"Wait, wait, wait," Amarice called slowly to stop the lively conversation among her Red Stars teammates that was happening around a cluster of tables in secluded restaurant in the Salt Lake City International Airport. "You aren't coming back to Chicago with us?"
Xena sighed heavily as she took another sip of the rather fantastic beer from a local brewery that Paulina had suggested. Xena, Amarice, and the rest of the Red Stars had played Paulina and the Utah Royals earlier in the day. It was a rescheduled game that had been rained out. It was oddly at 1 p.m. on a Wednesday. So, the team was flying back the same day, but their flight wasn't until 7 p.m.
"No," Xena stated, offering up no further information.
Ephiny leaned back in her chair and began to laugh. "God damnit, Xena," she said as she crossed her arms against her chest.
"California," Yachi blurted as she pointed at Xena. "You are going to California. Stanford," she added as she looked to Amarice for reassurance.
Amarice threw up her hands. "She didn't tell me anything about this."
"She ain't got to tell ya everything, Amarice," Xena shot back.
Amarice groaned. "You are going to Stanford?"
Xena raised an eyebrow at her.
"People are gonna see you, "Amarice pointed out. "See the both of you. Like together!"
"Amarice," Xena grumbled since there were more people around then when they normally had these conversations.
"A college, Xena?" Ephiny questioned, making it a part of her co-captain duties to stop a fight from breaking out in the airport restaurant. "You're going to a college to visit your girlfriend, who is in college?"
Xena shook her head. "Oh, fuck off." Though Xena was certain not everyone at the table got the joke, she appreciated Ephiny's support. Terries had been a senior in college when she and Ephiny had started dating. Though Ephiny was only two years out of college at the time, Aphrodite had made that joke when she was their veteran teammate.
"What!?" Thalassa blurted as she and Gabrielle walked away from the locker room and back toward their respective houses. "She is coming here? Like for Ngara's game?"
Gabrielle shrugged. "No. It just worked out like that. The Red Stars played the Royals in Utah yesterday, so it just made sense for her to come for the rest of this week."
"Yeah, sure," Thalassa replied shaking her head.
"We haven't seen each other since the CONCACAF final," Gabrielle pointed out as they turned the corner onto one of the major off-campus housing streets. "That was almost three weeks ago."
"Is she staying with you?" Thalassa questioned.
"No!" Gabrielle calling loudly for it seemed like an absurd suggestion. "I have four roommates in a shitty college house. And my bed is a twin since my room is so small."
Thalassa peered at her with her mouth agape. "Whoa, okay."
Gabrielle scoffed at her. "What? Why are you being a prude about this?"
"Do you talk about this with Ngara?" Thalassa questioned.
"Yeah, she's a theology major, she isn't a nun," Gabrielle pointed out.
"I am like 98 percent sure she still has feelings for you," Thalassa stated.
Gabrielle sneered and shook her head. "No, she doesn't. Not anymore."
Thalassa sighed at her. "What makes you so certain?"
"She is fucking Stanlous."
"What!?"
"Oh my god, you didn't know that?" Gabrielle questioned. "Oh my god, do people not know that?"
They stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to peer at each other in shock.
"And like, it's not just fucking," Gabrielle clarified. "They are dating. He bought a Lioness jersey!"
"Why have I been out of the loop?" Thalassa questioned.
"You have been at the Red Stars parties," Gabrielle pointed out. "She's has been really flirty with him."
Thalassa glared down at Gabrielle. "She is really flirty with everyone."
Gabrielle began to laugh. After a few seconds, so did Thalassa and the tension between them disappeared. They started walking again. Thalassa lived only two blocks down the street from Gabrielle and her roommates.
"We're hosting a watch party at our place for the England-Russia game," Gabrielle told her. "We invited the Red Stars club and I'm sure most of the team will show up too. Stanlous has also reached out to basically any English soccer fan on campus."
Thalassa grinned and nodded at her. "And Xena is just going to be there?"
Gabrielle sighed. "Yes. I've told her about it. She's cool."
"Whatever you say, Gabrielle," Thalassa said with a laugh.
"Thanks," Xena told her Uber driver as she closed the door and walked onto the sidewalk of the AirBnB she had booked for two days in Stanford. It was a bit cheaper and less nice than she'd usually go for, but she wanted to be as close to Gabrielle's place as she could. She was barely a 10-minute walk away.
Though she had arrived at the airport in Salt Lake with her teammates as they did for their 7 p.m. flight, hers was not until 9 p.m. She had arrived in Stanford at about 12:30 a.m. and knew Gabrielle had an early morning class. She had texted her the address just before she had boarded the plane in Salt Lake City. She assumed she would see her in the morning.
Xena awoke to her phone buzzing from a text at 5:45 in the morning.
Gabrielle: Training? :)
Xena grumbled at it and rubbed at her face. She tossed her phone on the edge of the bed and got up to find where she had thrown down her bag the night before. Within 10 minutes, there was a knock on the door of Xena's AirBnB just as she had been expecting.
"Hey," Gabrielle called excitedly between slow, heavy breaths as Xena answered the door.
"What? Did ya sprint here?" Xena asked, fully ready to go and dressed in practice gear.
Gabrielle shook her head as she smiled at her. "I've already ran two miles," she told her. "Do you want to run or go do skills training? There is a park that isn't far."
Xena shook her head as she stepped outside and closed the door behind her. She leaned down and kissed her. As she pulled away, she was shaking her head.
"What?" Gabrielle questioned pleased, but sincerely confused.
"Ya thought you weren't gonna be the number one pick," Xena scoffed at her. "Where's this park?"
"About a mile this way," Gabrielle told her as she began running down the walkway and back onto the sidewalk.
Xena had to hurry for a moment to catch up with her and meet her pace. "This seems like a lot of running for a right back," she told her as they slowed to a walk at the entrance of the park.
Gabrielle shrugged. "I might be a holding midfielder now, Xena."
Xena laughed. "For Athena," she pointed out. "That don't mean nothin' for Stanford or your future club team."
Gabrielle shrugged as she led them to a storage shed. "I don't know," she said casually. "I kind of like it. I guess, I'm fine with either." She realized Xena was hanging back a bit as she pulled a key from her shorts' tiny pocket and unlocked the shed door. "I know one of the workers at this park, she let's me store some stuff here."
Xena was standing a bit back from the shed and looking slightly uneasy.
"You okay?" Gabrielle asked as she exited the shed holding two balls and a stack of cones.
Xena stammered for a moment as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Can I just leave it at 'I got a thing about sheds'?"
Gabrielle pressed her lips together to stop herself from fully reaction for she was rather certain she knew exactly what that was about. She nodded casually. "Sure," stated as she tossed one of the balls to Xena.
They spent the next few hours running dribbling, passing, and shooting drills in the park. Every so often they would take advantage of the fact that they could get fully aroused about being pitted against each other because there was nobody around to judge them or see them.
After training they ran back to Xena's. Gabrielle went home to shower and change. After her class, she instantly came back so she could take Xena to brunch and show her around a bit. They got coffee from Gabrielle's favorite place, which confirmed for Gabrielle that the barista definitely had been viewing her differently since the first photos of them from Memorial Stadium had surfaced. Gabrielle then walked Xena around campus, despite her having so many teammates that had graduated from the school, she had never actually visited before.
They went to browse through a used bookstore Gabrielle often frequented. They were peering at the titles in the memoir and biography shelves when Xena snickered loudly as she pulled out a book with an aging dust jacket.
"Oh my god," Gabrielle said with a laugh. "I had that as a kid!"
Everything about the cover screamed 2006, including the font that read "From Pageants to Penalty Kicks: A Memoir By Aphrodite." A picture of Aphrodite as a kid at a beauty pageant and her during the 1999 World Cup were both on the cover.
"I have to get this," Xena declared excitedly.
"We should film you buying it and put in on your Instagram," Gabrielle suggested.
Xena raised an eyebrow at her.
"Oh, come on!" Gabrielle pleaded. "Everyone would love it."
"That's kinda public, Gabrielle," Xena pointed out, using the book to motion at the two of them.
Gabrielle considered for a moment. Xena took a step closer to her and leaned forward slightly, like she was shielding her from something. Or at least that was how Gabrielle felt. Gabrielle smiled as she tapped her hand against Xena's abdomen and then ran it down her arm.
"I'm ready for that," she told her. "I don't want to hide how I feel about you anymore."
Xena's eyes seemed to get even brighter as she gave her a small smile. "Yeah, I've been feelin' that way too."
"Okay," Gabrielle said with a deep breath. She reached up to kiss Xena. "Give me your phone."
Xena obeyed, pulled it out of her back pocket and handed it to her.
"Wait," Xena called as she reached for it back. "We should give Dite a heads up."
Xena typed quickly and held it out to Gabrielle again.
Xena: We're cool with going public, so respond how you want
Aphrodite: What are you two up to?
The video started with Xena making an overly serious face she was wandered down the memoir aisle. She pulled out one book and considered it for a moment. Gabrielle zoomed in and saw that Xena was contemplating a biography about herself. Gabrielle could be heard audibly laughing behind the camera for she had not noticed the Xena biography before.
Xena then pulled out the outdated Aphrodite biography and made a mockingly excited face. Gabrielle had paused the video, so it was a hard cut to Xena buying the biography, and then another hard cut to Xena seriously reading the book under a tree in a nearby park.
Everything felt so lighthearted and fun that Gabrielle wasn't fully sure what came over her. She turned the camera around to herself. "Reading is important, kids," she said as she pointed at the camera. "Support your local bookstores." She turned until the sign for the bookstore was just beyond her shoulder. She pointed toward it and nodded.
Xena was approached her and laughing. "Give me back my phone," she called with faux seriously.
"Ah," Gabrielle uttered goofily before she ended the video.
She tagged the bookstore, herself, Aphrodite, and the national team before handing the phone back to Xena.
