KEEP CALM AND DRINK DIET COKE

However, now that they’re getting ready for bed, Kelley can see the impact of Emily not reapplying her sunscreen, too busy exploring and looking adorable with her snorkel. Her shoulders are bright red, the lines of her bathing suit sharp under the lights of the bathroom. 

“Don’t say ‘I told you so’,” Emily rolls her eyes. 

“Me? I would never,” Kelley grins, pressing the lightest possible kiss to the back of Emily’s neck, but she still winces. “Here, let me,” she takes the bottle of aloe out of Emily’s hands after watching her struggle to soothe the burn on her back and shoulders. “Take this off,” Kelley tugs on the hem of Emily’s tank. 

“You’re seriously trying to get me naked right now?”

“I always want you naked,” Kelley laughs. 

Kelley gently applies the lotion, her hands moving across the planes of Emily’s back. She watches the muscles tense and relax as Kelley touches her broad shoulders, which definitely does make Kelley happy that there’s no fabric in the way. Emily groans when Kelley gets to her lower back, and yeah, maybe that does turn Kelley on, but she tries to stifle it. 

“You need to be more careful,” Kelley says, “your freckles don’t protect this pale skin that well.”

“That sounds an awful lot like an ‘I told you so’, Miss Kelley,” Emily turns around in Kelley’s arms and Kelley is momentarily distracted by her girlfriend’s bare chest. 

“For what?” Emily asks in the middle of a yawn. 

“Bringing me here,” Sam says, looking out the window at the Brazilian landscape, thinking about the week they’ve had. 

Rather than Emily coming back from camp and then jumping on another plane to see Sam or sleeping on her couch for a week, they made the decision to extend Emily’s time in Brazil, with Sam joining after their last game. Sam was there to watch the game, or whatever it became in the second half, and couldn’t stop laughing at the replays of the “foul” on Emily. 

After being released from camp, the two met up at a hotel on the beach for an all-inclusive vacation. Five star resort, private beach and private dinners, Emily spared no expense, she never does when it comes to Sam, and Sam rewarded her by wearing the skimpiest bikinis known to man all week long. 

“You can thank me by staying a little longer,” Emily says sleepily, her eyes drooping already. She hasn’t been home in a month and she was doing so much rehab before, it’s no wonder she’s exhausted. 

“As if you’re getting rid of me that easily,” Sam grins, turning to look at Emily, “I’m not leaving you until the last possible second,” she kisses Emily’s cheek. “Get some sleep, baby, I’ll wake you when the cookies come around.”

***

Chicago and Gotham had played earlier that evening, a tight 2-1 game where Chicago gave up the win in second half stoppage time. Emily finds Sam after the game, Sam trying not to mope too much. It was still very early on in their now two year relationship, they’d been talking a lot, and when Sam came to see the national team play in San Diego that past offseason, they shared their first kiss. 

“You okay?” Emily asked and feels stupid for doing so. It’s a loss, of course Sam isn’t okay. 

“Annoyed,” Sam looked at her and gave a half smile. “Giving up soft goals sucks.”

“Soft goals?” Emily feigned outrage. “The ball goes in the net, who cares how it got there.” That made Sam truly laugh and step a little closer to Emily. “Hey, how about I order a pizza and you come to my place?” It was bold, Emily worried it was a little too bold, but then Sam smiled at her. 

“What kind of pizza?” Sam asked. 

“Whatever you want,” Emily replied and Sam threw her arms around Emily’s neck. 

“Meet me at the exit in fifteen minutes,” Sam whispered, her lips against Emily’s skin. 

Emily hadn’t lived in her apartment that long at this point, so there were still a few half-unpacked boxes and random half-finished pieces of IKEA furniture lying around. If she had known she’d invite her… girlfriend(?) over, Emily would’ve at least shoved all that stuff into a closet. 

They split pizza on the couch and Sam tucked her toes under Emily’s thigh while a Love Island rerun played in the background. It’s weird how much the silence didn’t seem to bother either of them, it doesn’t now either two years later. 

“So, I have a spare bedroom all made up if you want, it even has its own bathroom,” Emily stumbled while she rinsed their dinner dishes, “or you could…” She let the sentence trail off because Sam came around the kitchen island and Emily was struck, not for the first time, at how beautiful she is. 

“I don’t like sleeping alone,” Sam grinned, leaning in to kiss Emily like she was trying to ease the nerves. 

“Okay then,” Emily said when she pulled back to breathe, “hope you’re not a blanket hoarder though.”

In the morning, Emily woke up with Sam’s head on her chest, snoring lightly, and their legs tangled under the sheets. It had  been a while since Emily woke up with someone in her bed, even longer since it wasn’t after sex, but she thinks she could get used to this, this thing with Sam. 

***

“Love you,” Sam says as she snuggles into Emily’s embrace, “even if you wouldn’t sleep with me after that loss, I could’ve used it,” she laughs, gently nipping at the skin of Emily’s chest. 

Lindsey leaving for France, Emily being bounced around from team to team, it all seems like another lifetime. The person Emily was when Portland traded her and the person she is now are so incredibly different. But there is one constant, Lindsey. 

Lindsey is different too though. She’s more confident, she’s happier, especially now that she’s back stateside, but she’s still the same Lindsey that Emily has loved on and off for ten years. She knows Lindsey like the back of her hand, which is why she’s not taking offense to the fact that Lindsey hasn’t replied to Emiy’s text saying that they’ve made it to the hotel. 

It’s not because Lindsey is ignoring her, no she’s probably stared at Emily’s text fifty times by now, it’s because Lindsey doesn’t know how to feel about this weekend. 

It’s crazy actually, that they’ve made it this far in their relationship without ever playing a game against each other. It’s like there was a spell or something put over them to keep them apart, even when Lindsey was still in the league here. Lindsey has always been big into manifestation, so maybe she actually masterminded all of it. 

But now, Gotham is here in Denver to play the Summit and Emily knows how conflicted Lindsey seems to be. So, instead of waiting for a text, she calls. 

“You’re really gonna make me stay here in this crappy hotel tonight?” Emily asks before Lindsey even has the chance to say hello. 

“What? No, of course you can stay here,” Lindsey says, guilt in her voice, “I’ll come pick you up.” 

Half an hour later, they’re sitting on Lindsey’s (stiff) new couch, together for the first time since Brazil. Lindsey lays her head in Emily's lap, nearly purring as Emily gently cards her fingers through thick, blonde hair. 

“I don’t want to play against you,” Lindsey pouts. 

“It’s because I’m too good, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s because my raw, animal magnetism will distract you on the field?” Emily jokes. 

“Those aren’t untrue…” Lindsey says quietly, “but I just… I want us to win, you and me, and that’s not how this works.”

“I think you underestimate how competitive you are,” Emily tells her, “you love me but you also love winning, so do I. But it’s just a soccer game, Linds, we’ll be okay.”

“It’s just going to be so weird,” Lindsey wrinkles her nose adorably, “we can’t even do our handshake.”

“Promise that you won’t try to go easy on me,” Emily says, knowing what kind of response it’ll bring out of her girlfriend. 

“Over my dead body,” Lindsey snorts. 

***

Gotham wins, it’s not particularly close, but Lindsey manages to beat Emily to a header and gets herself on the score sheet. 

“This green looks good on you,” Emily tells her after the final whistle. 

“Shut up,” Lindsey groans, “I hate losing.”

The league is on a long break, which means Emily’s days are free too. She’s back from Brazil, allowing just one afternoon of teasing about her acting skills in the game, and Kelley can’t wait to spend the summer with her. 

“Where are we going?” Emily asks as Kelley leads them down the street. 

“There’s a new cafe I saw the other day,” Kelley replies, “it looked like a place you’d like.”

Kelley had been walking back to her train station after tennis when she saw it. Small, maybe just three tables, and a truly inviting aroma wafting out into the street. Spanish, maybe? Or Moroccan? Whatever they’re serving smelled delicious, but Kelley wanted to share this with Emily, trying food together is sort of Emily’s love language. 

The problem is, as they’re walking around, Kelley realizes she has no clue where this place is. She tries to retrace her steps from the tennis courts, the route she normally takes, but this mystery cafe is nowhere to be found. 

“Are you sure it was on this street?” Emily asks, looking at her phone to try and see what’s around. 

“I thought I was,” Kelley pouts, “but it’s clearly not here.”

“Hey, it’s not that big a deal,” Emily says softly, “we’re in New York City, there are plenty of other places we can go.”

They end up in the park, laughing together, and at one point, Kelley hooks her pinky around Emily’s as they wander around the Ramble. It would feel like a boring Saturday afternoon with anyone else, but it’s Emily, her person. Nothing they do together feels boring or monotonous. The sun is shining and Emily is smiling, that’s all Kelley needs for a perfect day. 

As they walk, Emily pulls Kelley a little closer and twines their fingers together without pausing her sentence, like it was instinct, and Kelley melts all over again. Falling in love, being in love with Emily is as easy as breathing for Kelley, and she’s pretty sure her partner feels the same way. 

There’s a team coming to Atlanta and Kelley knows they’ve already put one call into Emily’s agent. As much as they both love New York, a little house with a garden on the edge of the city might be calling their name sometime soon. They’ve built a life together, and going back to where it all began makes all the sense in the world, if Emily wants it. Because Kelley would follow Emily anywhere.