Lexa Karlsson

Nose wrinkled slightly at the other woman’s question, knowing she couldn’t call herself a true fan just someone who simply had a mind for faces. “Well I like the strawberries at Wimbolden but the sport is growing on me too.” Light laughter left her lips after her words before she continued. “Although as a Scot I did try my very best to at least support Murray.” Small sip of her coffee was taken as she listened, nodding along gently as she did. “I know that feeling.” Wry, sympathetic smile was sent the brunette’s way when she knew all too well what it was like to have to forgo certain things to excel in a career. She had been lucky to escape modelling without a negative attitude to either food or her body but there was no denying that she was in no hurry to cut her little luxuries and indulgences out of her diet once more. “I forgot what chocolate tasted like for about eight years and now I don’t think I could live without it again.” Smile touched her lips before more words left them. “But I think you just do what you have to to get where you want to be? I always found I could have most things in moderation too.”

Lexa chuckled and shook her head understanding what the other woman meant, “Oh totally, the only reason I became a tennis player was so I could get Wimbledon’s strawberries once a year,” she joked and then nodded her head, “Andy is an absolute delight, it’s awful that his hips is giving him so much trouble but hopefully he’ll be back to cause headaches for the rest of the players in no time.” Lexa raised her eyebrows and shook her head, “Wow... Chocolate? That is... that is a lot, my protein powder is chocolate flavored and I have quite a lot of chocolate so I can’t even imagine how tough those eight years must have been for you but I’m glad you get to enjoy it now. If I may ask... What kind of profession made you quit chocolate for that many years?”

Brooke made sure to snap more than one pic partly due to her photographer instinct. “What is it about instagram that scares you? I mean if you don’t mind me asking of course.” Brooke loved Instagram not just for her business but for her personal and social life since moving from the states. But she was just a big social media person in general. “I see well hopefully this will prove things to your coach.” she took her last few before handing the phone back to the other women. “So given the whole running and coach thing are you simply a runner or do you play something?”

“Ah... well everything, back when I started it was easier, cause pretty sure only my family followed and while there are a lot of good and nice comments, there are others that make me... Well, there are the ones that make me lose faith in humanity, the ones that make me want to delete my social media and the ones that make me want to reach through the phone and slap that person.” Lexa shook her head, it was the main reason why she didn’t really handle her own social media herself. “I play tennis,” Lexa replied with a smile as she took the phone and sent the first picture to her coach before shoving the phone back in her coat. “Are you a photographer?”

Nathan nodded his head, knowing how that was, then took a moment for her to get into position and snapped a photo for her. He handed the phone back a moment later. “That must be it,” he responded with a smile. “Wimbledon? You’d expect me to recognise you from there, but I never get any time to myself to even watch.” He chuckled lightly, shifting back on his heels a moment. “Absolutely no problem… and it’s Nathan,” he told her simply.

“Don’t worry about it, and believe me, I understand not being able to sit down in front of the tv, thank god for Netflix, I usually catch up with my shows when doing cardio, on the treadmill or the stationary bike or the elliptical, doesn’t work that well for sports though,” Lexa replied with a smile. “You said you own hotels right? That must be quite stressful.”

When he’d first moved to London he was somewhat ashamed to admit that he had been one of the many tourists wanting pictures in front of as many landmarks as possible. Now he still loved the city but didn’t need to document every part of it. It was his daughter who was his new focus both in life and on film. “Me?” Look of surprise crossed his features that he was supposedly the chosen one but he quickly shrugged goodnaturedly.  “Sure, no problem.” Chuckle left him as he held his hand out for the phone. “You won’t have to worry about that. Apparently I’ve got a pretty bad track record of cutting off feet. Missing off people’s killer shoes.” 

Grin turned somewhat more self deprecating when he knew he was hardly selling his photo taking abilities but “I’m making my photography skills sound questionable, aren’t I?” Maybe his attempts at humour would help her loosen up a little. Make that smile seem a little more genuine. As he held up the phone and tapped the screen to focus, he smiled at the woman in the hope that she might match it with a more relaxed one of her own. “Say cheese.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Lexa smiled, “I honestly have no room to judge, a lot of my friends will often get frustrated because when they asked me to take a picture I only took one... Apparently, when most people ask you to take a picture of them, they’re truly asking you to take a bunch of pictures so they can pick the one where they look the best.” She shrugged, “But don’t worry, I truly mean just one.” Lexa added as an afterthought and smiled.

Sam’s daily commute to the store was one of her favorite things. It in somewhat reminded her of her days back in New York and how simple some of the things used to be. She knew the walk like the back of her hand, yet she still found joy and new things to look at every single day. “Yes?” Sam asked, turning to the owner of the voice that had just called her. “Sure, sure!” Taking the phone from the woman, she took a few steps back and prepared to take the shot. “I’ll try my best, but the whole relaxing part comes from you I think?” Sam said, a little smile on her face as she tried her best. “Okay, are you ready?”

Lexa chuckled, “I’m not very good at the whole relaxing thing lately, maybe I should try yoga or something, I heard that helps... And there’s things like puppy yoga... Though I’d just rather skip the yoga part and focus on the dogs” She said with a little frown but nodded her head and posed as best as she could for the picture. “Thank you, I owe you one, I’m Lexa, by the way. You are American right?” She asked but frowned at herself, she shouldn’t be assuming, especially since her own accent was mostly British with a hint of Swede but her English teacher had been British.

She said it constantly most days, writer’s block was the worst. She hated feeling stifled, especially with a looming deadline and an editor constantly contacting her to see where she was at. In reality, it wasn’t as not constantly she felt like it was. Kate constantly over-exaggerated the interactions and added to the pressure, despite the fact that her editor had only called a couple of times. To the brunette it was a couple of times too many. So she did her go too when she needed a break, she walked. The fresh air was relaxing, sure but there was still nothing coming in the creativity department and she huffed slightly, glancing around at the people that were walking past. 

She was contemplating texting Logan and seeing if the other woman was interested in going out and making the story. Yet she was stopped from pulling her cell phone out when she heard a voice and glanced up,  “Uh…” she shrugged finally, and held out her hand for the woman’s phone, “The all relaxed and shit is up to you, mate. I can just take the picture…. are you going to kill me now? Cos that grin is making me think you have a knife in your pocket.”

Lexa chuckled, “That bad huh? It’s okay, doesn’t matter how it looks, it’s just to my coach, so he gets off my back about relaxing, being told to just relax and take it easy too many times actually has the opposite effect, I don’t enjoy being told what to do that much but thank you and no, I’m afraid I left the knife in my other jacket, so you’re safe.” She joked and shook her head, “I think being told to get off my ass and train would actually make me want to stay inside and become one with my bed or my couch out of spite.”

It was nothing unusual, to have someone grab you while you were walking the streets of London, and ask you to take a photo. Nathan normally obliged, so long as he wasn’t busy running anywhere else, which today he wasn’t luckily. He had a meeting in Mayfair, but there was no rush, he was ridiculously early already and figured a brisk walk would do him some good. He agreed to taking the picture before she starting barking out her instructions and had to raise his eyebrows in amusement, mouth quirking at the corners. “You realise you’re the only one who can make yourself look relaxed, by relaxing,” he told her with a gentle laugh.

Moments later he took the photo, however, and then handed the phone back towards her. His eyes narrowed for a moment then in recognition, he’d definitely seen her around before somewhere. “Are you staying in one of my hotels?” he asked then, which probably wouldn’t narrow it down all that much.

Lexa sighed heavily, “I know, I’m just not really good at looking relaxed... or relaxing lately, but it’ll be fine, it’s just for my Coach,” she explained and then frowned at the question, “No, I live here...” She trailed off as she realized that he probably meant that she looked familiar, “but maybe I’ve stayed at one of your hotels, I’ve been coming once a year for Wimbledon since I was a teenager,” Well except for the very few couples of times she had to miss it due to injuries but overall she always did her best to be ready for the big ones, which is why she was currently, sort of, resting, when she should be in Dubai. “I’m Lexa, thank you for the picture.”

Smile was met easily, relieved to hear that her offer had been accepted. Brow raised at the comment from the other woman, it being something she had never had to consider when she enjoyed her favourite flavour. “Oh, I’d never even considered that.” It was only once she focused on the brunette a little more that a sense of recognition dawned on her. “Tennis, right?” Words were tentative, almost certain that she was correct in her guess but also not wanting to put the other woman on the spot. Smile flickered over her lips once more, quick to softly but firmly insist that the muffin was simply a gift. “No, please. I’m not going to squabble over a couple of pounds and besides, it sounds as though you deserve it if you’ve been deprived all this time.”

Lexa chuckled, “I doubt people usually do as long as their job doesn’t require random drug tests and I don’t remember exactly but I think it stays on the system for a couple of days,” she explained with a shrug, her eyebrows rose at the question, it was always surprising to her when people recognized her outside of a tennis setting but she smiled. “Right, you like tennis?” She asked, in the Grand Slams cities there was usually a couple of people that recognized her and she had a couple of second-place plates from Wimbledon in her parents’ house back in Sweden, when she was packing up her things to move they couldn’t understand why she had all the trophies, especially those from Grand Slams, even if they were second place, catching dust in a closet so she just left it with them. “Well thank you,” She said with a smile before taking another bite. “I don’t even think about it anymore, you know? And then I go to a friend’s house or something and I see them eating something delicious that has been taken out of diet and it makes me want to stuff my face with all the... Forbidden goods.”

Brooke was enjoying a nice walk with her coffee and camera. There was something so peaceful about the area. While Brooke has been living in London for years, she never got tired of what was going on around her between the sights and the people. She was pulled deep in thought of what to take photos of next when she heard a women calling her. “Oh yeah no problem.” she grinned, happy to do it. As the girl steadied and angled the phone, she would made sure to follow the women’s requests. “Well I can assure you that this is going to be a beyond Instagram worthy.” she joked with how specific the photo was seeming to be.

Lexa winced at the thought of Instagram, social media was not something she was really that comfortable with, except to like keep up with the people she wanted to keep up with and memes, most of her social media was handles for her ever since she became... well marketable. When her number of followers started climbing even though she hardly ever uploaded a picture and now it was over three million people and that was still a number she couldn’t come to terms with so she was happy to let someone else go around snapping pictures of her or asking for selfies to give it a ‘more personal’ touch. “It’s just for my coach, Instagram scares me and I... am not really supposed to be out jogging... Which I’m not, I was just light jogging if anything, power walking.”