The Tour

thirty-nine / athlete couple problems

I walked up the beach and wiped my hands off on the towel quickly, fishing for my phone in my bag. Turning the screen on I squinted in the bright sunlight before groaning and tossing it back into my backpack.

"What's up?" Alani asked, shoving her board into the Bali sand after our practice session before the qualifying series event.

She took the phone out of my hand after I unlocked it for her. Her eyes scanned the texts, which were all separated by more than an hour time gaps.

2:27 am

Will: Good morning, hope that the surf is good for you today :)

7:13 am

Riv: Morning, forecast looks good! How are your classes today?

9:01 am

Will: Not bad, took a test and I'm heading to practice now so I'll talk to you later

10:19 am

Riv: Sounds good, how was the test?

12:48 pm

Will: Probably didn't hit it out of the park but it was fine. And I just finished practice, how's your day going?

12:55 pm

Riv: Sorry, coach John is yelling at me to come surf, be back soon

Riv: But no more baseball puns

4:28 pm

Will: Hey sorry, I have early workouts tomorrow morning so I have to hit the hay. Love you.

5:02 pm

Riv: Love you, good luck fighting those weights in the morning :)

Alani grimaced and tossed the phone back to me. "Long distance is tough, for sure. And I'm not even dating an athlete."

I nodded as I picked up the rest of my stuff and trudged through the sand towards the rental house. "Do you have any tips?"

Alani walked through the open door behind me into the basement, where we dropped our boards. She pursed her lips, thinking it over. "You mostly just have to push through and remember how it will be worth it in the long run. Of course Daniel and I try to talk as much as we can, and he comes and sees me when he is free. But I do think that a lot of it is maintaining your relationship by communicating well when you're apart so that you can look forward to everything being worth it when you're back together."

I trudged up the stairs to the kitchen behind her. "Yeah, I guess that we can figure things out when he graduates and he gets job and everything. And we have the off-season and his summer breaks," I said, attempting to make it feel doable.

Alani gave me a small smile. "At least we both know that you can trust him. That's half of what people worry about with distance, but I don't have any worries about that with you and Will."

I nodded in agreement before glancing back at my notification-free lock screen. "I never realized that two months could be so long."

She nodded and gave me a quick hug before heading up to take a shower. My skin was stiff from the salt water, and I followed her lead and went to the other bathroom.

△▽△

The sun was setting on the evening before the competition and none of use wanted to do anything but lay around after a morning out in the hot sun. It was 6:45 pm, but Alani had already gone to our room to prepare for her early morning heat.