It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years.
– Simone Signoret

"Wow! I never knew you were so competitive!" Emily said, fighting to catch her breath. Now that she and Paige no longer had their Wednesday night seminar together, they decided to start "Workout Wednesdays". Their first night was basketball. Neither one had played competitively before, but Emily had always been athletic, and she had been sure that she could hold her own.

"You should've known," Paige replied as she took the ball out. "I told you that they named a penalty after me in field hockey!"

Paige had been talking trash (good-naturedly), boxing out on rebounds, and aggressively driving the lane. They were evenly matched, as far as the scoreboard was concerned, but Paige was definitely taking the game more seriously than Emily was. In any event, it was a great workout, and both of them were wiped out by the end. Paige pulled up the hem of her jersey to wipe the sweat off of her forehead, and Emily, already keyed up on endorphins, lost herself once she caught sight of the ripples on Paige's abs, glistening under a sheen of perspiration. She pushed into Paige for a deep, passionate kiss. And the hooting and whistling began.

The game had been so intense that they both forgot about the smattering of boys in the bleachers who seemed to think that the only reason two women would be on the basketball court was to meet guys. The kiss put the lie to that notion, but the boys didn't seem to mind. Emily raised her hand to their new fans, as though she'd just sunk the winning shot at the buzzer. Paige, whose face had turned a red that rivaled the crimson stripe running down the sides of her shorts, grabbed Emily's upraised hand and trotted the two of them off the court and into the locker room.

The girls got showered and dressed and headed off for a post-workout refueling. Paige was holding Emily's hand as they walked to Campus Grounds. All of a sudden, Emily tightened her grip on Paige's hand. When Paige looked over to see what had triggered this change, she saw that Emily was no longer smiling but, rather, glaring, with narrowed eyelids. She followed Emily's gaze and saw Shana heading their way. "Oh, it's Shana - I told you that she's a TA for my calculus class, right?"

"Paige! It's good to see you!" Shana oozed, extending her hands as though she were about to give the girl a hug. She didn't. "And…"

"Emily," Emily supplied, through her teeth.

"Emily, right!" Shana echoed, with familiarity.

"We've actually never met," Emily corrected. She was being civil, but just barely.

"I know! But this one talks about you all the time!" As Shana said "this one," she reached out a hand and allowed it to land softly on Paige's forearm, a gesture that did not go unnoticed.

"Yes," Emily sneered, her eyes burning holes in Shana's fingers at the points where they contacted Paige's sleeve, "I talk about my girlfriend all the time, too."

"Can't say I blame you!" Shana gingerly retracted her arm, slightly amused. "So, Paige," she continued, turning her gaze fully to the freshman, "I noticed that my section is filling up fast! You'd better sign up and get your name on the list before it maxes out!" she said, with a playful giggle. "Anyway – you two enjoy your evening! Nice to see you both!" She gave Paige a slight hug. She moved in to repeat the gesture with Emily, but read her body language and wisely backed off.

Shana traipsed off into the night, and Emily released her death grip on Paige's hand. Paige shook it out in an exaggerated motion, as if to get the blood circulating again. Emily just shook her head. Paige started to giggle.

"Would you mind telling me what's so funny?" Emily was clearly annoyed.

Paige stifled her giggles. "Nothing." She paused. "You're just so cute when you're jealous," she said, stroking Emily's cheek.

"I'm not jealous. I have no reason to be." Emily was trying to calm her body down.

"Of course you don't, Sweetie!" Paige affectionately grabbed Emily's arm with both hands, leaning her head on Emily's shoulder.

"You're not signing up for her section, though, I can tell you that!" Emily said under her breath.

Paige stopped in her tracks and cocked her head to the side, a little hurt. "I know that! You don't think I know that?"

Emily leaned over and gave Paige's cheek a quick peck. "Yeah? Well… Good."

Next Workout Wednesday, it was Emily's turn to choose the activity, so, in the evening, they found themselves doing lazy backstrokes side by side in the pool to warm up.

"I thought that, after your injury, you couldn't swim anymore," Paige postulated.

"I can't swim at the competitive level – unless I want to depend on pain-killers and subject my shoulder to constant re-injury and surgery. I can still swim for fun and for aerobics, though. God, I don't know what I would do if I could never swim at all anymore."

"Still, that really sucks. It must've been so hard to have to give that up."

"Yes, it was. And I mourned over it, but it's in my past, now. "

"Did you ever think about coaching?"

"I'd like to coach kids –ones who are just starting out. My high school coach runs a weeklong camp for beginners every summer, and I've been volunteering there for the past couple of years."

"You'll have to give me the dates! Maybe I could join you – if you could use another volunteer. I love working with kids!"

"We can always use another volunteer! And I'd definitely put in a good word for you with coach!"

The two swam in silence for a while before Emily spoke again. "Why did you give up swimming competitively?"

"That's… It's sort of hard for me to put it in words. I mean, basically, it came down to – well, you saw how competitive I get when I do sports, right?"

"Oh, yeah. Definitely saw Competitive McCullers!"

"Yeah. And, I just – I guess, I didn't really like who I was when I was competing, you know? I didn't really recognize myself. So, when I finished my senior year, I decided – college: What a great place to redefine myself. So, I shed my competitive skin, so I could just be the sweet girl you see before you."

"You didn't think about athletic scholarships at all?"

"Yeah – that was tough. I did get recruited a bit. But, I talked it over with my parents, and they understood. It was still kind of hard – you know – teams were such a big part of my…" Paige noticed that Emily wasn't paying attention.

"Oh, I don't fucking believe this girl! What is she, stalking you now?"

Paige looked over to see Shana, in what looked to be her high school warm up suit, stretching out at the side of the pool. "I guess we're not the only ones who used to be on the swim team!" she tried to joke.

"Did you tell her that we were going to be here?" Emily realized how ridiculous the question was even as she asked it.

"Emily, I haven't even talked to her."

"So, what the fuck is she doing here?" Emily asked no one in particular, her tone frustrated rather than angry.

"We can leave if you want to. It's no big deal." They were both treading water at this point.

Emily collected herself. "No. It's fine. I'm not going to make this into a thing. She has every right to be here, and so do we."

"Good!" Paige affirmed as she playfully dunked her girlfriend under the water. "I'll race you to the deep end!"

That night, Emily spooned Paige closer than usual. She buried her nose in Paige's hair and kept taking deep inhales.

"Okay, that's kind of creepy! Cut it out!"

"Don't you love the smell of chlorine, Paige?" Emily inhaled again. "God – I'd forgotten how much I missed it!"

"No, I always hated the smell of chlorine. Even after swim season, it was as though I could never get that smell out of my hair!"

"Good! I hope you can't get the scent out of your hair! I love it! They should make chlorine shampoo! Yeah – that's actually a great idea! How do we make that happen?"

"Em, you're crazy. And you're weirding me out!"

"Can I help it if I love the smell of chlorine on my girlfriend?" Emily grabbed a handful of Paige's hair and took an exaggerated whiff.

"Oh, no. Don't tell me that that's what attracted you to me in the first place! Like, you could still make out the faint hint of chlorine on me?"

"I wouldn't doubt it!" Emily breathed her girlfriend in. "Maybe on some primal, subconscious, pheromone level."

"All right – this is too weird! Maybe I should go sleep on the futon tonight."

"No! Stay! Be my little chlorine teddy bear!"

"Your what?"

"I don't know! Just stay with me!" Emily pleaded, whining.

"God – whatever! Sniff away!" Paige rolled onto her back in surrender. Emily wrapped her arm around Paige's waist and pulled herself in tight.

"See? This is nice…"

"Mm hmm. Go to sleep."

Emily closed her eyes and visualized herself back in the pool. She bolted upright abruptly. "Paige! We should totally get a waterbed!"