Chapter 15: Lexi - Ky and Lexi Play Doubles Together

Author’s Note: Something a little different here. Unlike most chapters this one is very new. I started out doing some revisions to my intro to the next chapter and before I knew a whole new chapter grew. So it’s probably less polished than other chapters, and the voice may feel a tiny bit different since of late I write Chapter 40 Lexi moreso than this version of her, but hope you enjoy it.

I think Ky sensed something was off with me on Monday. On Tuesday we were both working from home and he surprised me with lunch from my favorite Greek place. His thoughtfulness certainly helped my mood but also re-emphasized the import of telling him my little secret. I pondered spilling the beans as we scarfed down lamb gyros, but we both had to hop on meetings at 1 PM so I decided the time wasn’t quite right. I did insist he hang out and work at my place for the afternoon, so he made a quick run back over to his apartment to get his work laptop. He also brought back tennis racquets.

Everyone on my team at work knew I was off the rest of the week for a ‘family emergency’. Ky had a similar deal going at his work, so we cut out a little early and returned to the nearby public courts to play some tennis. I’d had a really fun time playing over the weekend and wanted to keep building my skills. Ky seemed to be jumping two feet first back into what had clearly been a bit of a lost passion for him and was excited to hit the courts - even if he tried to hide it.

It was easy to grab a court since we got there before 5 PM, but the courts around us filled in quickly. We rallied, practicing groundstrokes for about 45 minutes. The sun had set and we were reaching that point where we either needed to play for real or call it a day. We were both getting bored and trying to hit goofy trick shots instead of practicing seriously.

I sort of wanted to play a real game, but was also pretty sure Ky would kick my ass unless he tried to sandbag, in which case I would kick his ass for being condescending. Even though I knew I was overmatched I also knew losing would put me in a shitty mood; my naturally competitive side was like that. The solution to our dilemma presented itself when a pair of young guys wearing A&M shirts approached us.

“Are you almost done?” One of the guys sneered, directing his question towards Ky. He had close-cropped blonde hair and blue eyes. Gym-honed muscled arms were displayed by the sleeveless A&M intramural tennis tank top he wore. I was guessing he was no more than a year or two out of school.

I couldn’t help it, I was immediately annoyed. The guy was conventionally attractive, but the douchiness radiated off him. I had a pretty strong view of what public court etiquette was from my days playing at Northwestern. No matter how badass you thought you were, you didn’t interrupt another group’s court time. That was the sacred code of public tennis courts. This pair of jackasses had just violated that code. I barely even had to glance at Ky to verify we were on the same wavelength.

“We actually were going to spend a little time on our service games, but I’ll admit we’re a bit competitive by nature. How about this, you boys down for a little doubles action?” Ky asked.

Blondie looked a little hesitant. He made eye contact with his partner - a stocky curly haired dude who I was thinking probably had some Greek or Italian roots. He also sported a sleeveless A&M fraternity tank top, his biceps were equally large and acne scarred.

I approached the sideline where the small group was gathering. I hadn’t put much thought into my outfit, just replacing the button up blouse I’d been wearing for work with an old Northwestern club soccer jersey to accompany my yoga pants (I did Zoom outfits before they were cool) to play tennis. Ky was rocking a pair of gym shorts with a pink soccer jersey from when we had played on a summer league team a couple years ago. He wouldn’t normally have worn it in public, but it was the only clean microfiber shirt he had at my place and it was a muggy evening. I refrained from telling him he looked hot in hot pink. He would have thought I was trolling, even though it was the truth. Between our outfits and the dumb shots we’d been hitting over the last few minutes we probably looked like total hackers to these guys.

“Uh sure, I guess we could play doubles,” the curly-haired guy said.

“Sick! We’ve never played doubles before, it’ll be fun to learn!” Ky exclaimed. I suppressed a grin.

“Let’s just do a pro set,” Blondie suggested. He was probably hoping to dispose of us as quickly as possible.

“What’s a pro set?” I asked, getting in on our little deception.

“First to eight games wins, have to win by two,” Blondie informed me.

“Oh cool, do you guys want to, like, warm up or whatever?” I asked.

“We’re good, we play almost every day,” Blondie said. The pair set their bags down and began getting their racquets out.

“Ok, you guys can serve first since you’re the visitors,” Ky said.

“Yeah, right, won’t be for long,” Blondie said arrogantly.

“What’s the play here?” I whispered to Ky once we’d taken our side of the court and were out of earshot of our opponents.

“Let’s see if these jackasses are any good, but I’m thinking some kind of bet to fuck with them sounds ideal,” he said.

“Ha, what did you have in mind?” I asked.

“I dunno, their girlfriends’ anal virginities maybe?”

I laughed. Ky’s suggestion was funny, but it did get the wheels turning in my brain.

Blondie served to Ky first. He whacked a powerful first serve right into the net. His second serve was soft but floated over the service box for a double fault. What an arrogant prick for thinking he didn’t need to warm up at least a little.

He overcompensated on his first serve to me and I had to hop out of the way to avoid it. He finally got one in with a soft second serve. Rather than attack it I hit a gentle warm up level forehand back to him. He smashed his return into the net.

Two more overzealous whacks resulting in unforced errors and the first game was over.

“I guess maybe we should have taken you up on the offer to warm up,” Blondie admitted.

“No worries dude, let’s just hit for a few minutes then we can start fresh,” Ky suggested.

He didn’t have to tell me we were going to act inept during the warm up. We only hit soft easy groundstrokes back and made plenty of unforced errors. The guys we were playing - we never did get their names - called a halt to proceedings after about five minutes and we approached the net. They were confident they had the measure of us now and wanted to take the court. We had them right where we wanted them.

“You’ve got this right?” I whispered to Ky. He nodded to me and smiled confidently.

“You boys ready for another go?” Ky goaded.

“Yeah, let’s get this over with,” Blondie said.

“Would y’all be interested in a friendly wager?” Ky drawled.

“Like what?” Curly asked.