“That’s perfect Angelica,” I told her, laying on my belly on the ground of the tennis court and taking pictures of her serves, “let’s do three more of these and then try getting a few backhands as well. After that, we’ll do the stills.”

Angelica flipped her hair back and tossed the ball into the air to hit another, flawless serve across the court. Her outfit was skimpy, preppy, and perfect for the shoot, and she’d tied her hair back into two braided pigtails that hung all the way down to her narrow waist. The only thing that detracted from the wholesomely preppy look was her pierced navel. She had a huge, sparkly flower piercing in and we’d have to shop it out even though those were probably real diamonds. It was just too tacky.

“Ms. Hunt,” Tara called out across the court as I was snapping the final serve, “it’s time for you to take your holistic supplements and hydrate.”

Angelica smiled at me. “I’ll be right back,” she crowed, “I just need to take my vitamins and get my water in! You stay right there.”

Angelica pranced off to grab the pills and coconut water that Tara was holding for her on the edge of the tennis court. Tara looked a little bit less glum than usual. Maybe it was because Angelica was in such a tremendously good mood. I would bet that when Angelica had a bad day, Tara had an absolutely abysmal one.

As for me, I was more than happy to lay on the ground and wait while Angelica took whatever herbal mumbo-jumbo that was in vogue with the jet set these days. Actually, those pills were probably mood stabilizers and beta-blockers. Not that I cared. If truth be told, I was only half-present at the photoshoot. I was a bit sore from my hangover and this morning’s sex-capades with Nathan. It would be a long time before I’d ever get that drunk again.

I couldn’t believe how much better I was feeling this afternoon, despite the lingering light headache from the hangover. Making up with Nathan was a decision I couldn’t bring myself to regret. If anything, I felt giddy. He’d made me feel so good this morning. Although I felt like I should have punished him by staying mad at him a little bit longer, having Nathan in my bed had banished any anger I probably should have been feeling. Now if that Cecelia woman ever got in my way I was going to kick her hobbit-sized butt into next week, but I wasn’t mad at Nathan anymore.

While I was laying on the ground like a slug, I heard Angelica’s tennis coach and current man-candy, Marcus, talking on the phone in the next tennis court over. He probably couldn’t see me from where he was, since I was prone on the ground and there was a big net between us. I hadn’t realized he could talk. His voice was much lower than I expected based off his youthful face.

“Hold on just a moment,” he was saying in a somewhat-accented voice, “let me just make sure I’ve got privacy…”

Then he started speaking quickly in what seemed to be Russian or some other Eastern European language and I couldn’t understand anything else. It definitely wasn’t Spanish like his accent. I was able to pick out the words Durant and Nathan Breyer being used over and over, but that was all. I wondered who he was talking about Nathan with. The conversation sounded important.

I hadn’t realized that Marcus was Russian if that’s what he was. He’d barely said a word around me during this afternoon’s entire photoshoot. I’d thought he’d be more involved in posing Angelica, but he just stood around uselessly and watched with Tara. Maybe good form didn’t make for good photos when it came to tennis? I had no idea. I’d been more of a volleyball type of girl in high school. My school wanted me to play basketball because of my height, but I lacked the coordination to run that much.

“Ok Zoey!” Angelica said, coming back from her brief pill-break, “Do you think we should do a few more serves just to be sure you got a good shot? I’m not sure I felt the last few.”

“I thought the shots looked absolutely beautiful as always,” I told Angelica, smiling like my face would break in two, “but let’s do a couple more just in case. I really liked your full extension on the last one where you really showed off your long lines. Your arms are amazing. Do you think you could do that again?”

“Oh, you mean like this?” Angelica asked, reaching her hand up high above her head and pushing her cleavage out with an arched back. She flashed her pearly white smile and flipped her braids back.

“Yes, exactly,” I replied with fake, forced enthusiasm, “and if you can make your skirt flip up just a little teeny-tiny bit to show off your legs?”

“Oh, for sure!” Angelica replied with a nod. She was in absolute heaven. Having someone telling her how sexy and beautiful she was while taking pictures that would be shared with millions of people? It was like Christmas in July.