Page 17 of Spin Serve

“I wanted a place of my own, though, so I found this one. I don’t think I’ll live here forever, either, but it’s a good start for me while I figure out the next steps I want to take.”

“Next steps?”

“You know… Work. Relationships. Life plans. That kind of thing. I grew up here, too, so I’d like to stay in the LA area, but maybe not in this house forever. And I’m not sure I want to have the same job in five or ten years, so I need to think about that, too.”

“You don’t want your job?”

Kendra turned around to face Aspen, who kept rolling.

“I don’t know. It’s hard, doing what I do, and it’s one of the big reasons I can’t make a relationship work. So, I’ll have to figure out what’s most important to me at some point, right?”

“Right,” Aspen agreed again. “Was it the traveling?”

Kendra nodded.

“Been there,” Aspen shared. “It’s hard for others to understand, and it’s not easy to maintain something when you’re gone all the time.”

“How do you do it?”

“I’m single, remember?” Aspen laughed a little. “So, I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer that question.”

Kendra smiled. Aspen was single.

CHAPTER 7

“Cut! Cut! Cut!” Aspen yelled.

DJ hit her cut shot, and it landed inbounds. Aspen smacked her on the butt and smiled at her.

“Hell, yeah!” she said.

DJ laughed, and they walked over to their chairs. They’d just won the first set, but only by two against a tough team, so while Aspen was glad to be up by a set, she also wasn’t as happy as she usually was midway through the first match of a tournament. As the top team around these days, she and DJ always got to play on center court, and while they would play only four matches if they won all of them in this single elimination tournament, some others had to play up to six if they came from the qualifier round.

“They’re blocking high,” DJ said as she reached for her towel.

Aspen did the same and wiped the sweat and sand off her skin.

“We can cut more. That seems to be working,” she replied and picked up her water bottle. “She’s hitting high, too. So, watch the back line.”

“You’re the one back there.” DJ chuckled, apparently feeling better about the set they’d just won than Aspen, who was upset they hadn’t beaten the team by more.

“Act like you didn’t just have to dig a ball out of the sand, DJ.” Aspen rolled her eyes at her partner.

“I dug it, though, didn’t I?”

“That, you did.” She took a big gulp of her Gatorade. “How’s your foot?”

DJ had found a shell in the sand by stepping on it during a rally. They’d lost the point, and for a moment, Aspen had worried that DJ had really hurt herself.

“It’s just a little cut. It’s fine. I’d tell you if it wasn’t.” DJ lifted her foot and angled it for Aspen to see. “I don’t even think it bled at all.”

“You should wash that.”

“Yeah.” DJ dumped some water from her bottle on it and took a closer look. “It’s fine for now. I’m good.”

“Okay. Let’s get back out there. I’d like to win this one in two so that we can reserve some energy.”

“No problem.”

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