26.2.16
It’s four days later, and Alex doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to focus on anything for more than a few seconds ever again. As she does isometric sets on the table at physical therapy, she loses count before reaching double digits as she thinks of the way that Kelley’s face looks just after she wakes up, her muscles and expression softer than ever, without tiredness or that nervous over-excitement that makes her so lively, so lovely, but with a quiet spark of excitement in the corner of her mouth for the day to come, and a fondness coming through the crinkles at the corners of her eyes. As she bends her knees a few hours later, getting into position to start a set of sprints next to Kelley, ‘friendly’ training that’ll turn into a race ending with the two girls gasping for air and trying to keep their arms, to fill their lungs with air (an impossibility since she first really saw Kelley), she misses the start entirely as she gazes at Kelley’s ankles, thinking of how the muscle at the bottom of her calf twitched the night before, when Alex had followed Kelley’s bikini bottoms down her legs as she sat on the edge of the tub before starting at Kelley’s toes and kissing her way back up skin covered in minuscule sea-salt crystals and delicate freckles.
They have to return to the national team in just a few days, so trainings had been hovering between short and non-existent, leaving plenty of time for extra curricular activities and day dreaming, Alex’s two new favorite pass times. Her lack of focus is particularly problematic now, as she tries to drive them to the Publix that’s just a few miles from the training center. The sound of a horn knocks her out of a day dream about laying under the duvet with Kelley, how the sun coming in through the window had made her hair glow golden, practically blonde, and the way that she’d mumble something entirely unintelligible and tighten her grip before succumbing once again to sleep, deep even breaths pushing her chest further into Alex’s side, limbs heavy and still. Alex catches her girlfriends smirk out of the corner of her eye as she pushes down on the gas pedal, signaling as she merges into the turn lane that will lead them into the parking lot maze of cars and senior citizens and moms trying to corral small children without yelling in public and errant carts rolling slowly, taunting parked cars with the threat of mysterious scratches and tiny dents before changing course, getting stuck against storm drains and small concrete islands with sad palm trees and a few scrubby bushes.
Alex has never been a patient grocery shopper, relying on Amazon deliveries of nonperishables and quick dashes into markets for produce on the semi-rare occasions that she’s home and actually motivated enough to procure and do something with actual food instead of going out or ordering in. However, she and Kelley had decided that inviting a few friends over, a few new Florida teammates, for dinner before they left again, and before preseason started and things got crazier in a way, than they were, even with the frequent national team travel, would be fun, and Alex had agreed before she considered the fact that Kelley would actually want to make the dinner, not just order catering and put it on semi-convincing wedding-shower-relic serving platters that were stored in the hard to reach cabinets high up in the kitchen.
“Alex!” Kelley is perched with one leg on the second shelf of the freezer, body wedged between the door and the frosty containers of ice cream and boxes of sorbet bars, reaching for a pint of Ben & Jerry’s that’s on the very highest shelf, shoved toward the back. “They have half-baked!”
“Kelley… dinner. We bought a cake when we got coffee, literally fifteen minutes ago. Remember?” Alex’s tone is fond, though she rolls her eyes as she looks around the aisle, and after finding it empty, walks over to her girlfriend, pulling the frozen door open a little more so that she can grab her thigh, supporting her and taking a tiny bit of advantage, running her hand up further than is necessarily appropriate before helping her down. “One pint. You won’t have time to eat more before…”
Alex falters, unsure what to say. Before you leave and stop living with me when real life, when club play, resumes? Before our status becomes even more murky, before the inevitable scheduling of flights and stolen weekends, maybe a week or two before the fall, if they’re lucky? Before you go back to the apartment that’s technically your home? She won’t say it out loud, won’t voice her fears that Kelley won’t want her as much as she’ll always crave the defender when they aren’t spending almost every minute with their shared national team, when Kelley is in New Jersey (of all places, Alex thinks, though she wouldn’t ever share that thought with Kelley either), and she’s left helping along a fledgling team still in the throws of roster changes, of organization, and of the chaos associated with creating a team spirit, the intangible that would hopefully lead to a successful first season.
As the younger girl tries to get the questions, that have been plaguing her since before the CONCACAF qualifiers started, out of her head, she feels her hat, her mostly-successful attempt at anonymity in a city that doesn’t really recognize her presence just yet, lift off her head for a minute, before Kelley’s lips ghost across her cheek as she walks by her, sneaky and brief enough that Alex knows it was safe, but still leaving her heart pounding.
“Come on, Al, why’d you get distracted in the ice cream aisle? Don’t you know we have guests coming over in a few hours? You definitely need a shower before…” Kelley teases, looking up and down Alex exaggeratedly, winking before she takes off with the cart, and her ice cream, down the aisle and towards the actual dinner foods.
——————
Despite her best intentions to march straight up to the shower as soon as the groceries are stored away, Alex finds herself unable to resist Kelley’s warm hands wrapping around her waist, brushing her t-shirt up her abs just enough to give her hands clearance to pass across her stomach, just under her belly button, as Kelley’s warm mouth kisses her gently once, twice, just behind her ear before moving down, firmer kisses running down her neck until she finds the sensitive juncture of neck and strong shoulder, a spot that she very well knows makes her girlfriend’s knees, and resolve, weaken.
Kelley’s small hands grab the tops of her hips and guide her backwards, pulling her toward the stairs, before she moves her lips up, taking Alex’s ear lobe between her teeth and tugging playfully, whispering something Alex can’t quite make out then releasing her entirely.
Alex turns around, head a bit cloudy from Kelley’s advances, expecting Kelley to have gone back to organizing the remaining things left on the counter.
She’s met with a pair of shorts flying straight at her, landing limply on her shoulder, and the sight of her girlfriend’s bare legs topping the stairs.
Her shirt, and shorts, and the extra pair of teasingly and frankly unnecessarily short Under Armour shorts, quickly join Kelley’s t-shirt and underwear on the hardwood floor as she gives chase.
Kelley’s just determined that the shower is an acceptable temperature, and is about to step into the glass enclosure when she feels strong hands wrap around her shoulders, pulling her back flush against a solid body. A tan arm reaches around, in front of her, and shuts the water back off.
“Not yet,” Alex breathes into Kelley’s ear before leaving a kiss on the shell then working down, biting at her pulse point before toeing the line of leaving a bruise there by sucking it and then soothing it with her tongue, repeatedly. “You can’t tease me like that and then just head into the shower…”
Kelley smirks, bringing her hands up to catch Alex’s as they run up and down her sides. She uses her own to guide them down, resting them low on her hips before turning around, looking up at Alex, and biting her lip.
“Babe, you’re the one worried we won’t be ready when everyone gets here” Kelley says, her voice low and her eyes not quite open all the way as she glances down and takes in, again, all of Alex. “What is it that’s more important than showering right now?” she asks, even as her own hands squeeze just above Alex’s hipbones as she uses them to guide her back until Alex’s lower back is jarred by the bathroom counter.
“You’re funny” Alex says, pulling her hands away from their grasp of Kelley’s slim waist to boost herself up onto the counter of the bathroom. She reaches for her phone, previously abandoned on the cool marble, tapping in her passcode. “I actually forgot to post this picture earlier for the Pride—“
Whatever the end of the thought was is cut off by Kelley’s lips latching onto Alex’s top lip, biting before taking her bottom lip and pulling hard enough to own a moan drawn up from deep inside the younger girl’s chest. At that, Kelley closes the space remaining between them and pulls Alex toward her, shifting her hips so that the younger girl is pressed against her as tightly as possible.
The angle is a bit awkward, with Alex’s legs spread around Kelley, just above her hips, but it doesn’t deter her from grasping Kelley’s shoulders, digging her nails in when Kelley’s tongue runs across her top teeth before moving deeper. Little half moons form, first pink then white then red, spreading into short streaks as Kelley continues to shift against her naked girlfriend.
Kelley’s sure that her lungs, despite being one of the fittest people she knows, will never be conditioned enough to permit her to kiss Alex as much as she wants to, as deeply as she wants to, without having to stop or succumb to a lack of oxygen. She pulls away, resting her forehead on the stiker’s shoulder, heaving chest pushing her taught nipples and firm abdomen against Alex’s.
“Holy shit… the teasing worked,” breathes Kelley, struggling to get enough air to avoid her voice shaking. She’s not sure she’s ever felt pulled so strongly to someone so suddenly, the physical craving for the heat of Alex’s skin leaving her hands tingling, legs shaking, brain focused single handedly on calming her lungs to allow her to proceed with the things she’s been dreaming of doing to Alex for the entire day, since she last touched her early in the morning, before they left for coffee and training and errands.
“Yeah?” Alex replies, voice rasping at the end of the question, running her hands up and down Kelley’s back, fingertips digging in a little where she knows she left faint marks with her nails.
Kelley’s pretty sure it’s the sexiest word, sexiest question, sexiest anything she’s ever heard in her entire life. She tugs on Alex’s waist, pulling her to the very edge of the counter but not letting any space come between them. Her right hand moves from it’s grip around the back of Alex’s neck down, pausing momentarily to thumb over the softness of the skin just below the nipple of a small breast before moving further down, nails teasing a line across the firm skin below her belly button.
“Yeah,” Kelley whispers into Alex’s ear, finally moving lower as she kisses and nips at the column of Alex’s throat.
——————
The ingredients existed, and Kelley’s best intentions to make chicken parmesan existed, and Alex’s (grudging) agreement to put together a salad and cook the vegetables was even a battle already fought and won, but the clock puts an end to those plans when they finally return downstairs, a little more sleepy and a lot more sated. Alex calls the restaurant down the road, ordering a few vegetable-topped pizzas, salads and a tray of chicken parm—after ordering the last part, Alex sticks her tongue out at Kelley, receiving a wink and an eyebrow wiggle in reply.
Alex has to look away, as even Kelley’s lighthearted response makes her momentarily distracted, mouth still partially agape as she tries to focus on reading off her credit card number to the woman on the other end of the phone, whom she’s pretty sure has asked her for it more than twice.
She feels Kelley come up next to her, a head tipping sideways onto her shoulder, and a hand wrapping around her waist as Kelley waits for her to be done with the phone call. Alex can’t hide the shiver that wracks her body when Kelley’s hand squeezes her side, thumb pushing her shirt back and forth across her skin.
“Are you ok?” asks Kelley as Alex hangs up, the corners of her mouth turning up as she picks her head up to look at her girlfriend.
Alex steps away from the counter, turning to pull Kelley in close to her, savoring the feeling of Kelley’s soft sweatshirt against her own bare arms, of Kelley’s leg moving to nest between her own to that they’re pressed together head to toe, of the warmth and solidness and realness of the girl she still can’t believe is not only real but also hers.
“Better than ok. Perfect.”