It was when we were visiting my brother and his wife at their South Carolina beach house, last spring, that I had my first experience with "casual" sex.
I play pickleball quite a bit at home, and there was a racket club that was part of my brother's resort neighborhood. I added my name to a signup list in the hopes I might be able to play some competitive matches during my visit. The second day I was there I got a call from the club indicating that a group needed a fourth that afternoon.
I changed into my sports shorts and shirt and went over to the racket club house just before 2:00. I parked and went into the pro shop and the employee there told me my group was already down on court #3.
As I approached the court, I could see the other 3 players were already warming up. From my quick observation, they appeared to be good players, so it should be a good match. The other players looked to be about my age, which probably put them in their 50's or 60's. My partner for the day was well tanned, indicating she probably played frequently. We made short introductions. My partner's name was Mary and she told me she was staying at a nearby condo for the month. Mary was a lot like me, with a slim build and medium height.
It was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon, perfect for pickleball. Mary and I seemed well partnered on the court, me being somewhat nimbler in the back court and her with an aggressive net game.
We played for about 2 hours and ended up beating our opponents fairly convincingly. As we wrapped up our play and put away our rackets, Mary asked me if I'd like to join her for a cold beer at her condo, which was just a few steps away from the racket complex. It sounded good, so after leaving my equipment in my car, we walked over to her place.
Mary grabbed a couple of cold beers from the fridge and we sat down on the couch. We had both worked up a sweat, so sitting back with a cold one hit the spot. Mary said she really enjoyed this resort and had come down for a few weeks, in the spring, for the past several years.
As we sipped our beers, we both talked a little bit about where we were from what we do for a living. Other than being a talented pickleball player, there was nothing particularly remarkable that I noticed about Mary. She had a couple of grown kids. She was about 5 1/2 feet tall, well-tanned, and in in good shape. Even at 60, I've always had a slim athletic physique, stand about 5'10" and weight in at 150. I am sure my pickleball play contributes to my staying in shape.
After my first beer I needed to use the bathroom. As I got up off the couch, I could feel that my left hip and leg had really stiffened up on me. I remarked to Mary that I should probably have stretched out some after our match. I hobbled to the bathroom to relieve myself of the beer I'd had.
I came back to the living room, and my stiffness had improved but was apparently still evident. Mary commented on it and asked me if the soreness often happened after I played pickleball.
Mary commented, "You ran around that court like a jack rabbit, so I am not surprised that your muscles have tightened up on you some."
''Well, I'm getting old, so it happens to me sometimes, but it will probably get better in an hour," I replied.
"Do you want me to take a look? I did some sport medicine classes in college years ago and am pretty good at evaluating these situations," Mary offered.
"Well, I think I will be fine in a little bit, but if you have some ideas on treating it, I'm all ears," I said.
"Come stand in front of me, facing away from me. It's on the left side?"
