A New Alexandra Ch. 03

Kira had noticed them too. "Matchy-matchy at twelve o'clock," she commented. It was true. They were both wearing the same black jeans, and both were wearing desert boots with dark socks. Michelle Kirby's boots were dark brown, matching her leather bomber jacket.

Her girlfriend's shoes were the same style but matte black, and her corresponding leather jacket was more figure-hugging, the diagonal zipper emphasizing the width of what must be muscular shoulders on an otherwise slim frame. She wore large silver-colored hoop earrings, but her most distinguishing feature was her hair, a messy, longish pixie cut that was dyed bright blue.

"Shhh," replied Alexandra. "I think I know them."

"Oh?" Kira sounded intrigued.

"Yeah," Alexandra whispered. "Brown jacket was a TA in my department. I know blue hair from somewhere too, but..."

The light changed, and they held hands as they crossed the side street. Alexandra and Blue Hair passed shoulder-to-shoulder and their eyes met. Alexandra realized with a slight jolt that the woman was strikingly attractive. She had clear, light grey eyes, and up close Alexandra saw she had a small ring through her septum that matched the hoops in her ears.

Then the woman winked at her, quickly but unmistakably. Alexandra, startled, looked away.

"So, she definitely knows you," Kira said as they reached the other side and continued.

It hit her, and Alexandra raised her free hand to cover her mouth in astonishment. Katy McLean. Oh my god, Katy McLean.

It took her a second to blurt out the answer. "She sure does. Her name's Katy. I sat next to her in a lecture my sophomore year. Econometrics. She was a senior. We talked a lot. She played tennis. She was good, the #2 singles player. We were the only two athletes in the class, and she was always super, super nice to me. I didn't recognize her, though. I mean, she didn't have blue hair then or the nose ring, and she just dressed like a typical sloppy college athlete who has no time for anything but class and practice. But like I said, super, super sweet girl. She got me into a couple parties back then and she even came to one or two of our games. I feel awful that I didn't recognize her at first...and now I feel really bad that we lost touch. I think we're still Facebook friends and stuff-"

Kira raised an eyebrow and stifled a giggle. "You're not quite seeing it, are you?"

"Hm?"

"Girl sits next to you in class for weeks, invites you to parties, even comes to your games. From present observations, she's way gay. How'd you miss being hit on for an entire freaking quarter?"

Alexandra's hand shot back up to her mouth, covering it again. "Ohmygod. You're totally right. You're...totally right."

They arrived at the diner, a greasy spoon with a sign over the door that said "Sally's Diner." Alexandra doubted there ever was a Sally, but it didn't matter. They managed to snag a booth along the windows without needing to wait.

They each ordered coffee and then sat in silence while perusing the menu.

"I guess I still owe you that coffee I promised you, hm?" Kira's tone was light. She'd offered Alexandra coffee after dinner the previous night, but they'd headed straight to the bedroom before even giving the matter any real consideration.

"Then you're paying, mkay?" Truth be told, Alexandra was having trouble focusing on the conversation, or even the menu. Her mind was still stuck on Katy McLean, going over their interactions and her feelings from two years before.

Okay, Alexandra, get it together. Time to get girl crush #1 under control before careening full speed into a retrospective girl crush #2.

The waitress arrived with the coffee, and Alexandra heard herself ordering French toast. She'd need to run later to burn off the calories, but she was planning on doing that anyway on such an unseasonably nice day.

"Sooooo...this Katy girl," teased Kira. "How ya feeling about that one?"

Alexandra took a deep breath. She wasn't quite sure how much to tell Kira. She was realizing that the signs were there two years ago, but undeniable now. She had far too many permanent mental impressions of Katy McLean's face and body for how little they'd really known each other. "It, um, makes a lot more sense now. Like I remember thinking she was really pretty, and she was really fit then. She had these great tennis-player shoulders. But I never really got it. She was just like this typical pretty blonde athlete girl, smart, didn't take herself too seriously."

"And what do you think now?"

"Can I be honest?"

"Of course, babe," said Kira. "Look, I'm an open book. If I think someone's sexy, I'm not going to hold it back if you ask, even if I might not volunteer it. I'm not the jealous type."

"Okay then. I try to not be jealous either, by the way. But Katy, she's-" Alexandra looked around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping on their conversation. Nobody was. "She's sexy as fuck."

Kira's face broke into a broad grin. "I'm glad you and I are in agreement. She's not you, but I'm not gonna lie, I would not turn that down. Her girlfriend's not too rough on the eyes, either."

"Don't think I'd kick Katy out of bed in the morning, either." Alexandra could feel the heat growing inside her jeans and unconsciously crossed her legs. She noticed Kira doing the same.

"So then," Kira said brightly. "French toast on a sunny fall morning, isn't it great!" They each reached for their coffee at the same time, lightly brushing fingers as they grasped the mugs. A shiver ran down Alexandra's spine.

Kira continued. "A lot of sexual tension for pre-breakfast, hm?"

Alexandra nodded in reply. "I'm going to have to get used to this, I think."

"Oh, maybe more than that, if you're okay with it. I kinda love morning sex, to be honest."

Alexandra could feel herself blushing, then stifling a laugh. "Shhh, we're at breakfast!"

Kira didn't say anything in response, but as the conversation restarted she brushed the tip of her toe down Alexandra's calf. The shiver happened again. And the warmth.

The food arrived. "French toast on a sunny fall morning. Great indeed," said Alexandra after a few bites. "Want a bite?"

Kira smiled and portioned off a bit of her scrambled eggs and corned beef hash. "Trade?"

Everything seems so easy, thought Alexandra. I met her two days ago, and now we're trading food at breakfast like we've known each other forever.

"So tell me what you've got on tap for the rest of the weekend?"

Kira finished chewing and then answered: "Tonight I have an indoor soccer game, then basketball tomorrow night. Need to get some reading done before both of them -- let's just say the last two nights have left me a bit behind. Laundry. And I guess," she said, drumming her nails on the Formica tabletop, "I need to remove these nails too. They're not really conducive to sporting events."

Alexandra thought about the nails, how they'd felt raking her body the previous night, and how they hadn't even hurt like she'd expected when Kira had fingered her. She wondered if she had scratches on her skin: she hadn't thought to look in a mirror back at Kira's place.

"Oh, you play indoor? I haven't played since high school. Coach didn't want us playing at all outside of the team. She didn't want us risking injury."

Kira rolled her eyes. "Like people get injured playing indoor. I mean, it's too tight for sliding, so there's not really a good way to get hurt tackling. I guess you could step over the ball and snap someone's ankle. But yes, I play indoor, on a team out in Evanston. Pretty good women's league out there. Turf field, not hardwood floor."

"Oh, wow," said Alexandra. "All the indoor I played was basically in basketball gyms."

"Not the same," agreed Kira. "Be careful, you might get yourself invited to play on our team."

Double meaning, thought Alexandra. "So who are the other players?"

"Like you'd expect, lots of ex-jocks, some still in good shape, others not as much. In our division, pretty much all the players were at least pretty decent high school players. Our team is good, maybe second best out of a sixteen-team league."

"Hm," said Alexandra. Soccer was easy turf, familiar. "What formation do you use?"

Kira shrugged. "Depends on who's able to make it each game. Usually 2-2-1, sometimes this weird 1-3-1 thing where I play the back line alone. We'd really like to play two forwards and two defenders, but we don't have the personnel for it."

"You mean you don't have some freak of a midfielder who can play the entire middle by herself?"

"Quite the opposite," Kira said. "We have an insane freak of a midfielder. She's probably the best player in the whole league, and she could start at any position on our team, probably even keeper. But we don't have the lights-out second forward for 2-1-2, and Lucía is a bit wasted in a two-person midfield, so when we go 1-3-1 it often ends up collapsing to something more like 3-1-1 or getting too far forward to 1-1-3."

"1-3-1 sounds like a lot of running."

"It is. When we do that, we always substitute the wings at halftime. It's just up and back, up and back. I tried it once. Yuck." Kira's lips twisted into a slight grimace.

"Playing alone on the back line doesn't sound like a picnic, either," said Alexandra.

"I'm not a fan," agreed Kira, sipping her coffee. "Too many passes under heavy pressure. Much easier to have a partner back there. Sets up a nice triangle to get Lucía the ball."

"She must be quite something."

"Like I said, be careful or you'll get invited to see for yourself. She was a second-team All-American. In Division 1. Three years ago, so it's not like she's lost her legs either."

"Wait, Lucía Hurtado, from Northwestern?"

Kira nodded. "Yep."

"Jesus. Yeah, she was a machine. Why isn't she playing professionally?"

"She didn't want to. There's zero money in women's professional sports, as I'm sure you're well aware, and all the hassles, lack of control, and travel of being a professional athlete. Besides, she's smart and did well. She got a job that pays about four times what she'd make playing soccer. And we get the value of her services."

"How'd she get onto your team? I mean, players that good don't just fall out of the sky," asked Alexandra.

"That was easy," laughed Kira. "She used to date someone I worked with. So one night at happy hour I had a drink too many and just asked her if she wanted to play."

There it is again. Another double meaning? Intentional? "And she said yes?"

"She just asked where and when, and then showed up five minutes before the game. Introduced herself to the girls, pulled on a jersey, then absolutely kicked ass the entire time. Didn't even warm up. Now she at least shows up ten minutes beforehand and stretches a bit."

"Wow. Not bad."

"Some people are just talented." They'd both finished their meals. "So, another coffee, or are you ready?"

"Ready. Enough caffeine for now." Shit, I sound awkward, thought Alexandra.

Kira nodded to the waitress, who must have been at the far end of the room. Alexandra noticed the terseness of the nod, a confident flick of the chin and a raise of the eyebrows. A polite nod, in other words, but one that expected a clear response.

It got one, and Kira quickly grabbed the paper, sliding her card on top of it and handing it back. By the time they had their jackets on, the waitress was back and Kira was signing the bill.

They stepped out into the sunshine. The air was slightly warmer than when they'd entered, but it was still nowhere near summery. Fortunately, though, nowhere near wintry either, Alexandra thought.

"Want to take a little different way back?" Kira's question brought Alexandra's mind back to the conversation.

"Sure. Lead on."

"Don't worry, I didn't forget about the bookstore."

Alexandra laughed. "Oh, I kinda did."

"No worries, babe. That's what I'm here for. Seriously, it's a cool place just to visit, even if there's nothing there that you want to buy. Which is, I may add, an improbable proposition given the crazy variety of stuff they've got."

At the first intersection, they cut over two blocks to the right, further north. Here, off the main street, a streetscape mostly of five- and six-story apartment buildings of varying ages and styles yielded to shorter rowhouses, all dating from around the turn of the twentieth century.

"I like walking just a little off the beaten path," remarked Kira. "Just this little bit away from the center of things, everything is so different."

A woman passed, walking two golden retrievers. The smaller one, clearly still a puppy, pulled on her leash as both Alexandra and Kira grinned at the pair. Alexandra briefly scratched the head of the puppy, which responded enthusiastically.

"I'm glad you're a dog person," said Kira, breaking the silence.

"Definitely am," replied Alexandra, brushing a bit of wavy yellow fur off her jacket.

"I used to be terrified of dogs," said Kira. "It took me until I was about sixteen until I didn't want to run away as soon as I saw one."

Unexpectedly, Alexandra felt herself laugh. "I didn't think you were afraid of anything!"

Kira shrugged, but smiled. "Everyone is afraid of something, I guess, but it's a matter of getting through it, over it, something. I guess I just approach it like a lot of other things. Acknowledge that fear exists, that it's real, that it's all ok."

A few seconds of silence passed as they walked, the porches on the rowhouses showing well in the sunshine. "But seriously," said Alexandra, "that puppy was sooooooo cute."

They turned a corner and headed back towards the street they'd walked down earlier. The rowhouses here were even nicer, set back from the street by wide sidewalks with trees, and even small front lawns.

Just as they reached the corner, the light for the crosswalk went red and they were forced to wait.

"Kira?" said a voice behind them.

Alexandra and Kira turned in unison to see a young woman of Alexandra's height, wearing a black coat and jeans.

Kira, without missing a beat, made the introductions. "Lucía, so nice to see you! Lucía, this is Alexandra. We were actually just talking about you at breakfast, believe it or not."

"Me?" The woman shot a dark eyebrow skyward. Her skin was a medium brown, light enough to provide contrast with her thick black hair.

"Kira was just telling me about your indoor soccer team," explained Alexandra.

"Ah, do you play as well?" For the first time, Alexandra detected a hint of an accent in Lucía's voice.

"Not indoor, not in years. But I just finished up four years on the team at UChicago."

"It's a big change, not having that structure there every day, is it not?"

Alexandra nodded. "It is, but I'll get used to it."

"I played at Northwestern," Lucía continued. "A couple years ago now."

"Oh, I know," Alexandra said, brightly. "You were a senior when I was a freshman. Even down in the doldrums of Division III, we knew who you were."

Lucía smiled, showing a row of perfect white upper teeth. "It all seems so long ago now, doesn't it? Three years, you'd never think so."

"Hey there," interrupted Kira. "Three years ago was four years after I graduated. Now that is a long time."

Lucía turned to Alexandra. "Has she tried the 'I'm so old, God created me on the fifth day' routine on you yet?'"

Alexandra stifled a giggle. "Nope."

"She will. Kira here wants everyone to think she was born sometime during the last ice age, but the reality is she's in the best shape of anyone on the team." Lucía paused. "Except for me," she added, and stuck her tongue out. Then you must have one hell of a body, thought Alexandra, feeling mildly ashamed at not being able to avoid the thought.

The light changed and they began to walk, Kira in the middle between the two shorter women.

"So, Alexandra," Lucía continued, her accent coming through clearly on the 'x' and 'r,' what position did you play?"

"I moved around. I'm best at fullback, probably a tad better on the left than right, but either's good. But I started for a full season at center back, and one in defensive midfield as well."

"Well, we are always looking for good new players, regardless of whether Kira here has forgotten her manners and your invitation." She received a smile, accompanied by a joking eye roll, from the blonde.

"Thanks. I'll consider it." Alexandra wasn't sure what else to say, or what to think. Other things being equal, she would definitely like to play soccer for fun again, on a good team. But the practicalities of the situation were worrisome: the league was in Evanston, all the way across town in the suburbs; and she didn't know any of the players except for Lucía, who was an intimidatingly skilled player, and Kira, who she was sleeping with. This all combined for a potentially messy situation. What if I'm not good enough? Do they kick me off the team or something? Imagine how humiliating it would be to be cut while Kira kept playing, and having to...

Alexandra realized her thoughts were spiraling out of control again. She could feel her chest start to tighten.

"So," Lucía said, "Where are you ladies headed this morning? Or coming back from?"

"Coming back from breakfast," said Kira. "Heading home. Well, first we'll stop at Pages for the Ages, this fun little used bookstore. You?"

"Just going up the street to get my hair cut. By that guy you recommended, who is amazing, by the way. I never thanked you."

"Paul's a charmer, isn't he?"

"Oh, I don't care about that. He could be the meanest man on Earth, but as long as he understands that 'just take care of the ends' means 'just take care of the ends' and nothing more, we're good."

"I doubt that," said Kira. "But with your hair, no reason to do much of anything else."

"Says you, Miss Long Blonde Hair."

"Hey, if you want blonde hair, just ask Paul."

Lucía and Alexandra laughed. "In college, one time I tried to get blonde highlights," Lucía said. "They looked terrible at first, and that was before they turned orange."

Alexandra broke her silence. "And then what?"

"I dyed it back to black, of course. Not everything you try in life is a success, but that's ok. I learned a valuable lesson."

"And that was?"

"Don't judge a book by its cover."

"Huh?" asked Alexandra.

"Just a little joke," replied Lucía, gesturing to the window of the bookstore they had just reached. "Seriously, simple lesson: I look terrible with blonde highlights. Or orange."

She gave Kira a hug. "It was great to run into you," the blonde said. "See you tonight," replied Lucía, who then turned and hugged Alexandra. "It was so nice to meet you. And seriously, we really do always need players, and if you're good enough to play four years of college soccer, you're easily good enough for this team. Please don't think I invited you just to be nice."

"I didn't," said Alexandra, thinking completely the opposite. "It was nice to meet you too."

As Lucía continued along the sunny sidewalk, Kira and Alexandra stepped through the heavy oak door and into the bookstore. Alexandra immediately noticed the pleasant, distinctive smell of old books filling her nostrils. The store was located in a barely-renovated 1910s rowhouse, with rooms of books filling the main story, the former bedrooms upstairs, and even the basement. They greeted the woman at the checkout by the main entrance and silently proceeded to browse the books in the front room.

Alexandra took down from the shelf the mystery novel she'd spied through the front window earlier and checked the price tag. Five dollars -- probably cheaper than she would ever find it on Amazon, and definitely worth it. She could see Kira across the room, looking at a tall shelf of books whose titles Alexandra couldn't make out.