Page 8

Leah takes one last glance at the threatening sky before entering the main building. The day dawned alternating between clouds and clear skies, but as the hours passed, the clouds gained ground and now, in the late afternoon, the sky is completely covered with dark gray tones that leave no doubt that, at any moment, they'll drench the city with a blanket of rain.

Leah likes days like this because she appreciates not training under the scorching sun when she has to do it on one of the outdoor courts, but the downside is that the stuffiness becomes unbearable and the humidity seems to multiply.

"Did you call Emily?" she asks, leaning her elbows on the counter in front of her mothers.

"Yes," Anne responds, "she says she's not canceling the class."

Leah raises her eyebrows, but a smile escapes her when she hears it. In moments like this, when rain seems imminent, clients who have classes on outdoor courts usually call to cancel them, but Emily hasn't done so, which is why Leah asked her mothers to call and confirm.

"Did you tell her all the indoor courts are occupied?" she asks to make sure.

"Yes," her mother confirms, "but her response was that, as long as not a single drop falls on her, she wants to make the most of it."

"She must really love tennis," Natalie mutters, distracted while reorganizing the week's schedule.

"She sure does, especially considering how clumsy she is," Anne laughs after checking they're alone.

Leah immediately regrets having told her mothers about Emily's awkwardness, but she ends up laughing too.

"Well, she's clumsy at playing, because apparently as a lawyer, she's a lioness," Natalie blurts out.

"And how do you know that?" her wife asks.

Natalie stops what she's doing and removes her glasses.

"I looked her up on Google."

"What?" Leah asks, perplexed.

"What's the problem, honey? I was curious, it's not a crime, after all, the information is out there," she says and shrugs without further explanation.

Leah looks at her other mother and they both burst out laughing.

"Well," Anne says, "since you've snooped around, what else have you found out?"

"And now I'm the gossip," Natalie complains.

Leah says nothing, she just hopes her mother will talk because the truth is she's very intrigued to learn things about Emily despite the fact that Emily herself already told her she was a lawyer.

"Well, I hate to disappoint you, but there isn't much more. Just that she works at a family law firm, apparently founded by her father and uncle. She's the only daughter of George and Bilma Harris and specializes in corporate law. She was top of her class, graduating with honors. Apparently, she really loves what she does," Natalie points out.

"That doesn't seem like nothing to me," Anne comments.

"Oh, I forgot the most interesting part," Natalie adds, "in an article I read, they linked her to a lawyer named Vanessa Cooper. Apparently, they dated for a while," she says and glances sideways at Leah, whose throat suddenly goes dry upon hearing this.

Emily is a lesbian. That's something she hadn't imagined.

"That lawyer must be really good," Natalie says, and her daughter's eyes open with expectation, not understanding what she means.

"Why?" Anne asks.

"Because the only case Emily has apparently lost was against her. But you know how the press is, maybe it's a lie."

"Maybe they met during that trial, a relationship that started with hate and ended with love, can you imagine?" Anne speculates with a smile.

"You and your imagination," Natalie says. "Stop reading so many romance novels."

Leah no longer listens to them because she can't stop wondering why, of all the things her mother has told about Emily, what seemed most relevant to her was learning that Emily also likes women, although it's also fair to say that each new fact she discovers about the lawyer, she likes. Then she thinks of Stella and mentally scolds herself, claiming that she doesn't like Emily, she just gets along with her, which is very different.

"Well, I'm heading to the court, Emily must have arrived by now. Let's see if the weather holds and we can train," she comments, grabbing her bag before walking through the door.

She sees Emily from a distance, not because she has hawk vision or because she's the only person walking around the outdoor courts at that moment, but because she's wearing a reflective yellow raincoat that stands out like a beacon. Leah smiles as she approaches her.

"Hi," Emily greets her with a cheerful tone that leaves Leah stunned, finding it hard to imagine the woman in front of her talking about laws in a courtroom.

"Hi, Emily. You're very brave wanting to train today," Leah says, dropping her bag on the bench.

"I don't see why, I came prepared," she says, pointing to her raincoat.

Leah approaches her with narrowed eyes, trying to decipher if the lawyer is pulling her leg.

"You know that if it starts raining we can't train, right? The ball gets wet, heavy, doesn't bounce well, you know..."

"Aaah," Emily says, and her smiling expression vanishes in an instant.

Leah smiles again, fascinated as Emily looks at the sky.

"Then, let's start now," the lawyer says.

"Alright, let's rally a bit to warm up," Leah instructs.

They go to opposite sides of the court. It's already dark and the floodlights are on. Leah positions herself to hit the first ball, but when she focuses on Emily, all she sees is a luminous blur that blinds her.

"Damn," she says, surprised by the effect the lights produce on her reflective vest.

"Aren't you serving?" Emily asks from the other side.

"I'm going to have to ask you to take off the raincoat," Leah says, approaching the net with an amused expression. "When the light hits you I can't see anything, you're like a giant firefly. As a deterrent for an enemy, you must be awesome."

Emily laughs and removes her raincoat, leaving it on the bench before returning to face her covered only by her shorts and a tank top. Leah swallows as she observes the line of her shoulders. She clears her throat and returns to her spot to begin the warm-up.

They rally for a while, though the correct way to describe it is that Leah has to run all over the court to return the balls that Emily hits anywhere except where she is, or watch in horror as they pass by without the lawyer returning them. But she corrects her between laughs, because Emily laughs at herself and infects Leah with her laughter, until halfway through the training, the first drops begin to fall.

"I think we should stop here, Emily," Leah suggests, looking at the sky.

Emily frowns and makes a face of disgust that reminds Leah of a sulking child.

"They're just a few drops, we can continue," the lawyer says.

Leah is about to tell her whatever she wants, that it's no problem for her, however, what a second ago were just a few drops suddenly turns into a downpour that falls mercilessly on them.

"To the locker room!" Leah shouts, grabbing her bag before running off.

Emily follows her, but halfway there she realizes she's left her raincoat with her phone and car keys in the pockets. She stops abruptly and, in doing so, slips on the stone path in such a way that one of her feet remains anchored in place while the other moves forward, leaving her legs split on the ground.

"Oh my God!" Leah exclaims, holding back her laughter. "Even in my best athletic days I couldn't do the splits like that," she adds, turning to Emily, who looks at her from the ground with a strained expression.

"I'm going to have sore groins for the rest of my life," Emily mutters as Leah helps her stand up under the torrential rain that has already soaked them.

Leah is grateful that the water is soaking her face because while she runs to get Emily's raincoat, she cries with laughter. When she returns to her, she takes her hand and runs at Emily's awkward pace until they enter the locker room, drenched to the bone. The place is empty because the few people still at the club are still training, and Leah doesn't know if she's grateful to be alone with Emily or would prefer someone else to be with them.

"How are you feeling?" Leah asks while wringing her ponytail over the sink, letting a thin stream of water fall.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to close my legs again," Emily jokes, walking with her legs apart toward the lockers.

Leah lets out a small laugh, unable to help it. She loves that Emily is always in a good mood, even in moments when others would be hysterical.

"You might have torn a muscle, you should get it checked," Leah suggests.

"No way, it wasn't that bad," Emily downplays it, opening her locker.

Leah walks to hers, located four away from the lawyer's, and opens it to get dry clothes to change into. The first thing she removes is her shirt and she lets it fall to the floor with a dull thud that catches the lawyer's attention. Emily's gaze gets stuck on Leah's body, toned and fit in a way that each muscle is marked with a fine line that she imagines tracing with her fingers. Leah, unaware of the eyes fixed on her, also removes her bottoms, and when Emily sees her in her underwear, she feels her stomach jolt and her sex contracts violently, causing her to let out a choked squeal from the surprise of such arousal.

Leah turns to her with concern drawn on her face.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I just got a cramp in my leg," Emily lies and begins to do some rather abrupt and strange stretches—the first thing that comes to mind—which make Leah smile.

"If you keep stretching like that, you'll end up injuring your back," she says, arching an eyebrow.

Emily stops abruptly while lamenting not being more skillful. She could have just said her groin hurt and Leah would have believed her, but she got so nervous that her clumsiness transferred to her mouth as well.

When they're both changed, Leah opens the door and confirms it's still pouring.

"You can't leave like this," she says, turning to Emily. "Are you hungry? I'll treat you to dinner at the club restaurant."

"Really? Thanks, I'm starving," Emily accepts and follows Leah through one of the interior doors that only club staff have access to and that connect to the main building.

At this hour there are hardly any customers in the restaurant, so Leah takes Emily to her favorite table, the one she usually occupies when she eats with her mothers and Mia or the few times Stella has visited the club. It's the only one in the corner of the room, next to a double window that allows them to see a wooded area on one side and the main entrance on the other.

The conversation flows between them without either daring to ask about the other's private life, but at this moment they don't need to, because between work anecdotes and comments about Emily's training, they're laughing so hard their stomachs hurt.

"Have you ever seen your daughter laugh like that with Stella?" Anne asks her wife when the couple enters the dining room for dinner.

"No. And she certainly doesn't have the chemistry she seems to have with Emily," Natalie replies with a smile.