Meeting around tennish…
Luke: Why'd you quit your first coach? You were all in a few months ago.
Suzie: Ugh. Everything was “Push through it!” or “Champions never quit!” Like, calm down, I just want to play doubles and eat grapes afterward.
Luke: So what changed? You have a new coach now, right?
Suzie: Yep. Complete opposite. Big, muscular triathlete. Part-time tennis coach, full-time doctor and empathetic legend.
Luke: What typifies an “empathetic triathlete”?
Suzie: Okay. One day, he found a tiny parrot on the roadside. Just sitting there, all fluff and no clue.
Luke: A parrot? Like “Polly want a cracker” parrot?
Suzie: Tiny. Blue and green. Big eyes. So he took it back to his room, which is like... practically a closet.
Luke: This muscular man... cradling a parrot in a shoebox?
Suzie: Better. He fed it with a hospital syringe. One drop at a time!
Suzie: Oh, way more than bonded. Turns out it was a she and laid eggs.
Luke: No way.
Suzie: Way. They hatched. Then those parrots found love. Now he’s got twelve. Twelve birds.
Luke: In that same tiny room?
Suzie: He bought six cages. Because parrots pair, you know. One per couple.
Luke: Is he single?
Suzie: Ha! Let’s just say he’s emotionally married to his parrot community for now.
Luke: I’d be terrified to drop by and get judged by twelve tiny eyes.
Suzie: Oh, they absolutely judge. They blink in unison when skeptical.
__________
Voice-over
Coffee over, Luke sensing Suzie’s tennis is going well, to which she replies that she is lobbing better and laughing a lot more. Which, she declares, is a real win.
