Al🐋

PROFILES MOODBOARD

CONTENT

i. Gold Medal

ii. Nothing happened

iii. Game day

iv. Congrats Omaha Supernovas

v. Good night Lover

vi. Omaha wind

After finishing the agreed-upon tasks, Kassandra came out of her room with Lexi behind her. The doorbell rang a second time. Kass walked to the door, stood on her tiptoes to look through the peephole, and what she saw on the other side made her take a step back.

—Holy shit— she said, then covered her mouth with her hand. She leaned in again to confirm what she’d seen.

KK Harvey was standing in the hallway with a small suitcase and the expression of someone who has made a decision and is holding onto that decision while waiting to see if it was the right one. Laila stood beside her with a bag over her shoulder and the energy of someone enjoying the moment more than she probably should.

The doorbell rang again, and Kassandra, who couldn’t just leave her friends standing outside, took a long breath and opened the door.

—Hey— KK said.

—Hey— Kassandra answered.

The three of them looked at each other for a second.

—Surprise— said Laila.

Kass looked at KK.

Looked at Laila.

Looked at the suitcase.

Looked back at KK.

—What are you guys doing here?— Kass said.

—Visiting— said KK.

—When did you fly from Wisconsin?— Kassandra answered, trying to hide her discomfort and surprise —We were just talking in the chat a few minutes ago.

—We were in Wisconsin this morning— Laila corrected with an amused smile —Now we’re in Omaha.

—It’s four in the afternoon on a Thursday.

—You can travel on Thursdays too— said Laila.

Kassandra went quiet. She shifted her gaze to Caroline, who was watching her with one eyebrow raised. It was clear something was going on, and KK, who was good at reading people, knew it. Kassandra realized it too and immediately tried to change her expression.

—Come in!— she opened the door wider to let Caroline and Laila through. They left their bags by the door.

—Thank you— KK murmured.

—Don’t thank me yet.

They moved through the apartment with the slow awareness of people arriving in a new space and reading it in real time the photos on the wall, Lexi’s sneakers by the couch, the team jersey draped over a chair that nobody had put away, the specific details of two people living together who leave their story in the objects around them without meaning to.

KK took it all in with the attention she gave to things that mattered to her.

Laila dropped her bag on the floor with the ease of someone who doesn’t need permission to feel at home.

From the kitchen came the sound of Lexi doing something that required a cutting board and a specific kind of energy.

Kass glanced at KK sideways.

KK looked at the kitchen door.

—Is Lexi home?— she asked, a small smile slipping out before she could stop it.

—Of course she’s home.— Kass smiled back and started walking with Caroline and Laila behind her. —Lexi!— she called out before they reached the kitchen. She needed to give her at least a little warning. —I have a surprise for you!

Lexi was standing with her back to the door, focused on whatever she was cooking with the concentration of someone who doesn’t want to lose the moment. Hair up. Team jersey. That version of Lexi in her own space that Kass knew by heart.

—Hey Lexi!

—Kassandra, why do you always have to yell so lou..?

Lexi turned around and went quiet.

—Surprise.— Kass said with exaggerated enthusiasm, then mouthed a quick “smile” at Lexi while Caroline and Laila couldn’t see her face.

—Hey.— Caroline, completely unaware of everything happening around her, walked up to Lexi and hugged her. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders and rested her chin on top of Lexi’s head.

—What are you doing here?— Lexi managed to say against KK’s chest. The question was the same one Kass had asked, but it sounded different carrying the specific weight of two people with more history than fits inside a simple question.

—I wanted to see you before Milan— KK said.

—I could have gone to Wisconsin.

—You said you couldn’t.

—Yeah.

—So I came here.

Lexi pulled back slightly and looked at her.

KK looked back with that calm she had about everything — the quality of someone who has made a decision and isn’t going to apologize for it, but isn’t going to push either.

Lexi looked at Laila.

Laila raised her hands.

—I just came along for the ride— Laila said. —The decision was hers.

—When did you decide this?— Lexi asked.

—The same day you told me you couldn’t come to Wisconsin— KK said.

That had been two days ago. KK had decided that morning to fly from Wisconsin to Omaha because Lexi had said she couldn’t come. That was the kind of thing KK Harvey did, the kind Lexi knew by heart even if she hadn’t seen it many times that way of showing up when the real world called for it, without announcing it or asking permission.

—Looks like we’ll have to set up the rooms— Lexi said finally.

—Great— Kassandra said, now genuinely excited once she understood that Lexi was okay with the unexpected visit. —Come on Laila, you’re sleeping in my room.

—What?— Laila frowned —You talk all night. I’d rather sleep alone on the pull-out couch.

—Don’t be rude, Edwards.

Kassandra grabbed Laila’s bag and backpack and headed to her room with Laila trailing behind her. Laila didn’t look particularly thrilled about the arrangement, but deep down she didn’t mind there was something genuinely entertaining about listening to Kassandra talk about growing up in Puerto Rico. So she followed her to get the room ready for the next three days.

What was left was KK and Lexi in the kitchen.

They looked at each other.

—Hey— KK said again, quieter this time.

—You already said that— Lexi said.

—I know.

—Twice.

—I know.

Lexi crossed her arms. Not defensively just that specific way of someone who needs to do something with their body while deciding what to do with everything else.

—You didn’t have to come— she said.

—I wanted to see you.

—KK.

—I wanted to see you before I left.— KK said it with the simplicity she had for things that were true without decoration. —That’s all.

Lexi looked at her.

She thought about two days of quiet messages. About it’s been two days since I told kk that I’m not going to Wisconsin. About Kass telling her she would never get mad at you.

—How many days are you staying— Lexi said.

—Until Monday.

—That’s three days.

—Yeah.

—You have to be back in Wisconsin by Monday.

—Yeah.

Lexi nodded.

She looked at the small suitcase by the door.

Looked at KK.

—Did you eat anything?— she said.

KK blinked, confused. That small adjustment of someone who didn’t expect that turn in the conversation.

—On the plane— she said.

—That doesn’t count as eating.— Lexi uncrossed her arms. —I’ll make you something while I finish dinner.

While Lexi got back to cooking after handing KK a sandwich, Laila and Kass drifted back into the kitchen. The space with four people felt completely different from the kitchen with two that specific noise of more bodies in a room not designed for four that somehow absorbed them anyway. Laila had found the glasses without anyone showing her where they were. Kass had decided her role was to sit at the counter and supervise without actually doing anything. Lexi returned to the cutting board with the efficiency of someone picking up where they left off.

KK leaned against the counter.

She looked around the apartment from there.

The photos. The sneakers by the door. The jersey on the chair. The details of two people who had been building a space together for a while.

—Being here feels like home— she said, and Lexi looked at her with a small smile that didn’t go unnoticed by Kass and Laila.

They ate dinner at the small living room table, sitting on the floor with the TV on playing a movie Kassandra had picked for everyone but that nobody was really watching.

Laila talked about Wisconsin with that energy she had for places she cared about that mix of complaint and affection that was her way of talking about things that mattered. Kass asked questions that were genuinely curious, because Kass had that radar for people, that ability to make anyone feel like what they were saying was the most interesting thing in the room.

KK ate.

Lexi ate.

Neither of them said much, but neither of them needed to the table was small and the apartment was warm and outside Omaha had that January cold that didn’t ask permission, and inside there was food and four people who had somehow ended up in the same room on a Thursday in January without anyone having completely planned it.

When they finished, Laila offered to do the dishes, and when she came back Kassandra told her she had to show her her new volleyball collection. Laila knew it was an excuse but went along with it with a fake enthusiasm that almost looked like genuine interest in volleyball.

Caroline and Lexi were left alone on the couch, Kassandra’s movie still playing.

—I’m glad you came.

KK took a moment to answer.

—Yeah?

—Yeah.— Lexi said it looking straight ahead. —Even though you didn’t have to.

—Of course I did— KK answered. —If I wanted to see you, it was on me to come.

Lexi didn’t say anything for a few seconds. She looked at the screen while Caroline watched her.

—What?— Alexandra asked, turning to look at Caroline too. —Are you okay?

—I’m okay.

The apartment stayed quiet.

Outside, the Omaha wind in January made that specific noise against the windows that Lexi knew by heart and tonight it had a different quality, more livable, more like the background to something that didn’t have a name yet but that existed on this couch between two people who knew each other by heart and who still kept finding things they didn’t know how to say to the other.