College and Cold Brews
Sitting at a corner table in Raso’s Roast coffee shop in Portland, Oregon all by herself, Ashley types up an essay for her kinesiology class at the University of Portland. This is her go to place to do homework because of how quiet it always is there, not many people knowing about the hidden place.
Ashley is about 500 words into her 2000 word essay when a boisterous group of girls walk in, ruining her train of thought. She is struggling not to roll her eyes at the noise when she looks up and sees the group making the noise. 5 members of the Portland Thorns are laughing, walking up to the counter to order. Now, one thing you should know about Ashley is that she is a huge fan of women’s soccer. She watches every game she is able to and follows most of the players on social media. But her favorite player by far is Lindsey Horan. The same Lindsey Horan who has just walked into the coffee shop alongside Tobin Heath, Christine Sinclair, Emily Sonnett, and Caitlin Foord.
She looks back down at her unfinished paper in order to try to collect herself enough to refocus. It doesn’t work. Her brain has been distracted by the beautiful blonde with those stunning green eyes. She decides to go into the bathroom and give herself a mental break before forcing herself back to her paper that is due in 2 days.
She locks herself in one of the stalls and lets out a small squeal in excitement before forcing herself to get it together and breathe.
All that mental preparation goes out the door when she leaves the stall and sees her celebrity crush looking at her through the mirror when she freezes in front of the stall she had just exited. The eye contact seems to last forever before she realizes and remembers to move to the sink, blushing furiously. As she washes her hands, she can see Lindsey fixing her hair, taking it out of the ponytail she had it in previously.
“It looks great, leave it down.” Ashley says to her before she even thinks about it. Once she processes what she just said, she looks away from the blonde blushing even more.
“Thanks” Lindsey replies with a slight smirk on her face.
Ashley decides it’s time to finally leave the bathroom once she has dried her hands, but when she gets to the door, about to push it open, she turns back around and, without thinking, blurts out, “Can I get a picture with you.... Kissing my cheek.”
Lindsey turns to look at her and before she has time to respond, Ashley starts trying to explain.
“It’s just I am a huge fan and me and my friends have this group chat where we talk about women’s soccer and we are all huge fans and wow I sound like a freak, but you are my favorite player and I promise I won’t post the picture anywhere and this is going to sound even weirder but on the group chat we all call, like, dibs on our favorite players and you are my dibs and wow i can’t believe I am telling you all this. You didn’t need to know all this. Yet here I am asking you to kiss me for a picture and ranting about my whole life story to someone who definitely has better things to do, even if you are the person I call my wife on the group chat as a joke.” As Ashley blurted that last part out she quickly covered her mouth in embarrassment at what she just said to her celebrity crush -- the person who she always told herself that if she ever got a chance to meet, she would act cool and not like a fangirl in any way. She quickly turns back to the door, muttering mostly to herself, “I should just go.”
As Ashley goes to pull the door open, she feels a strong, steady hand on her shoulder. “Don’t go yet. I’ll take that picture with you.” Lindsey says and as Ashley turns around she can see the confident, understanding smile on her face. Ashley tries to rein in her shock at the reply, but that, as everything else today, didn’t work out.
“I- Really?” If her words didn’t reveal how surprised she was, her face definitely did. She was standing in front of Lindsey with her jaw open and anyone could see the surprise in her eyes with a passing glance.
“Yes really…”
“Ashley” She quickly fills the silence.
“Well Ashley, I always love meeting my fans and if a picture is what you want then I would be happy to provide that for you.” She is literally the sweetest person Ashley has ever met. Just the way she holds herself so confidently, yet welcoming is amazing. Ashley cannot stop thinking about how amazing her favorite player is in person.
“I- uh- I would really like that, thank you.” Ashley is sure her face is as red as a tomato right now, but she doesn’t care. Her dream is coming true. And she can’t keep her shit together enough to even act like any less of a fool.
“Of course, now where’s that camera?”
Ashley fumbles around her pockets for her phone, almost dropping it out of her shaking hands and she pulls it out, and hands it to lindsey. Lindsey takes the phone from Ashley and holds it up, making sure the angle is right before turning and kissing Ashley on the cheek. The picture has been taken, but Lindsey leaves her lips there for an extra second and takes another. Then she says the most surprising thing of the night.
“Ooh this picture turned out cute, I’m gonna send it to myself.” And Lindsey proceeds to type her number into Ashley’s phone and sends the picture to herself. Ashley can’t even comprehend what just happened, only thanking Lindsey for being so great and walking into the door, before realizing its a pull and pulls it open, tripping against the corner and making her way back to her table for one.
---
Lindsey walks out of the bathroom a minute later, unable to wipe the beaming smile off her face at the cute interaction she just had. Her teammates noticed immediately and started questioning her, all talking over each other.
“What took you so long?”
“What are you smiling about?”
“Why isn’t your hair up anymore?”
“Did you take a dump?”
The last one was from Sonny and stopped the rest of the questions as her teammates turned their attention from her onto the one and only Emily Sonnett, who just shrugged off everyone’s looks and took a long sip of her coffee.
Lindsey turns her attention to her phone and smiles down at the text notification from an unknown number, already knowing what it is.
Her friends don’t let that go unnoticed either though, Sonnett grabbing the phone out of her hands. She tries to protest, but knows it's a worthless cause, because once Sonnett has something in mind, there is no stopping her. And to make the situation even more unfortunate, Sonny knows her passcode. Of course she knows her passcode -- they share everything with each other.
Sonnett unlocks the phone and immediately opens up the messages app, looking at the random numbers confused before tapping on the thread. That’s when her confused face turns into a massive grin, turning to look at Lindsey, then back down at the phone, then at Lindsey again. Then she starts laughing, the other players looking between the two of them confused as Sonny is full on belly laughing and Lindsey is sinking into her seat with a small blush on her face.
Tobin reaches over for the phone, which Sonnett gives up easily, still laughing at the situation. She looks at the phone confused and shows the other players, who look at each other with faces like “who is she” and “why the fuck is sonnett laughing so hard” before ending up shrugging and smiling at each other and handing the phone back to Lindsey.
Lindsey is quick to grab it back, but knows the damage is already done. As she sinks even further into her seat, out of the corner of her eye she sees Ashley staring blankly at her computer and she smiles at the sight.
Tobin notices the smile and turns to look at whatever she is looking at and when she turns, she sees the girl from the picture. Thankfully for Lindsey nobody else notices the glance, too busy trying to get Sonnett to calm down before they all get kicked out of the quiet corner coffee shop, and Tobin keeps quiet for now.
---
Ashley is in class almost a week later when a text from an unknown number pops up on her computer. She clicks on it, slightly confused and mostly bored of the class, and the first thing she notices is the pictures that she supposedly sent to this person. Immediately, she realizes that she forgot Lindsey ever texted herself from Ashley’s phone, not sure how, but the whole interaction is kinda an emotional blur for her.
Her eyes glance down from the pictures towards the new message she has.
(503) 910-1317 -- Hey, It’s Lindsey. I was wondering if you were ever going to text me, but I got sick of waiting so I decided I would text first :)
Ashley stares at the screen, class long forgotten, and she thinks of how to respond to the text. As she’s thinking, she adds Lindsey’s name to her contacts.
Ashley -- Oh hey! Sorry for not texting, I didn’t think you would want me to :/. Also totally forgot you gave me your actual phone number tbh. Still kinda freaking out about that…
It takes Lindsey a little bit longer to respond this time. Ashley stares at the conversation for a minute or 2 (or 10) longer before finally refocusing on the lecture currently being given to her. Just as she reopens her notes slide, the professor dismisses the class.
Ashley packs up her things slowly, in a trance at the seemingly impossible happening to her. She walks out of the lecture hall and towards her dorm, all on autopilot. When she throws her backpack on the ground haphazardly and falls face-first on the bed, her roommate and best friend Mal notices instantly.
“Hey, Ash… Whats up?” Mal approaches cautiously, having no idea what has her usually neat roommate throwing stuff on the ground and getting into bed facedown.
“I haf a cwush” Ashley mumbles into the pillow that is currently smothering her face.
“What was that bud?” Mal asks, not knowing what the hell came out of her friend’s mouth.
This time Ashley picks up her head, looks at Mal and repeats her statement quietly but clearly before shoving her face back down. “I have a crush…”
“Oh honey, what’s the problem then? Crushes are great. We can talk all about them, stalk them on social media, rant about them, whatever you want.” Mal tries to comfort her friend without laughing at her.
Ash looks up again, “The problem is that she is way out of my league, and she is older and has an actual job, and she would never want someone like me. Plus we have only ever met once. And I was as awkward as ever with her. Because she is beautiful. And I have never met anyone like her before.”
Mal looks at her. And looks at her. And looks at her. Then she grabs Ashley’s arms and pulls her up. “C’mon, up you go. There we go.” Ash is sitting on the edge of the bed, a pout on her face, while Mal talks to her. “Ash, you adorable, stupid girl. You don’t know that she doesn’t want you. You won’t know unless you actually do something about it. So come on. Let’s go shopping, find you something cute to wear, and plan how you are going to ask this crush of yours out.”
Ashley complains the whole time, but in reality she loves Mal for dragging her out and making her talk about it. It makes her forget all about the text she sent out that went (seemingly) unanswered.
---
After her talk with Mal, Ashley feels a lot more confident in trying to ask Lindsey out. They have been texting back and forth for a couple days, but it’s not until that weekend that Ashley decides to make her move.
Ashley calls Lindsey that afternoon. They have never talked on the phone before but this isn’t really something Ash wants to do over text. Lindsey picks up on the 4th ring, when Ash has lost hope that she would answer.
“Hello?” Lindsey answers
“Oh, uh hi Lindsey, it’s me, uh Ashley.”
“Hey Ash, what’s up?”
“Um I wanted to ask you uh something?” Ash can feel her nerves taking over, all her worked up confidence fading into background noise behind her racing heart.
“Okay, what is it?” Lindsey spoke in a soft tone, one that encouraged Ash to just spit out her question.
Ash takes a deep breath and when she let it out, the words fell out with it, “Can I take you out for coffee or something? Like a date? Or if you don’t wanna go out in public I could make you brunch?” Ash held her breath while she waited for the response.
“Like a date huh? Took you long enough to ask your wife out.” Lindsey teases
“Uh I’m sorry? I didn’t know if you were into me or not and I don’t even know why I told you that I call you my wife. I’m still sorry about that. But yeah a date.”
“When were you thinking for this date?”
“Uh tomorrow?” Might as well make it as soon as possible so she can see her again.
“Sorry I can’t do tomorrow. I have a game in Seattle…” Lindsey sounded kind of disappointed.
“Oh Right. I don’t know how I forgot about that. Um… when do you get back? I’m pretty much free whenever besides for a few classes but uh yeah just let me know.”
“I should be back by Monday night, but I leave again on Wednesday for Orlando. Would Tuesday work for you?”
“Yes!” Ashley blurts out, unable to contain herself. Blushing, she tries to backtrack, “I mean uh yeah, Tuesday is cool.” Lindsey laughs at that, and Ashley wishes she was there to see it. See those dimples popping out. See that contagious smile. Those green eyes glowing with laughter.
“Alright Ash, I’ll see you then. Text me the details.” And with that they said their goodbyes and hung up. Ash starts screaming in delight, jumping and dancing around. That is when Mal decides to walk in, only to find her friend acting like a happy idiot, a big change from how she was acting Thursday.
Mal knocks on the door that is still wide open to make her presence known and Ashley immediately stops bouncing around, turning to Mal with wide eyes, Mal stifling a laugh at her roommate’s behavior.
“Oh uh, hey mally.” Ashley tries to play it cool.
“Don’t hey me, what were you just doing?”
“Uh… getting my exercise in?”
“Mhmm, tell me what happened.” Mal knew she was lying, so Ashley decided to just tell her the whole story.
---
Lindsey was at lunch with some of her teammates when she stepped out to take the call. Luckily, she has been able to get by this past week with no more questions about Ash, but not so luckily, she couldn’t stop smiling when she went back to the table and the players that were with her last week recognized the smile and immediately started questioning her about who the call was from.
“Nobody…” Lindsey tried to avoid the topic, but knew there was no hope. Sonny asked if it was the same girl from last week and her face immediately started smiling at the thought of Ash and she couldn’t help the following teasing.
“Oh my god it is!” Sonnett burst out of her chair, causing everyone in the small italian place to stare at their table. Sinc pulls sonnett back down into her seat and people go back to their own business. “Tell me everything! Right now!”
“No!” Lindsey burst, which she doesn’t do often off of the field. That caused Sonnett to look at her surprised but it got her to be quiet. Lindsey doesn’t like the almost hurt look on her face though, so she says, “I don’t really want to jinx it, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell.” Lindsey speaks in a quieter voice, but everyone could still hear her.
Sonnett looked like she was going to burst from the happiness she has for her best friend. They share a look, but the team seems to drop the topic, moving on to discuss their game tomorrow.
Lindsey looks down at her phone and smiles at the thought of her date on Tuesday.
---
On Tuesday, about an hour before the planned date, Ashley is trashing her closet looking for a decent outfit to wear. Mal had left early to go to class and now Ash is left on her own to figure out what to wear. She decides to just text Mal for help.
Ash -- WHAT DO I WEAR????
Thankfully for Ash, Mal gets back to her a minute later.
Mally -- wear your black ripped jeans with that white shirt that hugs your curves and your converse and throw in a jean jacket if you want.
Mally -- Also wear that owl necklace you have
Thank god for her best friend, Ashley thinks. She finds the outfit Mal was talking about at the bottom of the pile on the ground and quickly throws it on before going into the bathroom to straighten her hair and put on some light makeup. She checks the time on her phone and realizes she only has 10 minutes to get to Raso’s. She grabs her wallet and her room key before rushing out the door, wanting to make it there before Lindsey does so her date doesn’t have to wait.
She gets there right at 11:30, the agreed upon time, and takes a breath to compose herself before entering the quiet shop. She goes back to her go-to table in the corner and checks her phone. As she looks back up when she hears the bells on the door chime, she is met by the sight of the most beautiful woman she has ever seen. Her date. Ashley still can’t wrap her head around that fact.
She stands from her seat once they make eye contact and walks over to Lindsey. There is no stopping the smiles that appear on each of their faces.
“Hi.” Ash says once she gets to Lindsey by the door.
“Hi. How are you?” Lindsey asks
“Never better.” Ash says with a beaming smile and a small blush. “Should we uh- get our drinks?”
“Of course.” Lindsey says with a smile just as big.
The two of the go up to the counter to order and Ash orders herself a cold brew with almond milk, then asks what Lindsey wants. “Oh. You don’t have to pay for me.” Lindsey tells her.
“I want to.” Ash replies just as seriously. Lindsey just smiles softly at her and then turns to the barista.
“I will also have a cold brew with almond milk.”
With that, Ashley hands the barista her card and once it is all paid for, they make their way to the table in the back corner. They make some small talk until Ashley hears their order called, but before she can get out of her seat, Lindsey is already at the counter grabbing the two drinks.
“It was the least I could do after you paid for them.” Lindsey states once she is back at the table with Ash and the two drinks. “So Ashley, tell me more about you. All I know so far is that we are married without my prior knowledge and that you like soccer.” Lindsey teases.
“I- am still so sorry for that. It is just a joke between me and my friends I swear. You know celebrity crush, you pretend she is your wife. It is basically just all of us dreaming for the impossible.”
“Not impossible.” Lindsey interrupts with a smile on her face thinking about their ongoing date.
“I guess not impossible.” Ashley replies with a smile of her own and a small eye roll. “But seriously I am a college student at UP and I am majoring in kinesiology and I am a huge soccer fan and I hope to one day work in the soccer industry as a physical therapist and yeah I am not all that interesting.” Ashley says looking down at her coffee for most of it, scared to meet those green eyes she dreams about, scared for all of this to be a dream. When she looks up though, Lindsey is giving her a soft smile and looking at her with adoration.
“You are very interesting. I mean you caught my attention. But kinesiology is such a cool subject. If I went to college I probably would have majored in something similar. And if you ever need a referral for a job feel free to reach out. I may or may not know a few people in the soccer industry.” At that Ashley laughs and contains an eye roll, looking at her date with love.
“So Lindsey tell me more about yourself. And I mean the real you, not just the public you.”
The date goes on with them talking and getting to know each other, taking small sips of their drinks, feeling like once they are finished the date will be as well and neither want that. Lindsey tells her about that one time in France when Sonnett yelled at a waiter because he didn’t speak english and she didn’t speak french and Ash responded with a story about when her and Mal went to a restaurant and Mal yelled at the waiter because he got her a coke instead of a diet coke.
They both laughed and told stories and enjoyed the short amount of time they had together. Then, in the middle of one of Lindsey’s PSG stories, Ashley’s phone rang. It was Mal. She excuses herself from the table with about ten apologies before reaching the door and answering the call.
“What do you want Mal?” Ashley bites out through her teeth, annoyed by the interruption.
“I want to know when you will be back so we could go get some lunch together because you have been gone for 3 hours but by the sound of your voice it will still be a while, so nevermind. Love you! Have fun!” And with that Mal hangs up. Ashley rolls her eyes and walks back into the coffee shop seeing Lindsey texting furiously on her phone. She makes her way back to the table and when she sits down, the frown Lindsey had is immediately wiped off her face and she puts her phone down, smiling at Ashley.
“So what did your friend want?” Lindsey asks.
“Oh she just wanted to know when I would be back but I think she realized she interrupted and hung up pretty quickly. What were you frowning at on your phone?”
“My friend bugging me about the date. I swear I love Sonnett but she never knows when to stop.” Lindsey said with a smile at her chaotic friend and a playful eye roll.
“Well I guess we both have overbearing friends then.” Ashley tries to joke, but it just comes out as awkward.
Lindsey laughs at the sudden awkward tone that Ash spoke with and all she says is “Guess so.” before the two of them get back to talking about anything and everything.
---
What feels like 5 minutes later to the both of them, but is really hours later, Lindsey’s phone goes off and she looks at it before looking at the time and that is when her eyes go wide. “I have to go. I’m so sorry. I have practice in an hour and I have to stop by my apartment to change and Providence Park is like 30 minutes away. I am so sorry Ash. I had such a good time with you.”
“I had a good time too, Lindsey.” Ash tells her with a small, almost not even there frown at the idea of their date ending. Lindsey looks just as disappointed.
“Would you like to go out with me again on Saturday? I would make it sooner I swear but we are in Orlando until late Friday.” Lindsey says staring at her phone screen.
“I would love nothing more.” Ashley responds, and with that, Lindsey speeds out the door, leaving Ash standing there with a frown that she didn’t even get to kiss her date goodbye.
---
Ashley drags her feet into the dorm at 6:00, Mal noticing the disappointed look on her face and immediately asking her what happened. Ashley explains that the date went really well, but she had hoped to leave Lindsey with a goodbye kiss, and Mal immediately grabs her hand and drags her out the door to her car.
Mal starts driving, Ashley confused, but too disappointed in herself to care enough to ask. It is a 30 minute drive and then they pull into a parking lot. Ashley immediately recognizes the place, knowing she has been there hundreds of times for Portland Thorns home games. She looks at Mal with a question in her face.
“We are here for you to get your kiss. I don’t want you to be sulking around the dorm, bringing my energy down for a week. I will sit here with you, but once the players start coming out, you are getting out of this car and giving your girl a kiss she will never forget.” It seems so easy when Mal says it, but the more time that goes by, the more nervous Ashley gets.
It takes almost an hour of them sitting in the car together, listening to music and Ashley overthinking before members of the team start walking out. Ashley looks at Mal with a terrified face, but all Mal does is push her out of the car, locking it and telling her she won’t be let back in until she makes her move.
One by one players trickle out, until finally, Ashley sees Lindsey Horan walking out with Sonnett. Ashley looks back at the car, contemplating whether or not to just run back into it, but the look Mal gives her tells her that she can’t.
Ashley starts making her way over to the two players and when she gets close enough for Lindsey to see her, she holds her hand up in an awkward wave. Lindsey says something to Sonnett that has her looking confused, but Sonnett allows her to separate. Lindsey closes the distance between the two with a confused smile on her face.
“Hey, did I forget something at the cafe?” Lindsey asks her confused.
“Um no. Um I- think… Um I did.” Ashley cannot shake off her nerves. She has never been this nervous to kiss a girl before.
“Oh?” Lindsey asks, trying to encourage her to keep speaking.
“I um. Can I- no um. I forgot um. I’m sorry. Um can I-” As Ashley is speaking she looks from Lindsey’s eyes to the ground, back to her eyes, then to her lips.
She doesn’t even finish her thought before Lindsey wraps her arms around her neck and whispers in Ashley’s ear, “Kiss me Ash.” and with that, Lindsey leans in and their lips meet and there are fireworks going off in every single one of Ash’s nerve endings. She feels like she is going to burst with the sheer amounts of joy she feels. She starts to smile into the kiss and then she feels Lindsey start to smile and pulls back a little. She reaches back for Lindsey’s neck and pulls her in again, not wanting the moment to end. Their lips connect one more time before they hear whoops coming from Lindsey's teammates and a few honks from those already in their cars. Neither of them seem to care though, as they look into each other’s eyes, crinkled from smiling, and lean in once more.
End.