Go for Gold

4

"Welcome to Houston!" Morgan, Carli and Lydia greet me after I get out of the whole signing and have my jersey on as I sit in the locker room after taking an hour to interact with fans.

"Thanks, guys. I really appreciate you coming down and saying hi." I say and sigh. "This is all just so surreal. Around Thanksgiving I was acting out and constantly fighting with my roommate, now I'm sitting in front of a professional soccer team locker with my name on it. Like, how?" I ramble and Carli chuckles.

"Don't get too comfortable, kid, PTFC wants you already, so does NC Courage." Carli says and I nod.

"Figures. I just get here and now I've gotta stay packed in case I have to make another cross-country move."

"Welcome to professional soccer." Carli says and I nod. "I'll give you a ride home, come on." I nod and stand up, grabbing my bag and following her out to her car, where I get in the passenger seat and look out at the city I'll be playing for temporarily. Once I'm in my apartment, I call my parents to let them know I got here safe, and that I'm okay, before calling Tobin who has dubbed herself my big sister. She answers on the third ring and I watch her face pop up on my phone screen since I chose to FaceTime her.

"Don't you worry, little sister, rescue efforts are in effect. I will get you out of Texas one way or another." Tobin says and I chuckle.

"Tobin, I'm fine."

"Are you are you really?"

"Alright, you caught me, I've only been here three hours and I think I've lost two pounds in sweat alone. I will not be heart broken having to move to Portland or North Carolina." I say and Tobin nods.

"PTFC has put in an offer for you. Not on my accord, they just want you. Hang tight." Tobin says and I nod.

"Cool. Well, I've got others to call."

"I'll let you go then." She says and I nod. "Bye little sister!" She exclaims before hanging up and I shake my head at her while I pull up Mal's contact, but stop when I think to what happened at LAX this morning.

I grabbed her chin and she turned fully to me again, I almost played it off like a shitty joke, but I took a deep breath and went in for the kill. I leaned in and closed the gap between our lips, capturing hers in a soft kiss, it takes her a moment to kiss back, but she does and I sigh into it. And then remember where we are and that if we miss our flights we'll have to pay for another, so I pull away and look at Mal to see her eyes still closed.

"We should get going." I whisper to her and she nods, so I peck her lips once before turning and jogging to get on the plane. The kiss was the only thing I could think about the entire trip, even when I took a nap on my flight from Denver to DFW. All my dreams were of Mal and those lips of hers. They were softer than I'd expected, the kiss felt so right, like our lips were pieces of a puzzle. A puzzle I wanted to put together fully.

"Hello? Y/N? Did you shoulder dial me? I told you to turn off that setting where your phone never auto locks, you fall asleep with your phone in your bed too much to keep it on." Mal says and I chuckle.

"Sorry. I was thinking. How was your trip?" I ask, wishing she would've answered my FaceTime call, I wanted to see her again.

"It was interesting. I sat next to an old lady who saw us before we got on our flights. Told me you were a keeper."

"What was your response?"

"I told her that you were a forward and that you're a lousy keep." She says and I sigh.

"Gee, thanks."

"I'm kidding. I told her that we weren't dating, that that was our first kiss. That I'd have to sit you down in Orlando in a few days for boot camp." Mal says and I sigh.