The Female Tennis Jock

But it did make her think more about her shots and crushing them a little harder and she could quickly see that Cassie just wasn't able to handle that. She knew the difference between being really good and not so good was about three inches. Sometimes all your shots were an inch inside the lines and you were really good. Other times they were all an inch outside the lines and you weren't so good. Today was more of the latter for Kristina. She was still winning but with too many shots just out. The first set ended and she had won 6-3.

She saw a big thumbs up from Tanner. He was staying for her whole match. She couldn't keep from smiling at that. She chastised herself silently for that smile. Tanner was just a nice guy and felt obligated after soaking up all her tears. She did remember those arms around her. She looked over at him. The arms were there as well as another big smile. More tennis to play she thought as the official called, "time."

The second set was a little like the first one. She was still missing shots but she was crushing about every shot that went back to Cassie. Before she knew it, she was at the net, shaking hands with her, having won 6-1. As she was putting her racquet away, Cassie walked over to her.

"Congratulations," she said very sincerely. "I didn't have any weapons to use against you. But I think I learned a lot from it."

"Thanks, and that's great. Listen, if it helps, when I was a high school senior, the way you played today would have crushed me. No kidding."

"Really?" Cassie said, her eyes wide as Kristina nodded. "I don't know if you remember but every game in that last set went to deuce."

Kristina thought a second. "You're right," she said, aware that she had missed too many freaking shots and that's why they went to deuce.

"But you won six of them. It was like, at deuce, you had one more gear and I couldn't stay with you. I need to get that."

One more gear in tennis, a couple gears short in life, she thought. "You'll get it. Be patient but work hard."

"Thanks."

They left the court and Tanner met her at the door.

"I couldn't hit shit today," she said glumly.

"Poor you," he replied, smiling. "I believe you won three and one. When I can't hit shit, I lose three and one."

"You're right," she said as they went inside. She felt his arm go around her and squeeze her far shoulder.

"Good job anyway." The arm was quickly gone. "You just made it. Getting dark out there. Would have had to move inside."

She went to the little office and got her duffle, then to the women's locker room. She was a sticky mess and hoped Tanner hadn't got sweat on himself when he squeezed her. Tears and sweat. What a combination.

Tanner watched her walk away, lots of thoughts going through his head after today. She was a good tennis player and he'd like to get a chance to play with her or against her again. He might be able to work that out. He wasn't into psychology much or things like that but, he had watched the tears forming in her eyes earlier, watched her obviously fighting to stop them, but was amazed at the sobbing she had done when he, surprising himself, had put his arms around her. He knew it had been a good thing for her and knew it had to embarrass her too. Plus, she had shared so much with him, and he didn't even know her that well.

Watching her disappear into the office, then reappear and head for the locker room, he couldn't keep his brain from doing what it always seemed to do. Like most female tennis players, Kristina had great legs. It just seemed to go with the territory. She had the little skirt outfit on today but, when they had played against each other in doubles, she was wearing plain shorts. He was sure that she didn't realize it, particularly after what she'd said today, but she had a very nice butt. Also like most good female tennis players, she had missed the line where the boobs had been passed out. There was something there but . . . He grimaced a little. After the way she had opened up to him and now he was thinking that way. Actually, kind of a cute face though. Short brown hair, brown eyes -- he had picked that up. Little creases at the corners of her mouth when she talked. He couldn't help but wonder just how much of a jock she really was. Dangerous thoughts.

The locker room was deserted when Kristina went in. She was a little tired after her day and was looking forward to the shower. She could have just gone home but she wasn't sure she wanted to do that so she had opted for the shower at the club. They had particularly nice and private shower stalls here and she appreciated that. She had picked up a towel at the desk and sorted out her fresh clothes and headed for the first shower stall. Inside, she peeled off her wet tennis outfit, her shoes and socks and then her sports bra and bun huggers. She carefully adjusted the shower and stepped in, the hot water immediately very soothing.

She let the water pelt her back, then her head. She fairly reveled in the feel of it flowing down her body. She just turned in a slow circle, allowing the water's soothing flow to cover her from head to foot. She loved hot showers. After long minutes, she squirted some of the liquid soap in her hand and began to wash. Unknowingly, she was nearly mirroring the thoughts Tanner had been having.

As she washed her legs, she knew they were good looking legs. She never questioned that. Then she was washing her buns and, likewise, she had no complaint with that. Her stomach was flat and hard. Next came her big lament. While they weren't perfect for tennis, breasts would be nice for the rest of her life. She was jock-ish enough without that missing part of her body's accoutrements. Nothing to be done now and she sure didn't want surgery. She finished washing, dressed and was ready to head home.

She was out the locker room door and heading for the front where she could see it was dark outside. The shower had taken longer than she thought. The other thing she noted, not a thing at all, was Tanner, sitting behind the front desk.

"What are you doing still here?" she said, looking around.

"Someone has to lock up."

"Oh shit. You mean I'm the last one here?"

"Yep! Champs are allowed to be the last.

Her shoulders slumped. "I apologize. I've been a champion pain in the ass for you today."

"Shut up," he laughed back at her. "My job and I'm getting paid." He stuck out his hand and she shook it. "Congrats again. You're a hell of a tennis player. Have a great rest of the night and I'm sure I'll be seeing you around here."

She shook his hand. It felt cool against her just-out-of-the-shower hand. "Thanks. You too," she replied and realized that she was actually hoping that she'd be seeing him around here.

As she went out the front door, Tanner shut off the lights and went back to the front desk. As he passed the security monitor, he stopped. He squinted at the screen, watching one corner. He bounded over the desk and out the front door, taking the steps two at a time and running across the lot toward the figure of Kristina with her two bags. She squealed and jumped at the sudden sound of him behind her.

"What?!" she exclaimed, looking around.

"I'm taking you to your car. Thought I saw someone on the security camera sneaking around out here." He put his arm around her for the third time today.

"I'm right here," she said, clicking her key to unlock the car. Tanner stood there while she threw her bags in the back seat and she climbed in the front. She started the car.

She shook her head. "Thanks again," she said as sincerely as she could muster.

"No problem. Don't want anything to happen to you. You're special. Lock the door."

She slammed the door and locked it, shifted into drive and was off toward home. Before she was out of the lot her brain was racing.

Special? How? What? To who? To Tanner? She might be a jock but she was very much a female too and she knew the female side of her was going to drive her crazy until she found out.

****

It had been two weeks since the tournament and she had just finished her 8:00 league and was ready to head home when Tanner waved to her from the front desk. Immediately the word "special" jumped to the fore of her brain but she tried to push it aside. No luck.

"Sup?" she said as casually as she could.

"Hey," he replied, looking her solidly in the eye. She liked that look. It seemed different. "Two things. Pinetree is having a mixed doubles tournament in two weeks. Thirty-two draw. Should be a good one. Want to be my partner?" A big smile her direction.

"Sure," was her almost instantaneous reply. Didn't take any thinking to know the answer to that. "Sounds great." She wanted to add, "if you tell me why I'm special." Of course, she didn't.

"Number two," and he blinked a little as he spoke this time. "You seen Phantom of the Opera?"

She tried to keep the puzzled look off her face. "No, I haven't."

"Want to go see it with me next Saturday night."

She restrained herself from yelling, surprising herself at her own reaction to his few words. "Sure, that sounds great." She couldn't help but smile.

"Super." He held out a little pad of paper and a pen. "Write your cell number and I'll get with you about the details and stuff. I didn't see it when it was here before so this should be great. Love the music."

"Oh, I do too," she stammered out as she was writing her number.

He took the pad, grabbed his cell phone and dialed. She heard her phone ringing from her bag.

"You don't have to answer that. It's just a quick way to give you my number too. Looking forward to both weekends."

"Me too," she added emphatically, surprised he couldn't see her heart beating through her shirt. "See ya," she waved, and was off. Maybe that's why she was special. She hugged her tennis bag all the way to her car.

****

It was the Wednesday night before her date with Tanner. It was officially a date, she knew that. She had been hitting outdoors with a former teammate when it started to rain and she had come inside along with all the lessons and everything else that had been outside. As she glanced over the railing at the courts, she saw that Tanner was leading a lesson with a group of four men. They were lined up in doubles formation and he was feeding balls and giving them advice on their play. She sat down to watch.

Tanner fed a ball and the return shot went straight down the middle for a winner. Tanner banged his racquet on the ball cart.

"Damn it, Eddie, guard the middle, guard the middle." His voice was raised and he was obviously perturbed at what has happened. "Don't let them get an easy winner down the middle. Guard, guard, guard." He banged the cart again and it rolled away. "Make them hit the angles. If they can hit the angles, they deserve the point. But letting them win right down the middle isn't acceptable."

Kristina had never seen this side of him although she'd heard a little about it. His face was red -- he was obviously angry. He chased his cart and brought it back.

"Let's go," he said and quickly fed another ball to two players who weren't quite ready for it. He took a deep breath and obviously glared at them. He fed another ball and the return went sharply cross court and caught the line. "Good one, Frank." He seemed to have softened a little. "See, he hit a good shot." Another feed and a hard shot right down the middle between Eddie and his partner. Tanner slapped his forehead and looked at Eddie. He walked forward and banged his racquet on the center service line. "This is the center. This is what you protect. The center, the center." As he turned to go back, he looked up and caught Kristina's eye. He stopped and raised his hand in a little wave, but no smile came with it. Nervously, she got up and left, not sure she wanted to see more.

She got texts from Tanner all week. Times for Saturday night, asking about times when they might practice some mixed doubles if he could arrange for opponents, sometimes just asking how she was doing and he was looking forward to Saturday night. Nothing, though, about what she'd seen Wednesday night. She'd realized about mid-week that cell numbers are good but if he was going to pick her up, he'd need an address so she texted that to him. She didn't see him again and Saturday arrived.

By Saturday, she had pretty much forgotten about Wednesday and was just trying to figure out what to wear and working on her hair -- stupid short hair, and just wondering what this was going to be like. She had finally faced the fact that she kind of liked Tanner, not something she had done very often in the past, and she wanted things to go well. She finally decided on a white dress she had, covered in multicolored flowers, just two straps over her shoulders and falling short of her knees. It had a bit of a V-neck which she didn't care for too much as it showed -- just her chest. No cleavage there to show. But it displayed her legs pretty well, and the small red heels she chose to go with it would help her legs.

She fiddled with her hair endlessly. It usually was very flat against her head so she washed and blew dry and fluffed and, before long, it looked totally different and she actually kind of liked it. Now if it would just stay that way. Hopefully Tanner didn't have a convertible.

He didn't when he pulled into the parking spot in front of her apartment. She watched him through the window. He had on slacks and a beautiful yellow sport shirt. She'd never seen him in anything but tennis garb so he had the advantage on her there. She stepped away from the window and waited for his knock.

When it came, she opened the door.

"Hi," she said, smiling.

Tanner just stood there, his mouth falling open. He looked at her from head to toe and she wasn't sure what to think.

"Hi there beautiful," he said, smiling back at her. I'm here to pick up Kristina. Can you let her know?"

Now it was her mouth that fell open. But the smile on his face was changing.

"My tennis jock girlfriend has changed into a gorgeous first date. My gosh, you look FANTASTIC."

If she was looking to be swept off her feet, Tanner was off to a pretty good start. She could feel her face turning red.

"Don't you blush." He told hold of her hands and held them out to the side. "Really, any guy would be flattered to have you for his date. And tonight, that guy is me."

All of that didn't help her blushing one bit. No one, absolutely no one had ever talked to her anything like that before.

"You ready to go," he asked, another big smile crossing his face.

"Yes, and if you'd let go of my hands, I'd get my purse and my just-in-case sweater and we can go."

Tanner let loose and watched her move away from the door. He hadn't been exaggerating when he said those things to her. She looked fantastic, much more so than he had imagined, even though he knew she was very cute. This was more than cute. He had things he had to say to her later but that would come. He took a deep breath. It was a lot to ask but . . .

She was quickly back with purse and sweater and they headed to his car. It was a simple Honda Civic, probably four or five years old. But she had to smile as she knew that a guy like Tanner didn't keep his car this clean all the time. The ride to the theater was full of friendly chat and speculation about the mixed doubles tournament. Tanner said there were some pretty good teams with people's names he recognized but thought they'd have a pretty high seed. That didn't bother Kristina at all as she had gotten used to having a high seed during the last couple of years of her college career.

Luckily, they found a parking place close to the theater, someone just pulling out as they drove up. Tanner parked and they headed for the theater, he grabbing her hand as they walked. She wasn't sure how many times she'd walked along with a boy holding her hand, maybe once. That made her smile to herself. At the theater she was amazed at how beautiful it was inside -- she'd never been there before. It was turning into a kind of dream for her. The seats were in the center section, about 2/3 of the way to the front. She was sure Tanner had splurged for these and she considered offering to pay for her own, but didn't want to take the chance of embarrassing him.

When the lights went down and the music began, he took her hand again, and held it for nearly the entire performance which was totally enthralling and with the scenery, the music, and the story itself, nearly overwhelming as well.

They walked back to the car holding hands again, bumping hips and laughing as they futilely sought to remember words and sing the songs they had just heard. All the way back to her house they talked, she being amazed that they found so many things to share. At last they parked in front of her apartment and she wondered what was next. Tanner just sat there, staring out the window of the car -- and she was puzzled and nervous. It was her nature to be nervous about things like this.

He looked over at her. He wasn't smiling but had a very intense look about his eyes and face. What, she thought?

"Can we go inside? I need to talk to you about something." She knew it was the female who usually said, 'we need to talk'. But this was Tanner, and it was serious. The look told her that.

"Sure," she replied softly.

He put up a hand for her to sit still and ran around the car to open the door for her. Just that little act made her feel a lot better.

She unlocked her door and they went inside. She turned to him. What happened now was up to him.

Tanner sat down on the couch and patted for her to sit beside him. She sat tentatively, not leaning back.

"Before I start what I want to say, let me say something else." If she had ever seen a longing look, she was seeing one on Tanner. "There was no one in that theater tonight who had a more beautiful woman with them that I had. I mean that from my heart. I teased you when I picked you up but . . . He just shook his head. "Okay?"

What was not okay about a compliment like that. She knew what she looked like but couldn't imagine what she looked like through Tanner's eyes to have him say something like that.

"Very okay," she said.

Another deep breath from him. "Can I call you Kris?"

"Please."

"Good. And can I hold your hand now while I say what I'm going to say? It would really help."

She gave him her right hand. This sounded terrifying in one way but the words were also warming her heart no end. She could hardly wait to hear what he had to say.

"Wednesday night, at the club, I was teaching that men's group."

A light in her head was beginning to glow, and that light made her tense just a little.

"I looked up and you were watching. When I saw you, and knew you had been there for a while, it was like someone stabbed me in the stomach with a big knife. It hurt so much I felt like I might double over from the pain." Her hand got a squeeze. "Then I saw you get up and leave and it was like someone twisted that knife and the pain was almost more than I could stand. I hated it that you were there, but I hated it more that you were gone." From the way his voice sounded, she wouldn't have been surprised to see tears on his cheeks. She didn't have any idea what to say to that so she just squeezed back with her hand and let him go on.

"Seeing you leave terrified me. Right now, I couldn't imagine anything worse than having you leave." Another squeeze. "But I know why you left, and I never want that to happen again. It's hard to explain me sometimes, you know. But I want to change. And you're the one to help me change." His eyes were boring into hers, pleading for she didn't know what.

"I'm a high school math teacher, Tanner, not a psychologist. What can I do?"

"I've had psychologists before, Kris. Plenty of them. Anger issues, yadda, yadda, yadda. And you see how much good it's done. I've never had anyone like you, that could make that knife stab me and then twist and cause so much pain."