“That’s the match!”
“Son of a bitch!” Julian banged his racket on the court. It was his new Head titanium graphite but he didn’t care if it broke. “I want a rematch!”
“Not today, bro! You’re off your game.”
“Bullshit!” Julian noticed the old couple on the next court looking over in disapproval. He wasn’t supposed to use profanity on the property. Most people knew who he was, and he couldn’t disgrace the family name, which was a brand. “I want a rematch!”
“No way! I won in straight sets. You’re officially humiliated.”
“Come on, David!”
“Stick a fork in it, my friend!”
“But I know what I’m doing wrong! I got it now!” Julian knew he sounded ridiculous, since what he was doing wrong was everything. He’d been driving himself crazy wondering where Sasha was, because he hadn’t seen her in her bedroom, nor did he see her leave.
“Let’s just hit around!” David lobbed a shot over the net, but Julian let it bounce.
“I don’t need charity!”
“Be cool, dude.” David pocketed the second ball, came forward to the net, and rested his hands on the tape. “Then let’s call it a day. Get a swim.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I do. We played an hour. Come on, let the kids play.” David gestured at two kids sitting on the other side of the fence, waiting for a court.
“Fuck ’em.”
“That was us once.” David motioned to the kids, and they scrambled to their sneakers, picking up their rackets and a can of balls.
“We were cooler than that.”
“No, we weren’t. Let’s go.” David chuckled, and Julian examined his racket, happy to note he’d damaged its rim. He hustled to collect the balls on his side, picked up his racket cover, and walked to the gate.
“Hi, guys.” David opened the gate for the kids. “Have a good game.”
“Yeah, don’t suck out loud,” Julian added, and the kids laughed nervously, heading on to the court, unzipping their racket covers, and opening the zip-top on a new can of balls with a satisfying hiss.
“I love that sound, don’t you?” David closed the gate, with its sign BRANDYWINE HUNT TENNIS COURTS. NO SKATEBOARDING. PROPER FOOTWEAR REQUIRED. MINORS MUST YIELD TO ADULTS ON WEEKENDS AND WEEKNIGHTS.
Julian flopped onto the silvery wooden bench, which was real cedar. His father always specified cedar benches instead of all-weather in the upscale developments. Julian wished he could turn off his developer brain, but he couldn’t. He wanted to have his own land development business someday. His father wanted him to work for Browne Land Management, but Julian knew that would be a mistake. He would never be anything but the boss’s son if he did that. Julian wanted to be the boss.
“You okay?” David sat next to him, wiping his forehead with his bandanna, in a loop like a noose.
“I sucked hard. You were in the zone.”
David smiled crookedly. “The true opponent is the player himself. If you read Infinite Jest, you’d know that.”
“It’s too long.”
“The Bible is long.”
“Infinite Jest is not the Bible. It’s a normal book.”
“The word you’re searching for is novel, my friend. Allie’s reading it.”
“Allie has the hots for you. I don’t.”
“What’s going on?” David twisted open a bottle of water. There had been stacks of Deer Park outside the clubhouse, for free.
“I’m so pissed about Sasha.” Julian couldn’t shake his mood.
“Because she made such a stink about the squirrel thing? You’re not pissed at me, are you?” David gulped some water.
“No. I get it, no worries. You felt bad for Allie.”
“Right.” David shrugged. “That 5K for her sister was this morning. I saw some flyers in the trash. I would’ve run in it, but my dad had chores for me.”
“You like the underdog.” Julian’s mother always called David sensitive.
“So what’s going on with Sasha?”
“She’s seeing somebody, somebody older. Like, a man. He’s really tall, like, over six foot five.”
“How do you know?”
“I noticed some guy at her house. He wasn’t any of the guys she usually sees. He didn’t drive a car, so he must live in the development. I mean, it’s driving me crazy. She drives me crazy.”
“You know she sees other guys. She’s got a lot of dates.”
“But a new one, now? Who’s he? I know the other guys. Now there’s another one, just when I thought we were getting closer.”
“Closer, you and Sasha? Why?”
“Because of the gun,” Julian answered, lowering his voice. “I got the bullets for her. Now there’s a new guy? What the fuck?”
“You don’t know who he is?”
“No, and she gave him a big hug and brought him