Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Lindy found herself still sitting in the crowd next to Uncle Tony two hours after the match had started. The first set had gone well, but the second set had been a fight. Now Rafa was up 5 to 1 and was about the close out the match.

Rafa sent a forehand flying across court leaving a cloud of dust for his opponent to run to. The match was over, Rafa had survived the first round, and Lindy could finally breathe.

~*~

“If you throw that popcorn at me one more time I am going to kick you off this bed,” says Rafa as another handful of popcorn smacks him in the face.

The two of them were in Rafa’s room watching the latest scary movie that had come out for rent. Lindy loved the fact that Rafa would watch scary movies with her. All of her other friends were too chicken to watch them.

The two of them had gone out to dinner with Uncle Tony, Carlos Costa and Carlos Moya after Rafa had finished his press conference. They went to a small Italian restaurant. Rafa ordered pasta with shrimp and an entire pizza which he ate and still managed to have enough room left to finish Lindy’s pizza and her crème brule.
Now they were throwing the popcorn that Rafa had insisted he wanted because he was still hungry.

Another handful of popcorn hit Rafa and fell to the ground. He just looked at the perfectly good food on the floor and sighed.

~*~

Forty minutes later the movie was over and Rafa was passed out next to Lindy on the bed. Lindy grabbed the remote and turned off the t.v. Leaning back Lindy looked at the sleeping form next to her. Her life had changed so much since she had met Rafa and she wouldn’t change a single thing. She loved to travel and she loved the fact that she had another friend that she could spend the entire day with and they would never get tired of each other.

Lindy just wanted to be happy. That was all she ever wanted. And that was why she never showed her real feelings for Rafa. The truth was that she loved Rafa and she had for a long time.

The first time that Lindy had seen Rafa was when she was watching a match of the 2005 Wimbledon. It wasn’t even a match that Rafa was playing in, but when the cameras showed him in the crowd for a few seconds, Lindy was a goner. From then on she followed his career and through the year of 2006 she cheered him on through his countless wins and few loss’s.

It was ironic that when the 2006 Wimbledon came along, Lindy almost gave up on Rafa. It was then that Rafa had brought his then girlfriend Maria. Lindy was heartbroken. It not only hurt to see the pictures of them together, sight seeing and kissing in the stands; it started to hurt just to watch one of his matches on t.v.

It was one of Lindy’s friends, Bailee, the one that had bought her the tickets to the tournament that she met Rafa at, that made her keep the faith about Rafa. Bailee had said that she was sure that Lindy and Rafa would meet one day and that it would be love at first sight. It hadn’t quiet happened that way, but Lindy was just grateful to be able to spend time with Rafa. And although Bailee told her every time that they talked that Lindy should tell Rafa how she felt about him, Lindy knew better. Every time that Lindy had fallen in love with on of her guy friends it always wound up with the two of them not getting together and then never talking to each other. Lindy couldn’t stand the thought of that happening, so she kept her feelings deep inside.

It was only during moments like these, when Rafa was fast asleep and couldn’t see her, which Lindy dared to let herself feel. Lindy looked at Rafa and marveled at how beautiful he truly was. She loved every single thing about him.

She was also overwhelmed with joy when she heard that Rafa and broken up with Maria.

It had happened just before Lindy and Rafa had met. That was one of the first things that the two of them had talked about together. Rafa was upset over the break up and Lindy was there to help him through it. And although she was happy that he was single, Lindy was still honest with the advice she gave Rafa.

But she still knew that when the day came that Rafa fell in love again, her heart would shatter.

Rafa let out a loud snore and mumbled something that Lindy couldn’t make out.

Lindy turned off the lights and pulled the covers over both her and Rafa and closed her eyes.

She was just happy to be where she was.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

“Are these my socks or yours?”

“I am insulted that you would think my feet are so big that they would fill in those socks,” Lindy said as she smacked Rafa on the back of the head while she made her way to her suitcase.

It never failed, the two of them always had separate rooms, but Rafa’s stuff always wound up in her room and some of her stuff always wound up in his room. The two of them would end the crazy days on tour watching movies in one of their rooms and they usually feel asleep wherever they happened to be.

Neither of them thought anything was wrong about them sleeping together, because that’s all they were doing, sleeping. There was nothing sexual about their relationship, although many had started to speculate. But the two of them were just friends, the best of friends, but just friends.
Lindy found the flip flops that she was looking for in her suitcase and slipped them on. Turning in time to see Rafa finish putting his socks and shoes on, Lindy made her way over to the door to pick up her drawing supplies. She and Rafa were about to make their way to the Roland Garros complex in order for Rafa to get ready for his first match against Robin Soderling. Rafa would spend the next couple of hours bouncing around and talking strategy with his uncle Tony, who was also his coach. Lindy never wanted to get in the way so she would take her drawing supplies with her and sit out on the grounds of the complex and practice what she thought were her lacking skills in the art, although Rafa and everyone else said she drew wonderfully. Normally Lindy would have gone to a museum during this time, but since they were in Paris and one of the best museums in the world was there, Rafa had decided that he wanted to go with her, so they would be going tomorrow when Rafa had a day off and had gotten over the first match nerves.

Rafa and Lindy caught up with Uncle Tony in the lobby and made their way to Roland Garros.

When they got out of the car Lindy turned to Rafa and gave him a friendly smack on the butt.

“Don’t loose; I want to stay in Paris for a while.”

“Ha ha ha,” Rafa said as he threw his bag over his shoulder and walked into the players complex.

Chapter 2:

Chapter 2:

30 minutes later, the plane had landed and Rafa and his group were getting ready to exit.

“Do you think I should go ahead of you guys,” Lindy asked as she got her bags together and made her way into the aisle.

“That would probably be best,” said Carlos, Rafa’s agent.

Lindy made her way out of the plane and into the terminal. There were the usual group of relatives waiting to pick up their families, and the usual group of businessmen running to get to their next flight; but it was the large group of reporters and photographers that caught Lindys eye. It was like this everywhere Rafa went. Everyone wanted to know what he was doing and if he was going to win his next tournament. And it was even crazier here than anywhere else Lindy had been with him, because they were in Paris, and Rafa was expected to repeat his victory from the last two years at the French Open.

Lindy slightly ducked her head and made her way to the back of the group. She didn’t really expect to be recognized by anyone, but she had been getting a lot of press on the sports channels ever since the Rome final when Rafa had dragged her onto the center court after he had won, and introduced her to the crowd as the reason why he was able to win the tournament.

Lindy quietly laughed at the memory. She had been so nervous for him throughout the game that she had cried with relief once Rafa and converted his first match point. And of course, Rafa being the considerate boy that he was, had lifted her over the railing and shoved her in front of the cameras, tear stains and all.

Lindy was brought out of her memory by the loud clicking and yelling that was being admitted from the crowd in front of her. This meant only one thing, Rafa was in the building.

Lindy took a few steps back in order to see Rafa slowly moving trough the crowd. She didn’t know how he did it. He looked so relaxed, but she knew that inside he was just wishing that he could walk through this crowd and get to the car that was waiting outside. Rafa had talked to her about it during one of their late night talks that they had when on the tour together. Rafa had confessed that he had started to become really bothered by all the attention from the press. But he said that that had become better once he had met her.

The two of them had met at a tournament that Rafa was playing at in Miami. Lindy’s friend had surprised her with a pair of tickets and they had gone together. Lindy had been a fan of tennis for about a year and a half, and she had wanted nothing more than to watch one of Rafa’s matches. It just so happened that the first match she got to see was the one that Rafa was having the most trouble in. Yet again his first round was against his best friend on tour, Carlos Moya. Rafa always had trouble against Moya and last year he had even lost to him in Miami, in the first round.

Rafa was struggling again, and it looked as if history was going to repeat itself. Lindy had been in heaven when the match had started because she was seated right behind Rafa’s chair on the court. Now she was in hell watching him struggle with his game. After dropping serve again, Rafa walked over to his bag to change his racquet.

“Come on Rafa,” Lindy yelled out to Rafa as he was walking back to his side of the court.

Rafa looked at her over his shoulder and Lindy mouthed “you can do it”. Rafa slightly nodded and asked for his towel from the ball boy. Rafa did his usual towel-down and walked up to the service line and after 5 minutes he had his break back. Walking back to his chair Rafa and Lindy made eye contact and Rafa quickly mouthed “thank you”. Rafa won that round. Afterwards Rafa walked up to Lindy and asked her if she and her friend would like to come to lunch with him and his uncle Tony. Lindy agreed and they had been joined at the hip ever since.

Now Lindy was walking through the airport with Rafa and his group that he traveled with, making their way to the car that would take them to their hotel. The crowd was moving with them and there were even more people waiting outside. If this was any indication of the weeks ahead, it was defiantly going to be interesting.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

“This time please someone come and rescue me, cause you’re on my mind…….”

Rafael laughed at his friend Lindy as she began to sing out loud again. They were flying to Paris for Rafa to play the French Open and this was the third time that she hadn’t realized she was singing out loud.

Rafa had only known Lindy for a few months, but she had become his best friend, and it had been a bitch to convince her to join him on the tour. Lindy had protested, saying that she had school and that she would never get her degree if she kept going to tournaments with him. So Rafa had done something that he had never done before, and used his celebrity status to get a hold of Lindys academic counselor and convinced her to let Lindy into a program that was originally just for seniors. Now Lindy could travel with him and all she had to do was visit a museum and write about the art in it, and she would be able to get her degree in art history.

Rafa loved the fact that Lindy was going for her own career. He loved the fact that she was independent and would tell him to shut the hell up when he needed to be told so. Lindy always said that she wouldn’t put up with any bullshit and that she didn’t care what ranking anyone was or what title they had in front of their name, she was going to treat everyone the same. And that included him.

Now they were flying over France and Lindy was singing her music out loud yet again.

Rafa looked around the plane and noticed that some of the people around them had also noticed Lindy singing.

Rafa lend over and took one of Lindys headphones out of her ear. “You’re doing it again.”

“Oh…what is my singing so bad,” Lindy asked.

“Yes.”

“Punk”

“Hey I am just trying to save you from the people that are trying to sleep on this plane.”

Lindy looked around and saw some of the looks she was getting from those around them.

“Sorry,” she said to the lady slightly in front of them that looked like she was getting ready to kill her.

Rafa lend back in his chair as Lindy put away her CD player.

“How long do we have until we get there,” he asked.

“I don’t know.”
“Come on, you know…you always know.”

“Ugh, fine as long as you stop buggin’ me Mr. “I’m too cool to wear a watch”,” Lindy jokingly said. “We have about 30 more minutes.”