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 another man. You'll have to decide for yourself what "category" this episode fits into. To this day, I am not sure myself what I would call it.
I play tennis quite a bit at home, and there was a tennis club that was part of my brother's resort neighborhood. I added my name to a doubles signup list in the hopes I might be able to play some competitive tennis during my visit. The second day I was there I got a call from the club indicating that a group needed a forth that afternoon.
I changed into my tennis shorts and shirt and went over to the tennis 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 guys were already warming up. From my quick observation, they appeared to be good players, so it should be a good match. All the other players looked to be somewhat older than me, which probably put them in their 50's. My partner for the day was well tanned, indicating he probably played frequently. We made short introductions. My partner's name was Mike and he told me he and his wife were staying at a nearby condo for the month.
It was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon. Perfect for tennis. Mike and I seemed well partnered on the tennis court, me being somewhat more nimble in the back court and him 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, Mike asked me if I'd like to join him for a cold beer at his condo, which was just a few steps away from the tennis complex. It sounded good, so after leaving my equipment in my car, we walked over to his place.
Mike 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. Mike said his wife and he had come down here the past few years and really enjoyed it. She was out shopping for the afternoon.
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 tennis player, there was nothing particularly remarkable that I noticed about Mike. He had a couple of grown kids. He was about 6 foot tall, well-tanned, and in average shape. My kids were somewhat younger. Even at 42, I've always had a slim athletic physique, stand about 5'10" and weight in at 150. I am sure my tennis 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 Mike that I should probably have stretched out some after our match. I hobbled to the bathroom to relieve myself of the beer I had been consuming.
I came back to the living room, and my stiffness had improved but was apparently still evident. Mike commented on it and asked me if the soreness often happened after I played tennis.
Mike 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 and am pretty good at evaluating these situations," Mike 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.
