed. Lulu really believed
everybody was after her. If she’d known about Gabriella’s little history with
Sasha, she’d probably even be jealous. The best thing to do would be to
redirect the conversation away from the Czech.

“What do I care about your problem with
Sasha?” Gabriella shrugged. “I care about my ranking and I won’t let you get in
my way.”

“Get in your way?” Lulu snorted, taking the
bait. “I’m twelve ranking spots above you. There are eleven other players in
your way and if you get past them we can talk again.”

“I’ll surpass your ranking after
Wimbledon,” Gabriella said, surprised that the words came out of her mouth
sounding like a fact. But it had the desired impact. Lulu seemed baffled. She
had to defend two thousand ranking points along with the title on grass. Not an
easy task, and she knew it.

While Lulu was still pondering over her
ranking, a young woman entered the room.

“Hey, girls,” she said with a broad smile
and waving two sheets of paper. “I’ve got the first assignment for you.” She
winked and handed them the paper before leaving the room again.

Gabriella read through the first page, then
let the sheets fall down.

 “Trampoline?”

Gabriella looked up. Her sister was also
baffled and they both stared at each other in surprise. The first task they had
to film for their planned show on Supersport Channel would be a game of tennis.
The net would be stretched between two poles in the air and the twins were
supposed to jump high on a trampoline while making and returning their shots.

“That’s totally screwball,” Gabriella and
Lulu blurted out in unison. The unexpected accordance in words made them laugh.
Sometimes it was amazing how similar they were. And suddenly Gabriella missed
the connection she shared with Luella. Why had such a deep rift formed between
them?

“Our first match against each other this
season,” Gabriella smiled at her sister in reconciliation.

“I’m the favorite for this one,” Lulu
grinned.

“Oh, and why is that?” Gabriella demanded
to know.

“I’m half an inch taller than you,” Lulu said
smugly. They both laughed, then fell silent again. Too many things were left
unspoken and they knew it.

***

When Polly Duke stepped into the elevator
she felt a sudden hesitation rising in her chest. As if it wasn’t right what
she was doing. As if she shouldn’t accept all the good things that were
happening to her lately. The fact was that Polly could have never afforded the
hotel and she knew that Bernadette would pay for the dinner tonight, like she
had done every night the previous week in Brisbane. Ever since they had started
playing together in Luxembourg last year, Bernadette had been very generous
paying for all sorts of expenses. In Brisbane she had booked Polly the same
hotel she stayed in, and even though Polly had protested Bernadette had insisted
on it.

“How can we prepare for our next match if
you stay in a different hotel?” she had asked, smiling at Polly. “No, no. I
won’t have it. You can pay me back if we win the tournament.”

As it turned out they only made the second
round in Brisbane, and so Polly wasn’t able to pay for all her expenses, but
Bernadette assured Polly that they were on their way to becoming a dangerous
team in the doubles competition. They had lost a very tight match against one
of the top seeded teams, which was a good sign that they could have more
success in the future.

The elevator reached the top floor and the
door opened to the reception area of a fancy top floor restaurant. In the midst
of the modern cleanness the tracksuit Polly was wearing seemed very much out of
place. She hadn’t dressed up appropriately. Polly made a few steps back to the
elevator. She couldn’t possibly go into the restaurant dressed like this.
Bernadette could have told her that this was a very posh place, Polly thought.

The young woman at the reception desk eyed
her suspiciously and Polly felt her head grow hot. She turned back to the
elevator to rush back to her room and change clothes but the doors had already
closed.

“Just go inside,” she whispered to herself.
“There are probably a lot of other players in sportswear inside.”

She squared her shoulders and made a step
towards the desk.

“I’m here with Bernadette LeBlanc. She
reserved a table, I think,” Polly said to the woman.

The receptionist scanned Polly’s tracksuit
and her short hair again and Polly bravely smiled back at her to conceal the
fact that she knew exactly what the woman was thinking.

Checking a list the woman finally nodded.

“It’s the third table to the left.” She
made no move to accompany Polly to the table. Even better, the young Canadian
thought. Perhaps she could sneak past the other guests unnoticed. Polly peeked
into the dining room and frowned. She couldn’t see any other players in sports
clothes. Near the window was Bernadette in elegant clothes, sitting upright and
with a glass of water in front of her.

“Oh, dear.”

Just when Polly was about to make a step
into the room her cell phone rang. She stopped and took a look at the display.
It was her brother Jonathan calling from Canada which was never a good sign. If
he called for a chat he usually used video calls, not calls to her cell phone.
This had to be urgent. Polly turned around and quickly walked over to a pair of
lounge chairs standing next to the staircase.

“Hey,” she answered the phone. “What’s up?”

“Hey, sis’.” Her brother’s voice sounded
stressed. Polly felt dizzy. The air suddenly seemed very thin.

“What’s up?” Polly asked again.

“Mom is in the hospital,” her brother
revealed. He didn’t need to say anything else. Their mother’s heart disease had
accompanied them now for three years. Polly sank down onto one of the cushioned
chairs.

“Okay.” Polly didn’t move. “Thanks for
letting me know.” 

“I’ll keep you updated,” Jonathan said.
There was nothing Polly could do but wait.

***

Her hair was disheveled and her arms spread
to both sides. The straps of the harness around her hips didn’t bother her
anymore and the rhythmic up-and-down movement made her body feel lighter and
lighter. Elise was flying.

She grabbed Gabriella’s hand tighter and
cried out in joy.

“I haven’t jumped on a trampoline in
years,” she yelled to her friend with whom she was assigned to play. They were
on one side of the large trampoline while Gabriella’s sister Lulu and Robyn
Lawrence, a young and upcoming British player were on the other side. All were
strapped with long bungee cords for safety.

Gabriella didn’t react and with a side
glance Elise determined that her friend was concentrating hard on jumping to
the right rhythm. She still looked grumpy after having lost her match against
Luella. Admittedly, Gabriella had looked very clumsy the moment she set foot on
the trampoline. More than once she missed the ball as she was jumping either
too high or too low. She couldn’t get the hang of it while Lulu on the other
side of the net seemed a natural at the trampoline task. She entertained the
whole Supersport crew with trick shots between her legs and changing the
racquet from one hand to the other to get even the most difficult balls back
over the net. In the end Lulu topped it off with a somersault. Everything
worked for her and Robyn and Elise stood on the ground in awe of Luella’s
acrobatic stunts.

“It’s not important,” Elise had tried to
cheer her up when Gabriella dismounted the trampoline for a short break after
the singles match, even though she felt that it was not so much losing the fun
match that bothered Gabriella, but her inability to keep up with Luella’s show
skills. The doubles match was just as lopsided. Lulu and Robyn were giggling
and making points at will while every ball Gabriella was able to reach she hit
outside the trampoline railings. Elise at least tried to have fun.

“Cheer up!” she ordered Gabriella, but in
the end they lost the doubles match.

“That’s a wrap, ladies,” Paola said,
clapping her hands and nodding at the film crew to pack up. “You all looked
great.”

Gabriella snorted while she packed her
racquet bag. “Sure.”

“What’s up with you?” Elise asked her when
they were walking back to the tournament building. “You didn’t have any fun.”