"before we start our practice there's something I wanted to talk to you about"
Beca freezes "You are not quitting right?" Nigel laughs at her "No kid, I wouldn't leave my champ" he reassure her. "It's about your dad"
She hasn't spoken to the man ever since he ditched her match when she was eight years old. Now she really was terrified.
Unexpected Visitors
Beca takes a deep breath "What about Robert?" Nigel knows she's not happy to hear about the man, he knows he is not happy either. Nigel gestures Beca to take a sit at the bench installed in the court. "He wants to see you. He said he'd be here for your match"
She feels the air being knocked of her lungs, a lot of questions start running in her head. Why now? Why couldn't he decide to show up ten years ago? Am I worth it for him now?
Beca closes her fists and tightens her jaw "No, I don't want him here." she spats. After her dad didn't show up to her match, he never visited again, he would call from time to time but Beca refused to take his calls, she was hurt, she needed her dad to make the effort and actually talk to her face to face but he was busy starting a new family far away from Beca. Money was his way of parenting, he never stopped sending her the money the judge told him to but what Beca needed was her dad, the man who should protect her when she was scared, give her advice when she had troubles, all she got month after month was a check. After ten years absent from her daughter life she couldn't understand how he hoped to just waltz back into her life. She wasn't going to let the man hurt her again, or worse, hurt her mother.
"I understand, but he is still your father, you can't just ignore him for the rest of your life Beca"
"watch me" she retorts. Nigel shakes his head and a smile is playing on his lips "I'm not even going to try to convince you to talk to him, I know I would be wasting my time. But I'm warning you he will be here, just don't let it get you ok?"
"Don't worry, he lost any power he had over me when he decided to not show up to that match when I was eight. I'm not going to let him screw up all my hard work. I'm going to win this match. I only need three more wins and I qualify for Miami."
"ok, nice talk but now it's time for you to work. Heart to heart moment over. Start running"
Beca gets up "Nigel" the man looks up and finds the brunette smiling "thanks"
"no problem champ, now run before I stop being nice and add more laps for being lazy"
She mocks salutes him and takes off.
"Bree, how much more do we have to walk? Don't you have those little cute cars to take you everywhere?" Chloe asks.
Aubrey facepalms "Chloe, this is tennis, not golf! Come on, she should be on... court ten! Here it is" she turns smiling at her red haired friend who doesn't seem happy at all.
"finally! ok go make your interview thing. I'll wait over here" she says taking a sit on a bench right outside court ten.
"Ok, I'll be back in a few Chlo" the blonde says already walking towards the player she's come to interview.
"Hi, I'm Aubrey Posen from Inside the Lines. Thank you so much for agreeing to make this interview Miss Simons." Aubrey says extending her hand to the blonde player who shakes it and smiles.
"No problem Aubrey. Please call me Maria, I feel like an old lady when someone calls me Miss Simons. I like your work, I asked your bosses to send you, I hope you don't mind the California heat I dragged you in." Maria says winking.
Aubrey is doing cartwheels in her mind, the number one player and four times grand slam champion praised her work and wanted to be interviewed by her! She can't believe it but tries to stay professional.
"Thanks mis.. I mean Maria. I love California, this is my first time at Indian Wells though, it's nice"
Maria nods and Aubrey gets everything set up to start the interview. She's no ordinary sports journalist and she do not ask the same old boring questions the players are used to. Maria is enjoying the new questions and is very impressed with the younger blonde, she knows she made the right decision when she asked for Aubrey to be her interviewer.
In the middle of the entertaining interview, Maria sees Beca and Nigel making their way to her court to wait for her. All Maria's team, Nigel and Beca are staying at a house they rented near the place the event is being held.
"Sorry for interrupt you Aubrey, I want to introduce you to someone." Maria says while motioning her dad and Beca to join her. Beca realizes she forgot her visor and runs back to the court she was practicing in while Nigel makes his way to her daughter.
"Aubrey, this is my dad Nigel. Dad, this is Aubrey Posen" Aubrey shakes the man's hand "Nice to meet you sir. Your daughter is very talented, you must be proud of her"
Nigel smiles at the journalist, usually he didn't like them, all of them where people who never got the chance to make it big and loved to put down players, but the blonde in front of him seemed genuine. "I really am miss Posen" Maria smiled at her dad.
Once Beca is back she joins the group.
"And there she is! Aubrey Posen, this is who I wanted to introduce to you. Beca Mitchell, she's the most talented player I've seen in years. She'll be playing here too." Beca blushed at Maria's praise. Aubrey raises her eyebrow at the brunette girl, she must be someone really close to Maria if she received that kind of praise. The blonde player was known for her incredible victories but also for not being too friendly with her colleagues, it wasn't that she was mean to them, she didn't simply socialized with them.
Aubrey was genuinely curious about the bond between the famous player and the young girl but she decided to let it slip."nice to meet you Beca"
"likewise Miss Posen. I've seen your work, you are amazing" the brunette offered. Now Aubrey was truly shocked.
"Actually" Maria cut in "Beca was the one who showed me your work. She said you were the best interviewer and after some research I have to agree with her."
"thanks, are you guys family? You seem close"
The comment caused a laugh. "I guess you could say so." Nigel said.
"Beca's been my father's protegé since she was six, I swear sometimes I'm truly convinced he loves her more than he loves me." she says pouting.
Beca laughs at the older woman "You can't be as awesome as me, sorry Maria." This cause a laugh among the group.
Maria gives Beca a sort of side hug "As you can see, I love this smurf though, she's like a little sister to me." She says pinching Beca's cheeks.
"hands off! you are stepping the line Simons" and once again the group is in laughs until Beca gasps and turns to Aubrey. "Sorry miss Posen, we are interrupting your interview."
Aubrey smiles at the girl. "don't worry, we were just finishing."
"Ok, well it was nice to meet you miss Posen. Keep up the good work and don't become another dull and bitter journalist like the rest" Nigel says before he starts walking away.
"it was really nice to meet you Miss Posen." Beca says waving at her.
"Nice to meet you as well Beca, and please call me Aubrey. Good luck in the tournament, I'll keep my eye on your matches" she replies to the brunette who nods and joins Nigel.
Once the interview finishes and the players and Nigel left, Aubrey walks back to bench Chloe was supposed to wait her on. She grabs her phone and dials her best friend's number.
"Hey Bree, are you done?"
"Yes, where are you?"
"oh I'm at the restaurant, I got bored and hungry. Come join me, lunch is on me"
The two best friends have lunch at the restaurant in the tennis complex. Aubrey tells Chloe about her interview with Maria and about the praises from both the blonde and her brunette friend. The girls decide to spend their afternoon shopping, while Aubrey would have prefered to stay at the complex she understands Chloe doesn't have a clue about tennis so she agrees to shop instead.
After a long afternoon of shopping Chloe and Aubrey were exhausted, Chloe flopped on the bed and turned the tv on.
"...and let's not forget about Mitchell, the girl has been considered a tennis prodigy since Simons took her under his wing. Something that clearly calls the attention is the fact that Mitchell didn't play juniors. Most of the rest of the players around her age have the juniors as preparation.
Well Dan, I saw her practicing today, the girl is lethal. I'm definitely looking forward her matches, I hope she gets a good draw."
Chloe stares at the picture of said player. "she's cute" she tells Aubrey.
"I met her today. She's very nice actually. I was wondering why I haven't heard from her, now I get it, she didn't play juniors."
"ok, you just lost me with your tennis talk, so back to the important thing, you know her?"
Aubrey chuckled at her friend. "yeah, why the sudden interest?" knowing exactly where the redhead was going.
"just asking." she shrugs. Aubrey raises her eyebrow looking suspiciously at her friend. Chloe notices her action "Jeez! can't a girl say ask anything without you wanting to over-analize it?"
Aubrey laughs at Chloe "fine, fine. I can introduce you if you want to..."
Chloe gasp "you would!?" she ask excitedly.
"Ha! I knew it! you can't fool me Beale"
Chloe just crosses her arms and pouts "I hate you Posen"
"really? too bad, I was going to invite you to watch her match with me..."
Chloe sighs "whatever" Deep down Chloe was dying to meet the brunette. When Aubrey was interviewing Maria or as Chloe called her the super famous hot tennis player, she was bored and started to wander around the complex. She stopped at the last court of the complex and saw the occupants of it, a small brunette and a man who seemed to be in the middle of a championship match, every shot was well fought. Chloe didn't know much about tennis, well in fact she didn't know anything at all but something about the way the girl seemed to read where the ball was going to hit made her fascinated. She stayed glued to her spot watching the girl take on the man who wasn't making anything easy and kept telling stuff to the girl after a couple of shots. "fix your grip" "add more volley to that shot" "hit the corners" among other stuff she didn't really understand. When the match was finished she felt her breathing stopped when the brunette girl took off her visor and walk near the place she was standing. One look at the small girl and the tittle of "super hot tennis player" didn't belong to Maria Simons anymore.
The girl must have noticed her staring she smiled at Chloe and kept collecting the balls she and her coach had used for the practice. She left when she saw the girl walking back to her coach and sitting down for what she assumed was a debrief about practice.
Chloe smiled at the memory of the tennis player smiling at her, before she knew she fell asleep thinking about the brunette girl with the cute smile.
"so what's new Becs?" Maria asked Beca during dinner, it was only the two of them. The rest of the team decided to go out for the night. Being tired from practice the players decided to stay.
"Robert wants to be at my match" Beca sighed. She really trusted Maria, she was like a big sister to her.
Maria frowned "I'm sorry Becs. You know dad won't push you to speak to him if you don't want to right?"
Beca nodded "yeah, I just..." she let out a frustrated sigh "Why now?"
Maria patted her back. "I don't know Beca, maybe he realized how stupid he has been all this time?"
Beca laughed "maybe, anyway I'm not interested in talking to him, I'm fine the way I am. I have mom, Stacy and you guys. I don't need anyone else"
"well my little squirrel, you are mistaken"
"hey! don't call me squirrel! and what do you mean I'm mistaken?"
"ok, I'll be the first to admit that wasn't a good nickname."
"thank you, and you still haven't answer my question."
"right! well of course you have us and soon you will have a lot of fans, but you will need someone else too, you know like a partner"
Beca looks confused "like a doubles partner?" she starts to panic "am I playing doubles here"
Maria facepalms herself "I swear you are so dense sometimes! I meant as a lover you silly!"
Beca stares blankly at the blonde "you have got to be kidding, love means nothing!"
"In tennis dear, not in real life."
"whatever, I'm not going to let anyone have that power over me. Love is stupid and it hurts people"
"what are you? 3 years old? have you ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend?"
Beca raises her eyebrow at the question "of course! wanna know his name? Is tennis!"
Maria sighs, knowing the brunette is the most stubborn person she knows but decides to have fun at the girl expense "now I understand why you are no fun, you need to get laid!"
Beca turns red "you suck Simons"
Maria laughs at the girl's reaction "I'm just kidding, you should see your face." once she managed to calm down she continues "but really Beca, you shouldn't think that way. Sure love can hurt you but it can also make you the happiest. Look at me, I have a bunch of titles, four grand slams and lots of fans but the time I'm the happiest is when I feel loved, when I can call Mike after a bad day and just talking about silly things with him makes me feel better. Just knowing he loves me makes me feel like a champion. I'm not saying go out there and give your heart to any idiot and do follow the get laid joke, my father would kill me if something happens to you. Just don't close yourself off to love ok? you never know if you don't give it a shot"
"wow that was... the chesiest thing you've ever said" Beca laughed. Maria knows this was the girl's way of avoiding the serious topic, but she knew Beca enough to know that she would think about her words.
"whatever, are you up to watch a movie?"
"You know I hate movies. It's two hours of my life completely wasted that I won't get back, let's watch a tv show instead. Do you have game of thrones?"
"do you ever get bored of watching those episodes over and over? I swear we've seen those seasons more than five times each"
Beca ignores Maria's comment as she sets everything up to watch her favorite show.
Beca wakes up and makes her way to the kitchen where all the team gathers to have breakfast before heading out to the complex.
"Morning guys" she greets. Everyone is shooting apologetic looks at her. She's about to ask what's going on when a voice makes her stop on her tracks.
"Beca.." she stays rooted in her spot, she hasn't heard that voice in ten years. All she wants to do is run instead of turning her back and face her father and that's exactly what she does. She runs.