I had to say that spending time with Sophie was special. I felt as though we had bonded after all we had been through. We had so much fun together and it reminded me, however much it hurt, about my time with Xisca. We had always teased each other and supported each other just like Sophie and I did. Once I was sure that Sophie was calm again and had made sure that families should not be mentioned by anyone I returned to speaking with Roger and Mirka returned to Sophie.
"You and Sophie should get together you know," Roger told me "You are perfect for each other."
"I am unwilling to get into another relationship after the last one." I told him "And anyway, she does not want to stay in Mallorca. I'd imagine that she will move away once she is free of her troubles."
"You still think of Xisca after all of these years?" Roger asked me quietly.
"Always," I replied "She broke my heart. We were perfect for each other."
"You and Sophie are perfect for each other." Roger pleaded with me to see what he was saying "You get on so well. You comfort her so well which I think is something that only you can do. She needs you desperately and I think that you need her a bit now even though you are only friends."
"She's one of the best friends I ever had. I don't want to risk losing that friendship." I answered.
"She definitely loves you. If you don't return that love which I know you have for her then she will be crushed." Roger said to me.
"I just cannot after last time." I said sadly "Last time showed me that no matter how right you are for each other things still go wrong. You have no idea how close I was to locking myself away forever after the last time. If that happened again then I would break. We are not destined to be boyfriend and girlfriend."
"You, Rafael Nadal, are a fool." Roger told me, shaking his head "Tell me, do you love her?"
"I'm not gonna answer that Roger!" I protested.
"You said that you would do anything for me when I promised to pick you up. Answer this question honestly with a yes or a no. Do you love Sophie?"
"I think so."
"What are your feelings for Rafa?" Mirka asked Sophie "I promise that I won't tell anyone what you say. When you see him, what do you think?"
"I think that he is incredibly handsome, charming, friendly, supportive young man who I want to spend my entire life with as either a friend or more than a friend." Sophie replied "Either would suffice but I'm not going to ask any more of him now. I don't think that he is interested in having a girlfriend."
"I have known Rafa for a long time. Let me tell you a story about him and a girl called Maria Francisca Perello or Xisca for short." Mirka said "In school these two got together. They seemed to everybody perfect for each other. They got on so well, joked so easily. They were together until 2009 when suddenly Xisca broke it off. She was tired of the travelling, wanting a life where she could spend more time with her friends instead of constantly around the world. Rafa consequently lost for the only time in the French Open, withdrew from Wimbledon although that was partially due to his tendonitis, and did not win anything else for the rest of the year. That is why he is unwilling to become your boyfriend because he is scared that it will happen again."
"I would never leave him, not after what he's already done for me in these five days." Sphie said indignantly.
"None of us thought that Xisca would leave him but she did and it destroyed him." Mirka replied.
"So what you're saying is that I have no chance?" Sophie asked.
"Of course you have a chance. I think that he already trusts you like he did Xisca and maybe once you've gotten to know each other a little better then he'll ask you out. He'd be a fool not to!" Mirka corrected me.
It was rather a sham when we arrived in Halle because Rafa and Roger ran off to try out the grass, Mirka went to her she was staying with Roger and I went alone to find somewhere to stay. It was not even like I could try and find somewhere as close to Rafa as possible seeing as I had no idea where he was going to be a sleeping for the week. I was so tired that I took a room in the first hotel I found which was relatively close to the Halle courts. It was fairly scummy but cheap and that was all that I needed for my short stay.
"How long will you be staying?" The hotel owner asked me.
"Ah well that depends. It will be for one day to a week." I explained.
"How come?" The owner enquired "I really need to know so that I know when to put the room up for sale again."
"Well I'm with one of the tennis players so if they go out early then I'll be leaving early but if they go all the way then I'll be here for a week." I told the man.
"I love tennis!" the man smiled "Which player?"
"Well between you and me it's actually Rafael Nadal!" I whispered "But keep it under your hat."
"Are you his girlfriend?" he asked incredulously.
"No, I'm just a friend who he's actually looking after at the moment." I answered "So which room am I in?"
"Room three, here's the key and if you get a bit lonely then my son is bored as well. Maybe you guys could do something together."
"Does he play tennis?" I asked seeing an opportunity to get my racquet out with somebody of maybe near my own level.
"Yes he does actually. You guys could go and have a knock about at the club!" The owner said enthusiastically.
"I'd love to." I grinned "Haven't played in a little while."
"Ben? I've got somebody here to play tennis with you." The hotel guy shouted "I'm Adam by the way."
"I'm Sophie." I shook his hand.
Ben came out from the back, smiling and holding his tennis racquet. He had silky looking but unkempt brown hair and a carefree face. His eyes were green, like mine and he had some stubble which I had to admit looked pretty sexy. He was very very handsome.
"Hi, I'm Ben Squire." He said before adding in a jokily formal manner "I am to have the honour of playing tennis with you?"
"You are indeed sir," I replied in the same tone "I'm Sophie Richardson. I'm sorry but you wouldn't happen to have a spare racquet? I didn't think to bring mine."
"Oh you can use mine," Adam offered "Ben go and get it."
"I'll just go and get changed into something a bit more suitable to play in."
I took my bag upstairs which had everything which Rafa had salvaged from the Hilton in Manchester and some more clothes. I decided that I'd have to wear the tank top again and I also wore a skirt which Rafa had found in the lost property of the hospital. Feeling rather excited I ran downstairs to meet Ben.
Fortunately the racquet which had been lent to me was quite similar to my one at home. It had about the same head size, string pattern and length but it was a little heavier. I took a few swings with it.
"This will do very nicely thank you," I said to Adam before Ben and I left.
"So you are from England?" Ben asked me as we walked.
"Yeah, I'm from Oxford." I replied.
"You speak good German," He told me.
"Yeah I'm fluent in Spanish, French and German." I explained "I love languages."
"So how old are you?"
"I'm twenty two, what about you?" I asked.
"I'm twenty. I couldn't go to university because the hotel wasn't making enough money but I have studied history by myself in my spare time." He said
"I always liked history," I replied "I just struggled a bit with dates and names but it is always interesting."
"Wait a second, did you say that you were twenty two?" He asked "You're pretty small!"
"Yes, a few people had pointed that out." I glared at him "I may be small but that won't stop me from destroying you in this game of tennis which we're about to play."
"Small but feisty are we?" He teased "I'm shaking in my boots."
"You're going to regret this teasing." I warned him "When I beat you 6:0."
We arrived at the club and took to the court straight away. Ben made a big show of doing tens of seemingly pointless stretches while I stood on the baseline waiting.
"What do those stretches even do?" I called over to him.
"Nothing much apart from make me look professional and warm me up a bit." Ben admitted.
"Surely that's what the warm up is for?" I suggested innocently.
"Be quiet you one of little faith." He said, hitting a ball over the net.
We rallied for a bit to warm up as I got back into practice. I tried to remember everything that I had been taught at a younger age. Footwork, slices, topspin, drop shots, volleys, smashes, kick serves, slice serves and flat serves. It was returning steadily but for the moment the only things that were really working were my topspin shots and slice serves. I didn't feel very ready when we started but I decided to give it my best. He was going to serve first.
From the word play he was on the offensive. His first serve of the day was a ripper down the middle which I only just got back into play. He immediately put the shot away. The next serve was a sublime slice out wide but I got it back into play and continued from there. In a rally I deduced that I was more consistent but I would struggle to hit as many winners because of my size. So I needed to retrieve as many as possible until he would make an error. He cruised through the game to love.
My serve was a little rusty and I struggled to keep the first serves in. However I managed to scrape through the game after saving two break points and him saving four game points. I managed to do a little damage on his next service game taking him to thirty thanks to a weak second serve which I returned well and a double fault. Again on my serve I was taken to deuce but scraped through. From there, he ran away with the set and won four straight games to win 6:2. I walked up to the net, shell shocked and embarrassed to have been broken twice and not broken him at all. I expected him to be smug and teasing after the victory when we shook hands but he was actually very polite.
"Good match." He said as we shook hands "We should play again at some point."
"Definitely," I agreed "Maybe tomorrow?"
"Okay." He said "And maybe you should consider wearing a sports bra tomorrow?"
"I'd hoped that you wouldn't notice," I blushed.
"Wouldn't notice?" Ben laughed "When you ran it looked like your chest was erupting!"
I laughed with him. Had anyone else, apart from Rafa, commented on the size of my breasts I probably would have slapped them. But Ben was just so innocent and humorous. One thing that I had noticed was that he was much more confident than Rafa. Rafa would never have said anything about my breasts because he'd be too shy but Ben was already at that stage despite the fact that I'd known him for only an hour.
"Not that I'm complaining of course. From my side of the court it was quite a nice view." Ben continued.
"Hey, don't push your luck matey or I might end up telling everyone that I beat you 6:2." I threatened.
Ben escorted me back to my room. Just as I was about to walk in his stopped me.
"Look, Sophie. Maybe you'd like to have dinner with me tonight. There's a restaurant down the road which I quite like." Ben suggested, suddenly rather shy.
"So you're shy when you're asking me out yet confident as hell when you're talking about my breasts." You're a weird man Ben." I grinned.
"Is that a yes or a no?" He asked, confused.
"It's a most definite yes silly!" I smiled "Do we need to wear anything formal?"
"Just try and be smart I suppose," Ben said. He surprised me by kissing me on the cheek and I surprised him even more by kissing him softly on the lips.
"See you at eight this evening then." He told me.
I sauntered into my room feeling very happy. I got out my phone and called Mirka.
"Hello Sophie!" Mirka said
"Hi Mirka, I just called to tell you the good news." I said excitedly.
"Go on then,"
"I think that I'm in love."
"Oh Sophie that's brilliant! I told you that you and Rafa were perfect for each other!" I could hear the smile in Mirka's voice.
"No, Mirka you misunderstand me. It's not Rafa I'm in love with. It's a man called Ben Squire. I'm going out for dinner with him tonight." I said.
"Oh, congratulations anyway. Goodbye Sophie." Mirka said putting the phone down. This was bad bad news. Roger had told Mirka yesterday that Rafa loved Sophie and now Sophie loved some other man. Surely if Rafa found out, he would be crushed like the last time. As Mirka usually did when she needed help she dialled Roger's number and hoped that he'd answer quickly.