Small Town Girl, Big City Dreams • Kate Martin

Chapter 12: A Case of the Look-Alikes

Inspiration Song: Honesty by Pink Sweat$

June 7th (Las Vegas Aces vs. Seattle Storm [in Seattle])

I collapsed onto my hotel bed, freshly showered and in my glasses, a sports bra and some sweats. I pulled up Jade's contact and called to Facetime her.

"Hey, Just Nerdy Kate," Jade appeared on the screen. She was also in bed with a sweatshirt. Her cat, Thomas, was sleeping on her pillow, near her head.

"Are you going to keep adding things in between the "Just" and "Kate" now?" I asked with a laugh.

She laughed too. "You know, I wasn't planning on it, but that's a great idea, Just Got Out of the Shower Kate."
"Okay, okay," I laughed again. My life had been so full of laughs lately between Jade and my teammates. "Not too much on my glasses now."

"You just look so cute with them on," Jade said in a baby voice.

"Shush it, Lauton. Otherwise, I'm keeping my contacts in when we Facetime from now on," I threatened.

"Boo," she huffed with a giggle. "I like seeing you in your glasses."

"Then be niceeee," I drew the word out.

"I'm so nice to you, Martin," she rolled her eyes playfully. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I did just fly out to Dallas to surprise you for your birthday."

I couldn't help the smile that made its way to my face. "That you did. Thank you again, babe. It made my day."

"Good," I watched her reach her hand out to give Thomas some scratches behind the ears. He hardly stirred. "You fly out to LA tomorrow?"

"Yep," I said with a sigh. "We play the Sparks on Sunday. It's another late game so I'll be back home on Monday."

"Ugh. I'm just going to fly out to Los Angeles to watch you play. I miss you."

"I miss you too, sweet girl, but you don't need to spend your money like that."

We were quiet, just looking at each other's faces and taking in the other's presence. While I'd much rather see Jade in person, Facetime was the best substitute. At least I could still see her on the other side of my screen laughing, smiling, and being herself. Since we had been travelling more for games, Jade and I had started Facetiming more frequently. I appreciated that she made time for me in her busy schedule (though she often argued that I was the busy one).

"I'm sorry about your loss today, superstar," she finally said, softly.

I shrugged, "Can't win 'em all."

"I know," she said sympathetically. "Doesn't mean it doesn't still suck."

"Yeah," I agreed, "But it's okay."

I gave her a small smile, but watched her bite her bottom lip, looking like she was deep in thought. I was quiet again for a bit, wanting her to decide if she wanted to talk about what was on her mind or not. Eventually, she spoke. "So...Nika Mühl, huh?"

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Nika," she said. "She plays for the Storm. She played against you tonight."

"Yes?" I was not following where she was going with this.

"You slapped her ass when she went into the game," she said, even toned.

"Yeah, I've gotten to know Nika a little this past year. We played her team in the Final Four. She's really good. I've never seen someone be able to lock down Caitlin the way she did. Then we were both invited to a Dawg Camp that Kelsey put on right before the WNBA season started, so I played with her a little there. Women slap each other's butts in basketball all the time. It's just like football, babe. I don't get where this is going?" Maybe I was just dense, but I couldn't see why she was bringing up Nika Mühl.