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I finish my shift just before seven. At home, Margie and I split two pizzas between us, curling up in the lounge room to watch the quad wheelchair tennis semi-final between Austrian Lars Webber and Italian Matteo Salvatore. Webber is up one set, and has won the first game in the second. It’s his service game, so there’s a possibility he will hold, and lead two-love.
God, listen to me. If you told me two weeks ago that I’d be watching tennis forfun, I would have said you were dreaming. But here I am, knowing terms likeservice gameandunforced error.
We’re on an ad break when my phone rings. It’s Gabriel.
I take the call in my bedroom. ‘Hey.’ I fall onto my bed and the springs groan in protest. ‘I was just watching the match.’
‘Salvatore and Webber?’ He sounds surprised.
‘Yes. I like other players as well as you. Salvatore has quite the rugged look to him.’
‘I think you’re being quite unfair. First Lukas and now Salvatore. Where do I rank on the list of favourite players?’
‘I’m yet to see anythingparticularlyimpressive.’
‘I’ll show you impressive,’ he teases. A part of me feels like a high schooler, holed up in my room talking to my crush on the phone. Never thought I’d have that feeling, and it’s exhilarating.
‘Where are you?’
‘In bed. Thinking of you.’
Instantly, my face heats up. ‘What, really?’
‘Yeah,’ Gabriel breathes, and I can almost hear the smile on his face. ‘Sorry I fell asleep on you today.’
‘Sorry I bailed on you to go to work.’
‘It’s okay.’ He pauses. ‘Match is back on; you want to watch it?’
‘No, I’ll catch up online.’
Fabric rustles. I picture him getting comfortable in bed. ‘Can I tell you a fantasy, then?’
‘Is this an explicit fantasy?’
Gabriel laughs. ‘If you want. But I think we’ll save the explicit fantasies for when we’re apart.’
It feels like this tournament will never end, and frankly, I don’t want it to.
‘Tell me about that,’ I say. ‘Tell me about what will happen when we’re apart.’
‘Well,’ he says, ‘I’ll be travelling the world, living a life of luxury, as one does. Private jets, expensive hotels, deals with major designers.’
‘A humble existence, truly.’
‘We’d make a FaceTime schedule, but we’d have trouble sticking to it because I’m somewhere different all the time and you’re on shift work, so we’d decide to send each other little video messages when we could.’
‘I feel like that’s something we’d definitely do.’ I roll onto my back and stare up at the ceiling. ‘I’d watch your matches back here. Wish I was there.’
‘I’d wish you were there, too.’ Gabriel sighs. ‘It can be . . . lonely on the road, I guess. Horny, too.’
‘Now I really want to hear about these fantasies.’
Gabriel laughs on the other end of the phone. Hearing his laugh feels like downing a shot and feeling the warmth spread slowly through your insides.
‘Why do you laugh like I’m joking?’
‘I feel weird saying it out loud,’ he replies. ‘I’m bad with words. Not like you.’
