Encroachment

The first game was a blow out Star City Warrior winning seven to zero. Ava hadn’t even noticed Sara as her team was too busy celebrating the win. Ava was in the locker room getting dressed after her shower, she checked her phone and Laurel had texted some random thing about Ava’s team beating her sisters. She smiled as she responded to her quickly. She wanted to get home to her girlfriend she had been so caught up recently with preseason and media that she hadn’t seen her much in the last couple of weeks. So getting lost in her phone texting one of her best friends was low on the list of her priorities at the moment.

As Ava drove home in her Lexus singing happily along to Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’. When Starship’s Sara turned on and she looked at the radio in her car with a raised eyebrow and pushed a button on her steering wheel to skip the song. She wasn’t in the mood to listen to a song about anyone named Sara at the moment. Her mind was on Jamie, she turned down the volume slightly when Bette Davis Eyes came over the speakers by Kim Carnes. Finally, she made it home after about thirty minutes and the damn Sara song kept playing on her apple music and she couldn’t figure out why as she parked next to the Mercedes in the driveway that belonged to her girlfriend.

She walked in and kicked off her shoes, bending over to place them in a shoe rack situated by the front door. She moved into the house; it was an open concept downstairs, so she went over to the kitchen putting her bag down with all her practice gear. She grabbed water from the fridge and called out for Jamie who didn’t answer. But she knew she was home because her car was in the driveway. She made her way upstairs and looked around the master bedroom and didn’t see Jamie anywhere so she made her way back downstairs to see if she was enjoying the pool.

Ava stood frozen at the back door as she watched Jamie make out with a brunette woman in the pool as her hands were under water no doubt pleasing the woman who was letting moans just fall from her lips. Ava couldn’t move, she was in shock, frozen in place, anger built up inside of her the longer she stood there. Watching as the two woman in the pool moaned together in pleasure one of them the woman she cared for, she hadn’t said she loved her yet but she thought maybe she could. They had been together for three years, lived together for two years and had even talked of marriage in the future.

Ava was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t realize the water bottle she was holding had slipped from her fingers until it was too late dropping to the ground causing enough of a noise to have both women turning towards her. Jamie pulled away from the woman immediately and called out Ava’s name but Ava’s feet had already started moving. She ran upstairs pulling out a bag and started to stuff clothes into it quickly not paying attention to anything she was really doing. She just wanted to grab and go her mind screaming at her to get away from here as quickly as possible.

Ava came running down the stairs just as Jamie now wrapped in a towel slid to the base of the stairs looking Ava as she descended. And again Ava froze not sure what to do, not sure what to say both women stood there Ava had come to a stop around the fourth stair from the bottom while Jamie stood her body blocking Ava’s final descent.

“Move.” Ava said her eyes on a fixed point behind Jamie.

“Ava I can explain.” Jamie replied, her face filled with worry as Ava scoffed.

“NO explanation needed. It was quite clear what was going on.” Ava said moving to walk down the stairs and Jamie shifted to block her.

“Ava, don’t do this.” Jamie said pleading with the blonde who finally looked at Jamie in disbelief.

“I, didn’t do anything.” Ava said sternly “You on the other hand seemed to be doing plenty.” She added and pushed Jamie out of her way, moving to the kitchen grabbing her practice bag she had left sitting on the counter.

“Ava, seriously if you walk out that door.” Jamie announced and Ava turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

“You have three days to get the hell out of here.” Ava said and turned towards the door to leave.

“You can’t kick me out!” Jamie said in anger as she followed Ava.

“The hell I can’t!” Ava said. “This house will be up for sale by the end of the week.” She added stopping and grabbing some shoes shoving them in her bag as she put sandals on.

“Ava? Please let me explain.” Jamie pleaded.

“You know people had told me you were messing around with other girls, and I ignored them because honestly I thought they just didn’t like you.” Ava said and turned towards Jamie. “How many? How many women have you brought back here and fucked in our pool?” she asked, her eyes pleading with Jamie. Jamie just looked down at her feet and Ava had her answer. “Wow.” Ava said and shook her head.

“It’s just, your never home and…” Jamie was stopped by Ava’s hand in the air and Ava taking a step towards her with an angry look on her face.

“Don’t you dare try to blame this on me!” Ava said angrily. “You know I have a hectic schedule, I made that clear when we started dating.” Ava looked over Jamie’s shoulder to see the brunette enter the backdoor trying to quietly tiptoe without them noticing. “No point in trying to be quiet now.” Ava said looking at the woman who looked up in shock and fear crossing her face. “You can have her.” Ava added looking at Jamie. “Three days.” Ava added she turned and slammed out of the front door.

Ava walked to her car and threw her bags into the back seat. She started her car and sped out of the driveway and down the street. It wasn’t until about ten minutes had passed that tears started to quietly spill down her eyes. If she were being honest is wasn’t about Jamie, it was about her friends and even teammate’s who had tried to tell her Jamie was sleeping around. She had been so determined to prove them wrong that she was blinded by what was happening.

Ava drove around for thirty minutes, not sure where she was going but realized when she turned down a particular street she was heading for Nora’s house. She pulled off to the side and stopped thinking about if that’s where she wanted to end up on Nora and Ray’s doorstep. They had only been married a few months and were still very much in the honeymoon stage. She grabbed her phone and started to scroll through her contacts. Gary was in Europe with Gideon, his new girlfriend. Anna was in New York so that was a no go. Adam was probably out of town he was a doctor with the Seattle sounders; she tried to wrack her brain figuring out where they were playing. Her phone buzzed in her hands, and she opened the message from Laurel.

Instead of replying to the meme Ava hit the phone button under her name and put the phone to her ear.

“Hey, are you at home?” Ava asked.

“Yeah why? What’s up?” Laurel replied.

“Can I explain when I get there?” Ava asked, not sure how she could do it without breaking down.

“Sure, come on over.” Laurel replied.

“Great I’ll see you in twenty.” Ava replied and hung up putting the car into drive and making her way to her longtime friend’s house.

Laurel opened her door to see Ava standing there on her porch with a bag over her shoulder. She couldn’t help but look at the blonde concerned. She shifted to let Ava in the house and as Ava passed her she started talking about finding Jamie in the pool with some brunette bimbo and some of the details Laurel was trying to unhear. Ava dropped her bag and turned to look at Laurel with unshed tears in her eyes.

“Everyone tried to warn me, and I didn’t listen.” Ava said as tears started to fall. “I am so stupid.” She moved and sat on the couch putting her head in her hands.

“Ava, you are not stupid.” Laurel replied moving to sit next to her friend. “You just see the good in people. You wanted to believe she couldn’t do that to you.” She added.

“If I had just listened to everyone about her.” Ava grunted and then leaned back on the couch letting her eyes hit the ceiling. “I feel like an idiot.” She added.

“Seriously Ava I have known you since you were sixteen.” Laurel said and then leaned back against the couch looking at Ava. “You were not going to marry Jamie Dwyer.”

“You don’t know that.” Ava said looking over at Laurel who in turn was looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“You hadn’t even told her you loved her.” Laurel replied.

“I cared about her.” Ava said quietly as if trying to convince even herself that she did.

“At this point you two barely saw each other, you were more like roommates with benefits.” Laurel said with a smile.

“Isn’t that like, friends with benefits?” Ava asked.

“Nope.” Laurel replied looking at a confused Ava. “Let’s face it Ava in the real world the two of you wouldn’t have been friends.” She added. “You barely had anything in common.”

“We had plenty in common.” Ava retorted.

“Yeah, like what? Name one thing you had in common with Jamie.” Laurel said waiting as Ava thought long and hard and finally after a minute or so Ava looked at her with a smile.

“We both like the ocean.” Ava said.

“Ava, you like to surf and she liked to roam around the beach looking at hot chicks.” Laurel said. “You had zero in common she didn’t even watch or go to your games. You literally were dating the dumbest person most of us had met.”

“She isn’t dumb she has a degree.” Ava replied and Laurel huffed getting up from her couch and walking over to the fridge.

“Business Administration Ava?” Laurel said as she walked back into the room with water for Ava and a glass of wine for herself. “I know you have practice tomorrow.” Laurel motioned to the water.

“It’s still a degree.” Ava chimed in.

“A degree from the university of Phoenix that took like a few months to achieve. Seriously it was like she chose the easiest degree in the world.” Laurel replied. “What I’m saying is, you just weren’t meant to be with her. There is someone out there for you, someone who will look at you like you hung the moon and the stars.”

“Like how you look at Tommy.” Ava said with a smile, causing Laurel to blush. “Did he hang the stars, Laurel?” She chuckled as Laurel hit her in the shoulder.

“Shut up!” Laurel said but couldn’t hide the giggle causing Ava to giggle. “Do you need to crash here a few days?”

“Only if its okay.” Ava replied. “I’ll reach out to Gary tomorrow and have him call my realtor.”

“Wait why?” Laurel asked confused.

“I am going to sell the house; it’s tainted with all her pool sex-capades.” Ava shook off the chills she felt when she said that.

“Eww, you right. Okay so a new neighborhood huh?” Laurel asked and Ava nodded.

“Maybe I can find something a little closer to the stadium.” Ava said, thinking about it and then noticing Laurel starting to get excited with a bright smile. She put her wine glass on the table and ran into the other room quickly and emerged with her laptop.

“Let’s look at Zillow.” Laurel said excitedly as Ava shook her head. They spent the next two hours looking at homes for sale. Laurel had saved a few in a search that Ava liked and told her she would be glad to go look at them with her since Gary was out of the country and probably wouldn’t be back soon.