Page 27 of It’s All in How You Fall
I don’t elaborate but Alex lets it be and crosses back to his side of the court. I follow suit but I’m not done. I stand there, racket dangling at the baseline. “So, you’re up for seeing her again, yes?”
In response he serves and oh my God, it’s not a softball first-day serve, it’s a real, hundred-mile-an-hour bomb.
It’s all I can do to get my racket out in front of my body so I don’t have an ice-cream-scoop-sized welt over my appendix. But, to my credit, the ball actually does make contact with my racket, and not only that, sails back over the net in what resembles the fancy drop shots I saw during my Wimbledon stretch sessions.
Alex seems surprised—I mean, I am too—and scrambles toward the ball. He dips his racket arm so low it scrapes the court as he just gets the webbing of his racket under the ball. The ball pops nearly straight up, catches the top of the net and, after teetering for a dry second, falls unceremoniously to my side. I’m still at the baseline and never would’ve gotten it anyway.
Alex picks himself up off the court, logrolling to his knees. I don’t wait for him to be truly vertical. “Alex, this is another sport. Another sport should equal another interaction. Ioweyou. An interaction per sport. One a week. That’s not too much. Just enough to move you up in her mind’s eye.”
He’s silent.
“Come on, if she were still at Northland, you’d probably see her every day.” For emphasis, I cock my thumb over my shoulder toward the school, home to nearly a century’s worth of awkward, hormone-filled meet-cutes. “What’s once a week? Answer: just enough to make an impression.”
Again, he’s silent.
“I saw the way you blushed and then heardwith my very own earsyou ask if we’d discussed you during dinner.” The mention of blush begets more blush on his end. “You can’t deny that you wouldn’t mind if you got another chance to talk with Sunny.”
I stare at Alex again. Silent. Arms crossed as much as they can be with my racket in hand.
It takes less time than it did at the bench to get a response. “Okay.” He pauses. “But…”
I toss up placating hands and his words die out. “I won’t be awkward about it. I promise.”
“You’re not awkward.” His dimples flash. “Heavy-handed, maybe.”
I arch an eyebrow. “Did you not say literally about a week ago that I had, and I quote,game?”
“That was in relationship to Nat. Next to him, we’re all Oscar Isaac.”
“Oscar Isaac is always a compliment, no matter how you look at it.”
“I’m making my point terribly.”
I place both hands on my hips and lean in. “That’s what liking acutegymnast can do to a guy, I bet.”
Alex is blushing again and seriously can’t look at me. Gah, I will never get over the fact that he likes Sunny. Not ever. I like this version of Alex Zavala. The imperfection of feelings actually seems to make him more perfect.
Maybe he is Oscar Isaac lite.
“How about this?” I offer. “If I make a fall sport and you two haven’t connected, I’ll invite you to Sunny’s end-of-summer birthday bash. It’s at a lake and it’s fun and Nat comes, so it’s not weird that you’d be there with the two of us.”
He doesn’t say yes, he doesn’t say no. Instead, an alarm rings from both his watch and his phone. He glances at it. “Time to go home, Caro.”
I don’t have a watch on and my phone is too far away to see, so I just squint at him. “You trying to get rid of me?”
“Nah, I’m supposed to play hoops with Nat at five. It’s a quarter till.”
Wow. Two hours, gone like that. I haven’t felt that way about time in a while. I hand him Lily Jane’s racket and grab my water before dutifully heading to the car.
Something makes me hope Nat’s already at the park when we pull up to the house. I… don’t really want to have to explainthis. Especially with my ever-expanding offer rolling out between the two of us.
Again, we’re quiet on the drive. We pass the park, and yep, there’s a vertically challenged shirtless idiot warming up solo on the court.
Phew.
“So, what’s the next sport and when?”
A little devilish grin snaps Alex’s dimples into action. “Based on today’s performance, I have some ideas. But I’m going to have to get back to you with the timing. Are you cool with playing it by ear? Got plans? A hot date?”
