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"Five dollars? Come on. Be a man and bet me ten bucks."
"You're on, old man."
Elaine shakes her head at her husband. "I don't know, Tim. Craig looks really fit. You think a workout means carrying a twelve-pack of beer into the kitchen."
Tim rolls his eyes at his wife, then smirks at me. "You're in for it now, old man. It's your turn to serve."
I toss the ball up in the air, then smack it with my thug. The ball goes sailing over the next, heading straight for the whippersnapper who thinks I'm an old man. Tim hits the ball, but it lands in the net.
"Don't feel bad," I call out to Tim. "I'll give you a baby serve this time. Maybe we should use a Nerf ball for the rest of the game."
He kicks the ball with his big toe, and it rolls across the well-mown grass, halting a couple of feet away from me.
I snag it and assume the appropriate stance. "Ready this time, pipsqueak?"
Tim gets in position. "Oh, yeah. Let's do it."
As the match resumes, Tim hits the ball over the net, and Vanessa sends it flying back onto the other side of the court. Elaine swings her thug up to hurl the ball back to me. I whack it, and though I hadn't meant to do it, I make the thing go over the net at a downward trajectory that neither Tim nor Elaine could move fast enough to catch.
Our match goes on for a little longer. By the time it's over, nobody really remembers who won or lost. At least, I don't remember. Keeping score didn't seem all that important.
Tim trots around the net and holds out his hand to me. "You guys were awesome. Didn't know old people could move that fast."
I make a sarcastically infuriated face. "Careful what you say about my ex-wife. I might need to corner you in the woods and toss you into the waterfall."
He laughs. "You're pretty cool for an old guy."
I finally shake his hand. "You're pretty cool too, kid. And you know old people like me were using the word cool long before your generation learned how to spell it."
He grins and slaps my arm. "Maybe we could have a rematch sometime."
"Whenever you want."
Tim and Elaine amble away from the lawn, disappearing around the corner of the resort building.
I turn to Vanessa. "That was fun. Who knew naked tennis could be such a good time?"
She stares at me with a strange expression. "You actually enjoyed playing sports, didn't you?"
"Miniten isn't just any sport. It's unusual."
"Butyouplayed sports. When Greg was on the high school football team, you didn't like having to go to the games. You said they were boring."
"Football is boring. I'm a baseball guy, you know that. I never let on to our son that I hate his favorite sport. I cheered just like you did."
Her brows wrinkle. She shakes her head slowly. "I don't understand you at all anymore."
"Because I had a good time playing miniten? You were enjoying yourself too."
"Yes, but---Never mind." She offers me her hand like she wants to shake it. "Congratulations. We won the match."
This might be the most bizarre conversation I've ever had with my ex-wife. I accept her hand, but I don't shake it. Instead, I raise her hand to my lips and kiss it. "Congratulations to you too, Nessa. We beat those whippersnappers good."
She wriggles her hand free of mine. "Maybe we can play another match sometime. Have a good evening."
Evening? It's still afternoon. I guess that's her way of telling me that she doesn't want to see me again today. But she invited me to play miniten with her. Maybe she's in denial about wanting to spend time with me. Or maybe I'm so desperate to get back in her good graces that I'm imagining she feels what I feel. As she walks away, one thought consumes me. I will love that woman until the day I die and after that too, until the universe explodes and nothing is left but a cloud of cosmic dust.
Too bad I didn't realize that a few years ago.
