Love Game - Season 2012 (14 page)

There was another reason Gabriella wanted
to play the larger tournaments. Lulu would play them. And if Lulu was playing,
Gabriella could meet up with Sasha.

***

Polly opened the door and had to laugh.
Bernadette was waving with a
Tennis Nurse
novel. The older player
sighed.

“I’m hooked.”

“You were fast!” Polly exclaimed. “How
could you read that in two days.”

“I only read the interesting parts,”
Bernadette said and slipped inside Polly’s hotel room. “Can I borrow a new
one?”

Polly wondered which parts of the story
might have been more interesting than the others. Was Bernadette only reading
the love scenes? Polly grinned. There were quite a few in every
Tennis Nurse
novel.

Bernadette stepped towards Polly’s
nightstand and picked up one of the old novels Polly had gotten from Morgana.

“I thought I’d take you out for dinner and
we talk about the tactics for our first match,” Bernadette suggested.

Polly hesitated. “I will be watching a
movie tonight. With Amanda and Elise.”

She saw her doubles partner frown.

“Sorry,” Polly said.

“Well, we’ll both be sorry if we lose in
the first round. But that’s your decision.”

“How about discussing it over breakfast
tomorrow morning?” Polly suggested quickly.

Bernadette nodded. “Alright.”

She picked up another novel and began
flipping through it.

“So, how was the week at home? How is your
mother?”

Polly smiled, relieved that Bernadette
didn’t seem miffed. “Much better again.”

She had spent a whole week in Canada visiting
her family, and her mother had been feeling well enough for them to go for a
few walks through the park.

“She is still waiting for a new heart,
right?”

“Yes,” Polly answered. Of course, her
mother was waiting. They were all waiting. Just because her mother had been
released from the hospital again didn’t mean she had been cured. Polly let her
shoulders hang down.

“Is she on a waiting list?” Bernadette
asked.

“Yes,” Polly said.

“It can take forever before a matching
heart is found.” Bernadette said while looking through Morgana’s
Tennis
Nurse
novels. “First, somebody has to die, which is not very pleasant. Then
it must be someone healthy, and last but not least, it must be someone willing
to donate an organ. Most people would consider donating a kidney or their liver
when dead. But the heart?”

“It’s not easy to find someone,” Polly
admitted. She had sunk down on the bed. All her excitement had vanished and a
familiar fear was creeping up her spine.

“Honestly, I don’t think I could donate my
heart,” Bernadette said while skimming through one of the old
Tennis Nurse
novels.

“But you wouldn’t need it anymore if you
were dead,” Polly said quietly.

Bernadette looked up.

“But it’s mine,” she retorted. “It’s not
the same if it beats in someone else’s chest. A heart belongs to someone. You
can’t give it away. You mustn’t.”

A long silence followed the tirade. Long
enough for Polly to feel her eyes filling with tears.

“Well, that’s just my opinion,” Bernadette
added with a shrug. “I hope for your mother’s sake that someone has a different
opinion on the matter. Someone who’s heart is a match for your mom. Someone who
dies soon. Right?”

Polly managed to nod while tears began
streaming down her face. Sometimes she observed women and even men in
restaurants or on the tournament sites and judging from their looks she
wondered if they could be a matching donor for her mother. She even imagined
what would be the best way for them to die, so the heart wasn’t damaged.
Whenever she caught herself having these thoughts she felt horrible. She didn’t
want anybody to die. But it was the only hope for her mother.

“I’m just so scared,” she sobbed.

“I know, I know.” Bernadette placed the
novel on the nightstand and sat next to her. But when her doubles partner put
her arm around her, Polly felt a sudden uneasiness. How could Bernadette be so
harsh in one moment and then compassionate in the next?

Polly got up and went to the bathroom to
wipe her nose with some toilet tissue. Through the closed door she heard the
telephone ring. After three rings Bernadette answered it.

***

Amanda hung up the phone and shrugged at
Elise who had just entered the room.

“I can’t reach Gabriella. She’s not in her
room.”

Amanda had tried before they had gone to
dinner and after they got back to the hotel too, but to no avail.

“Polly’s not coming either,” Elise
remarked. “Bernadette said she wasn’t feeling well.”

“Bernadette?” Amanda raised an eyebrow.
“They’ve become really good friends, Polly and her.”

“You think they are a couple?” Elise
wondered.

“No. It’s just – .” Amanda got up and began
to change into her pyjamas. “Bernadette can be a bit overbearing. But it’s
probably good that Polly has someone who takes care of her.”

“Yes, probably.” Elise slipped under the
bed sheets and opened her laptop. “What movie have you picked?”

Amanda grinned. “Since we are in the desert
I thought of the perfect movie.” She pulled out a DVD from one of her bags and
handed it to Elise. The cover showed two women wearing old-fashioned clothes
and standing in front of a vintage car.

“
Desert Hearts
?” Elise had never
heard of it. “It looks very old.”

“It’s not that old! It’s from 1984 or so.”

“That is the Stone Age. It is very old!”

“Two years older than I am,” Amanda
reminded Elise while putting on a pair of shorts. “So you think I’m
very
old.”

Elise rolled her eyes. “I always forget you
were born in the eighties.”

“Best decade ever,” Amanda said smugly.
“Good music, too.”

“Oh, cheap shot,” Elise growled. “I don’t
listen to bad music. Polly gave me some new songs, by the way. You might like
them. The Jetlips.  It’s with guitars.”

Amanda pulled her shirt over her head. “The
Jet Lips?”

“Yes. Do you know them?”

Instead of giving an answer, Amanda got
into perfect air guitar stance, swung her arms and started singing.

Speed machine

Speed machine

I’m in love with my sp-e-e-e-e-e-d machine

Amanda ended her punk rock performance with
a little jump, hammering the last chord on the air guitar and falling to her
knees.

“Speed Machine,” she explained while
getting up and dusting off her knees. “A favorite.”

“Shocking,” Elise grinned and took her
hands off her ears. “Can we watch that very old movie now?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Amanda saluted, then jumped
into bed. “The movie features good music, too.”

“From the eighties?”

“Nope. Fifties.”

“Fifties?” Elise couldn’t believe it.
“That’s the Dinosaur Age!”

***

What a perfect way to end the day,
Gabriella thought.

Nibbling her way up Sasha’s latissimus she
was still amazed by how easily she was getting laid these days. Just a message
delivered by the hotel boy or a short text, and Sasha was ready, knocking at
her door.

Below the right shoulder, a muscle twitched
slightly when Gabriella let her fingers run over Sasha’s spine. She only
touched the tiny hairs that stood up on the Czech’s back, and with every inch
she moved up Sasha sighed quietly. Had she been too rough in Dubai? Thinking
back, Gabriella felt a bit guilty. Sasha had seemed so tame and frightened
in the elevator. She clearly had been surprised, even shocked by the twin’s
approach, and the encounter later in Sasha’s hotel room probably didn't help to
put Sasha at ease. It had been filled with Gabriella’s frustration over her
losses in the previous tournaments and the urge to reward herself for a
demoralizing day in the Emirate’s capital.

Today she wanted to make up for it. The
Czech had closed her eyes, and when Gabriella bit her gently on her side, she
let out a soft squeal.

“Open your mouth,” Gabriella whispered to
Sasha when she reached her ear again, and the Czech dutifully did so. Quickly,
the Galloway twin unwrapped a candy and breaking a little piece from it, she
slipped it between Sasha’s lips.

“Remember this?” Gabriella asked.

Sasha smiled with closed eyes and nodded.
Gabriella smiled, too. She had gotten a whole pack of coconut candy from the
vending machine. She had also bought peanut butter cupcakes and now popped one
into her mouth. When she leaned over to kiss Sasha, the Czech responded with
her whole body, turned around and embraced Gabriella with her legs and arms.
Once again, the taste of peanut butter and coconut spread over their tongues
and Gabriella thought back to their late-night meeting in the hotel hallway in
Cincinnati.

“Did you miss me?” Gabriella whispered.

Sasha moaned in confirmation.

"Did you miss the taste of us?"

Again, Sasha moaned. Yes, she remembered
the night in Cincy, too. Had she been thinking about Gabriella all winter? Had
she been dreaming about another kiss? Gabriella grabbed Sasha around the waist
and pulled her closer. The Czech’s willingness was clearly proof for her
desire, Gabriella thought, while their bodies settled into a slow rocking
rhythm. But not for long. Sasha had begun to move her hips against Gabriella’s
hand and she was picking up pace. She was breathing heavily.

“Perhaps we should give you a little rest,”
Gabriella suggested, lifting her hand.

“No,” Sasha protested, moving her hips
closer to Gabriella. ”Keep on going!”

“Are you sure?” Gabriella teased. “You seem
out of breath.”

“No,” Sasha whispered again. “Fuck me.
Please, fuck me.”

Oh, well. What could a girl do when asked
so politely, Gabriella thought with a little chuckle, then shoved another candy
into her mouth and went back to work.

This really was a perfect way to end the
day.

***

Another ten minutes, Sasha thought. It was
ten to twelve. It wasn’t that late. She could stay a little longer and then go
back to her own room. She twirled her finger in Lulu’s curls. The girl was
sound asleep with her head on Sasha’s shoulder. No, she couldn’t get up now
without waking Lulu.

Was that an owl outside the window? Sasha
listened closely but the night had gone dead silent again. Only Lulu’s steady
breath was audible in the darkness of the room.

She really didn’t get a lot of sex, Sasha
thought. The last person had been Anastasia. It was almost laughable. Adored
and desired by millions, but at the end of the day she lay in bed alone – until
now. Since that night in Dubai, Lulu had called her almost every day, summoning
Sasha to a different hotel room every night.

She wondered why Luella was bothering with
booking extra rooms for their trysts and why Sasha was never allowed to visit
Lulu’s room. But she didn’t want to inquire. The twin wasn’t talkative at all
and most often she was already waiting in bed, quick to undress Sasha as soon
as she arrived. Not that Sasha was objecting. It was refreshing to have someone
as young and possibly inexperienced as Lulu, who was still brisk and demanding.
Not even the fling with Anastasia had been as gratifying as the nights with
Luella.

A quick look at her cell phone told Sasha
that it was midnight. She should get going, the Czech thought with a sigh. She
had a match tomorrow and was scheduled on the practice courts at ten in the
morning. She tried to free her arm from under Lulu’s neck but the Galloway twin
was snuggling too close to Sasha. Carefully, she propped herself onto her other
elbow and tried again. Luella was moving.

“Are you leaving?” the Galloway asked
sleepily into the darkness. The dark waves of hair moved through Sasha’s
fingers when she lifted her head.

“No,” Sasha whispered, to her own surprise.
“I just wanted to get some water.”

Luella moved to the side and Sasha pulled
her arm out from under her. Then she went to the mini bar and took out a bottle
of water, feeling Luella’s eyes on her naked back. She didn’t mind. It felt
good. Walking back to the bed, she noticed that Lulu really wasn’t shy about
looking her body over.

Lying down on the warm sheets and wanting
to find the same position again, she stretched her arm out for Luella to lay
down on it, but the Galloway twin didn’t put her head back.