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This story is submitted for the
yay-team-sex-and-sports-story-challenge-2025-coming-soon
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THWOK! Thwok! THWOK! Thwok! THWOK! Thwok!
'This fuckin' noise is gonna drive me crazy,' swore Jim as he tried to concentrate on his drafting work. 'Why'd they put a goddamn pickleball court behind the condos anyway?'
The repetitive sound of the ball being swatted by the enthusiastic players was usually muffled by the doors and windows being closed, but a prolonged warm spell led him to open his windows, as he preferred the natural evening cool air over his central air conditioning. Lingering in his mind, however, was the idea of turning on the AC just to get some quiet.
As he mulled over the situation, he realized it was after nine in the evening. 'Wait a minute. The court is supposed to be closed at nine. I'm gonna go down there and give them a piece of my mind.'
It had been warm enough that he was working clad only in his shorts though he realized he should probably pull on a T-shirt before confronting the rule breakers. After dropping a condo key in his pocket and slipping on a pair of flip-flops, he stormed down the hall and out towards the court. Once he rounded a corner and looked towards the court, his anger suddenly dissipated.
Two women, one appearing to be in her forties and another in her early thirties, were playing a fast-paced game. They were both attractive and the older one looked to be slightly younger than his forty-four. A lean, muscular blonde was dripping with sweat while her older, brunette opponent carried a little more weight but appeared to be far cooler. Jim had no idea about the rules but it was rapidly apparent she had the blonde woman's number and was running her into the ground while seemingly barely exerting herself.
At a break in the action, the brunette woman looked over at him. "Hi. You play?"
"Uh, no, I don't."
"Wanna learn?"
"No, not at all. What I really want is for the incessant noise of you hitting that ball to go away."
"We'll quit when nine rolls around, I promise."
"Well, you've already broken your promise. It's twenty after."
"Oh, my God. Is it? We just got so wrapped up in the game that we kinda forgot."
"Yeah," chimed in the blonde, "We're having so much fun that time just slipped by. Thanks for telling us because Cathy is running my butt into the ground."
"Maybe, but you're getting better. I bet by the end of summer you'll be doing alright."
"I hope so."
The brunette turned to Jim. "I'm sorry we went over. Forgive us?"
"Sure."
"I'm Cathy and that's Marilou," she said as she went over to her gear and grabbed her water bottle. "I'm new here and Marilou's visiting for the day."
"And I'm Jim. Thanks for calling it quits for now. Maybe I can get some work done."
"Work? On a Saturday evening?"
"Yeah. Big project due Monday."
"What kind of project?"
"Architecture stuff. Prelim designs for the client to review. We want to have at least three or four options for them to choose."
"Look, you two, I'm gonna head out. Thanks for the lesson, Cath."
"OK, Luv, see you Monday." They gave each other long hugs, enough to make Jim wonder about them.
"And you two shouldn't stay out too late," Marilou laughed as she turned away.
As Jim went to return to his unit, Cathy finished gathering her things and asked, "You think you'd ever be interested in playing?"
"I, uh, I don't know. Have no idea about the game."
"It's pretty easy to learn and most people can do OK within a few days but to be really good, well, it might take a lot more time. You ought to try it sometime."
"How do you get used to that incessant noise of the paddle hitting the ball? Like to drive me nuts."
"What noise? I'm totally used to it by now."
"Well, I've got to head up and get another hour or two of work. Nice meeting you."
"Nice meeting you, Jim. And if you want lessons, give me a holler. I'm in unit thirty-seven."
Two evenings later they were at it again except this time Jim had no work pressures. He decided to go down to the court and watch, after all, both women were attractive. Marilou was thinner than he normally liked but she had a lean, muscular frame which featured some nice, proud breasts. And her face was very attractive. Cathy had a few more pounds and more of a feminine physique, but she clearly was physically fit as she continued to school her younger opponent in the art of pickleball.
"Hey, Jim. Welcome back," shouted Marilou.
"Back for more?" asked Cathy.
"Nope, just came down for a few minutes while I enjoy this IPA."
"Great. I'll let you in on a few of the rules while we play and maybe you'll like it."
"Don't waste your breath," he responded.
"No!," exclaimed the younger Marilou, "Make her waste all the breath that she can and maybe I can score a few points off her."
As the women played, Cathy began to give a brief description of the game. "You see, this is the non-volley zone. You can't return a ball from there. And after a serve, you have to let it bounce once and the opponent has to let it bounce once, then anything is fair game, as long as it doesn't bounce twice."
"So, when it's gone back and forth once, you can let it bounce once or not at all."
"Right, and there's more..."
As Cathy and Marilou expounded on the rules as they played, Jim began to appreciate some of the intricacies of the game. And there was a fair amount of strategy involved, as well. He had played some tennis in high school and understood quickly some of the strategy Cathy was using on her younger opponent. After she won yet again, she turned to Jim and asked, "Want to give it a try? You know, just hit the ball back and forth a little?"
"Uh, sure, I guess."
"Here, use ML's paddle and we'll give you a chance to see how the whole process works."
After a few flubbed attempts at getting the ball back over the net, he finally was able to return it more often than not without hitting the net or sending it out of bounds.
"You're a natural! I knew you could do it," exclaimed Cathy.
"Yeah, maybe he'll make you sweat 'cause I'm not," piped up Marilou.
"Jim, wanna come down tomorrow for a lesson? Marilou's gone, right?
"Yeah, got a work thing to do."
"Uh, maybe. Give me your number and I'll call," answered Jim to Cathy's obvious delight.
"Sure."
And like the last time they parted, the two women seemed to give each other extra-long hugs.
The lesson that Cathy gave Jim the next day emphasized understanding the rules while they played leisurely, not even bothering to keep score. Jim found himself enjoying the game and realized that he even ignored the 'thwoking' sound shortly after they started.
When they wrapped it up, they sat on a small bench, where talk turned to things other than the game.
"Uh, you know I'm in the architecture world. What do you do?"
"Teacher at City High. American history, mainly, but one class of civics every year."
They went on to discuss where they grew up, what their families were like and their political views. Jim was impressed at how similar her beliefs were to his.
At a pause in the conversation, he asked about Marilou.
"She's an EMT and works on varying shifts depending. I don't know how she does it. It's gotta really screw up your brain to have big changes in your sleep like that."
"Yeah, and I read somewhere that shift workers have higher rates of certain diseases, too."
"Once she's been with the department for two years, she can get a fixed schedule. She's hoping for days or evenings. Nights would suck."
Several minutes later while she took a long slug of water, Jim got up the nerve to ask, "Are you, uh, are you two an item or something?"
