Page 61 of Off Court Fix

It’s not nothing. It’s everything, and a wave of pent-up frustration begins to rise within my gut.

Play tennis.

Win at tennis.

Go to this party.

Support this charity.

Hop on this flight.

Go to this meeting.

Wear this, not that.

Be a different person.

“Maxine?” Crosby tenses and glances behind him where noise comes from the other side of the fence, but the voices belong to his building and grounds crew, talking about the sprinkler schedule. He relaxes. “What’s wrong?”

I’m tempted to let him listen as I pick up the phone, call my father back, and tell him nothing else will be canceled todayortomorrow. Because this ismyleg of the season coming up. I might have skidded on clay, I might have dragged on grass, even if I gave it my all. But I’m going to dominate the hard court circuit ahead of the US Open at the end of the summer.

But then there’s Crosby sitting beside me, waiting.

He’s always waiting, in silence, in secret. And Ihateit.

I don’t call my father back. Instead, I tilt my head and look around. “Can you play hooky today?”

* * *

Crosby rejected me not once, not twice, but almost a dozen times when I asked him to come over to my house so we could have a lazy day by the pool.

“We can skinny-dip.”

“No.”

“Lay in the hammock.”

“No.”

“Have sex in the hammock.”

“It’s a solid idea, but I’m not sure we should jump right into the flying trapeze when you’ve got a tournament coming up.”

But as he walked me off the court and sent me to the parking lot while I tried to brainstorm, he said something that made my heart sing.

“I want to take you on a date.”

I didn’t realize just how much I wanted that, even something small and trivial.

“I can’t remember the last time I went to the movies.”

I honestly couldn’t recall the time or what I saw, but I’m certain I still qualified for a student discount.

Crosby looks at me like I took the wind out of his sails. “Themovies?”He scratches his head. “That’s what you want?”

“What’s wrong with the movies?” I ask.

He shrugs. “Should be a little nicer than that, don’t you think? Something special?”

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