“You’ll do great. You’ve got this.” I bounced up to my feet and shouldered my bag, heading out to the court to warm up. I had my head down as I walked out, trying to find my focus, but it didn’t last long.
“Cindy! Woo-hoo! That’s my sister!”
My face split into an ear to ear as I heard Carl’s voice, and I found them in the stands immediately. They were both wearing red Georgia shirts, Bridget’s dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and through a ball cap and Carl’s sandy blonde hair in its usual messy mop. I ran to the wall while they came down the steps, reaching up so I could take my brother’s hand.
“You’re here?” My voice was stunned.
“Of course, we wouldn’t miss it. My little sister’s big day.”
I was just overwhelmed, and I just stood there, holding his hand, until I felt a presence beside me. I looked over my shoulder to see Mitch beaming at me.
“Hey, sweetie, this is my brother, Carl, and his girlfriend, Bridget. Guys, this is my Michelle.” Mitch tipped her cap as they all said ‘hi’.
Carl looked back at me. “Any chance of dinner after the match? My treat. Both of you. I’d like to get to know the woman who melted my little sister’s heart.”
Mitch answered for us. “Absolutely.” She turned to me. “You ready to go get started, partner?”
I could feel my face harden. “Oh, yeah.”
Mitch and I only dropped a single game in our doubles set, which was a great way to get warmed up, but I’ll admit my nerves returned in full force as the singles started. I began with the serve and promptly double faulted twice before being broken at love. I was down love – two before I could even blink, and I was feeling a little panicked as I prepared to serve in the third game.
Mitch had just finished a long first game and was switching sides when she jogged over. “Hey. Focus. You’ve been waiting your whole life to play this match. Have fun. You’ve got this.” She pumped a fist at me before heading back to her baseline, and I bounced the ball between my racquet and the hardcourt beneath my feet. Okay, no more trying to hit the ball through the wall. A good serve out wide, get ahead in the point, make her run.
I checked that my opponent was ready and tossed the ball into the air, slicing it out wide. She got it back, but her return was short, and I had plenty of court to put it away. I closed my fist as I headed back to the baseline. This time I curved my serve into the body and she couldn’t get around it, sending her return wide. I held serve easily, and I was off and running.
***
“Geez, Mitch, that girl actually started cringing every time you served.” There was a note of awe in Carl’s voice.
Mitch sat back in her chair and swallowed the tortilla chip she was chewing. “It was Cindy’s idea. She was a freshman, and we didn’t reckon she’d ever seen a serve as big as mine, so we decided that the first game I was going to hit every one as hard as I could right at her. Totally took her out of her game.”
Bridget leaned forward. “Didn’t you hit her once?”
“Twice.” Mitch picked up another chip and dipped it into the bowl of salsa. “First time was on my second serve of the match. It was awesome.”
I laughed and shook my head. “You’re terrible.”
Mitch just grinned at me and slid her foot up my calf under the table, which caused me to giggle and pull away. When I looked up Carl was just beaming at me, and my cheeks blazed red, but I couldn’t stop smiling.
My brother shook his head. “Wow, Mitch, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like this.”
Bridget looked at him. “She never had a massive crush on someone as a teenager?”
“No. She was always very clinical about her boyfriends. She’d just decide on one, like a pair of shoes.”
“No I didn’t!”
“Uh-huh.” Carl pointed at me. “And she could, too, ’cause she was the prettiest girl in school, and she knew it.”
“Well, honestly that didn’t take much. It was a really small school.”
Mitch was staring at me with amused incredulity. “So you were the valedictorian and an athletic star. Were you the prom queen, too?”
“No, I was not.”
“She was the Homecoming queen.” Carl gave me a wicked grin.
Mitch groaned. “I can’t believe I fell for a Homecoming queen.”
“You?” I leaned toward her. “What about me? Look who I fell for.”
Mitch shrugged. “Of course you did. Good girls always go for the bad ones. Didn’t you ever watch ‘The Breakfast Club’?”
Luckily the waitress arrived with my Arroz con Pollo, which looked amazing. Mitch’s dish, on the other hand, “What is that?”
“Camarones a la Diabla. Shrimp in a spicy sauce. See, you take a tortilla, add some shrimp, beans, rice,” she bit into it, “yummy.”
“You know I’m not letting you kiss me tonight if you have spicy shrimp breath.”
“You aren’t, huh?” She leaned toward me, and I giggled like a schoolgirl, raising my shoulder to playfully fend her off. Laughter sounded from the other side of the table and I remembered where I was and who I was with. I looked up, blushing furiously, to see Bridget giggling.
“You two are adorable.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, sis. I think it’s great. Honestly I always worried about you.”
“Me? Why?”
“Because of what I said. Clinical. Love isn’t a transaction. It’s instinctual, primal. I was afraid you’d never let someone just make you happy.”
I giggled at him. “Yeah, ’cause you’re such an expert.”
We kept digging a bit at each other, but to be honest it meant the world to me that Carl and Bridget were there, that they accepted me, and that they cared. Carl and I had never been super close, especially given our six-year age difference, but he’d always looked out for me. I remembered my second day of Kindergarten. My mom had taken me the first day, but the next morning I was on my own. At least, until Carl, then a manly fifth-grader, had taken my hand and walked me to my room. He’d sat by me on the bus and made sure I got there safely every day for the first two weeks, until I was confident enough to do it myself.
Don’t get me wrong, he always complained and whined when I tried to tag after him and his friends, or when mom made him keep an eye on me. But when I really needed him, I guess he’d always been there. And he still was.
***
Our first road match came a few weeks later, and the whole way there Mitch was dropping not so subtle innuendos about getting to spend the night with me in a queen size bed.
I leaned against her and lowered my voice as the team bus rolled down I-20 toward Tuscaloosa. “You realize we do have a match tomorrow. We’ll have to conserve some energy.”
“We didn’t conserve any energy last Friday night.” Mitch shot me that wicked little look that made me tingle inside.
“Yeah we did. I don’t know about you, but I could have gone again.” Mitch laughed and put her arm around me as I continued. “We made up for it after the match, though.”
“Oh, yeah.. You were an animal.”
I ran my finger up her arm and down her side. “You have that effect on me. Can’t get enough.”
“Oh, baby.” There was a purr in her voice and I leaned back for a kiss. We didn’t hold it long, seeing as we were surrounded by our teammates, but I settled into her arms without any embarrassment and let the hum of the road lull me to sleep.
We hadn’t hidden our relationship when official practices had started. In fact, I found out pretty quickly that I was the only person on the team who hadn’t realized Mitch was sweet on me by the end of last year. And no one, it seems, was surprised that I had eventually succumbed to her charms. What really shocked them was that Mitch had so easily settled into a relationship, and she endured the requisite ribbing that came her way. Her responses were always her, loud and bombastic, but never dismissive, never hinting that our relationship was anything less than everything she ever wanted.
So no one batted an eye when we cuddled on the bus. They were more interested in talking about Heather and Justine, the new girl from Europe. Sparks had been flying there that were likely visible from space. Mitch told me they were a firecracker, going to burn bright for a second and then explode. I still didn’t understand how she knew these things, but I’d learned to trust her.
When we got to the hotel and received our room assignments Mitch and I somehow refrained from running towards the elevator. Once inside our room Mitch closed and locked the door behind us as I looked at the beds. They were huge. I mean, it’s not like I hadn’t been in hotel rooms before, even hotel rooms with Mitch, but this was different.
I was contemplating exactly how different it was going to be when Mitch wrapped her arms around me. “What’cha looking at?” Sex was dripping from her voice, and I had to fight back a shudder.
“The beds. They’re so big.” I leaned back against her, innocence filling my voice. “What are we going to do with them?”
Mitch kissed me below my ear and whispered, “I have a few ideas.”
“Yeah?”
She scooped me up into her arms. “Oh, yeah.”
I was carried to the nearer bed and laid gently down. I scooted back to the middle as Mitch joined me, and she pushed the loose, knee length skirt I was wearing up to my waist.
She planted kisses on my inner thigh, making me sigh. I lifted my hips so she could push the back of my skirt up under my butt, completely exposing my hips.. “I love that you’re wearing this.”
“Did it on purpose. Wanted you to have, mmm, easy access.”
“Minx.” She didn’t object, obviously, hooking her middle fingers around my white cotton panties, stripping them off with practiced ease. My legs spread, almost on instinct, as Mitch settled between them, and my head rested on the firm pillows. Her kisses moved up my legs and the tingle of my arousal became a heat. We were lying comfortably, corner to corner on the bed, with plenty of room. My head fell to the side as her lips closed over my sex, and I began to relax into the pleasure my lover was providing when there was a knock on the door. I stifled my moans and Mitch answered.
“Yeah!?”
One of the assistant coaches’ voice sounded on the other side. “Team dinner in fifteen minutes, Conference Room B.
Mitch grinned. “Got it!”