Love Game - Season 2012 Read Online Free Page A

Monica laughed. “Probably it was just the pressure of being the top
seed.” Then she pointed to a row of free seats a little further away. “Let’s
sit down over there.”
    The seats were at the far edge of the
reserved area and opposite the player’s box where coaches and family sat during
play.
    “You don’t want her to see us?” Agnes
wondered, following Monica through the rows and apologizing to the spectators
who had to get up to let them through.
    “I never liked it when friends were
watching,” Monica mumbled.
    “You’ve forgotten that you were weird when
you were young,” Agnes teased her.
    “I was?” Monica shot back, but not without
winking at her old friend. She turned her attention back to the court. The
stadium was filling quickly with spectators, who had taken a break after the
previous match.
    “I only want to see how this new prospect
unfolds,” Monica said, pointing to the player’s box where Gabriella Galloway’s
new coach, Fredrik Nordström, had taken a seat. “They worked pretty hard in the
off-season and he told me he had a good feeling about Gabriella.”
    Under polite applause the players entered
the court and started their warm-up. Agnes leaned over to Monica.
    “It’s strange not to see her twin in the
box,” she whispered as the chair umpire announced that play would start. “Did
Gabriella say what exactly happened?”
    Monica shook her head. “She just said she
needed a change. But I assume the reason behind it is that she couldn’t bring
herself to tell Luella that she likes girls. Gabriella knows for ages, but you
know Luella. Always the one who gets her way.”
    “Oh dear,” Agnes sighed. “That’s pretty tough
considering that they are twins. Only a year ago they used to be inseparable.”
    “Tough for whom?”
    “Gabriella, of course.”
    Monica nodded, but didn’t say anything.
Twenty minutes later Monica and Agnes were both sitting on the edge of their
seats. Gabriella Galloway had easily taken the lead with a combination of
powerful groundstrokes and clever shotmaking.
    “She is mixing it up beautifully,” Monica
whispered. “I must congratulate Freddie on his work.”
    It was 5-2 for the curly-haired American
and she was serving for the first set. But after ten minutes Monica and Agnes
began scratching their heads. The American player had had several set points,
but couldn’t make the deciding point in her favor. Once again Gabriella was one
point away of wrapping up the set– and squandered it with an easy forehand into
the net.
    “Deuce,” chair umpire, Camilla Sanchez,
said into the microphone.
    “Oh, dear,” Monica moaned quietly. “She’s
choking.”
    “Yes,” Agnes said more to herself than to
her friend. “That was the third set point. I always lose concentration after
the third, because it makes me angry I missed my chance again and again. And
then my serve gets broken.”
    In fact, down on the court Gabriella looked
visibly frustrated. She grabbed new balls, stepped up to the baseline and
nervously served the ball over the net. It went wide. The second serve was hit
so timidly that Sofia had no problem smacking the ball so hard to Gabriella’s
backhand side that there was no way for the young American to reach it.
    After three good opportunities to decide
the game, Gabriella had suddenly given Sofia a break point. Turning to the back
of the court the young player closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
    “Yes, so much for the game,” Monica nodded
knowingly.
    With an easy error Gabriella’s serve was
broken.
     
    ***
     
     
    “What do you do with all the plants?”
    Lynn Welch looked up from her dinner plate
in surprise. Alice Chevallier, a rookie on the PR and service team, sat down
opposite her and stared into the clear evening sky. Her question had come out
of nowhere.
    “What plants?” Lynn asked.
    “I heard you always win potted plants at
the end of the year,” Alice explained to the chair umpire.
    Lynn laughed. Last