Until Then. // denis shapovalov - sascha zverev

1.1 - it was a coincidence

Willow's POV

"Alex?" I say. "What are you doing here?"

My heart is racing but Alex still hasn't taken his glare off Denis yet.

"Uh, what's up guys," Denis nervously chuckles, sensing a tension in the room.

I look over at Dom, who's eyes are completely wide in surprise, knowing that none of us in the room were expecting this.

"...So, are we playing Fifa?" Denis asks. "I hope it's okay I brought Willa here, I bumped into her on the walk home and asked if she wanted to grab dinner really quick."

That's a great way to put it, thank god he didn't say we went on a date. I think as I mentally thank Denis in my head.

"Yeah, it was all coincidental. I was hungry and he brought me to that small restaurant down the road from here," I add on. "Wasn't expecting to see anyone after work..." I glance over at Alex who's seems confused.

Dom chimes in, sensing there's something wrong, "Nice that you took her to grab food so she wasn't alone in the city," he says. "There's always a lot of crazy fans. Better safe than sorry."

I nod aggressively back, "Oh for sure!" I agree. I look over to Alex's face that has softened up a bit after he looks between Dom and Denis. I hope he sees that we're all just friends... Well... actually, I'm not too sure where things are with Denis. "Yeah, it wasn't too far from here, and such a cute Italian restaurant."

"Was that the place you brought me to last year?" Dominic asks, reaching for another two controllers to hand to us.

"Yeah!" Denis says and grabs a controller for him and me. "It's my go-to to bring all my friends."

Friends?! I immediately think in my head. The word catches both me and Alex off-guard as we glance at each other and then away immediately.

I go over to sit on the couch and I put up my feet so there's no way Denis can sit next to me. Instead, he finds to chair to sit in. I felt bad, but at the same time, I wanted Alex to feel comfortable too. We did intrude on his and Dom's gaming time.

Alex finally speaks up, "Yeah, that place tastes good," he says, facing nobody but the TV.

Alex's POV:

Today was the worst practice I've ever had. I kept slamming the ball out or into the net. Everything I did just felt wrong. Even if I was hitting right, it still felt wrong.

"Gah!" I exclaim as I dig my head into the pillow. Right as I do this, my phone buzzes and I see that it's a text from Willow.

Sure enough, it's her fifth one today.

I want to respond. I really do... I just don't know. I'm so confused. After our date last night, I just keep running over all these snippets of how perfect it was with her, but I don't want to let that faze me from the situation from this morning. Was she actually 'just friends' with Dom? 'Just friends' don't sleep over, alone, at each other's places. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion. Should I text her back? Should we talk about it? Am I in the right mindset to talk about it right now? My fingers hover over the keyboard. I start to type out 'I'm done with practice' but I end up deleting the sentence and putting my phone away.

After my shit practice today, my coach told me to take the rest of tonight easy. I know I should be worried about my match tomorrow, but all I can think about is what Willow is doing right now. A part of me wants to go down to her floor and just knock to see if she's in her room, safe and sound.