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‘What are you all doing here?’ asked Hannah, her mind reeling.
‘Sam messaged me before you left work,’ replied Jess. ‘Told us to get down here because you’d quit your job and were having some kind of emotional crisis.’
‘Wait, how do you know Sam?’ said Hannah, looking at them all in confusion.
‘I rang the country club and tracked him down when we got back from Spain, told him how much I loved your new look. He’s taking me shopping next Friday.’
‘And me the following Friday,’ said Gaynor. ‘He has a great future ahead of him, making the women of Woking look fabulous.’
‘I’ve got no money so I’ll just borrow all their clothes,’ added Trish. ‘So what’s the deal here?’
‘Sam’s trying to persuade me that things aren’t done with Rob.’
‘He’s right,’ said Jess, shuffling everyone along the bench seat so she could squeeze in. ‘You’re just scared of how you feel about him, and that makes it easier to run away.’
‘But you all told me to come home,’ Hannah protested.
‘I know,’ said Jess. ‘Because you needed some perspective to work through how you felt. But that was two weeks ago, and you’re clearly still bonkers about him.’
Hannah sighed heavily. ‘Maybe, I don’t know. It all feels like such a mess; I don’t really have the right words.’
‘Fine, explain it in tennis terms,’ said Gaynor with a grin.
Hannah laughed and looked up at the four of them. In some ways she’d known all of them for years, but had only really opened up to their friendship in the past couple of months. And yet every one of them had dropped everything to be in this bar and make sure she was OK. The thought made her want to cry.
‘OK, I’ll try,’ she said, furrowing her brow thoughtfully. ‘It’s like, neither of us was mentally ready for the match, our heads weren’t in the right place. And then things got disrupted – I don’t know – distractions from the crowd, a dog invading the court, whatever. So we never really found our flow, and then in the end the match was called off. Rain stopped play.’
‘I have literally no idea what you’re talking about,’ said Sam.
‘Right,’ said Jess, nodding along. ‘But what you’ve described is just a temporary interruption. Play can resume at any time.’
Hannah shook her head. ‘I’m not sure we’re meant to finish this match.’
‘See, here’s the thing about tennis,’ said Gaynor, laying her palms flat on the table. ‘If you miss a serve, what happens?’
‘What do you mean?’
Gaynor smiled patiently. ‘What happens if your first serve hits the net?’
‘I don’t . . . I mean, you get a second serve, obviously.’
‘Exactly,’ said Gaynor. ‘It’s one of the only sports that gives you a second try if you fuck up the first time round.’
Hannah looked at them all. ‘So what does that mean?’
‘It means the match isn’t over,’ said Jess softly. ‘You’ve got a second serve.’
‘Right,’ said Hannah. ‘And how does that play out, exactly?’
‘You get the first flight back to Spain and resume play. You can’t just leave things like this.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, Hannah,’ said Gaynor. ‘Maybe Rob is your second serve, and maybe he isn’t. But if you don’t play on, you’ll never know.’
‘She’s right,’ said Trish. ‘Much as it pains me to admit it, you’re walking away from a match you can absolutely win.’
‘Are we still labouring this awful tennis metaphor?’ asked Sam.
