Chapter 11
“I need a drink.” Hope says. She called Pinoe as soon as she pulled out of the apartment complex. “Why? You and the girlfriend get into a fight?” Hope sighs. “Not exactly. I don’t want to talk. Just meet me in a half hour?” She asks, hopefully. Pinoe hesitates. “Please.” Hope throws one last plea out there, hoping it’ll tip the odds in her favor. She really doesn’t want to go alone. “Alright. You owe me one, Solo. Sera was just making dinner.”
Hope is already at the bar nursing a drink when Pinoe walks in. They decided against going to The Barrel, so they chose to meet at a small bar down the street from Hope and Carli’s house. Pinoe orders a beer and joins Hope in watching the hockey game that’s playing on the screen over the bar. “Her siblings are in town.” The goalkeeper finally says. Pinoe grimaces. “You gonna meet them?” She asks, unknowingly.
“Oh, I met them. I met them while I was sitting in a fucking fort. A fort. Since when do I sit in forts?” She rambles, before finishing her drink in one long gulp. Pinoe cracks a smile. “You were in a fort? Oh, I can’t wait to tell Sera.” She chuckles out. Hope shoots her a deadly glare, effectively dropping the smile from her face. Hope orders another drink. “Well, do you like them?” The goalkeeper shrugs at the question. She kind of ran before she could talk to them.
“Listen, Solo, I can’t read your mind.” Pinoe mentions, tipping her glass towards her friend. Hope wipes her face with her hands. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. I left as soon as they walked in. I feel like I might have jumped into things too soon. I’m not ready for all this. I should be focusing on the fucking Algarve and I’m caught up in some bartender and her kid.” Pinoe raises her eyebrows at the tone. She looks at Hope, silently, letting her piece together whatever it is she’s trying to say.
“I didn’t…I didn’t mean it like that, I just don’t know what I’m doing. I’m not meant for this, Meg. I’m not good enough for her, for them, I’m just not good for them. I should get out while I still have the chance.” Pinoe rolls her eyes and asks the bartender for the check. She ignores Hope’s questioning glances, as she pays the bill. “Come on. You’re getting too self-deprecating for my liking.” Hope follows her out of the bar, without question. “Get in.” Pinoe motions to the passenger seat of her car.
“What are we doing?” The goalkeeper asks, as she puts on her seatbelt. “Getting drunk.” The blonde replies, before backing out of the parking spot. Hope smirks, a little bit. ‘This is why I come to Pinoe about shit like this and not Carli.’ She thinks. She watches the lights of the buildings pass through the window. They pull up to their usual club just minutes later and Hope feels a little bit guilty. She hasn’t been to the club since she and Kelley have been together, mostly because when she would go to the club, it was to pick up girls. Now, she has no idea what she’s doing here.
She and Pinoe make their way inside. “Solo! I haven’t seen you in a while.” Mark, the bouncer, says as he opens the door for her. Hope gives him a smile and an awkward nod, before walking past him. “Relax, Hope. Let’s just have fun.” Pinoe says in her ear, as she makes her way straight to the bar. She motions for Hope to follow her. They take a seat and Hope turns around to look around the club. Most places are closed for the weekend, because of the holiday. The owner of the club knows the crowd of people that come here and recognizes that most of them need somewhere to ‘get away’ during family holidays such as Thanksgiving. So they remain open.
Hope makes eye contact with a blonde on the dance floor for a split second. She looks away and takes a deep breath, turning back around to face the bar. Pinoe watches the interaction, curiously. She saw the blonde taking an interest in Hope as soon as they walked in. She’s interested to see where Hope wants to take this. The goalkeeper already feels the effect of alcohol taking over. “Can I have another?” A voice says, right next to Hope’s seat. She and Pinoe look over to see the same blonde taking a seat next to the goalkeeper. The bartender nods and begins making her drink.
“What are you drinking?” The blonde asks, giving Hope a small smile. The goalkeeper shakes her head. “Nothing.” The blonde smirks a little bit. “Playing hard to get? I’ve seen you around here before. You don’t seem too ‘hard to get.’” She makes quotation marks with her fingers. Hope clenches her jaw, fighting against her instinct to lash out. She decides against responding. She turns away from the woman and faces Pinoe. “Wanna go dance?” Pinoe asks, after seeing the look on Hope’s face. Hope shrugs, but nods her head.
Hope and Megan make their way to the back of the packed dance floor. They dance for what feels like hours, making friends and laughing at each other’s moves. Neither of them are great dancers, but for them, that’s half the fun. They meet a couple on the dance floor, Rob and Chris, who have joined them in their antics. Hope gets to know them only a little bit, over the loud music. They couple has been together for just over a year.
Hope heads back towards the bar, leaving Pinoe with their new friends while she gets them another round. She’s almost through the crowd of people when she feels a tug at her wrist. She turns around, thinking Megan might have followed her, and is met with the blonde girl who refuses to take a hint. “Dance with me?” She asks, still holding on to Hope’s wrist. She looks up at the brunette, eyes a bright blue. If it had been four months earlier, Hope wouldn’t have hesitated before saying ‘yes’. The goalkeeper pulls her arm away from the woman and shakes her head. “I’m good.”
She walks away. She walks up to the bar and orders their drinks. She leans her forearms on the counter as she waits. She feels someone place a hand on her back and instantly stiffens. She turns around and rolls her eyes at the sight of the woman. “I’m not interested.” The blonde tilts her head and moves so she’s standing in front of Hope, a little bit too close for the goalkeeper’s comfort.
“Just one song?” She asks, motioning to the dance floor. Hope shakes her head, without hesitation. “Listen, I have a girlfriend. I’m not interested. So if you could just leave me alone, that’d be great.” She says, seriously. She isn’t sure how much more clear she could possibly be, at this point. This isn’t what she came here for tonight. The blonde purses her lips. She hesitates for a few seconds, before nodding. The bartender places the drinks on the counter and Hope turns to grab them. She gives the blonde a nod, as she walks past her and back towards the back of the dance floor.
They stay for a few more songs, having plenty of time to finish one last drink. After saying their goodbyes to their new friends, they get into the Uber they had called for. Sera agreed to bring Megan to get her car tomorrow, while Hope plans on asking Carli to bring her to get hers in the morning. Hope looks at her phone once they’re in the car and notices a missed call and a few unread texts from Kelley. She hadn’t checked her phone all night.
Maybe we can go to the Space Needle tomorrow? Jerry and Erin want to see it.
Just got home from dinner. They went back to their hotel for the night if you want to come over.
I’ll call you in like a half hour. Lily wants to say goodnight.
Tried calling. Not sure where you are. Hope everything’s okay.
She presses ‘call’ before she thinks about it. She feels guilty that she missed her chance to say goodnight to Lily. It’s just past 1 and she knows Kelley is probably sleeping, but figures it’s worth a try. “Hope?” A groggy voice answers after a few rings. Hope smiles at her sleepy voice. “Hey.” She hears Kelley shuffling around in bed. “Where have you been?” Kelley asks, softly. “I was out with Megan. We’re going home now.” Hope makes eye contact with Pinoe, who grimaces. She isn’t sure how Kelley’s gonna react.
“Are you drunk?” Hope tenses up at the question. She’s definitely not sober, that’s for sure. “A little.” She figures honesty would be best right about now. Kelley sighs. “Who’s driving?” She asks, dryly. She’s irritated. It’s the best word to describe how she’s feeling. She’s irritated that Hope would run straight to the club. As soon as she saw the goalkeeper’s face when Erin and Jerry got there, she knew that Hope was freaking out. She had just hoped that the brunette would have dealt with it differently. “Uber.” Hope answers, simply. She knows Kelley’s upset, she can hear it in her voice. She just doesn’t know what to do to change that. Kelley nods, before sitting up in bed. ‘At least they weren’t dumb enough to drive themselves home.’ She thinks. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Hope opens her mouth to respond, but cuts herself short. She wants to argue that ‘there’s nothing to talk about’, but she knows Kelley won’t take that as an answer. “Okay.” She whispers. “Okay, I’m going back to sleep. Text me in the morning.” Kelley says. She hangs up the phone before Hope can respond. Hope sighs, as she looks down at her phone, ‘call ended’ blinking up at her, tormenting her for digging herself into a hole.
“You got your answer tonight, you know.” Pinoe says, breaking Hope’s train of thought. The goalkeeper snaps her eyes to the side of Megan’s head, waiting for her to elaborate. “Did you even think twice before turning away the hot blonde from the bar?” Hope blinks at her, her eyes flicker out through the window, looking at the stream of passing lights. “No, why would I even consider-“ She cuts herself off and takes a few seconds to let the question sink in a little bit more.
“You thought I would cheat on her? Is that why you brought me out? After everything I’ve been through you thought I would do that to her?” She whispers, angrily, at the blonde. Pinoe raises her eyebrows. “I didn’t think you would cheat on her, Solo. I was curious to see how you were gonna handle it though.” Hope scoffs. “I would never.” She states, seriously. She’s not lying. Hope knows what cheating does to someone, first hand. Does she have doubts about her ability to be a good role model, a good girlfriend, a good person? Yes. Would she ever resort to cheating on Kelley as a way to get herself out of it? Not a chance.
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I just wanted to go out and have some fun. Clear your head a little.” Hope sighs and shifts her focus back to her phone. She scrolls through the missed texts from Kelley one more time, guilt settling in her stomach. “I know.” She says, just as the Uber driver pulls into her driveway. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She mentions, before closing the car door and making her way into the house on shaky legs.
Pinoe sighs, as they pull away from Hope and Carli’s. She hadn’t meant to cause a rift between Hope and Kelley by bringing Hope out tonight. The goalkeeper didn’t have to come to the club with her. She chose to come along. She hadn’t meant for everything to happen the way it did, she just wanted to take Hope back to their old stomping grounds. She’s well aware that Hope wouldn’t cheat on Kelley. She didn’t know the keeper would be put in that situation. Hope had handled it perfectly, though. Now she just has to wait and see what becomes of it.
Hope plops down in her bed. She’s disappointed in herself. The club was fun. It brought back memories, but it wasn’t like she remembered. It wasn’t anything like what they used to do. It was just a night of drinking and dancing with friends, nothing more. Thoughts of Kelley kept sneaking into her head, reminding her of what her future looks like. Before they went to the club, she was freaking out. She had herself convinced that she couldn’t be the type to settle down, to meet the family, to help raise a kid. By being placed back into an environment that she used to thrive in, she realized how much a few months can change a person. Now, Hope knows where she needs to be, where she wants to be, and that’s with Kelley and Lily.