Sphinx on Center Court
The padel court hummed with post-tournament energy, everyone jittery on cheap sports drinks and adrenaline. Maya Chen leaned against the glass backboard, all mysterious half-smiles and unreadable eyes. The guys called her 'the Sphinx' behind her back—beautiful, ancient, completely beyond their comprehension. I'd spent three months trying to decode her.
"Nice match," she said as I wiped my racket on my shirt, probably leaving grass stains. Again.
"You watched?" My voice cracked. Spectacular.
Maya's dimple appeared. "The whole finals. You've got this killer backhand when you're not overthinking it."
Heat flooded my cheeks. She'd noticed me. Actually noticed me.
Then her expression shifted—something like horror flickering across her face. She stepped closer, dropped her voice.
"You've got..." She gestured at her own teeth.
My stomach dropped. I'd smiled the entire awards ceremony. With spinach in my teeth. From the pre-match snack my mom had insisted would give me energy. Energy to humiliate myself in front of the only person who actually mattered.
"Since when?" I whispered, desperately casual.
"Second set," Maya said, then ruined everything by giggling. Not mean-girl laughing, but something warmer. Something that made my chest do weird somersaults. "I was trying to figure out how to tell you without making it weird."
"Because this isn't weird at all."
"Here." She reached into her pocket, pulled out a mint. Fresh, cool, impossibly small. Our fingers brushed. I forgot how to breathe.
She bumped my shoulder with hers. "You know what riddles me?"
"Everything?"
"How someone can crush a serve into the corner but panic over a little spinach." She started walking toward the exit, then glanced back. "There's a spot downtown. Best smoothies. Saturday?"
"Saturday," I managed, still processing that she—the Sphinx—had asked me out. Me. Spinach-Teeth Kid.
Maya's smile was different this time. No riddles, no mystery. Just Maya, apparently glad she'd finally solved her own riddle and found someone worth decoding back.