Safe Place; Andrey Rublev

Chapter 1 THE MEETINGS

3 months earlier... 

The room was crowded with players, coaches, physios, organizers and beyond people. I had put on my headphones while walking around to prevent my body to cramp, 4 screens were hanged in the wall as they reproduced matches happening in the other side of the complex, the last day of qualifiers was coming to an end and after a Game, Set and Match Meneses, meaning an opportunity to play in the main draw, it was time to regroup, recover and have some rest.

My physio had just left to talk to some organizer and ask why there were no tables available, I looked from the distance how they slowly walked away out of my range of vision. I was left in there watching one of the TV's as one of the male players was serving for his match. I was taken out of my business when someone stood next to me.

"Hey, I hear you just won your match, well I was actually watching it, so I figured I'd come to say congrats", a very tall, long hair, bronzed and little awkward guy said to me, a few chains were hanging on his neck. He seemed quite familiar.

"Thanks, I... I appreciated", I smiled with confusion putting my headphones away.

"Sure", he replied, "I'm Alex, Sasha Zverev", he said, noticing I had no idea who he was.

"Nice to meet you Sasha, I'm Alex... too", I giggle.

"Oh, another Sasha!", he giggled, "where are you from then?"

"Spain, you?", I said with a genuine smile.

"Germany, but with a touch of Russia, that's why >Sasha<", he smirked slightly, rolling his eyes. He was cute, seemed fun too, but still looked familiar, why?

"Oh, me too! I mean not really...", I laugh embarrassed, "I'm Italian, my mom really, so half Italian, I guess", was I nervous? What was all that verbal diarrhea?

He started laughing as I was trying to explain myself, "Oh, I see. That's really cool, Ciao, buongiorno!", I laugh at the exaggerated gestures of his hands. "Sorry" he said still with a smile on his face, we looked at each other for a second, not knowing what to say.

"You seem familiar, have we met before?", I said apologetically.

He smirks while saying, "No, I don't think so, but maybe you've seen me on the adidas advertisement? I won a few months ago some single and mixed littles, and just lost miserably on Halle's final against Roger", he looked at me with a cocky yet friendly face".

I couldn't help but to frown, my face was a mix between confusion and embarrassment while trying to process the information and wonder. That must have hurt his ego because he added, "10th seed here?"

I felt my face go red, "Oh my god, yeah, Sasha. I'm sorry, I mean, wow, I didn't expect you to come and congratulate me, I'm so embarrassed", a nervous laugh left my mouth, "It's so nice to meet you".

He just smiled and laugh of my reaction, "Don't worry, nice to meet you too", he kept laughing, "Like I said, I was watching some tennis during my physio session, you were playing, and the commentators said this is your first time qualifying to Wimbledon's main draw so yeah, congrats, that's a big achievement", he smiled. How is his face not in pain after so much time smiling?

"Yeah, first time ever, and to any other Slam so, yeah. I still can't believe it, it feels like a dream or a joke, either way I'm so excited. Thank you. It means a lot.", the excitement on my face proved the honesty of my words as my eyes started to get a little bit watery.

"Don't worry, I still remember that feeling. Enjoy it, there's nothing like the first time. A friend of mine also just qualified for the draw, not sure it the first time but still special", we laugh, "I was on my way to find him.", he said looking around trying to find him, instinctively I look around as if I was helping him look for someone, I had no idea who he was. Then looking back at me.