Love Match, page 9
playing tennis should be a cinch.
"No, not sleeping." She kept her voice low so as not to wake Alicia.
"I'm coming over." Gary heard the rough sounding voice and thought
Parker was still upset over the night before.
"Give me an hour, then you can come over." Parker pulled out of the
tangle of limbs behind her and sat up.
"Why?" Gary asked arching a brow Parker couldn't see.
"You can wait, or you can come over now and see a naked Alicia in my bed -
your choice."
"Maybe if we beat you a couple of times a day with a tightly strung
racket, you would start learning from your past mistakes,"
said Gary as he
dropped down to the bed after hearing the news.
"Yeah, well when Brad Pitt shows up in your room and lies down on the bed
naked with a come hither look, we'll talk about your stronger than steel will
power, coach. Until then, give me a chance to take a shower."
"This might be good, the papers have been calling all morning after you
and I made the headlines. Take her out to lunch this time and let the press see
you together. It's the least you can do for the girl. Because let me tell you,
if you want me to dump her again for you, I'm quitting."
Gary relaxed his
breathing; he was off the hook this time in letting the emotionally charged
Alicia down when Parker didn't want to see her again.
"I'll keep that in mind if I want new representation."
"Where are you going?" The voice from behind Parker sounded just as
rough as hers had when she was on the phone with Gary.
"To take a shower then I'm taking you out to lunch. I figure it will help
you out to have the sharks take some pictures of us together so your fans won't
think you are a homicidal maniac." Ok, Alicia, let's see if this no
strings attached thing was for real. I have got to start thinking these things
through more carefully, and then maybe I can sit and enjoy a glass of something
instead of wearing it, thought Parker as the ramifications of the morning
became as bright as the light streaming through the window.
"Can I join you?" Alicia sat up and let the sheet pool at her hips.
Parker was staring and it wasn't at her bed head. She sat back on her hands and
arched her back a little enhancing Parker's view.
"Huh?" Parker smacked her lips together and tried to get back to her
thoughts before Alicia's surgically enhanced features smashed her reasoning
with a big two by four.
"You know, help keep your stitches dry and all." Alicia pointed to
Parker's chest and waited not wanting to push too hard too fast.
"Nah, relax and I'll be out in a minute."
Parker, Parker, Parker, you aren't playing by the rules, baby, and it's
really starting to piss me off. You should be all over me not walking into the
shower alone. Alicia got up and called her agent to tell him where she was
and where she was going so that there would be reporters waiting for them when
she and Parker got there. In her mind they were a couple again, now it was time
to let the rest of the world in on the happy news.
Alicia walked out toward the waiting car first while Parker picked up her
messages from the front desk. She smiled at the petite blonde walking up the
street with some flowers in her hand and Emily, to be polite, smiled back.
Parker walked out of the front door and walked to the open door of the car
without looking around. One more lunch with the pop star and she would be off
the hook. While she was checking her messages she reviewed everything she had
said up in the room and was pleased that nothing sounded like a promise.
"Come on, lover, we have reservations and I'm starved."
Alicia slid
in first and when Parker was clear of the door the driver closed it and moved
to the front to get them moving. Parker never saw Emily hand the bouquet in her
hand to a homeless woman walking passed the front of the hotel.
No wonder she didn't call. Emily walked away in the opposite direction
so that Parker wouldn't have the opportunity to see her.
*************************************************************
***********
Practice was slower paced in the next few weeks as Parker played to see what
her mobility was. Gary would wrap her chest every morning to protect against
popping the stitches in the healing wound in her chest, and to keep her pain
down to a minimum. The tournament started the next day and he felt the games
would last longer since Parker had lost some of the power in her first serve,
but hopefully the strength of the rest of her play would pull them through.
"You want me to go with you?" Gary packed all her rackets and picked
up the bag so she wouldn't have to strain herself. "Maybe a change in
tradition will be lucky for you this time."
"I know Nick bought you both some tickets to see Rent tonight, big guy, so
no, I'll be fine. My tradition got me to the finals last year and if that's where
I end up this time, I'll be happy." Parker scratched her chest and wanted
nothing more than to get into the shower in her room. As the wound healed, the
more it itched. She just hoped she could control herself from looking like she
was feeling herself up in front of the cameras starting tomorrow.
"Ok, but we'll come with you if you want."
"Gary, hand me that bag and get the hell out of here."
Parker held
her hand out for the racket bag and glared at her coach.
"No, I'll carry it for another twelve hours thank you. It will be waiting
in your room when you get back don't worry. Have fun tonight and I'll see you
in the morning. Call me if you need anything. And don't worry about the family,
Nick is picking them up and bringing them over from the airport." They
took a cab back to the hotel and went their separate ways.
In the two weeks since the attack, Parker had worked on getting stronger and
tried to live down the headlines in the local papers that covered the story of
her and Alicia getting back together. A story that the singer didn't seem to be
denying and one that Parker was trying to forget about. One lunch did not make
for a joyous reunion.
Her table was waiting for her by the wall of glass that looked out to the lit
trees in Central Park. It was set up for one and the other patrons looked up
from their conversations and meals when she walked in and sat down. Under one
arm was a thin book of Robert Frost poetry that she placed on the table when
the waiter handed her a menu.
"Welcome back, Ms. King, would you like the usual?"
"Thank you, Barry, and yes the usual would be fine." Her waiter moved
off to get the drink she ordered, giving her time to look over the menu.
Parker never did mind eating alone and always did so before the beginning of
every major tournament she played in. The solitude found in a crowded
restaurant and a good book let her forget about tennis for a couple of hours,
since it would be all she would think about for days to come.
The next
opponent, the review of her mistakes made in the last sets, the aches that
accompanied her after a couple of grueling afternoons on center court, and all
the other things Gary would want to cover once play began.
Barry came back and put the mug in front of her and took her order. When he left,
she opened the leather bound book she had brought with her and started reading
as she took sips from the cup sitting on the table. Parker tuned out the
whispers being said about her from most of the patrons in the restaurant that
night. Some of them wanted to come over and wish her luck, but her engrossment
in the book and the fact she was sitting with her back to most of them kept
them in their seats.
"You're staring." Bobbie took a sip of her mixed drink and tried to
engage Emily in conversation again. They were out having a celebration dinner
after Emily had found an apartment she liked. The pilot would be moving as soon
as the furniture she had ordered was delivered.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Emily answered but kept her eyes glued
to the woman drinking hot chocolate three tables away from them. She and Bobbie
were sitting by the windows too, but Parker had never looked in their direction
since she had sat down.
"I said you're staring. I didn't take you for a starstruck tennis fan, Em.
The precocious Ms. King and I met not that long ago, if you want I can
introduce you." Bobbie took a sip of her drink and tipped her head back in
Parker's direction.
"You know Parker?" Emily finally moved her eyes from Parker to her
dinner date.
"Parker? My, I may have over emphasized my relationship with the pin up
girl of tennis. Do you know her?" Bobbie put her drink down and reached
over to hold Emily's hand. The pilot had been sulking for the last couple of
weeks and no amount of trying on her part would make Emily tell her what was
wrong.
"Yes, we've met. How do you know her?"
"I wished her luck in the park one morning when I saw her stretching for a
run. She thanked me then took off like Satan was chasing her through Manhattan.
Ms. King actually gave me the run of my life when I tried to keep pace with
her, after that morning I had to take a week off to recover. If she does that
every morning no wonder three sets of tennis seem to be a breeze for her."
"Yeah, Parker seems to take on everything in her life with the same type
of vengeance." Bobbie arched her brow at the statement, as Emily's
attention went back to the lonely looking player.
"I saw her looking at us that night at Gotham too. It seemed to be fate
that I would run into her again after seeing her that morning. As intently as
she was looking, I chalked it up to her thinking the same thing, but if you
know her, maybe she was looking at you."
"What do you mean, she was looking at us?" Emily forgot Parker for a
minute and turned her eyes to Bobbie. All she could remember from that night
was the blood coming through Parker's fingers when she went to get into the
cab.
"I was looking at her when you walked in and her eyes followed you to the
bar. She was watching us say hello before that Alicia girl gave her a wine
bath. You know you read about stuff like that but you never think you will
actually ever see them play out like that." Before Bobbie finished her
observation she found herself sitting alone as Emily moved to the table where
Parker was sitting.
"You hurt my feelings," said Emily in a soft voice as she stood next
to the empty chair at Parker's table.
That must be the mantra I instill in women, thought Parker as she looked
up from the book in her hand to the woman that had now taken a seat at her
table. "How pray tell, did I do that?" Parker looked up from the
verse she was reading passed Emily to the tall blonde that seemed to be her
constant companion. She lifted her mug of hot chocolate and saluted the now
shocked looking woman that was watching her dinner date sitting with someone
else.
"You never called me this summer." Emily played with the napkin in
her hand that she had inadvertently brought with her from her table. She was
taking deep breaths trying to organize all the thoughts running through her
head. It was the stuff she had wanted to talk to Parker about and now it was
coming out as accusations.
"That's right, I didn't." Parker took a long look at the woman that
had taken up most of her thoughts when she wasn't immersed in playing tennis
over the past summer.
"I thought that you would at least once, after well, after the time we
spent together."
"I thought so too, Captain, but you didn't reciprocate and give me your
numbers so I didn't know how to get in touch with you. If you wanted to talk to
me, you have every single number that will find me at the other end. Virgin
Airlines is very accommodating, but giving out employee information is not part
of their customer service. So you see, I tried, but you apparently didn't want
to be found." Parker hadn't closed the book she was reading and hadn't
really asked Emily to join her. The fact that she was getting pissed hadn't
escaped her notice either.
Emily didn't make her any promises when she left so there was no reason for her
to be mad now that the pilot was here with someone else.
The someone else that
had been kissing all over her two weeks ago in the other restaurant she had
seen them in. You reap what you sow, Parker, and since you have planted row
after row of miserable women all over the globe this is what you get.
"I did too give you my numbers." With Parker's clipped tones, Emily
wasn't sure what to do.
"Captain, I am not going to sit here and argue with you, but no you
didn't. You stayed at my house, you played with my dog, but there was no
information on yourself that you left behind. Besides, I see that you are
getting on just fine with your life. I don't see a purpose for us to talk
unless you just want to gloat, and that, my dear, seems a little beneath
you." Parker lifted the mug and saluted Bobbie again. The woman was
sitting at the table with her chin resting on her palm watching the action
taking place not that far from her lifting her glass to Parker again. Her eyes
went from Parker to Emily like she was watching a special type of tennis match.
"What in the hell, is that supposed to mean?" Emily sat back and
tried to figure out why Parker was being so obnoxious.
"Your date is getting lonely, Captain."
"I'm sure that my friend doesn't mind sitting alone for a minute while I'm
over here telling you hello. Not that I'm sure why I bothered since you seem to
have some sort of bug up your ass about something. Bobbie is who I've been
staying with, she is not my date, well not technically."
"Is there a problem, Ms. King?" Barry came back with her appetizer
and noticed the woman sitting with Parker. He and everyone around them noticed
that neither one of them looked very happy.
"No problem, Barry, just an acquaintance that wanted to wish me
luck." Parker smiled up at the waiter then at Emily. "Thank you,
Emily, you have done your duty and are free to go."
"Why, is Alicia going to be here any minute?" Why in the hell am I
talking like she owes me something? Get up and leave, Em girl, before she calls
security, thought Emily as her feet refused to move back to her own table.
"I've told you once before, Captain, don't believe everything you read in
the paper. If there is something you are dying to know, then ask me. I'm a dog,
but honesty is not my problem," said Parker as she leaned forward. She
made the statement sound as menacing as she could through a whisper.
"Did you sleep with her since I've seen you last?" The book finally
snapped closed and Parker noticed that Barry wasn't moving after hearing
Emily's question.
"Is there something else you needed to ask me too, Barry?"
Parker
looked up and asked the waiter. She did so not need this shit tonight.
"No, I'm sorry please excuse me." He looked disappointed that he had
been dismissed before Parker answered the question.
"Now to answer your question, yes I have." The one good thing she
reflected on later was that the hot chocolate she had been drinking had come to
room temperature and there wasn't that much left in the mug. Parker took her
napkin and wiped her eyes off so that she could see the shrimp cocktail Barry
had put down.
Emily watched her as Parker took a bite out of only one of the jumbo shrimp
before fishing her wallet out of her front pocket. With a quick mental addition
Parker left enough for the items she had ordered but wasn't sticking around to
eat plus the tip. With as much dignity as she could, Parker pushed away from
the table and walked out with out gracing Emily with another word. The pilot
was torn on whether to break out into tears over the fact Parker didn't care
about her, or the fact she had made a complete ass of herself in front of a
room full of people.
"You know, Parker, one of these days you will have to learn that honesty
is not always the best policy. Next time take a clue, from let say President
Clinton. You look them right in the eye and say 'I did not have sex with that
girl.' End of story, since it's no one's business anyway." Most of the
people walking around the entrance to the park that took you to Tavern on the
Green looked at the tennis player and wondered if she was on something as she
walked along the street covered in chocolate and talking to herself.
Parker walked for a while then sat on low stonewall that surrounds Central Park
