A game I can't lose

Rule #3- No one knows

Jordan arrived at her room, not knowing her emotions.
"Jordan?"
"Yes?"
"Why do you look so happy?"
"Am I not allowed to be happy on a walk?"
"Well maybe not but..." Alyssa's arms were folded.
"There's lipstick on your cheek."
"Alys-"

The goalkeeper put her hands up. "I'm not gonna tell anyone." A smile was tugging at her lips though and Jordan sighed. "Please. No one should know."
"So it's between...?"
"Us. And Mal obviously."
"What about Lindsey?"
Jordan turned around, hands on her hips, frowning. "What do you mean Lindsey?"
"She was integral in setting up the USWNT's newest ship."
Jordan fell back onto her bed,letting out a sigh. "Oh please. I don't know what me and Mal are."
Alyssa propped up on an elbow. "Not even best friends?"
Jordan shook her head before putting it in her hands. "Fuck, I've ruined it haven't I? Should we have stayed as friends?"
"Don't you dare. You can't go back to that. After you guys kissed? Twice? Maybe it's too soon to be in a relationship but you can't say to her go back to where we were."
Jordan nodded, her roommate was spitting out true facts.

Alyssa looked to the time. "We should be going to bed. Dawn'd kill us if she knew we were still up."
The pair of close friends laughed before going to bed.

Jordan was going about the next day with a spring in her step. She wasn't usually the most enthusiastic or hyper member of the team but for once, she was challenging Kelley for that title.

The game against England was tomorrow but Jordan wasn't nervous about that.
Lying down in bed, she said to Alyssa, "Next week's Valentines Day."
"And?"
"I was wondering..."
"If you should ask Mal out? Good idea."
Jordan got up before switching on the light.
"You bitch," she jokingly hissed, "that was my idea."
"Oh well. Great minds think alike."
Jordan laughed at their saying before switching the light off and lying back down.
"Night Naeher."
"Night MC."

———————————————————————————

"Lindsey? Where are you taking me? This isn't funny!"
Mal could hear Horan's giggles as she was bundled into the car. She was blindfolded ,with Lindsey forming a knot that she couldn't untie, so had no idea where she was going or even why her friend was doing this.
It was Valentines Day. And Mal was single.

So all she wanted to do was lie in bed, eat chocolates and cry all day.

Lindsey wasn't as supportive of the plan.

Mal could feel the car moving and her main worry was now not wearing the seatbelt. Luckily, the ride wasn't long as the car stopped.
"You can take off the blindfold."
"I can't undo it you fucking idiot. Otherwise it'd have been off a long time ago."
"Sorry." Lindsey said but Mal knew she didn't truly mean it.

After untying the blindfold, Lindsey frogmarched Mal to the café.
There she saw her best friend, sitting there, looking even more shy than usual.
Jordan was wearing a maroon blazer with a cream blouse underneath and black jeans with white trainers and Mal didn't think she could get any cuter.
"I'll leave you two lovebirds to it," and with that, Lindsey was out.

Mal rolled her eyes. "Lovebirds?"
All of a sudden, Jordan got cold feet. What was she doing? A knot was starting to tie in her stomach.
"Jords? You ok? You look like you're about to be sick."
Jordan gulped. It was now or never.
"Because I might do something really stupid."
Her best friend frowned. "How?"
This got Jordan even more nervous.
"Well today is Valentines Day," she glanced around at the couple surrounding them, all content and pleased with their significant other.
Making full eye contact, Jordan announced,
"And I need to ask a question."
Mal was taken back. "What?"

Everything was coming down to this. Well ok, that's dramatic but this is like the climatic point of a game.

So Jordan hid her trembling hands under the table and put her shaking feet together.
"Would you like to be..." Jordan briefly looked away, then back to Mal.
"...my girlfriend?"

There was a pause. That was going painfully slow for Jordan when in reality, it probably didn't take long.
Then lips met hers and Jordan was kissing Mal for the third time in two months.

After they eventually broke contact, the new couple heard clapping. They looked around to see other people, up putting their hands together.
Jordan quietly groaned and Mal turned to face her.
"What's wrong?"
"Rule number three's been broken."
"Excuse me?"
"No one knows."