𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐋𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐒 | 𝐋𝐍𝟒

𝐈

2022

Milaine was a young professional tennis player. She had won four Grand Slam titles at such a young age and completely dominated the sport by being ranked No. 1 in the WTA tour for months. While her whole life she had dreamed about being ranked No. 1 and maintaining that rank for such a long time, she realized it's true what they say: it's lonely at the top.

Milaine did not have a single friend in the sport, not that she had many friends outside of it anyway. But you would expect her to make friends with people who do the same thing as her, travel to the same places for tournaments and Grand Slams, and even stay at the same hotels sometimes. But the only connection she had with the tennis professionals, both men and women, outside of the court was through media duties and photoshoots for brands.

And she was fine with that, to some level, until she met Andrey Rublev.

She was at the lowest point of her life when she met him. She was broken, sad, and angry at everything. She was nothing but a twenty-year-old who was mad at the universe for taking her father away from her. She was not dealing with it in the healthiest way possible.

He entered her life uninvited and turned it upside down in the best way possible. He was like a gift sent by God, a sign to get her act together. And she did, with him by her side. They trained together, went out together, and traveled together. They did almost everything together.

At first, it was very platonic; they were just really good friends who liked to be around each other. But the lines between friends and lovers in their relationship were very blurred. She could not even remember how their dynamic changed or why. The only thing she knew was that she was fine with it.

People called them lovers, so I guess that's what they were: boyfriend and girlfriend, even though they never really spoke about it. But they could never deny how much they cared about each other. They enjoyed each other's company, and the sex was good, so it was an additional bonus.

Were they exclusive, though? No, but they always found themselves coming back to each other.

Milaine often found herself wondering if this was what love was, if this was how it was supposed to feel. She'd never been in love before, so she couldn't tell. But her best friend, Max, who had a very long history with girls, always told her that if she ever fell in love, she would know immediately and never question it. She loved and cared about Andrey, but she was always questioning her love for him, so she just guessed that she wasn't in love with him.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard the person sitting right next to her talking. She was sitting back in her VIP seat, the cap and dark sunglasses firmly in place, shielding her from curious glances. Despite her recent injury and the year-long hiatus from the sport, she was still recognizable. Now, she sat next to Alexander Zverev, known to his friends as Sascha, who was also sidelined by a recent injury.

The two of them made quite the pair: two tennis stars forced into temporary retirement, watching from the stands instead of battling on the grass of Wimbledon.

«He's losing his focus» Sascha uttered again.

She and Sascha were not friends, that's for sure. She knew the guy; he was a great tennis player, she would give him that, but again, she was never good at making friends, especially in tennis. The only one she really knew was Andrey, and she was watching him right now as he faced off against Nick Kyrgios in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

She and Sascha only sat next to each other because they were there to support Andrey. He and Sascha were really good friends; they knew each other since they were young, playing against each other and training in Moscow.