I sighed and reluctantly walked over to Alice and plant a quick kiss on her lips to say goodbye. “Sorry Al, I’ll try not to be too long”.

“Its fine, you’ve gotta be ready to kick that skinny little tennis players butt tomorrow! Don’t worry about me, I’ll see you later” I was grateful that Alice appreciated that I really did have to work hard to make sure that I was completely ready for the competition.

I spent a lot longer in the gym that I had wanted to, George was working me hard but I was managing to keep up and was quite confident with my physical form. I just hoped that Alice didn’t mind that I took so long, I was keen to get back to her but made sure that I had done all the training that I needed to. After about two and a half hours I was finally allowed to go to my room to get an early night before the first round in the morning.

I unlocked our room and entered to find Alice typing on her laptop. “I’m sorry Al, were you so bored you ended up working?” I felt a bit guilty.

“Yeah, but it’s no problem, I told my boss I’d be able to at least do one small article, I may as well finish it as early as I can to be able to spend more time with you”

“Aaw” I walked over to Alice and she leant up to capture a kiss. “I promise I’ll spend as much time with you as I can, but I’m gonna be pretty busy”

“Honestly Dane it’s no problem, you’re here to play tennis I know you’re going to be busy as hell. I want you to concentrate on your game so you can win, don’t feel guilty about not being with me. I’m here to support you”. Alice grinned at me. “Speaking of supporting you, I wasn’t working the whole time you were away, I got really bored so…” With a shy smile she held up three pieces of paper that were sellotaped together. She turned them around and I saw that she had written “Dana I love you!” on it and drawn on hundreds of tiny pink hearts.