Ch 23: Golf Lesson

Standing right next to Luke, his arm around her waist, was, you guessed it – Gina D’Angelo.
“Doesn’t he look great?” she said to the camera, looking sultry. I turned off the TV.
“What is it with those two?” I said, practically spitting at the TV. “Are they together or not? He kissed ME. And then he goes on TV with HER.” I pointed at the screen. I performed a karate kick at the TV, leaving only a few inches between my foot and where Gina’s image had appeared on the screen.
“Stella, chill. It’s probably just some publicity stunt,” said Daniel. I flopped on the couch.
“I don’t want to be caught up in any stunts. Does Luke like me or not? Is he with Gina or not?” I said, sinking into the cushions.
“The only way to find out is to ask him,” said Michelle. “Just be straight with him. Me or that hoe bag?” I looked at her skeptically.
“Well, I’ll use a different name but yeah. If I can gather up the courage,” I said.
“You’re the toughest person I know.” Daniel patted me on the back. “Thanks for dinner. Sadie and I better be going now.” I was too annoyed, I didn’t even think about Daniel shirking on the dishes. It didn’t matter, anyway. The pan needed to soak, and I threw most of the plates in the dishwasher.
After Daniel left, I poured myself another glass of wine and sat down with Michelle. “I think I need a new job,” Michelle said and took a huge gulp of wine. Clearly, I had been so wrapped up in my own tribulations with Luke, I hadn’t really noticed Michelle’s recent burnout from work.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“My boss found out I plan to go to law school. Now she’s adding all this extra work because she thinks, that I think, I’m above being a paralegal. Can’t a girl improve herself?”
“I did.” I looked at her. “I’m not all the way there yet, but you and Daniel picked me up off the floor. Now, look at me spending the night at a movie star’s house.” We both laughed. “I’m going to give you the same advice you gave me. Just be straight with her.” I grinned at Michelle. “But maybe don’t call her a hoe bag.” She lightly punched me in the arm.
***
While I was kind of surprised Luke hadn’t texted me after our impromptu date, I also understood that maybe he didn’t think our kiss was such a big deal. Apparently, he was much busier with other things, namely television interviews with a certain sexy actress on his arm. It wasn’t until the next morning that I heard from him.
“Hi, Stella. Looking forward to seeing you again. What’s the plan, boss?” he texted. At first, I wasn’t sure how to respond. We were running out of time to get Luke swimming. Shooting for the movie was planned to start pretty soon. At the same time, I wanted to hang out with Luke outside of our usual training sessions. If he just thought of me as his trainer, he might not consider me girlfriend material.
“Why don’t you pick?” I suggested, hoping he’d choose an actual date activity. But the question was also open-ended in case he wanted to work out.
“Why don’t you meet me at your fake job, the country club? Don’t need a uniform this time. I’ll put you on the guest list. If you don’t have clubs, don’t worry, I’ll rent you some.” Golfer emoji.
Great. Golfing. Mini-golf is a satisfactory dating activity. Actual golfing, is more like torture. Standing in the sun, trying to watch a small white ball fly through the air, hoping it goes toward a small dark hole - not my idea of the perfect afternoon. But I knew Luke loved to be outside, traversing the manicured lawns, challenging himself to sink the perfect putt. Hopefully, I didn’t embarrass myself with my golfing skills, which were certainly not up to par.
Michelle helped me pick out my most presentable golf outfit – a pink polo with a white tennis skirt. I even donned a white visor I sometimes wore to the beach for sun protection. Looking my country club best, I set off to meet Luke.
***
On the course, I straddled my legs over the ball, leaning over in just the way Luke taught me. I’d been to the driving range only twice before, and didn’t really know the proper way to hit a golf ball. I raised my driver, swung my arms back, then lowered them to the ball. It only flew a lousy 30 yards. I looked back at Luke, frustrated.
“That’s OK. We’ll keep working on it,” he said.
He teed up his ball and hit it within a few feet of the hole. I swung and putted, chipped and wedged, sometimes out of sand, other times out of tall grass, all along the course. Like usual, the LA sun hung high in the air, with no sign of rain. I wished some dark clouds would roll in and dump a deluge on us so we’d be forced to take refuge. While I didn’t want to leave Luke’s company, I didn’t really want to keep golfing either.
“I think you just chose this because you knew I’d be bad at it,” I said.
“No. No,” he said sarcastically. “After all, you said it yourself. You can’t be good at everything.” He started to quietly sing a show tune, possibly to try to mess me up.
I smirked at him as he teed up my next ball. I drove it nearly 80 yards that time, and I jumped up and down like I won the lottery.
“Wow. You didn’t even get that excited after we kissed,” Luke said. It was the first mention of our night together.
“I like to play it cool,” I said as we walked to our balls, a serious expression on my face.
On the putting green, I sank a fairly difficult shot and smiled broadly. I was getting much better already. Plus, Luke had mentioned the kiss, meaning he didn’t want to forget about it.
“Well done,” he said. “I’m impressed. You know, Stella, you’ve got a beautiful smile. What do I need to do to get you to smile like that more often?”
I could think of a hundred things Luke could do to me that would make me smile. I turned to him. “When you swim a lap of the pool by yourself, you’ll see that smile. Guaranteed,” I said.
“You’ve done such a good job training me, Stella. I know I’ll be able to do it.”
I nodded. I wanted to work up the nerve to ask him about Gina. I thought if I knew their status, I could determine if Luke was actually flirting with me or just flattering me so I’d keep training him for his movie.
“So?” I asked as we walked back to the clubhouse. “I saw you on TV last night.”
“Oh,” he said, kind of perturbed.
“Thanks for the pub by the way,” I said.
“I meant what I said. You’re doing a great job.” He grabbed my arm to stop me from walking further. “And I really appreciate it.”
“I guess Gina thinks I’m doing a good job too, since she thinks you look great.” I bit my lip, nervous about mentioning Gina to him.
“You know part of my job is image. Gina gets attention.”
I nodded. “Yeah, she’s beautiful.”
“No, she gets media attention.”
“Exactly. Because she’s beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful. You’re strong and sassy, with a smile that could light up the sky.” He widened his grin as far as he could in a mock smile. “And you challenge me, which I need. But I want to make sure people go see my movie. Gina’s helping me with that.”
“Right, so I’m the trusted trainer, and she’s the…?” I left my voice trail off after that. I didn’t want to call her anything that might upset Luke.
“For now, she’s….well, let’s just say, we’re close. I need to look good on the red carpet. Gina’s part of that plan.”
I didn’t dare ask if Gina received warm luscious goodnight kisses too. I wasn’t sure what “close” meant to Luke. Maybe Luke had been right. We should just keep our relationship professional.
In the clubhouse, I noticed a banner marking a celebrity golf tournament raising money for a local non-profit that helps wounded veterans. Luke’s name featured prominently on the banner.
“Is that for image too?” I said pointing to the banner.
“I’ve participated in that charity for years. My father was in the army. But I guess I deserved that,” he said.
I felt bad. I never would have accused Luke of using a charity for publicity if I hadn’t felt threatened by Gina and her beauty. I couldn’t be the red carpet bombshell Luke needed. Instead, I’d have to settle for the behind-the-scenes sweat inducer.
Out of jealousy, I dreamt about how nice it would be if Gina had to live a day being ugly. Sometimes, even when you don’t mean it, your dreams come true.