Page 18 of The Pickleball Girl Finds Her Match

“I’m Endy,” replied Endy, her head tilted. “Why do you say, ‘the wrong college’?”

“Well, I’m from a huge family in LA, and when I was applying to colleges, my cousin’s cousin said I should go to school in Florida since we have a lot of family there too. I was so sure I would go to college there that I only applied to the one school, the University of Miami,” said Maria. Her lips pursed and she blinked slowly. “U of M.”

“But this is U of M … the University of Montana,” said Endy. And then she burst out laughing. “Oh my god, did you accidentally apply to Montana instead of Miami?”

“And that is why I am still kicking myself.” Maria nodded, rolling her eyes. “At least this school gave me a lot of scholarships for my four years. They should have thrown in a down parka as well.”

Endy looked over at Maria, noticing that she wasn’t even wearing a coat. “So wait, why are you sitting out here on the steps in just a sweater? Are you waiting for someone?”

“No,soy estúpida.I’m stupid,” Maria sighed. “I locked myself out. My phone is inside, and my roommate doesn’t come back from class for forty-five minutes.”

“Whoa,” said Endy. “You can’t stay out here in the storm. Let’s go into my place since it looks like I’m not going anywhere with a dead key fob.”

“Thanks, that’s super nice of you,” replied Maria as she stood up and brushed the snow off her arms and hair. “Maybe the storm will get worse and classes will be canceled. We can stay on the couch and drink hot chocolate and tequila.”

“That does sound pretty good right now.” Endy chuckled and crossed her fingers.

Maria crossed her fingers too, then said, “Anything can happen …”

Endy nodded. “Anything can happen.”

The snowstorm did turn into a blizzard. Campus and most of the town shut down. Classes were canceled for the rest of the week, and Endy and Maria became best friends.

Two years later, just days after graduation, Maria had determined that they were going to leave the freezing cold state with “probably the worst Mexican food ever” and move to Mexico City. Maria had family that owned an Airbnb rental property there, and they needed someone to manage it.

Endy, who had never been out of the country before, was reluctant.

“What if I don’t like it?” she’d asked Maria as they cleaned their apartment, getting it ready for move out. White trash bags were piled next to the door and dust bunnies coated the floor.

“Oh,chica,” Maria said as she reached out to hug Endy, her wet rubber gloves dripping down her wrists. “You won’t like Mexico City—you’ll love it. Everyone does.”

“I don’t know,” replied Endy, resting her head on Maria’s shoulder. “It just seems so unpredictable, so random. What if we …”

“Yeah? What if we what?”

“What if we had, like, a plan for the next couple of years? Then we’d know how long we’d be there and when we’d be back.”

Maria’s big eyes brightened.“Qué buena! That’s good! My cousin would like to sell the property in a couple of years, so we could come back or do something else when he sells.”

Endy smiled. “Two years, in and out.”

“Two years, in and out.” Maria brushed her rubber-gloved hands together.

So, with a brand-new passport, a fairly new laptop computer, $950 in her checking account, and a roller bag, Endy headed to Mexico City with Maria to start their two-year adventure.

Those couple of years, when Endy and Maria lived in Mexico City, had been the perfect beginning of them being on their own. Mexico City was wonderful, with an insane amount of really good, really affordable restaurants and all the art museums Endy could explore on her time off. They’d both worked for Maria’s cousin and shared an apartment in the building at a fraction of what it would have normally cost.

Everything about Mexico City had enchanted Endy. The smells coming from the street vendor’s cooking, the constant chatter of a language she didn’t understand, the summer downpours that flooded the streets for an hour at a time.

So when Maria’s cousin sold the rental property and Endy and Maria were at the end of their two-year stay, they decided to go on another two-year adventure somewhere new.

They found their way to San Francisco, where Maria had atia,an aunty, who had a mother-in-law’s apartment in the Mission District they could rent for a couple of years. The apartment had access stairs leading to the roof, and when Maria realized that the door’s lock and emergency alarm weren’t functioning, she and Endy would often spend their evenings talking and stargazing, laying there on beanbag chairs they’d dragged up.

Endy got a job at the front desk at San Francisco Parks & Rec and took advantage of the free membership and classes for employees. She took a class in a cardio dance-fitness program called BollyX, and a beginner knitting class where she made a charming potholder. But her favorite class of all time was learning how to play pickleball.

Who could have known that Endy would have fallen so in love with pickleball? But it was addictive, and Endy careened fully into it, playing as much as time allowed. She would drive Maria crazy with the flattok, tok, tok, toksound the ball would make bouncing off her paddle as she walked from room to room in the apartment. So when her supervisors at Parks & Rec realized how obsessed Endy was, they moved her off the front desk and into instructing pickleball.

Pickleball was not her only love. There was also Bennett.

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