Page 10 of From the Courtroom to the Court
"I'm sorry," Emily continues smiling. "I'll focus now."
"On me, Emily. I want you to always focus on me when you're here," Leah says.
The phrase is simple, and Emily understands clearly what Leah means, but her heart gives a small, unexpected flutter.
"Yes, okay," she says, picking up another ball.
"Damn, this is so entertaining I just need popcorn," Emma says, getting up from the bench to stretch her legs, standing near the fence.
Emily gets distracted again looking at her cousin, and Leah clears her throat.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," Emily says, preparing to serve.
She concentrates and hits the ball, but does it so clumsily that she sends it at an impossible angle, where it bounces off the fence and returns toward them like a cursed missile. Leah dodges it by instinct and sighs with relief when she sees the ball pass far from Emily, certain that she wouldn't have avoided it.
Mia enters the court where Leah and Emily are training with her eyes fixed on her phone. She's answering a message from her brother. On Mondays, after having spent weekends together, they usually talk more than any other day because they both feel nostalgic. They don't handle the separation well, especially him, who wishes with all his heart to stay with his sister.
Mia is so focused on the conversation while walking that she doesn't see Emma's body and stumbles into her, nearly making her lose her balance.
"I'm sorry," Mia says, grabbing her arm just in time to prevent her from falling. "Did I hurt you?"
Emma, whose manners shine by their absence in moments like this, looks at her furiously while shaking her hand off.
"No, but you could watch where you're going. You almost knocked me down," she snaps abruptly.
Mia stands still for a moment while observing her. She's pretty, but just another snob, after all, another arrogant woman who thinks she's better than her just because her wallet is full of credit cards.
"Aren't you going to say anything?" Emma inquires, as if expecting a bow.
"I've already apologized, I can't do more," Mia retorts and continues walking toward the back of the court.
Indignant, Emma follows her with her gaze and notices her body. She likes it; she has an athletic figure, and in the short time she's been able to observe her features, she's realized she's one of those girls who doesn't need to do anything to be attractive. Suddenly, she feels a gaze on her and turns toward Emily. Her cousin observes her with a furrowed brow, and Emma doesn't need her to say anything to imagine what she's thinking. "You're thirty years old, Emma, not fifteen. Stop behaving like a rude child."
She sighs and looks back at the girl, thinking she could approach her and apologize, and while at it, ask for her phone number to meet one of these days and display all her true charms, but then she sees her pick up a tube to collect balls and stands there openmouthed. Emma looks more closely and sees the girl wearing a maroon polo shirt with the club's logo. She's a worker whose job is limited to collecting balls; she can't ask for the number of someone like that. She turns abruptly and nibbles her lip with her teeth until she finds a piece of skin and tears it off while cursing herself for thinking that way, but she can't help it; appearances have always gotten the better of her.
"Well, I think for today it wasn't bad," Leah says when the training ends, approaching the net with Emily.
"At least I didn't make myself bleed," Emily sighs.
"You're not doing so badly, Emily," Leah encourages her. "Your problem is that you get distracted too easily. We have to work a lot on that, and on everything else, of course," she adds playfully.
"So, you don't consider me a lost cause?" Emily narrows her eyes.
"Of course not," Leah gives her a squeeze on the shoulder and points to the bench where their things are.
Emily feels a shiver run down her spine, but thinks it's from the gust of wind that just crossed the court, relieving their heat.
"See you Thursday then," Emily says.
"Sure," Leah smiles at her and heads toward the back of the court with Mia.
"What happened with that girl?" Emily asks her cousin.
"People here have no manners," Emma huffs. "Are we leaving? I'm hungry."
"Wait for me to change. You wouldn't want me to go out all sweaty," Emily says, grabbing her things to go to the locker room while her cousin takes out her phone and sits on the bench to wait for her.
Leah picks up another tube and helps Mia collect the remaining balls. She doesn't have more classes after Emily's, so she's free and feels like having a drink with her.
