Neighbour Diaries: My New Hobby

I got a new hobby! Every evening after work, I go to a church just a few meters from my new home. No, I don’t go there for the church itself, but rather for the tennis court. This is in effort to keep myself occupied, so that I can stick to my plan of giving girls a break. It’s now three weeks, and so far so good.For a week now, I have been going for tennis, and I must admit, it is a very challenging game. When you watch it on TV, it’s easy to dismiss it as just a matter of swinging racquets (yeah, that’s what the tennis “bats” are called. I also didn’t know that before, referring to them as tennis bats. Imagine that!), but it is a whole lot more than that. It’s not even about physical strength! So, the first day that I went and swung my racquet all over the place, I got a good appreciation for the game, plus a good dose of muscle aches. But the very next day, I was back there, swinging away. By the third day, I was beginning to catch on the flow of the game. As of today, I can say I have a future in tennis, thanks to an interesting mix of circumstances. So, all seems good, apart from these disturbing issues; one, that girl in the neighbourhood, the one I told you about, she seems to be back at her games. Yesterday, she brought me some cake. I asked what we were celebrating, and she said it was her birthday. Well, I didn’t see why I should celebrate her birthday at all, but to be nice, I received the cake, thanked her, grabbed my racquet and headed off to the Church, to swing my racquet. At that stage, I couldn’t refer to it as playing tennis yet; it was more like fooling around with a racquet. Twenty minutes later, I saw her approaching the tennis courts. She was decked out in tennis gear. Not a bad looker, I insist, but, am not singing that particular song right now. She asked if we could play, and since I don’t own the tennis court, I couldn’t refuse. She was good, actually, excellent. She told me she had been playing tennis, competitive tennis since she was ten years old. Wow! We played till late, she clearly taking it easy on me. Then, we headed off home together as it started to get dark. Despite my resolutions to leave girls out of my daily routine, I found myself studying her. She looked really sporty, well-toned muscles, and nice in her tennis uniform!The next day, as I run out to go play tennis, I found her at the tennis courts, not playing with any one, but waiting for me. She asked if she could teach me a few things, and seeing no harm in it, I accepted. Now, I don’t know what happened, but I found myself inviting her for coffee after the tennis game! I thought that since she seemed so sensible about the tennis, she might be an interesting person off the court as well. She totally misunderstood me. She looked at me, and said no! I said, ok! But she went on; “Look, Shem, just because I welcomed you when you had just moved in, and I brought you some cake, doesn’t mean I am after you. I see the way you look at me, like am hot for you. I was just being a good person, there is nothing more to it. Let’s just keep this on the tennis court.” As I listened to her speech, I realized how I could never run away from this whole thing about girls. I wished her a good night, and I walked off, a little embarrassed for having been so short-sighted. But I quickly got over it. I didn’t answer her, I just walked on home. But that evening, I could think of no one but her.