Chapter 15
“Come here.” I say, softly. I grab her wrist and pull her into me. I glance around the airport. People walking, luggage dragging behind them. I’m going back home today after the few days spent with Kelley and her friends, who turned out to be really great people. This is always the hardest part. Saying goodbye. We haven’t planned anything ahead of time so neither of us know when we’ll see each other again. I feel Kelley’s body start shaking with stifled sobs.
“Hey, I’m not leaving forever. We’ll figure something out.” My eyes fill with tears despite my words. She buries her face into the crook of my neck. “How about when I get home, I’ll call you and we’ll look at our schedules and plan something?” I offer. I’m just trying to make us both feel better about being so far away.
She pulls back and wipes her face, quickly. She sighs. “I’m just gonna miss you.” She whispers. I look down, unable to look into her sad eyes. “I’m gonna miss you too, but we’ll be okay. Maybe you can come to Seattle next time.” She perks up with my suggestion. “Really? You would want me to come?” I smile at her. “Yes, Kell, of course I would.”
I pull her into another hug. “I have to go. The security line is starting to back up.” I glance at the crowd of people waiting to get through and internally groan. I feel her nod against me. She pulls away and looks up at me. “You’ll text me when you land so I know you’re safe?” I nod. I bite my lips and glance down at her. I don’t know if I should kiss her or not. Does she want to be seen in public with me? Will this hurt her career? Will it hurt mine? Well, mine isn’t as imp- My inner dialogue is cut off by Kelley’s lips against mine.
I kiss her back, lovingly before pulling away and giving her a lingering kiss on the forehead. “Okay. I really have to go.” She nods and looks down. “I love you.” She glances at me. I give her a small smile. “I love you too, Kell. Drive safely, okay?” She nods. I turn around and walk towards security.
Once I make it to the back of the line, I glance back at where Kelley is still standing. She’s wiping away stray tears and trying to find her keys. I roll my eyes to myself. Typical, Kelley. She finally locates them in her back pocket and glances at me. I give her a smile and a short wave. She returns the sentiment and I watch as she slowly walks out. I sigh to myself. Back to Seattle, where I’ll be back to my everyday routine. I’m not looking forward to it.
I step off the plane and turn my phone back on, almost immediately feeling it start to vibrate with incoming texts. I furrow my eye brows and sit down in front of my gate to read them. It isn’t often that I’m bombarded with 40 texts in a six-hour period. I go to Kelley’s first. ‘I’m so sorry.’ and ‘I didn’t know this would happen.’ are the first two I read. I immediately stiffen.
I scroll up to find a link that she sent me. It brings me to TMZ. I bite my bottom lip and wait for the page to load. Stupid fucking phone. ‘Kelley O’Hara and Hope Solo photographed kissing at Newark Liberty International Airport earlier today.’ My stomach drops at the sight. I look at the picture. It’s clear and it was taken close-up. There’s no denying it.
I’m surprisingly calm. I mean, we never officially confirmed our relationship the first time, but people assumed. Honestly, I don’t care who knows, at this point. Sure, Kelley and I aren’t ‘officially’ together, but it doesn’t bother me that I’ve just been ‘outed’ to the world. I’m at the point where I just want to live my life. I’m not concerned about what strangers think of me. I just hope that Kelley’s okay with it.
I look at my other unread texts. My agent. Fucking great. ‘Seriously, Hope? You don’t make this job easy for me. Are we confirming this or denying it? I need to let the PR team know’ Well that’s not too bad. At least he didn’t quit again. I have a bunch of texts from my teammates. I roll my eyes at most of them. Especially Ali’s ‘Told yah so.’ I’ll have to call her tomorrow.
I sigh to myself and glance around the empty airport. It’s late in New Jersey. I’ll be surprised if Kelley is even awake. I scroll to her number and call her anyway. I’ll leave her a message at least.
“Hello?” She sounds nervous. I look at the time. It’s almost 1 AM in New Jersey.
“You’re awake?” I ask, dumbly.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t think anyone recognized us. Did you see the picture? I wonder who took it. Are you freaking out?” I smile at her short rant. Clearly she’s the one who’s freaking out.
“Kell, slow down. I saw the photo and I’m not freaking out. I’m okay. How do you feel about it?”
“I just..I wish we told people on our terms. I mean, we aren’t even in a relationship and we’re gonna be forced to make a statement about it.” She’s speaking slower than before.
“How do you want to handle it?” I nervously await her answer.
“I don’t know. Do we confirm a relationship that we don’t even have? Or do we deny it and lay low?” I rub my temples with my free hand.
“I’m not gonna hide anymore. I’m gonna let people know that I’m a lesbian. Maybe not now, but at some point. That doesn’t mean that we can’t hide our relationship if that’s what you want to do.” I hear her sigh.
“I just, I don’t know. Something just doesn’t feel right about telling people that we’re together when we aren’t. But it doesn’t feel right to deny it either.” We fall into a silence. I agree with her. It seems like a lose-lose situation.
“Could we just not make a statement? Just ignore it until we’re ready?” I’m really just thinking out loud.
“That’s..that’s a good idea.” I sigh in relief and stand up, walking towards the baggage claim.
“Okay. So that’s what we’ll do, for now.” I grab my suitcase off of the carousel and start walking to my car.
“Your agent is gonna kill you.” I scoff.
“He’ll be fine.” She sighs, softly.
“I guess this means I have to call my family. I didn’t exactly let them know that we’re figuring things out.” I furrow my eye brows. She didn’t tell her family? She tells her family everything.
“I’m surprised they don’t already know.”
“They just..they love you and they were really upset when we broke up the first time so I wanted to wait to see if we were gonna work out before getting their hopes up.” I finally arrive at my car, throwing my bags into my trunk.
“I guess that makes sense.” I’ve really missed her family. Especially Jerry, who I’d grown close to before everything went downhill. “I just got to my car so I’m gonna drive home. We’re okay, right? You’re okay with not commenting on the photos?” She hesitates.
“I’m okay with it until we figure out what’s happening between us. Drive safely, okay? Text me when you’re home.” I smile to myself.
“I will. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
It’s been just over a month since the photo of us kissing surfaced on the internet. Since then, I’ve been receiving a lot more attention over it, as expected. Kelley has too. We both think it’s almost humorous how people are so interested in our personal lives. Now, after so many phone calls and facetime sessions, she’s finally on her way to Seattle to visit me.
We’ve been doing really well. We’ve kind of picked up on a routine that suits our schedules and gives us time to talk to each other as much as we can throughout the day. It’s been hard not seeing her, but we’ve finally found a couple days that we both have off and we’re gonna spend them together.
I’ve been talking to her family a lot too. After Kelley told them that we’re on good terms, they reached out to me. It’s nice hearing from them again. They’re such great people. I can’t wait to go back out to Georgia with Kell and see them. ‘Good ole’ Georgia barbeque’ as Don likes to say.
We’re on our way back to my house, making small talk. Apparently someone on the flight recognized her and asked her if she’s a lesbian. I laugh, looking over at her. “Why do they care so much about what we do?” She shrugs, smiling at me. “Beats me.”
Upon arriving to my house, I help her bring her oversized bags inside. “What are you planning on moving in?” I ask, sarcastically. She scoffs. “I didn’t know what I would need so I brought extra stuff.” I roll my eyes and drag her suitcase up the stairs and towards the bedrooms. I stop in the middle of the hallway and turn to look at her.
“Do you, um, do you want to stay in my room with me or do you want to stay in the guest room?” I look down. I don’t know why I’m so nervous, but I just don’t want her to think I’m trying to seduce her or something. I feel my face get hot with the blush that is most certainly showing on my face. I glance up at her.
Her face shows surprise; she clearly wasn’t expecting that. I shake my head. “It’s okay, I just wanted to offer. You can just stay in the guest room, if you want.” She looks at me, snapping out of whatever sort of daze she was in. “No, if you don’t mind I’ll stay in your room with you?” She says, questioningly.
I nod in response and continue to make my way to my room. I bring her stuff in and sit on the bed, allowing her to unpack a little bit and organize her stuff. “You changed a lot.” She notices, looking around the room. I nod. “Yea. I painted and bought a new bed.”
She quickly finishes getting her stuff sorted and walks over to me, kissing me on the nose. “I missed you so much.” I smile at the gesture. “I missed you.” I reply. She lightly pushes me back on the bed, crawling on top of me. I raise my eye brows at her. “What are you doing?” She smirks.
“You maybe want to break in the new bed?” She says softly. I scoff. “You’re trying to get in my pants? You’ve been here for an hour.” I sit up so she’s on my lap, straddling my thighs. I give her a lasting kiss and pick her up, carrying her out of the room. “Where are we going?” She asks, casually.
I don’t respond, walking downstairs to the living room. I throw her on the couch and make my way into the kitchen. “Hey!” She yells after me. I smile to myself, going to the fridge to find something to cook for dinner. “I’m making us food.” I call out to her. That seemed to please her, considering she turned on the TV, patiently waiting. I roll my eyes. No, I don’t need help, Kell, thanks for the offer though.
It’s her last night in Seattle and Kelley and I had just gotten home from having dinner at a nearby restaurant that we both love. We’re on our way back to my house. We’re sitting in a comfortable silence. I glance over at her. She’s looking out the window, her feet curled under her. I smile to myself. “Do you maybe want to, you know, um, be official? I mean I know we haven’t talked about it in a while but, I mean, I’m ready for that step.” I say. I keep my eyes on the road, hoping she doesn’t react badly.
I feel her hand on my thigh and I glance at her. She’s smiling. Good sign, right? “You want to be together officially? Like you want to be my girlfriend?” I smile at her. “I mean, yea. I do.” She scoffs and crosses her arms. “No.” She says, sternly. My stomach drops. I furrow my eye brows. “Oh. Uh, okay. That’s fine.” She laughs and I snap my head to look at her and shoot her a glare.
“You didn’t ask me.” I shake my head at her and turn my head to face the road. “I didn’t ask you what, Kell?” She sighs, in frustration. “You know what? Fine, I’ll do it. Again. Will you be my girlfriend?” I raise my eye brows. So that’s what she wanted. I smirk at her. “You know, you didn’t really ask me the first time. It was more of a demand.” She scoffs. “As if you would have said no.” I roll my eyes as we pull into my driveway.
I stop the car and turn to face her. I lean over the center console and give her a kiss, which I immediately deepen. I pull away after a couple of minutes and look at her. “Yes.” I say, softly. She gives me a small smile. “You’re stuck with me now, Solo.” I roll my eyes. “What have I done?” I say, dramatically. She slaps my arm lightly, exasperated look on her face. I laugh and get out of the car, leading her to the door.
We spend our last night together cuddling on the couch. There’s a movie playing, but we haven’t been watching it. Just holding each other, relishing in the moment that we know will soon be gone. “Do you remember when you almost broke the TV?” I furrow my eye brows and smirk. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I reply, innocently. She scoffs.
“You tried to fucking kill me with that cushion, that one! Right there!” She points to the said cushion. “Then you threw it at my head. You’re lucky I have quick reflexes.” I roll my eyes. “You almost made me break the TV. You should have just let it hit your head.” She pushes my shoulder. “It could have injured me.”
“Maybe if you weren’t being mean I wouldn’t have had to throw it in the first place.” She smiles. “We’re fucking arguing over something that happened 5 years ago.” I smile, lightheartedly. “We aren’t arguing.” I kiss her forehead. We fall into a comfortable silence. Light touches, small smiles, innocent kisses. “I don’t want to go back.” She whispers, looking down.
“Don’t think about it. Let’s just enjoy tonight, okay? Tomorrow we can be sad.” I say, lifting her chin with my fore finger. She gives me a forced smile and nods. I kiss her cheek and look into her eyes. “I love you.” She curls into me, putting her head on my chest. “I love you too.”
I wake up the next morning with a start. I immediately notice my lack of clothing. I sit up, looking at the clothes that are scattered all over the bedroom floor. Kelley is nowhere to be found. The memories of last night flood back into my mind. Soft touches, hot kisses, whispered promises, pure love. It was like a puzzle piece had been put back into place. It felt right. It felt perfect.
Where is Kelley? I look around the room, quickly throwing on some sweatpants and a t-shirt before going downstairs. “Kell?” I call out, looking in the dining room. “In the kitchen.” I hear. I smile and walk into the kitchen to see Kelley covered in white powder. I raise my eye brows at her and smirk. “What the fuck happened in here?” I ask, amused.
“What do you mean ‘what happened’? I’m making pancakes.” I scoff. “What happened to my kitchen?” She looks around at the mess on the counter. She tilts her head at me before motioning for me to come to her. I approach warily. I don’t trust Kelley in this situation. I could easily get something thrown at me at any time. She leans up and gives me a kiss.
I help her make the pancakes so she doesn’t make more of a mess. Her flight leaves in about two hours so we eat quickly and shower (together) before leaving my house. Saying goodbye is never easy, but when it’s saying goodbye to someone who you want to spend every day with, it makes it even harder. We both cry this time. Watching her leave is almost harder than being the one to get on the plane. As I’m walking out of the airport, I get approached by a reporter and a camera man. “Hope Solo, I saw you kiss Kelley O’Hara just minutes ago. Are you in a relationship?” I roll my eyes and scoff. “You wanna know what?” I look directly into the camera. “Yes.”