The Wait Is Over

The Trip No One Wants To Make

The Chicago Red Stars, along with a few guests from other NWSL teams, are at the Orlando airport preparing to board their charter flight home for the visitation and funeral of former coach Angelo DiBernardo. The passengers get onto the plane is orderly fashion, and Sofia decides to sit with Steph and Kristie.

Sofia: Can I sit with you?

Kristie: Sure. Missing Ness?

Sofia: Yes. I feel so bad that I'm not there right now with her.

Steph: Sounds like you care about her more than some of us think you do.

Sofia: I do. I told her in a nonchalant way that I loved her and that I wanted her in a non-friend capacity. You two have been together forever. How did it happen and what are some of the obstacles you faced?

Kristie: We sort of knew one another before Steph started at Boston College. Once we were there together, the feelings just grew organically. There wasn't a time when I said to myself shockingly, "I'm in love with her." My heart grew to take in more emotion for her, and eventually we made certain verbal and physical commitments to each other.

Steph: As for obstacles, the biggest one has always been us not playing together. We had a brief window of a couple of years when we were together with the Breakers, but otherwise it's been her in one place and me in another. Despite us knowing we wanted to spend our lives together, there were a couple of times when one of us or the other wondered if we could do that and both still play. Kristie, can I share our story from this past off-season?

Kristie: Please do. I think she might get something out of it.

Steph: Over the winter, Washington's coach went about shopping about half of their roster to try and eradicate the players that had been responsible for the NWSL final loss to Vancouver. Kristie wanted out, but they weren't getting any decent offers from teams that would make sense for her to join. She discussed with Sam, Abby, and myself her concerns about the future and whether she could afford to keep playing if she were to ask for a release from the Spirit. I had already been hinting to her that I was ready to stop this dual-home relationship, so I crunched some numbers and negotiated a deal with Lisa to get her here as a free agent. She got here the 4th, I proposed to her on the 6th at Sam and Abby's wedding venue, and we got married at the courthouse on the 11th.

Sofia: Congratulations!

Kristie: Thanks. We're trying to keep it sort of quiet until after the season.

Steph: Any other questions for us?

Sofia: Are there things you would do over or change now that you're older and supposedly wiser?

Kristie: The biggest one is waiting as long as we did to get married. I'm not saying run out and do it just to do it, but consider long and hard how much faith you have in management to keep you together without you being wife and wife. I know Lisa came down hard on some of the players on Sunday for acting like idjits, but I don't think you have much to worry about with her. If you two decide to make a go of it. talk to her. Get from her the kind of support we were lucky to have when Steph went to her about bringing me to the Red Stars.

Steph: Don't let them separate you. Have that discussion early on in your relationship, what you will do as a couple if one of you gets dealt away. The league is becoming more open to keeping committed couples together if they make an effort to be open about their being together, like how Portland worked to get Lindsey some place close to Atlanta when it became clear that the Storm were offering them too good a deal for Sonnett. By the way, you should thank her the next time you see each other. She got Presston to the airport fast enough time so they could get to Chicago just after Vanessa touched down. Christen sent me a Facebook message describing last night's talk they had with her at dinner.