To France With Love

I got dressed for dinner in my Lilly Pulitzer "Lets Cha Cha" print skirt with my matching halter polo top. I had already showered and had time to relax for a while before I had to leave. I slipped on my matching gold wedges and headed out the door.

Maria and I were going to go window shopping and to go see the Eiffel Tower before dinner. It was going to be a girls trip. We had been surrounded by boys for the entire trip so far, Yuri, Tyler, and Alex. We needed some time away from them.

"So where you go after practice?" Asked Maria. I grinned as I told her where I was.

"When we left, Rafael was coming off his court and asked me to breakfast." I said. Maria smiled and elbowed my arm.

"You do like him!" She exclaimed. I looked at her.

"Yeah. I do. We walked back from breakfast and he held my hand." I said. She smiled even bigger.

"Oh! And we gonna see him at dinner tonight!" She said.

"I know!" I said. "Didn't you notice how cute I tried to look tonight." We both giggled and kept walking.
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We sat down for dinner in the crowded ballroom Ty, Alex, and Yuri had already snagged a table for us.

We ate at the buffet and were already finished eating when Rafa walked in. He gave me a wave and walked over to our table.

"Hi." I said. "Were almost done eating, but will you sit with us? There's an empty seat."

"Sure." He said while sitting down in the empty seat next to me.

"Go grab something to eat." I said. He got up and walked to the buffet while Maria winked at me. Tyler and Alex looked very confused. Yuri looked like he didn't care.

"What happened at breakfast this morning?" Asked Tyler.

"They gonna go out together, then get married, then have little tennis babies!" Squealed Maria. I rolled my eyes. She was sounding like the sister I never had.

"We had breakfast." I said. "That's what happened." No one said anything else, but when Rafa came back to his seat I saw Maria grinning out of the corner of my eye.
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I slept really late today. Today was Maria's day off which meant it was mine too. All she had to do today was take promotional photos with the other players. I said I'd go with her, but that wasn't until three o'clock.

Rafa asked me if I would like to get a court and play a little tennis fir fun with him. I said I would love too, if he went easy on me. He agreed that we would "just rally some balls for fun". Talk about tennis problems. Lets go play tennis for a date. It was the best kind of date ever!

I wore a white pleated tennis skirt with a baby blue Polo. I wore a white cable knit sweater over it since it was cloudy and a bit chilly out. I topped it off with my white visor. I looked in the mirror. I looked like a vintage tennis player in my sweater. Oh well. I grabbed my bags, left the room and went to meet Rafael in the lobby.

He was already there waiting for me when I got there. We decided to walk to the courts. It was only about two blocks from the hotel.

People today noticed Rafa more than yesterday. He stopped to take pictures and sign anything for people. He always apologized after he stopped for someone. It was really fine with me. He was always nice to anyone who came up to him, and I really liked that he was.

We walked into our court.and started a warm up with a little short court, and a lot of flirting.

"I think you gonna lose." Said Rafa.

"Hey." I said back. "I thought this was just for fun!"

"I don't know about you," he said, "but I only have fun when I'm winning." He grinned.

"Oh really?" I said, he nodded. "Then your going down." I smashed the ball to his backhand side. He missed it and it landed right on the line. I smiled sweetly at him, and he gave me a menacing grin.

"So that's how you want to play?" He said.
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Rafa and I were tied in games when it started raining. We ran under the awning that covered the bench.

"I bet I would've won that last game if it hadn't started raining." I said. He stepped closer to me.

"I'm not so sure about that." He said as he brushed a stray piece of hair behind my ear. I cracked a half-smile as he leaned in to kiss me. I could almost feel the people watching us, but I didn't care if the whole word was watching. He did keep it short and sweet because of our audience.

When he broke away from me we sat down on the bench. He put his arm around me and we waited out the rain. It only rained for several minutes, but it was enough to make the clay wet enough so that we couldn't play until the court were dried by the machines.

We decided not to wait for the dryers and to just cut our match short. He held my hand as we walked back to the hotel. This was going to be the best month in France ever!