Page 12 of Game Plan
April turned to Suzie, checking the time on the sponsored fitness watch, "I’m heading to a training session now anyway. Don’t let me keep you from your meeting, Suzie.”
Suzie stepped forward, “Oh darlin’, you can keep the sponsorships; I’d rather have the tournament wins. Not like I need the money anyway, I just don’t like the thought of you getting them all.” Suzie moved in closer to whisper to April, “Not like my Daddy didn’t beat yours to all those Grand Slamtitles, major sports merchandise deals, and his own line of tennis rackets. This apple didn’t fall far fromhistree.” Suzie stepped back. “Must run,” she turned to April’s Dad, “Mr. Walker,alwaysa pleasure.”
“Suzie, Clive, as always the pleasure is mine” Roland said through nearly gritted teeth.
Once they were back in her Dad’s SUV, he finally spoke again.
“Well, if they want two rival personalities from the same sport to co-market this new product of theirs, you and Suzie would be perfect. If only Clive can keep her under control long enough that she won’t screw it up foryou.”
“If Kevin wants to pit us against each other, that’s fine, but only if it means I’m not on-set with her for promo shots. You know I don’t trust her as far as I could throw her.” April turned to look out the passenger window as they headed home for a light lunch before she made her way to the gym for a conditioning session. “I’d rather either do it myself or not at all to avoid dealing with her off the court.”
“My thoughts exactly. I’ll see what they propose and then let them know our view should they suggest the rival flavor with rival players’ angle again. I don’t need her drama getting in your head any more than she already tries to. You’ve worked too hard these past few years to have her mess this up with the same blasé attitude as her own Dad did to me. I won’t let it happen again.” Roland’s knuckles whitened as his grip on the steering wheel tightened.
“Then we’re on the same page, for once.” April said under her breath.
Chapter 11
Jade
Jade closed the door to her treatment room once her last patient of the morning had left. She updated their record on the computer to reflect the improvement in their right ankle movement. Someone had actually been doing their physio exercises this past week and might just get some game time next month. Which meant the patient’s manager wouldfinallystop calling Jade for updates.
She clicked out of the patient’s record and began the process of cleaning the treatment table in preparation for her next patient. She noted that she needed to get another bottle of cleaning spray from the storage room before the end of the week, and an extra box of gloves wouldn’t go amiss either.
Grabbing her keys and phone, she locked her room and headed out to the reception area to find her work husband waiting for her to go to lunch.
“Hey Will, ready to go?” Jade asked as she waved to Becky at the desk.
“Yeah, would you like some sushi today? It’s been weeks since we last had it.” Will suggested.
“It’s been three days, but fine.” Jade laughed and they headed out to her car.
Fifteen minutes later they sat facing each other on a bench at Will’s favorite sushi bar. The chefs prepared the food in the center of the conveyor belt track, making it easy to see which dish was being loaded next–and hoping nobody else picked it before it got to you. Jade kept her eye out for the veggie maki. No matter how often Will tried to convince her otherwise, she just couldn’t get on board with raw fish.
“Urgh, I need to get on to the boss about changing to the summer uniforms, these long sleeves are killing me already,” Will began. “You’re fine where your room is, but I get the sun in my window all day, and no matter what I try to change the thermostat to, I bake.”
Jade spotted the dish she wanted being added to the conveyor belt. There were four other customers between her and her prize. The first was busy eating already, the second looked like they were getting ready to leave. The third reached out but must have felt Jade’s eyes burn a hole in the side of their head as they removed their hand from the clear domed dish moments before lifting it up. The customer nearest her was too busy on their phone to notice. She plucked it off and placed it in front of her triumphantly before responding to her friend.
“I think you’re just reachingman-opause. You know, the male version with hot flashes included.” She pursed her lips tightly toavoid laughing, and took great care in examining her first chosen lunch dish in order to delay acknowledging the look on his face.
“Excuse you, I’m only 43!” Will glared at her, “But you and I both know the reasonyouwear the long sleeves out and about all year round.” He raised his eyebrow as he reached over and collected the next dish to pass their bench. Raw tuna. He was welcome to it.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Look, I’ll tell them about my tattoo eventually. You know, when they’re in a really great mood and won’t really care. Like Christmas, or Cleo and Ivy’s wedding, that’s still like, ten months away.”
“Wimp,” Will coughed under his breath.
“Not a wimp, just unwilling to rock the boat for now, like telling my parents that most of my body is artistically designed...and has been for quite a few years now...without their knowledge.” Jade picked up her chopsticks and dipped her cucumber maki into some soy sauce before eating it. “Anyway, I’m not going over this again. So, let’s turn the tables on you. Any news on Nathan getting that promotion at work?”
“It’ll be next week before he hears anything. He has a presentation to do this Friday, then he has to wait until the weekly team meeting on Tuesday afternoon when it’ll be announced. Part of me really hopes he gets it; he works so hard and has wanted this for so long. The extra money would be great, of course. But is it bad that a tiny little part of me doesn’t want him to get it so that I get to spend the evenings with my husband again for the first time in months?” Will let out a frustrated sigh.
“No, it’s not bad. You’ve spent months putting him first, and you know that if he gets the promotion and becomes CEO, then he’s going to have even less free time. At least for the first while until he adjusts to the role. Either way, you guys will take it all in your stride, you always do.” Jade reached out and rested her hand over Will’s for reassurance.
“Thanks Jae. I just feel so guilty about that tiny part. I mostly want him to get it. He’s promised me a new car if he does.” Will added with a grin. “Oh, have you had a chance to think about what week you want to take off this summer? We won’t be going anywhere, so it makes no difference to me when I get off work. Just so we’re not booking the same week.”
“I haven’t actually, I’ve kind of had other things on my mind recently,” Jade admitted.
“Ooooh,” Will said with a hint of excitement, “you only admit to things being on your mind when you had a busy weekend. So go on, tell me all about her!”
“You say that like it’s something that happens all the time!” Jade said in mocked shock.
