by Ian Dalton
"You are exactly right. So who’s your favorite player, all-time?"
"You’re going to think I’m a nerd, or something." He began fooling with the napkin holder in front of him. "I’m a McEnroe fan all the way."
She gasped. "I love him! He’s the reason I started playing."
"Me, too!"
She looked at him, confused. "But wait, you weren’t even born yet when McEnroe was playing."
"I was a toddler for some of his comebacks, but my father was a huge fan, and he had video tapes of all the big matches." He looked away, thinking, then said, "My favorite is the Borg-McEnroe U.S. Open final of—"
"1980," they said in unison and shared another smile. Jillian moved a half-step closer to him.
"I think I still have a few old matches on grainy videotape. Do you remember that match at Wimbledon that same year?" she asked.
"Yeah. Mac saved five match points before he finally lost. Great match." Staring down at the floor, he looked to be replaying the memory in his mind.
"I remember that."
He shook his head, smiling. "Freaking Johnny Mac. He changed tennis forever."
After they came down from their Johnny Mac high, Jillian put the cake in the oven, and when it was done and had cooled, Brian walked her through the preparations of the simple chocolate mousse. He instructed her to cut each round cake layer in half to create four thin layers, then watched as she placed the first layer on the cake plate, followed by a third of the mousse, another layer, more mousse, still one more cake layer, mousse, and then the final cake layer on top. The cake stood about nine inches high when they were done. Next, he showed her how to make a double boiler out of a metal bowl and a small saucepan, and he watched as she heated the cream while stirring it constantly. When it started to get warm, he instructed her to add the semi-sweet chocolate.
As Jillian continued stirring the mixture in the bowl, she began to frown. "I think I must have done something wrong."
"Just keep stirring," he said, "When you make ganache, before the chocolate and cream really mix, it’s supposed to look like a disaster."
She kept on mixing and just as fast as it started to look really horrible, with the different shades of white, brown, and chunks of chocolate all fighting against each other, it came together into the dark chocolate silk, like he promised.
She smiled at him, pleased.
Grinning proudly, he glanced at her face. "You see? Now take it off the heat."
Jillian removed the pot from the burner, and he told her to taste it. She reached in with a finger, tasted it, and smiled. She presented her finger to him, he swiped a bit off with his finger, tasted it, and then nodded. They shared another brief, passionate, middle-school moment as they stared at each other for a little too long.
Then Brian cleared his throat. "We’d better get that on the cake before it cools too much."
He walked her through pouring it and spreading it evenly over the cake. As she poured it, they both drifted away momentarily, somewhere wearing less clothing and pouring the chocolate over something more fun—like each other. She snapped out of it first, and when he finally did, he helped her smooth the ganache over the cake by steadying her hand as he looked over her shoulder, their bodies pressed together. When they were done, the cake looked magnificent, and they put it into the refrigerator to set.
Brian looked into her eyes. "Do you want to, uh—"
"What?" Jillian asked, looking at him anxiously with her lips slightly parted.
"Hit some balls?"
She beamed. "See you out there in two minutes."
They both rushed upstairs as if the conversation had gone more like, We’ve only got about an hour. Do you want to get naked and do it? They each were down to underwear seconds after entering their separate rooms. Jillian decided to change her panties to something a little sexier, since they would be on display—at least partially—when she bent over to retrieve balls from the court. And maybe she planned on doing a little more of that than was actually necessary.
Once they were on the court, tennis became this intense sensual experience for both of them. It was adorable in a somewhat disturbingly lame way. It really was their sex replacement. They both began to grunt during some key shots, almost to the point where someone only listening might think the on-court couple was really having some mind-blowing sex.
Brian took the first set, and they were tied at six-all in the second. He did spot her panties on several occasions, and more blood had collected in his groin than was really needed at the time. Jillian was wet almost the entire match, a combination of the feeling of the sexy underwear against her skin, along with her proximity to the guy she was at the very least incredibly attracted to, if not smitten with completely.
The tiebreak to decide the second set was long and grueling, and it was the climax of the match in more ways than one. In a tennis tiebreak, the player who serves first in the tiebreak serves once, and then the players alternate, with each serving twice. The first player to get seven points wins, as long as he/she wins by at least two points. Brian and Jillian traded points all the way up until they were tied at sixteen points each, which is equivalent to playing nearly six full games of tennis. When Jillian called the score, they both stopped and looked at each other.
She said what they were both thinking: "This is exactly that Borg-McEnroe 1980 Wimbledon fourth set tiebreak."
He nodded. "And I’m McEnroe."
"Go ahead, be McEnroe. He may have won the tiebreak, but he eventually lost the match."
While McEnroe did win his memorable tiebreak 18–16, Jillian and Brian’s didn’t end in the same way. They continued trading points up to twenty-all, and by any measure, it was a long one. Not as long as the 70-68 record-smashing tiebreak at the 2010 Wimbledon championships between Isner and Mahut. Those two lunatics played for eleven hours over a three-day span and neither seemed to play aggressively enough to win. At times, both Isner and Mahut looked to be playing to set the record or—at the very least—playing to not lose, instead of to win. Isner won and went on to be crushed in his next match due, of course, to exhaustion.
Unlike Isner and Mahut, Brian and Jillian were both playing aggressively and taking chances, even though they were exhausted and sluggish between points. Brian had six opportunities to win the match, but each time, Jillian was able to erase the set point with a tough shot, a lucky bounce, or an error on his part. She didn’t have a set point opportunity until she went up 21–20. That's when Brian hit a shot into the net.
Serving her first set point, she held her head high as she looked at him. "Don’t get discouraged because you blew all those match points, but I’m going to put you away right here. You had your chances, but this is getting ridiculous."
Brian glared at her, breathing through his mouth. He was exhausted, but he mustered the energy to smirk and say, "Bring it."
Jillian blasted a serve to his forehand, and he hit a good, deep approach shot, then rushed to the net. She drove a shot down the line to his forehand. Brian dove, barely got his racquet on the ball, and hit a brilliant touch drop volley. He ended up splayed out flat on the court.
Rushing the net, she stuck her racquet forward and stretched with everything she had, without looking. She caught the ball on the edge of her racquet, apparently just before the second bounce, and it flew over the net for a winner. He watched as she hit the shot, but he was partially-blocked by the net. It seemed like the ball might have bounced twice before she hit it, but he wasn’t certain.
She looked at him, breathless. "I’m not sure I got it, did you see?"
"Nice shot. It was clean." Too exhausted to continue, he rolled over, pulled his legs toward his chest, and looked at the scrapes on his knees while struggling to catch his breath.
She rushed to his side of the net. "Your get was incredible—like a young Boris Becker. Are you okay?"
"I’m fine," he said as he slowly got to his feet.
Jillian trailed behind while he limped sl
ightly to the bench, and they rested there for a few minutes in a sort of pseudo postcoital, spent bliss. Then they looked at each other with the same "I-can’t-do-it-anymore" look.
She sighed. "We’ll have to finish this another time."
Glancing over at her, he simply nodded.
She took a sip of water as her eyes lingered on his muscular legs. "Um, what are you doing later?"
"Nothing. I think."
"We’ve got that cake for dessert, so why don’t I make us some dinner?"
Looking into her eyes, he smiled. "I think Rob is with Laura tonight, so that sounds great."
After she showered, Jillian left for the store. Rob came back and told Brian he needed him to come with him somewhere but wouldn't tell him where. Brian told him he'd planned to do some schoolwork that night, and he needed to be back by seven. Rob agreed and waited for him in the car. Brian left Jillian a note, telling her that he was with Rob and that he’d certainly be back by 7:00.
Rob picked up two other guys and told Brian he had a surprise for him, but he wouldn’t be any more specific. When they were still driving about an hour later, Brian checked the time and saw it was already after 5:00. He began to get concerned, but he didn’t want to come off like a douchebag, so he didn’t say a word. He tried to mimic the excited look on the faces of Rob and the other two guys, who obviously knew where they were headed.
When they pulled into the parking lot of the strip club, Rob announced, "This place is great. Some really hot girls here, and they take it all off."
"Awesome." Brian widened his mostly-fake smile.
Going all out, Jillian bought lobster and steak and prepared some exotic side dishes. She had recipe books out, the kitchen was a mess again, but things were coming together for her, and she was energized.
Inside the club, it was instantly clear that Rob was right: the girls were hot and naked, and there were gorgeous tits and asses everywhere you looked. Rob handed Brian a stack of singles and a few fives, for the really hot girls, and told him to live it up. Rob was hoping this might help snap his friend from his Natalie-related funk. They had a few drinks; Brian went through the motions for Rob’s sake. He handed over all his money to the hot women, who pretended to be interested in him, and he checked the time often. At 6:30, he went to the bathroom and sent Jillian a text message:
I’m so sorry. Rob had a surprise for me. We’re at least an hour away, and it doesn’t look like we’re leaving any time soon. Really sorry. I don’t know what to say.
After Jillian read the message, she texted back that she understood. Frowning, she put the side dishes in the refrigerator, cleaned the kitchen, cut a big piece of the ganache cake, and went upstairs to her bedroom. She enjoyed the cake as she typed away on her computer. In a zone again with her writing, she worked until just after midnight.
Rob dropped Brian off and headed back to Laura’s to work off some of the excitement he'd generated at the strip club. Brian went into the house, opened the refrigerator, and saw the uncooked lobster and steak. He also noticed a slice of cake was missing from their masterpiece. Slipping up to Jillian’s room, he found her sound asleep and stood watching her for a few seconds. The empty plate was next to the bed, and she looked too peaceful to disturb.
He took her plate down and cut himself a slice of cake. He placed the plate on the kitchen island, went into the great room, and selected one of Jillian’s novels from the shelf. Returning to the kitchen, he pulled a stool over to the island and sat there savoring the cake and enjoying Jillian’s steamy, erotic novel even more.
26
The next morning, Jillian entered Brian’s room, dressed formally for an appointment. She discovered him sleeping with a copy of her novel, Longings Lost, lying on his chest. Smiling, she grabbed the book, placed it on the table next to him, and left the room. She wrote the guys a note, telling them she’d be out most of the day. Jillian’s appointment was with the division head of her publisher’s imprint. They met to discuss a movie producer’s interest in adapting one of her novels for the screen.
After her appointment, Jillian checked her cell phone calendar and was reminded of a date she had set up a few weeks before. She’d joined a popular Internet dating site a few months back and had finally accepted a request. After checking out the man’s photo and trading a few e-mails, she'd agreed to the date. The dinner was scheduled for that night at seven at the Cheesecake Factory, which was in the restaurant row adjacent to the mall, just a few blocks from her house. She’d forgotten about it until seeing the appointment on her Blackberry.
Brian spent most of the day alone at the house. He woke up late, read Jillian’s note, sat by the pool, hit balls against the ball machine for an hour in the hot sun, and then went for a swim to cool off. He wanted to apologize to Jillian in person for not making the dinner, and he was disappointed that she was out all day. Rob called Brian and told him he would be with Laura most of the day but asked if Brian wanted to go see a movie that night. Brian agreed.
Jillian rushed home to prepare for her date. When she returned to the house, she didn't see Brian. She went upstairs, took a shower, and got dressed, and when she came down, she found him in the great room watching television. She appeared standing before him, looking a little nervous but breathtakingly beautiful in her skirt and blouse.
"How do I look?"
With his mouth hanging open, Brian's gaze traveled up her body, but he failed to reply.
She grinned. "So?"
"Sorry. You look… fantastic. Where are you off to?"
"A date. A blind date that I set up weeks ago and completely forgot about."
Giving her an apologetic look, he stood and took a few steps to her. "I’m so sorry about missing dinner. I didn’t know what Rob had planned."
"Don’t worry about it. Did you eat?"
"No."
"Make those steaks for yourself if you want."
Nervously looking herself over in the mirror, she frowned. "I look awful."
"You really look amazing." Brian titled his head as he checked her out from head to toe. His head snapped upright as she turned to him.
She smiled. "You’re sweet. I really hope this guy isn’t a lunatic, or anything." As she headed from the room, she called back, "Have fun tonight, and eat those steaks."
Watching her go, he shared the hope that the guy wasn't a lunatic, but he did pray that her date was a complete loser.
As Jillian approached the right turn into the parking garage, a red car came speeding from the other direction and made a left turn in front of her, cutting her off. Slamming on the brakes, she avoided a collision. She pulled in behind the red Mercedes convertible, expecting some sort of apologetic gesture from the driver, but none came. The driver pushed the button for his ticket, got it, and when the gate flew up, he took off into the garage. The garage was full, so she was forced to look for parking on the roof level. As she drove around looking for a space, she saw the red Mercedes again. This time, it was parked, and the male driver was heading her way. She rolled down the window, and as he passed the car, she said, "You realize you cut me off back there?"
The man didn’t even bother to look at her. "Sorry, lady, but I’m late."
It had been a few weeks since Jillian had seen the online photo of her date, and although the man seemed somewhat familiar, she could not be sure, but she hoped that wasn't her guy.
Making her way to the bar of the restaurant, she scanned the room and was relieved not to find the guy who drove the Mercedes waiting for her there. Her date was to meet her at the bar at seven. Arriving a little early for a nerve-calming cocktail, she was on her second, fifteen minutes later, when a man approached the bar. He spotted Jillian, walked to her, and introduced himself as Matt. She instantly recognized him as the guy who had cut her off minutes ago, but she chose not to mention it—at least initially. They agreed to have a drink at the bar, since there was a thirty-minute wait for a table.
Matt ordered a third drink for her and one for
himself. Since Jillian had not eaten anything in about seven hours, she was starting to really feel the effects of the alcohol. He was a self-centered pinhead who gave himself away not only with his rude driving but by the way he complained about his drink, about the restaurant, about the wait, and about pretty much everything else in the place.
While still sitting at the bar, nursing her third drink, Jillian looked down and noticed the outline of a familiar object in the pocket of Matt’s trousers. She looked again, to be sure, but with the way he was sitting and the way his pants were pulled tight, she could clearly see the unmistakable ring of a condom showing right through the thin fabric. Holding back a smile, she took a quick, tiny sip of her drink and decided to have some fun.
She gave him a serious look. "You know, you cut me off on the way into the parking garage. I was the one who spoke to you in the parking lot."
"Oh, sorry about that." Glancing at her face, he put on vaguely apologetic smile. "It’s been a long day, and I thought I was late so, again, really sorry about that."
She took a sip of her drink and ran her hand along the side of the glass. "But I saw you out there about twenty minutes before you made it in here."
"I had to pick something up in the mall."
"What?" Jillian scoffed.
He looked at her like she was a little crazy. "I, um, just was checking on some contact lenses I ordered."
After taking another sip, she looked him directly in the eye and said in a harsh tone, "I’m going to guess that there were no contact lenses."
He grinned at her as if she might be kidding. When her facial expression didn't change, he frowned. "What are you trying to say?"