“Karen, please . . .”
“You have got to be joking, Chris. You and Ben make a great doubles team. I can’t step in and partner him against Steve and Dave like that. I’m not up to the same standard.”
“Karen, I can’t help it. You know work have paged me and I’ve got to go back. The bloody computer system’s playing up and they need me. If I just withdraw then the forfeit means we have no chance of reaching the semis. If you step in, and even if you lose, we still have a chance of winning well enough in the final match to get through. You know how much the club championship means to Ben. Please . . .”
Karen bit her lip and looked at her fiancé. She hated to refuse him anything and he was right; the archaic scoring system would dump him and Ben out of the doubles championship if they didn’t play. The fact they allowed a substitute had been a surprise to her.
“But I only played an hour ago.”
“Come on, honey, you and Susie won six-love, six-love, conceding – what – three points on your own serves over the two sets. It was the most one-sided match in the women’s challenge for ten years. You weren’t even out of breath. Didn’t work up a sweat. You know you could play this, and play well. That was just a warm-up for you, nothing more.”
“Hmmm . . .”
“Please, hon.”
She shook her head in defeat. As always Chris had managed to talk her round to his way of thinking.
“Thanks, hon, I knew I could count on you. I’ll just go and tell the lads, and give Ben the keys to lock up when you’ve all finished. He’ll give you a lift home after as well. See ya later.”
Without even a quick peck on the cheek, he disappeared into the men’s locker room to tell the others they had a game after all. Shaking her head, she opened the door to the ladies locker room to change back into her two piece white tennis outfit, glad it wasn’t sweaty after her own match.
* * * *
“Thanks for stepping in, Karen, we all appreciate it.”
“Yeah right, Ben. You mean you appreciate being able to look up the back of my skirt when you’re serving.”
Ben had the grace to look embarrassed, so Karen gave him a grin that was designed to tell him she didn’t mind. Her toned athletic legs were shown off by the short tennis skirt whenever she played and always enjoyed many of the overheard appreciative comments from the sidelines.
“We don’t have an umpire so we’ll have to rely on honest accurate calls, okay?”
“Sure.”
Ben was going to be the best man when she married Chris in a couple of month’s time. She wasn’t too familiar with the other two players, on the other side of the net, but she did know they were superb tennis players, almost on a par with her own fiancé and his regular partner, Ben.
As they knocked up and stretched, she caught the two men watching her intently. She wasn’t sure if they were sizing her up as opposition or undressing her with their eyes. Karen shivered, not particular fazed by their attention, for whatever reason, but not entirely comfortable either.