#goodemethyd

  Daya finished another batch of pastries, and she brought them out to the front to refill the case. She’d been baking more than ever with the steady flow of customers they’d had almost every day since Angeria Paris VanMicheals came into The Little Tea Shop, and she loved every minute of it. 

As much as she loved baking, Daya’s favorite part of working there was being able to hang out with Camden all day. And with as much business as they were getting lately, Daya was grateful that they wouldn’t have to close and she’d be able to do that for a long time.

Once she dropped the pastries off, she leaned against the counter and took advantage of a lull to catch up with Camden. They were deep in conversation about Camden’s dinner with Angeria when Jasmine walked up to the counter.

Jasmine was a regular customer, and she was definitely one of Daya’s favorites. She was always so nice to her and she always complimented her pastries.

“Your usual?” Camden asked, and when Jasmine nodded, Daya headed to the pastry case to grab one of her favorites. When she returned to the two of them, she overheard Jasmine talking about a protest she wanted to go to.

“What kind of protest?” Daya asked as she handed the pastry over.

“It’s for transgender rights,” Jasmine answered proudly. Daya had noticed the pin Jasmine always wore with the colors of the trans flag, but this was the first time she’d heard her talk about it, and her face absolutely lit up as she did.

“That’s so cool!”

“Daya, why don’t you take your break and go sit with Jasmine, and she can tell you all about it?” Camden suggested with a strange smirk on her face.

“Do you mind?” Daya asked. She didn’t want to intrude.

“Not at all,” Jasmine said with a bright smile.

Daya grabbed another pastry for herself, sugar free, and followed Jasmine to a free table. She took a seat across from her, and Jasmine started talking about the protest immediately. She was so animated, speaking with her hands, and she sounded so excited about everything she said. It was contagious, and Daya found herself completely drawn in, a smile spreading across her own face to match Jasmine’s.

“That sounds really cool! Would you mind if I went with you?” Daya usually wasn’t in the habit of inviting herself to things, but Jasmine made it sound like somewhere she really wanted to be.

“Oh my god! Yeah!” Jasmine practically shouted, her smile growing even wider before trying to be more nonchalant. “I mean, if you wanted to come, that would be cool.”

“Cool!”

Daya got all the details so she could meet up with Jasmine at the protest on Saturday, and then she headed back to work after they finished their tea and pastries.

“Finally,” Camden said once Daya was behind the counter again.

“What? My break wasn’t that long.”

Camden laughed and shook her head, mumbling something under her breath about how that wasn’t what she meant. But she refused to elaborate no matter how many times Daya asked.

~~~

On Saturday, Daya showed up at the protest with a smile on her face. She waved at Jasmine as soon as she saw her with a transgender flag wrapped around her shoulders like a cape.

“Hi!” Daya greeted her once they were standing in front of each other.

“Hi!” Jasmine said back, and then looked Daya up and down. “Damn. You clean up good.”

It was the first time Jasmine had seen her out of her apron and work uniform. More often than not when Daya was baking she was covered from head to toe in flour. Today, her hair and clothes were flour free, and she was wearing one of her favorite outfits, so she was happy that Jasmine noticed.

“Why, thank you,” Daya replied with a laugh. “And you look amazing, as always.” Jasmine was very pretty, and Daya had definitely noticed. Her red hair was always styled perfectly, and today was no exception.

“Thank you,” Jasmine said, and Daya noticed that her cheeks were red. She was grateful she’d put on sunblock earlier so that hers hopefully wouldn’t end up the same way.

“Oh, hey, I brought you this.” Daya handed over the paper bag she held in her hand that was filled with a couple of Jasmine’s favorite pastries, the ones she always ordered at The Little Tea Shop. On a last minute whim Daya had added a trans flag decoration on the top.

When Jasmine opened the bag and saw what was inside, a huge smile broke out on her face and she practically threw herself at Daya, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug. Daya giggled when she hugged her back.

“I’m sorry,” Jasmine said, pulling away almost as quickly as she’d lunged at Daya. “Sorry. Thank you. This is so sweet. I just got excited. I didn’t mean… Sorry.” She fumbled and bumbled her way through a combined apology and thank you.

“It’s fine,” Daya assured her, and she couldn’t stop smiling at how cute and endearing Jasmine was. Then she wondered where that thought came from. Was she developing a crush on Jasmine?

Throughout the rest of the protest, Daya realized that she was definitely developing a crush on Jasmine. Every time Jasmine looked at her, it brought a smile to Daya’s face. Her energy was so contagious while she was here in her element, protesting about something she was so passionate about, and Daya found herself completely drawn in.

They’re on a long road trip through California, and they’ve been on a pretty good little winning streak - their last one coming on a beauty of a coast to coast game winner from Bosco to beat San Jose - so they decide to spend one of their rare afternoons free of practice at the beach.

Bosco loves the beach. They love any excuse to be half naked, if they’re being honest. Some of her friends have joked that if she weren’t so good at hockey, the next best thing would be beach volleyball because the uniform would be perfect for her.

Today Bosco is not playing beach volleyball, but they are enjoying their current beach uniform - a silver thong bikini.

“Bosco,” Jasmine calls out to her after she gets her towel set up. “Do you ever go a full day without showing off your ass?”

“Jasmine,” Bosco shoots back. “Do you ever go a full day without staring at my ass?”

Jasmine’s face flushes bright red, and as much as she’d like to blame the sun, she knows that’s not the reason. Bosco’s not too far off in her assessment. As much as Jasmine tries not to, she definitely notices Bosco’s ass a lot more than she should.

Now, even after being called out and teased by a few other teammates, Jasmine can’t take her eyes off of Bosco. She glances at them as they put on sunblock, eyes running up and down their strong, lean body. She watches as Camden takes Bosco’s hand and pulls her into the ocean, splashing each other with water, their adorable giggles floating up and over the beach. And Jasmine watches as Bosco lays out on her stomach, ass up in the air for everyone to admire.

Well, maybe Jasmine is the only one doing that part.

Jasmine can’t take her mind - or her eyes - off Bosco as much as she tries, and she’s not sure if she’s hotter from the sun beating down on her or the lust that’s coursing through her veins.

Daya laughs briefly as Bosco and Jasmine bicker at each other, but the two of them are the least of her worries today. She should be having a great time. She’s on the beach with her teammates - her best friends, really - and they’re playing amazingly. But she’s in a sour mood. And the reason she’s in a sour mood makes it infinitely worse.

When they’d arrived at the beach, Daya was in good spirits, talking to Kerri about a dragonfly that was flying around. But then Willow had joined them.

Normally, Willow puts an instant smile on Daya’s face - especially since they’d hooked up one night in their hotel room a few months ago and have been doing it fairly regularly ever since. But today, Willow can’t stop staring at Kerri. Today, Willow can’t stop telling Kerri how beautiful she is. Of course Kerri is living for it, but it’s pissing Daya off.

What’s pissing Daya off the most though, is the fact that she’s pissed off at all. She and Willow aren’t together. She has no right to be feeling this way just because Willow is complimenting Kerri. Kerri is beautiful and deserves all the compliments. Daya just wishes she was getting them from someone else.

“What’s your problem?” Willow asks her later when she finds Daya sitting off by herself.

“Nothing,” Daya answers shortly. She doesn’t want to get into this now. She doesn’t want to get into it ever, to be honest, because she doesn’t want to have to think about what it all means.

“Why are you by yourself then?” Willow presses.

“Because I want to be by myself.”

“Well, that’s too bad, because you’re not getting rid of me.” Willow plops herself down next to Daya in the sand and nudges her with her shoulder. As much as she tries to fight it, a smile spreads across Daya’s face.

~~~

After sailing through the West Coast with ease, racking up win after win, their road trip comes to an end on the East Coast with a crushing loss. They play the New York Valkyrie on their Pride Night, and the Blaze lose in overtime when the defense lets their captain, Aquaria, easily score a goal. She goes coast to coast and snipes it just over Willow’s glove hand. They still get a point, but they’re not used to losing much at all this year, and they all decide to commiserate together.

Jasmine is the one who suggests the club. It’s one that she used to go to all the time when she played in New York, and no one objects. They snag a few booths when they get there and immediately start drinking. After a few rounds of shots, some of the team stays at the booth for more drinks while most of them head straight to the dance floor.

Daya buys another round for the girls left at the booth, and Bosco helps her carry it to the table. Daya slides back in next to Willow, and they all clink their bottles together in the most miserable cheers ever before Daya chugs half of it in one go.

“Well that game fucking sucked,” Bosco says as she slams her bottle back down on the table, feeling drunk enough to talk about it now. They’d been winning up until the third period, Bosco had even scored a couple goals, but they crashed and burned in the end.

“Sorry,” Willow says glumly.

“Stop it. It wasn’t your fault,” Daya replies quickly, and Bosco agrees.

Willow just shrugs and takes another drink. Bosco looks away when Daya starts whispering in Willow’s ear, not wanting to interrupt whatever moment they’re having. Their eyes flit toward the dance floor instead, and they almost choke on their drink when they land on Jasmine.

Jasmine is clearly drunk and clearly feeling herself right now, getting lost in the music to forget about their crushing loss earlier. She’s moving her body to the music in a way that has Bosco mesmerized. She looks so sexy out there, rolling her hips and shaking her ass.

“Jesus,” Bosco breathes out before realizing it.

“What?” Daya asks, pulled from her conversation with Willow.

“Nothing,” Bosco says quickly, but she doesn’t look away soon enough. Daya follows their line of sight, and they can tell when Daya realizes it’s Jasmine that they were staring at. Bosco is just glad Daya can’t read their mind because they have a lot of inappropriate lust filled thoughts swirling around inside of their head right now.

“Damn!” Daya practically shouts. “Jasmine’s body looks so good. That thing she just did with her hips. Wow.” She starts fanning herself and Bosco just stares at her, used to it. Daya is always horny and she doesn’t discriminate on who makes her feel that way.

“Great. Way to make me feel even worse,” Willow mumbles and finishes her drink.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Daya asks, turning away from Jasmine to look at Willow again.

Bosco doesn’t want to get in the middle of whatever this is going to become, so they decide to join Jasmine on the dance floor. They come up behind her, moving their hips in sync with hers. A smile comes to Bosco’s face when Jasmine backs up, pressing right up against them as she continues dancing.

“Why don’t you go join them?” Willow asks Daya when Bosco gets up from the table, and it’s just the two of them left.

“Because I want to sit here.”

“So you can watch them instead?” Willow doesn’t know why she’s being so combative, but she can’t help it. The jealousy inside of her starts flaring up and she can’t push it down no matter how hard she tries. Of course, their loss earlier - coming on the goal she gave up - and the drinks she’s consumed at the bar definitely don’t help.

“No,” Daya replies slowly. “Because I want to be with you.”

Willow just shakes her head and huffs out a breath. Willow knows how she means it, that she wants to sit at the table with her, not that she actually wants to be with her. Because they’re hooking up. That’s all. Even if a part of Willow doesn’t want that to be all.

“Hey,” Daya says soothingly, grabbing one of Willow’s hands. “Just because Jasmine is a good dancer, doesn’t mean I want to hook up with her or anything.”

“You can, though,” Willow insists. They’re not exclusive - even if in her sad, drunken state her brain is trying to convince her otherwise.

“But I don’t want to,” Daya insists, and she moves to whisper in Willow’s ear again. “I want to hook up with you. Now, preferably.”

Willow shivers at Daya’s words, and her jealousy turns into something else entirely. She turns toward Daya so she can pull her down into a kiss, right in the middle of the club.

“Mmm,” Daya moans when she pulls away. “Come on.”

“What?” Willow asks, but Daya doesn’t answer. She just pulls Willow up and out of the booth and toward the bathroom.

When they get there, Jasmine and Bosco are holding hands and giggling right outside the door, and Willow gets a glimpse of a hickey on Jasmine’s neck.

“Sorry, we were here first!” Jasmine yells through giggles and Bosco winks at them before they disappear behind the door.

One chicken nugget dinner and Disney movie later, Crystal heard footsteps coming down and looked over with casual curiosity. “You must be Gigi. Your mom said to make sure you eat, so… go eat.”

“That’s why I’m down here,” Gigi replied, then walked over to see who this new babysitter was, and suddenly her tone changed. “I didn’t get your name,” she added, twirling her hair around her finger and batting her lashes.

“Crystal,” she replied with a more casual smile.

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” Samantha, the younger sister, leaned over to ask Gigi.

Gigi glared as her cheeks turned red. “Isn’t it past your bedtime?” she hissed.

Crystal looked down and checked her phone. “Oh shit- I mean crap- I mean… yeah, let’s go get your pajamas on, Sammy,” she said, guiding the (still confused) child upstairs.

By the time Crystal had gotten Samantha to sleep and returned downstairs, Gigi had finished dinner and was watching tv on the couch. “Don’t you have a project or something to finish?” she asked as she sat beside her.

“I needed a break,” Gigi said simply. “So, do you go to school around here?”

Crystal arched her brow, a bit amused at the girl’s sudden interest in her. But she would be lying if she said she didn’t like the attention. Honestly, she welcomed it - she didn’t exactly expect a girl close to her age to be hanging around, and a hot one at that. “Yeah, uh, I’m a sophomore art major at MSU.”

Gigi’s interest was even further piqued. “You’re an artist? Me too! I mean, that’s what I was working on,” she said brightly. “Sorry, shouldn’t yell if she’s sleeping.” “It’s alright, I’m sorry I cursed in front of her.”

She snorted. “That was a very bad idea. 0/10 would not recommend,” she told her. “Only because I can’t promise she won’t be saying it nonstop tomorrow.”

Crystal laughed and groaned, hiding her head in her hands. “I guess I won’t be invited back anytime soon.”

“Well, maybe not by my mom, but I’d invite you back…” Gigi hummed, shifting closer to Crystal.

She smirked, leaning back against the couch as if to invite Gigi closer. “You coming onto me, Geege?”

Angeria has always loved Thanksgiving. She loves the food, and she loves gathering with her family. Since she’s started playing in the NWHL, that’s the one thing she’s missed the most. There usually isn’t time to go home to Georgia when they only have one day off on the schedule.

So Angeria has started her own tradition.

Every year on Thanksgiving, Angie invites some of the other players over to her place for a potluck. Usually it’s the girls that are far from home and don’t have spouses or children. Camden is first on the guest list, not that she has a choice since they’ve made the leap and moved in together. The others that are attending this year are Willow, Daya, Bosco, Jasmine, and Kerri.

Angie wakes up bright and early with a smile on her face Thursday morning and immediately goes to work on her food.

“Turkey, check. Stuffing, check,” she says once she gets everything she needs set up on the counter. She wants to make sure everything is perfect and delicious, so she uses her mom’s recipes, and she talks to her on speaker phone as she goes through the prep work.

“Good morning! Happy Thanksgiving!” Angie calls out to Camden when she finally gets up and joins her in the kitchen.

“Morning, baby,” Camden mutters, coming up behind her and wrapping her arms around her waist. Angie turns to give her a quick kiss before going back to her bird.

~~~

Camden isn’t super familiar with Thanksgiving, being that she’s from England. She’s lived in the US for a few years, but she’s been so busy playing hockey that she’s never really had a chance to celebrate it. Not until she met Angie.

Angeria’s enthusiasm has definitely rubbed off on Camden, but she’s still pretty clueless about most of it. Which is why she’s nervous about having to actually make something this year.

When Angeria tells her what to make, she’s so excited to hear that at least it’s something she’s familiar with. Once the turkey is in the oven, Angeria is done for a while, so she lets Camden take over the kitchen while she takes a shower.

Camden gets out her ingredients and gets to work on her bangers and mash, singing and dancing along to Queen as she goes, pretending that she’s Freddie Mercury. She’s not quite halfway through when Angeria joins her again in the kitchen.

“What is that?” she asks, judgment evident in her voice as she peers over Camden’s shoulder.

“What do you mean? It’s bangers and mash.” She’s making what Angie told her to make, so she doesn’t know why she’s asking.

“I said mashed potatoes.”

“What’s the difference?”

“I don’t know! But usually there aren’t sausages. And the gravy isn’t usually so chunky.”

“It has onions in it,” Camden explains. “And you can have it without the sausages I suppose, but it’s definitely better with it.”

“Uh huh,” Angie says, sounding skeptical.

Camden just hopes everyone will like her food.

~~~

“What are you doing here?” Willow asks Daya when she shows up at her place on Thanksgiving morning. “Don’t you need to make your pie?”

“Already did,” Daya says, holding up an apple pie that she clearly bought at the store.

“You cheater!”

“Eh, who cares? It’s going to taste good. That’s all that matters.”

“Yeah, but it’s not homemade. That’s what makes a pie really good.”

“I bet you can’t make a homemade pie that tastes better than this one.”

Willow doesn’t know if Daya means it literally, but that’s how she takes it. And she’s not going to back down from a bet.

“You’re on.”

Willow and Daya talk terms as Willow starts working on her pie. She decides to make an apple pie too, so they can be properly compared. And she tries to make it look as similar as possible to the pie Daya bought. They don’t want it to be obvious.

Daya transfers her store bought pie to one of Willow’s pie dishes so she can attempt to pass it off as homemade. It only takes a few minutes, and when she’s done she tries to distract Willow with kisses as she continues to work on her own pie.

“Don’t try to sabotage me,” Willow warns, pushing Daya away as she laughs. But once her pie is in the oven, she has some time to indulge in those kisses and definitely takes advantage.

“So what does the winner get?” Willow asks later as she takes her pie out of the oven and puts it on the cooling rack.

“Money?”

“That’s boring.”

“Sex?” Daya asks with a smirk and sticks her tongue out, running it along her lips.

“We’re already having sex,” Willow answers with a laugh, and Daya shrugs.

“Then you fucking pick something!”

Willow laughs again at Daya’s pout.

“How about… winner does the loser’s makeup and picks their outfit for the next game?”

“Yeah, okay. You’re on,” Daya agrees, and they shake on it.

~~~

Dinner is scheduled for six o’clock, and the girls start trickling in around five. Kerri shows up first with her macaroni and cheese, followed shortly after by Jasmine with a green bean casserole. Daya and Willow show up at the same time, surprising no one. They’re each holding a pie in one hand and their free hands are clasped together. When they set their dishes down on the food table, one has Daya’s name on it and the other has Willow’s. Angeria’s sure there’s some kind of story behind it, but she’s not sure if she wants to know. Bosco shows up last, double fisting it with two large bottles of alcohol.

“I got the really top shelf stuff,” she says sarcastically, holding up her cheap wine.

Once everyone is there, it’s time to eat. They line up to load up their plates and fill their fancy glasses with their not so fancy wine.

“What is this?” Jasmine asks, looking at Camden’s version of mashed potatoes. Willow leans over and makes a face as she looks at it.

“It’s bangers and mash and it’s delicious. You all have to try it.”

There are a lot of skeptical faces as they scoop it onto their plates, but they all take at least a little bit.

Once their plates are full they take their seats around the table. Angie and Camden are next to each other. Willow is on Angie’s left and Daya is next to her. Jasmine sits on Camden’s other side, and Kerri and Bosco are in between her and Daya. Daya and Jasmine aren’t allowed to sit next to each other at team dinners anymore.

“This is actually really good, Camden,” Daya says around a bite of bangers and mash, being the first one who is brave enough to try it.

The others follow suit and everyone enjoys it except for Angeria, but she would never tell Camden that.

“Um, Jasmine,” Bosco starts after a few quiet moments, everyone too busy shoveling food into their mouths to talk. “Why are there marshmallows in your green bean casserole?”

Angeria takes a look down at her plate, and sure enough, there are little toasted marshmallows in there.

“Yeah, I thought it was kind of weird too,” Jasmine answers with a shrug. “But that’s what the recipe said so I just went with it.”

“What the hell kind of recipe did you use that told you to add marshmallows to a green bean casserole?” Daya chimes in.

“I don’t know! I found it online, printed it out, and did exactly what it told me to do.”

“Online where?” Angeria asks.

Jasmine opens the website on her phone and pulls up the recipe.

“Wait. What the hell?” she says as she frantically scrolls through. “This is not what it said before.”

“Pretty sure the website hasn’t changed, Jazzy,” Kerri says.

“No, that can’t be right.” She does some more scrolling and some clicking on her phone. “Hang on, it’s here now.”

She holds the phone out to Camden next to her, showing her what it says.

“Jasmine, honey, that’s a recipe for a sweet potato casserole,” she says slowly. “You fucked up.”

“Oh no!” Jasmine says, and the whole table erupts into laughter. Only Jasmine.

They enjoy the rest of their meal without incident, talking and laughing and having a great time.

“Kerri, that was the best macaroni and cheese I have ever eaten in my life,” Angeria tells her, finishing off her second helping and putting her fork down. She’s stuffed, but she had to have some more. Everyone else echoes their agreement, and Kerri smiles proudly.

“Thank you, baby. The turkey and stuffing were delicious, too.”

“It’s my mama’s recipe so it better be.”

~~~

Once the plates are cleared from the table, and they’ve had some time to digest their food while telling favorite Thanksgiving stories, it’s time for dessert.

Daya is so excited to see who’s going to win their bet, she’s practically vibrating with excitement. She grabs Willow’s hand, pulling her up from the table and over toward their pies. They serve it up, one slice of each pie for everyone, Daya’s on the right and Willow’s on the left.

“Not that I’m complaining, but why do we have two pieces of pie?” Bosco asks.

“Because you all need to vote and tell us which one is better,” Willow explains and Daya nods behind her.

“And why do we need to vote?” Kerri asks.

“So we can see who wins the bet.”

Echoes of ‘ah’s and ‘okay’s go around the table, as if that explains everything. And Daya guesses it does when it comes to her and Willow. They don’t tell them exactly what the bet is, but they tell them to vote for either the left pie or the right pie when they’re done.

Daya already knows she’s going to vote for her own, just out of principle, but when she tries Willow’s she almost changes her mind. It’s the most delicious pie she’s ever eaten in her life, probably.

“Angie!” Daya calls out once everyone is done tasting and has written their votes down on the pieces of paper Willow provided them. “Will you count the votes for us, please?”

Angeria does her alternate captain duty and tallies them up.

“Alright, listen up!” she says, standing up and putting on her captainly voice. “With a score of 5 to 2, the winner is… left pie!”

“Yes!” Willow shouts, jumping up from the table and cheering. Daya would normally be pissed about losing, but with as good as Willow’s pie is she knows she deserves the win. Daya’s too drunk to be upset anyway. “I told you homemade was better than store bought!”

“Daya! You bought yours from the store? You cheater!” Jasmine accuses.

“I told you!” Willow says again, pointing at Daya, and all Daya can do is laugh along with everyone else.

“Good job,” Daya tells Willow later when they’re alone in the kitchen, volunteering to clean things up so they could sneak off together. Everyone else is in the living room, parked on the couch and loveseat watching trashy reality TV and trying not to fall asleep.

“Thanks,” Willow replies with a preening smile on her face. Once again Daya is endeared instead of annoyed.

“You know, if hockey doesn’t work out for you, you could open a bakery,” she tells Willow.

“Ha! Yeah right.”

“No, I’m serious. It was that good.”

“I still don’t believe you, but thanks,” Willow says again, walking toward Daya, wrapping her arms around her waist, and looking up at her expectantly. Daya leans down, gladly meeting her lips in a kiss.

~~~

“That seemed like a pretty successful Thanksgiving,” Camden says as she and Angeria get ready for bed later that night once all the other girls have gone home. She still doesn’t know much about Thanksgiving, but she does know that she had so much fun spending it with her girlfriend and their teammates who have become their best friends.

“It was perfect,” Angie replies with a smile. “Especially because I got to celebrate it with you.”

“Right back at you, baby,” Camden says and pulls Angeria into a hug and a kiss.