Page 39 of Best Year Ever
NEW YEARS: What kind of dog?
RORI: Yellow lab. He named him Buster.
NEW YEARS: Solid name.
RORI: I can’t wait to meet him when I get back.
NEW YEARS: Your dad’s not coming to the French Open then, I’m guessing?
RORI: No, he’ll come to Wimbledon but is skipping the French. Traveling a little less, like I mentioned. I’m all for it.
NEW YEARS: You have all your people there otherwise too.
RORI: Yeah, plus Maggie’s constant entertainment so never a dull moment.
RORI: OOOO, there is a movie on streaming here that I’ve been wanting to watch.
NEW YEARS: I want to hear more, but also Connor’s calling, so I’ll catch up in a little.
RORI: Yeah, Maggie’s dragging me to her room anyway. More later.
CHAPTER 14
Rori
END OF MAY
It’s six in the afternoon Paris time when I board the plane with Julie and the rest of my team, the French Open over. Well, it’s over for me.
My play at the Madrid warmup event was strong, and I made it to the semis. That result meant a huge load of points to boost my ranking since I had no points in the clay court season last year. The Rome tournament didn’t go as well, and I lost in a tiebreak during my second match. Still a great experience heading into Paris.
But the two weeks of the French Open has ultimately meant only one week of playing for me, as earlier today I got knocked out in the round of 16.
Making it to the top 16 for the tournament is hardly a disaster on my worst surface though.
“I think you’ll climb up to eight in the rankings, depending on who wins next round,” Julie observes as she crunches the numbers.
Either way, I feel satisfied. I’ve shown that I deserve to be in the top 10, given clay’s my weakest surface. And I made it to the semis in Madrid by beating the #2 player in the quarterfinals.
The time away has included plenty of messages fromLandon.Two monthsof “friend-zone” messages since the Miami tournament.
Some have expressed encouragement and excitement for my matches. “You dominated her.” “Two sets to zero.” “Awesome job making it to the semis .”
He’s still adjusting to tennis scoring. I’d explained that we use “love” instead of “zero,” to which he replied, “no comment.”
Some were funny memes or tiktoks, including an older one about Alex being pantsed at a pro football practice as a rookie. “Please tell me you have seen this? ” he asked.
Some were snapshots of his daily life—pictures of a meal, complaining about aches and pains after a tough workout, photos of his dog Grover on the beach.
And others involved more serious conversations. He told me a lot more about his parents’ breakup and how the affairs had created a toxic situation for the whole family. He shared how bad he felt that Connor was still dealing with that, without any of the other siblings around. And how he worried about Rawley’s recklessness catching up with him before the draft.
None of the messages were overtly flirty or suggestive. Everything was as I asked—chill and lacking any pressure for more.
I appreciated that, I did. When I’m in the thick of a tournament, I’m so laser focused that I don’t get super needy in any way—emotionally or physically. My occasional times with Peter in the past were more for a convenient stress release instead of satisfying any intense longing.
But I won’t lie to myself. While I was in Europe, getting a message from Landon put me in a better mood, no matter what was going on that day. And his messages never messed with my head on the court.
I can’t deny that I feel my perspective shifting about him. The way he took care of me the night of our dinner already tore down some of the walls that I had up, the donation even more so. And then there has been his consistent support during mytournaments.
