Page 80 of Match Point

‘She is,’ Kieran states.

‘I bet.’ Chris smiles, his eyes roaming down my dress and making my skin crawl. ‘I’d love to see your work sometime. I’ve got a good eye for art, Flora.’

Kieran shifts, the pressure of his hand on my back increasing.

‘Really?’ I say, feigning interest but desperate for him to leave us alone.

‘Around the time I won my first Grand Slam – you remember that, right, Kieran? I think you were there…’ he pauses to wink at me, as Kieran’s jaw twitches ‘…I bought a fascinating piece by a young artist who no one had heard of called Trent Bloom. Now, he’s a major player in the New York art scene. His pieces are selling for hundreds of thousands.’

‘Wow. That’s… amazing.’

‘If you wanted, I could introduce you to some people,’ Chris suggests, taking a sip of his drink and sucking it through his teeth. ‘I know a lot of big names. Just say the word and I’ll set up a meeting.’

‘Oh, uh, thanks, but I’m good,’ I answer.

I hear Kieran exhale quietly next to me, his shoulders dropping.

Watching me curiously, Chris nods. ‘You want to do it your way. I respect that.’ He notices someone waving at him across the room, trying to get his attention and he smiles at me apologetically. ‘Excuse me, I’m wanted elsewhere, but I hope we get to talk again, Flora.’

He leaves, swaggering through the parting crowd to his acquaintance. Kieran watches him go, burning holes into his back.

‘Are you all right?’ I ask cautiously, turning to face him properly and shield him from anyone else.

‘Fine,’ he says gruffly. ‘He’s… grating.’

I snort. ‘One way of putting it. He’s just what I thought he’d be. A smarmy wanker.’

Kieran’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise and then he breaks into a wide smile. ‘I know I shouldn’t be pleased that you don’t like him, because that would be petty, but…’ he pauses, his eyes sparkling at me ‘…I’m really fucking glad you don’t like him.’

I laugh. ‘I get why you must hate him, but why is he so against you? Shouldn’t he be really embarrassed about what happened with Rachel? Apologetic about how it played out, or at least being sure to stay out of your way?’

‘That’s not Chris,’ Kieran says bitterly. ‘He’s fiercely ambitious, loves the spotlight and, most of all, hates losing. That’s what makes him such a good tennis player.’

‘You’re all those things, too. Except the spotlight thing.’

‘When I played him in the final of the Australian Open all those years ago, all the talk was about me,’ Kieran recalls, his brow furrowing. ‘Because I was so young and everything with Aidan – the press were all over me. Chris was near me in age, and had obviously done well to get to the final, but no one was talking about him. He hated that. He resented me for it. In his eyes, he was the young star, not me.’

‘But he won, so why does he still have it in for you?’

‘After that the press played us off against each other, telling us comments that the other one had made. We were both kids, so we’d snap back. He said nasty things about me. I said worse things about him. It was a vicious circle that the papers encouraged. We kept clashing; they kept printing and selling. Great entertainment I suppose. You can imagine how much they loved the drama of Rachel leaving me for him.’

‘That must have been horrible.’

‘One of the lowest points of my life,’ he admits, before giving a weak smile. ‘You have no idea how bad it was when the press came for me…’ He trails off and his eyes glaze over as he loses himself for a fleeting moment in a memory, but he soon pulls himself back, clearing his throat. ‘It’s in the past. I moved on and learnt to keep my private life private. It became hard to trust anyone, especially when Rachel and Chris did so many interviews.’

‘Ugh. It sounds like you dodged a bullet. And what does she even see in Chris? He seems to actually enjoy making you uncomfortable.’

‘Yeah, our issues aside, I’ve learnt that Chris isn’t exactly a decent person. Let’s hope he gets knocked out, so I don’t have to face him this tournament,’ Kieran says wistfully, glancing over at Chris as the people he’s with burst out laughing at something he’s said.

Chris is laughing louder than any of them at his own joke.

‘I thought enemies liked the challenge of facing each other,’ I remark. ‘Isn’t that, like, a classic thing if you’re an athlete? You have to beat the best so you know you’re the best.’

Kieran arches his brow at me. ‘Does all your knowledge of athletes come from movies?’

‘Pretty much, yes.’

‘I thought so.’ He gives me a knowing smile, the crinkles around his mouth sending a flutter of butterflies around my stomach. ‘I obviously would like nothing better than to beat Chris Courtney in a tennis tournament, but I also hate coming up against him. He likes to attack his opponents mentally.’

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