"It was a fight we had over sleeping together," she revealed. "Not having sex-sleeping together." She sighed and said, "Three separate times I told him he could stay over, and each time I got up and slept on the couch. I just couldn't relax when he was in my bed." Shaking her head, she rolled her eyes and said, "I think he was a little insulted. He'd get up in the morning and find my legs hanging over the end of the couch, my head jammed against the wooden arm. Telling him that I was more comfortable in that ridiculous position really pissed him off."
"Ouch," Mia grimaced. "That would sting."
"Yeah. I don't blame him at all. I just couldn't do it."
"Well, I hope you can relax tonight, but if not, please wake me up and tell me so. I'll really be upset if I find you on the floor in the morning."
"Deal," the blonde agreed. "We can flip a coin for the bed if I can't sleep."
"No need. I'll fit in the bathtub just fine," Mia smiled. "One advantage of being short." She tightened her hold on the long body and placed a few soft, tender kisses on Jordan's lips. "Ready for sleep now?"
"Um…yeah. How should we do this?"
"Well, how do you normally sleep? Back, side, stomach?"
The taller woman thought for a moment. "I usually start off on my right side. All bets are off after that, though. I thrash around a lot-fair warning."
"I sleep on my side, too, and I don't thrash around. This should work fine. Turn around now, and lay like you usually do."
Jordan started to do so, but turned back and gave Mia a few very gentle but emotion-filled kisses. "You've been great, Mia. I really appreciate how patient you've been with me."
Smiling softly, Jordan turned over and tried to get comfortable, digging her shoulder into the overly-firm mattress. Mia waited until she was settled, then snuggled up close behind her, placing her hand lightly upon Jordan's waist. "How's that?" she asked.
"Divine," the warm voice replied. "Just divine." She twitched her hips, pushing against Mia's lap. "You feel so good pressed against me like this."
"I love to sleep together," Mia said. "Aside from sex, being in bed with someone is a wonderful sensation."
"If it's someone you really like," Jordan corrected her.
"Yeah," Mia said fondly, pushing the hair from Jordan's neck and giving her a kiss there. "It's much nicer with someone you really like."
She slipped her arm around the trim waist, snuggling tighter against Jordan's body. In a matter of seconds the tension began to leave the tall woman's muscles, and a moment later she collapsed against Mia, sound asleep. "Sleep tight, Sweetheart," Mia whispered, knowing that her words would not be heard.
For some reason, Jamie woke early and found that she could not get back to sleep. She was tired of lying in bed, so despite Ryan's incoherent protest, she got up and tugged on her sweats.
A soft voice whispered, "You getting up?"
Jamie snuck over to the other bed and leaned close to Jordan. "Yeah. I can't sleep this morning." Mia was tucked up close to the taller woman's back, and Jordan gently disentangled herself from the warm embrace and stood, stretching a little.
"Wanna go scrounge up some breakfast?"
"Good idea. I'm absolutely famished!"
Jordan smiled and said, "Maybe that's why you can't sleep. Whoever was responsible for that pizza should be arrested."
Jamie shuddered as she recalled the dreadful concoction. "You're probably right," she mused. "My stomach's been rumbling for hours."
"Hey, maybe that's what woke me up!"
"Watch it, Jordan," Jamie whispered. "I'm used to dealing with big girls. I know your weaknesses."
"Point taken," she smiled, zipping up her warm-ups. "Let's go, before I pass out from hunger."
Once in the hall they surveyed their options. There was the hotel dining room, but the menu didn't look appealing to either of them. Striding outside, they looked up and down the busy street but saw nothing in the immediate vicinity. "We came from that direction last night," Jamie said, pointing north. "We passed a lot of fast food. Maybe there's a grocery store."
"Grocery store?" Jordan queried.
"Yeah. I know it's bugging Ryan to pay room-service prices for cereal."
Jordan agreed and they started off on the walk. "I think I know why I can't sleep," Jordan said quietly.
"Why's that?" Jamie asked. Needing to be close to her, she slipped her hand around Jordan's arm and shared a smile with the taller woman, who reached over to clasp the hand against her arm..
"I'm pretty freaked out with what's happening between Mia and me," she admitted. She shot a sidelong glance at Jamie. "Is it okay to talk about this?"
"Of course, Jordan. I've been dealing with the same thing this past year. I have a lot of empathy for what you're going through."
"What do you know about my story?" the tall blonde asked.
"Mmm…not a lot. Ryan tells nothing," she laughed wryly. "Mia's actually been pretty close-mouthed too. I know that she likes you, and that you're having some trouble adjusting to this. I take it that you haven't been with women before?"
"No…well, not anything more than kissing," she corrected. "Surprised?"
"Yeah, a little." Jamie admitted. "I got big-time lesbian vibes from you when I first met you."
The tall woman shrugged. "One of my personas. I have more than I'd like," she said softly.
"We all have different personas, Jordan. Don't be so hard on yourself."
"I'm just being honest, Jamie," she insisted. "I'd like to know who I am, so I don't have to act like the person I think people to want me to be."
"Been there, done that," Jamie agreed. "It's a hard thing to change, but it's sure worth it."
"Are you happy?" Jordan's question was very simple on its face, but Jamie knew that she meant it on a variety of levels.
"Yes. I'm happy that I went through the painful process. I'm happy that I stopped trying to be who I wasn't. I'm happy to get to know myself for the first time. And most of all, I'm happy that I got Ryan in the bargain. She's the grand prize."
Jordan nodded, giving Jamie's hand a squeeze. "I had a feeling that you felt like that." They walked a little farther and she said, "It's a little different for me, Jamie. This comes up at a bad time for me, what with invitations going out for the Olympic team in another two months. This is not a good time for me to be exploring my sexuality."
Jamie shrugged and gave Jordan an encouraging smile. "Maybe your sexuality has a mind of its own. God knows that mine wouldn't listen to me!"
After a long morning spent watching cartoons while they ate an entire box of Frosted Flakes and sliced bananas, the athletes took off for practice while Jamie got on the phone and tried to find a rental car. Most of the large companies had a policy against renting to people under 25, but she finally found one that was more lenient. It was a long cab ride to Santa Monica, but she finally procured a sexy, dull gray 1996 Ford Escort with 135,000 miles on the sporadically functioning odometer.
Determined to get a decent meal, the roommates settled upon Ocean, one of the better spots along the water, just a few buildings down from Mia's summer rental.
After a delightful dinner of fresh oysters, salmon carpaccio, and seared ahi, they hopped back in the car and returned to the hotel to check out and then dash over to USC. Luckily they were there forty-five minutes early, for to their surprise, they found that North Gym seated only a couple of hundred people. It was an old facility right in the heart of the campus that had formerly been the gymnasium for the whole school. Now the basketball programs used the Sports Arena, a large, privately owned 11,000-seat facility, but volleyball was still relegated to the far-too-small campus gym.
Jamie caught Ryan's eye and the tall woman loped over to her, informing her, "I left Bryant's name at the door, and the guard assured me he'd let him in if they're sold out. Tiny place, huh?"
"My high school gym was twice this large," Jamie scoffed.
"Welcome to NCAA Division One college athletics," Ryan grinned, running back to warm up.
The pair managed to secure seats at the end of one of the sections so that Bryant wouldn't have to climb over too many people to join them. The place was packed, made even more so by a sizeable percentage of the USC band that was wedged into a tiny spot, the musicians so close together that they had a hard time turning their sheet music.
From their vantage point about halfway up in the stands, Mia was intently watching the cheerleaders warm up before they took the floor. Jamie finally elbowed her and said, "Hey, someone you want to sleep with is on the court, too. Stop drooling over the cheerleaders."
Mia shook her head briskly and informed her, "First of all-they're not cheerleaders. Well, the men are, but the women are song leaders."
Jamie peek over and observed the gorgeous, well-built blonde women, clad in short, tight white turtleneck sweaters with microscopic white pleated skirts. "Oh yeah, they look like their purpose is to lead songs. They all have very nice…lungs," she observed popping her eyebrows a few times.
The women took the court just as the players went back into the locker room. Jamie and Mia watched them carefully, but not a song was sung. Instead, the women danced to a choreographed number designed to show off their beautiful bodies to good effect, and they did not disappoint. "Well, they sure can sing," Jamie decided. "Where do they get these girls, anyway? Central casting? They look like Hollywood's vision of the perfect woman!"
"Are you gonna argue?" Mia chuckled. "They look pretty perfect to me."
The song leaders ran back to take their places along the front of the stands, ready to lead a song at a moment's notice. They were replaced by a group of women in sparkly black spandex tops and tights, and as they struck a pose and waited for the music to start Jamie leaned over and asked, "What's this group called?"
"I don't know," Mia mused. The music began and after just a few bars of the piece Mia turned to Jamie with wide eyes and said, "The women didn't dance this provocatively at that strip club you guys took me to on my birthday!"
Jamie just nodded, amazed that a college needed two sets of dancers in the first place, but even more so that one set was clearly meant to inflame the loins of the young men and an interested minority of the young women in attendance. "I can't get over this," the blonde mused. "The dancers at Cal look like escapees from a convent compared to these women!"
"I came down for the USC/UCLA basketball game last year when I was dating Jason," Mia recalled. "The game was at UCLA, and the whole band was there and they were really rowdy. While these poor girls were dancing the band kept doing this cheer asking how much for a lap dance. I felt sorry for them."
"Ewww!" Jamie pulled a face and said, "That's just gross."
"Melissa Johnston really wanted to come to 'SC and be a song leader," Mia said wistfully.
"Your Melissa?" Jamie asked, surprised at the revelation.
"Yeah. Remember Ryan said she was a cheerleader at USF? Well, that was her second choice-by far. She really wanted to come here, but she didn't make the cut. They asked her to try out for this group, but she says it's viewed by the students as the song leader rejects. She just wasn't up for it."
"Wow! That would've been cool to know one of the cheerleaders!"
"Oh yeah," Mia grimaced. "Just what I need right now is to see Melissa again. Jordan's got me screwed up enough without asking for trouble."
Just before the game was scheduled to begin, six muscular young men ran onto the court to whip the crowd into a frenzy. They were clad in white oxford cloth button-down shirts, white v-necked sweaters with a large "SC" on the front, pleated white shorts, white crew socks, and white deck shoes. Jamie raised an eyebrow at the military-style haircuts the pristine men wore and just shrugged her shoulders. The cheerleaders at Cal were a motley crew of two or three people in blue and gold rugby shirts who ran around during time-outs trying to drum up support to actually lead a cheer. Now having seen the regimented end of the spectrum, she decided she was much more comfortable with Cal's laid-back, informal style, although she wouldn't mind having a few of those song leaders to leer at during game breaks.
The game was almost ready to start when a tall, handsome man caught Ryan's eye, and she waved enthusiastically. Turning to find Jamie in the crowd, Ryan pointed at the man and sent him on his way. Jamie's eyes met his across the crowd and she immediately saw something familiar in him, even though Ryan had never described him. There was a warmth in his eyes and his wide smile that made him look like the kind of guy that Ryan would be fond of.
"Bryant?" she asked needlessly when he reached them. "Jamie Evans. This is my friend, Mia Christopher."
"Good to meet you both," he said, his friendly smile infectious. "You know, I haven't seen Ryan in a little over a year." He looked at the woman down on the court again, checking her out thoroughly. "Has she eaten during that time?" He gave Jamie a slow grin and she smiled back.
"She eats, Bryant. Lord knows she eats. She just uses as much energy as she takes in. She got sick a few weeks ago and lost over fifteen pounds. I don't know how she'll ever put it back on."
"Well, she looks healthy enough now," he smiled, watching Ryan enthusiastically go after a ball as the game began.
"Yeah, she's fine now. Still a little tired at the end of the day, but who wouldn't be!"
They settled down to watch the game, with Jamie filling Mia in to the full extent of her volleyball knowledge. Bryant didn't know much about the game either, but it was clear that Jordan and Ryan were the keys to the Cal attack. Their names were called repeatedly by the announcer, and some of the surrounding fans began to grumble whenever one of them recorded a kill. The match was much more lopsided than Ryan had predicted, and Cal won, three games to one.
Ryan hugged Bryant enthusiastically when they all met up after the game. He stayed for just a few minutes, since the women had to leave for Malibu, but they made plans to see him the next morning at Mass.
As they walked to the car Jamie looked up at her partner and said, "I'm surprised that you never mentioned he was black."
"Hmm…didn't I?"
"Nope. I didn't have any mental image of him, so I'm pretty sure that you never described him. It's funny, he looked so familiar," she said thoughtfully. "Something about his eyes and his smile makes it seem like you know him."
"Yeah," Ryan agreed. "He's a great guy." She smiled down at Jamie and said, "Our baby would be lucky to have him for a father."
"Well," Jamie said, wrapping an arm around Ryan's waist. "I think I'd like to spend more than two hours with him before we decide, but from the little I know of him, I like him a lot."
"We have a few years to make up our minds," Ryan reminded her. "A lot can change between now and then. I just think it's a good idea to talk about it and make sure we agree. It's a very, very big decision, Jamie."
"Of course it is, Babe. And luckily, we can put it off for a long time."
As Jamie led the foursome to the car, Jordan asked, "Is this the least fashionable car you've ever been in, Jamie?"
"No, Jordan, I'll have you know that my fiancé had an old Accord," she proclaimed.
"Well, that explains why you dumped him," Jordan laughed.
"Hey, if money meant anything to Jamie I'm the last person she would have picked," Ryan said gallantly. "I didn't even have a car when she met me."
"Good point, Tiger," Jordan agreed. "I still don't understand your allure. It must be very well hidden."
"It wasn't very well hidden last night," Mia jibed. "It was downright obvious!"
"Hey, you were the little voyeurs," Ryan reminded them. "I wasn't in the bathroom watching either of you."
"Also a good point," Jordan said. "I suppose you have endured enough torment for one day." As they rolled along on the interstate Jordan asked, "Do you know how to get to Malibu?"