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Sowing Wild Oats, Ch. 3: The match begins

15-love. Rick's first serve was an ace. "You have been practising," said
Rob.

"You'll lose your shirt this time."

"I think I already have. Isn't that it over at the side?" Rob laughed
and went on, "But they won't all be aces, and I get to serve too."

Rick lobbed another ace, but the third point was a volley and Rob
wrong-footed him. "30-15. You've gotta practise more than your serves,
you know."

Rick responded with another ace. Game point. But the next serve was a
net ball and the follow-on was a gentle serve that Rob easily returned.
After many returns, Rob hit it out. "As you can see, I have been
practising more than serves. My game. Your serve."

"Let's see you return this," Rob said as he delivered an ace. He was not
so lucky on the next one, and Rick wrong-footed him on the return. Rob
back-handed the the next serve's return into the net and double-faulted
his fourth serve. "Have you been practising nude? I keep getting
distracted. I keep wondering what we'll do when somebody spots us."

"We'll just keep playing. Anyone wandering by at this time on a Friday
night will be drunk and having enough trouble finding the dorm. So what
if they do see us, anyway? They'll think they're hallucinating or we get
a cheering section. No big deal either way. 15-40, game point, and your
serve."

Rob brightened a bit and won the next volley. Then another net ball, and
an easy serve that Rick drilled into the back corner, saying "Break of
service. Two games for me." He went on to win the next game, but Rob got
a couple of points.

Rob won the next and the score sat at 3-1. He had to break one of Rick's
service games or lose the set. But, it was not to be, and they ended the
set with Rick winning 6-4. Rick observed, "That was quick."

Rob looked at his watch, "It's almost midnight."

"I may trounce you before the bars let out and the party crowd arrives."

That had the desired effect on Rob, who muffed his first serve. Stopping
to regain his composure, he said "You're just trying to throw me off.
You're as freaked as I am. Look at you, you're hard as a bullet again
and leaking all over the place."

"Of course I'm trying to psych you, silly, that's part of the game. Just
think about everyone you wouldn't want to catch us like this and your
focus will improve. I have never been this sharply honed before. It's
exciting. You should be playing better than usual, not worse. It's your
serve."

Rob thought for a minute, lobbed an ace and took the rest of the points,
winning the game. As Rick started to line up for his serve, he paused
and asked, "Are you having fun yet? My heart's going like a jackhammer
and it's a real rush."

"Yep, this is great! I thought about who I didn't want to catch us, but
that was too off-putting. I'm imagining my uncle cheering me on, and
that's working. Enough talking. Back to the game, unless you want us to
be finishing at dawn."

"Kinky" said Rick as he served. The pace picked up, both of them playing
a much better service game than they were used to, and the score was
soon four games each.

"We could be here until dawn if we keep playing like this. I can't see
either of us dominating this set for a while. Any suggestions?", asked
Rob as he started to line up his serve.

"Well, you could concede any time. I'll accept. After all, I am one set
up, so you've got to win both this one and the next. I say we carry on.
Eventually one of us will get tired, and that will be it. I'm still
stoked, so let's go."

Rob replied with an ace, again. Then he heard voices in the distance,
and blew the next serve. The voices got louder and closer, and his next
serve was eaily returned, but he managed to win the point eventually. As
he lined up his third serve, the voices were right behind him, and his
serve went out of bounds. 30-30 - it was getting close. Rob made an easy
lob for the next serve, but blew the return. The voices seemed to be
moving away, and that helped, as he aced the next.

"Duece game," said Rick. "That was close. But they didn't even notice
us. I dunno why you let it get to you, though. You had your back to them
and I was on full display. They never even looked our way."

Rob snapped, "Well, I'm not an exhibitionist!"

"Hey, easy there," Rick guffawed, "That's a strange thing for a naked
man with a boner in public to say."

Rob glowered then started laughing so hard he dropped his racket and the
tennis ball. He turned around, put his hands behind his head and made a
couple of pelvic thrusts. Rick clapped, and he turned around and picked
up the racket and ball.

"That's more like it. You're starting to get into this, aren't you? Good
thing, as you're about to lose. Come on, serve before you psych yourself
out again."

Rob delivered a blistering serve, almost an ace, but Rick just caught it
and got into position before Rob's return and nailed in in the forecourt
while Rob was too far back. Rob won the next volley and it was back to
duece again. They flipped between duece and Rick's advantage several
times, and just as Rob served he heard, "Nice buns". He blew the return,
and Rick had broken his service. He looked around, but could see nobody.

"She just carried on down the street. It was an old lady out walking her
dog." Rick said, trying to unscramble Rob's confusion.

"She put me off," pouted Rob.

"I told you it would only be a matter of time before you psyched
yourself out. She looked straight at me and winked. I wonder if she'll
come back for a second look?"

"You want her to come back?" Rob was incredulous.

"Sure, why not? She's obviously not going to turn us in, so what's the
harm? Gave me a rush. That's why I cleaned your clock. Of course, it may
be all over before she gets back, as it's my serve and I have a one set
advantage. So get ready for 'game, set and match' - it's coming up."

... continued in Ch. 4: Endgame

NOTE: Comments are appreciated (including critiques) to
cdngadfly@usa.net or ICQ#32364537