Freestyle Flirting: A Sweet Lesbian Romance Read online

  “Amber, you’re a crazy person,” I said. “You busted in on me showering to tell me this crap? Look at yourself. You’re a nut.”

  “I know what I saw.”

  “Ugh!” I exclaimed. Turning around quickly, I shoved the shower handle to the off position and grabbed my towel from the outside hook. I speedily dried myself off as Amber stood there watching.

  “If anything fishy is happening between you and Dasha,” Amber began. “Well, you should know that relationships between coaches and swimmers is against some of the rules in the Code of Conduct. Dasha could get in a lot of trouble for that. Maybe you, too.”

  “Nothing is going on between us!” I said. “Whatever you saw, you just made it up in your crazy mind.” I ferociously wrapped my towel around myself to cover up from Amber’s sneaky eyes.

  “Maybe,” she said. “Maybe not.”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” I mimicked in a tease. I was getting sick of her attitude.

  “Listen,” said Amber, thrusting an arm out against the stall to block me from leaving. “I’m watching you and if I see any funny business, well, I won’t be able to help it if word leaks out to Mitch about anything that could put the team in an awkward position.”

  “Are you threatening me?” I said. “Really, Amber?”

  “Of course not,” she said sweetly, punctuating her lie with a smile. “But the team is more important than the individual.”

  “This is all just because I’m going to totally school you in the 400 meter,” I said. “And you know that Naoko Ando on Team Japan is right behind me and probably Rita Müller from Germany is behind her. You’re not even gonna Medal.”

  “Shut up!” said Amber. “I’m totally taking Gold in the 400 meter. You better believe that!”

  “Out of my way,” I said, giving Amber a push and sliding past her. I began stomping down the stall hallway, my flip-flops clapping against the tile. Amber immediately followed me, holding her towel tight against her with one hand. A few of the other girls looked up at us from the locker room, but they didn’t show much interest. It wasn’t the first time they had seen drama in the locker room.

  “In case you forgot,” said Amber, still following behind me. She twisted her body around to show off her Olympics tattoo on her right shoulder blade. “I’m the current Bronze Medalist in the event. Been there, done that!” I stopped and turned around to face her.

  “Only because I wasn’t there last time!” I countered.

  “Right,” she said sarcastically. “Came down with a case of the competition jitters.” Amber was really pushing me and I was beginning to fume. She knew about my parents, obviously, she knew about my struggles. I was getting so pissed off by her and it was really starting to make me lose my cool. I had tried to develop an even demeanor, unflappable, mindful, but when someone triggers you it can be extremely hard to not let your emotions take over and cause you to lash out.

  “You’re such a bitch, Amber,” I said. I lunged forward, took hold of her towel, and ripped it off of her. Amber screamed out as I simultaneously tossed her towel up on top of a bank of lockers.

  “Marie!” she cried, covering herself. I mean, yeah, the instinct is to cover yourself when that kind of thing happens but nothing is really private once you’ve spent years in the locker room like we have.

  “It’ll go me, Naoko, Rita, and then maybe you if you’re lucky!” I called, feeling the steam rise inside of me, looking to push her buttons just as she’d done to me. “And I’ll be grinning at you, looking down at you from the podium.”

  By this time the other girls were watching us with mildly amused faces. Nobody was going to step in. Sometimes you just need to let people get their frustrations out.

  With gritted teeth Amber stood her ground, no longer ashamed by her nudity, and reached toward me to yank my towel off in return. I wrestled with her for a moment, trying to hang on, but both of us were still shower damp and slippery. I lost the battle and Amber tore my towel away, tossing it up onto the same locker bank as I had thrown hers. We were both now completely naked but for our shower shoes, both of us pissed at one another, both to the point of taking it physical.

  “Goddamnit Amber,” I said, feeling like I could just smack her. “I’m sick of this shit!” It was rare that I swore. I mean, if I’m swearing, you’ve got to know that I’m pretty mad.

  With that, Amber lunged forward toward me and began to flail her arms. The adrenaline kicked in and I quickly fired back, the two of us swatting at one another with long arms spinning. I felt a hard smack against my face, I felt my hands grip Amber by the shoulders and try to push her off, I felt our damp skin press together and pull apart. The other girls began to loudly clamor as Amber and I fought. I couldn’t tell if they were egging us on or rushing over to break us apart.

  After a few more smacks landed, my face stinging and my hands aching from slapping Amber, I felt our bodies roughly yanked apart. When I opened my eyes, I saw Coach Jenny pulling Amber away, and another teammate Rachel pulling at me.

  “Ladies!” called out Jenny in a booming, pissed off voice, trying to bring us both down from that wacky dream world you enter when you’re involved in a physical altercation. I know I felt hazy and absent until Jenny’s cry, my body suddenly feeling cold and shaky. “Ladies!” said Jenny again.

  “What?” I murmured softly, beginning to return.

  “You’re teammates!” said Jenny. “This ends now!”

  “Ow,” said Amber, squinting and rubbing her cheek tenderly. I guess I had hit her pretty good.

  “Both of you get dressed,” commanded Jenny. “And come with me.”

  I could feel the sharp sting in my own flesh from being hit. With consciousness back, I loosed myself from Rachel’s hold and slinked away from the scene of the crime, following Jenny’s orders. I was so incredibly angry at Amber and now I was feeling pathetic, worried at the trouble we had gotten ourselves into.

  Amber and I sat in chairs next to one another, both dressed in our team track suits, hair still wet from the showers, in front of Mitch’s desk in his office. He looked on at us with a disapproving face, skin wrinkled and unhappy, giving us a moment of silence, a calm before the storm. I don’t think I’d ever gotten into a fight like that in my life. I mean, it’s the kind of thing that maybe happens in high school when you’re young and foolish. But Amber and I were both 25, both young adults, Olympic competitors, serious about our sport. The whole thing just felt so unreal to me.

  “So ladies,” began Mitch evenly. “What’s going on?”

  Amber and I looked at each other, silent for a moment. I wasn’t sure what she might say, perhaps she would blame the whole thing on me. And even though I was angry at her, I didn’t want to be a snitch. I would rather she and I worked out our problems together than either of us get in trouble with Mitch.

  “It was a misunderstanding,” I said matter-of-factly. As I said this, Amber’s eyes brightened. It was like she couldn’t believe I was covering for her.

  “A misunderstanding?” repeated Mitch. “So the two of you, because of a misunderstanding, got into a physical fight. You resorted to hitting each other because of a… misunderstanding?”

  “It was a competitive thing,” said Amber quietly.

  “I see,” said Mitch, nodding like he understood. “I’ve seen this kind of thing before. Sometimes it feels like it’s inevitable.” He sighed and leaned back in his leather desk chair.

  “We’re sorry,” I said. “We didn’t mean for that to happen. It got out of hand.”

  “I know tensions are running high,” said Mitch. “We’re headed to the Olympics, after all. And the two of you are some of the best competitive swimmers in the world. You both have a chance to be the best in your events. Don’t let any of that become spoiled by jealousy or internal competition.”

  “Yes, Coach,” we said in unison, both of us with our tails between our legs.

  “You’re both competing in the 400 meter free,” continued Mitch. “So I
’m guessing this is about that particular event.”

  “Yes,” I admitted.

  “Whether you come first and you come second,” said Mitch. “Or vice versa, it doesn’t matter. You’re teammates and you should be happy for the accomplishments of each other. I know this is probably the last opportunity for either of you, but you’re competing at the highest level in sports. On any given day, someone just as talented as you are could get in the zone and beat you. You have to accept that.”

  “Yes, Coach,” we said again.

  “Take that competitive spirit you both feel and let it loose against our real competition,” he said, “The teams from other countries. None of this internal sparring. Both of you are competing for the USA. You’re not Marie Mullally and Amber Hemsworth. You’re swimmers for Team USA. You got that?”

  “Yes, Coach.”

  “I don’t want to hear any more about the two of you fighting,” said Mitch. “It’s petty. It’s not worth it. We don’t want to discipline either of you. We need you both. We need you in your individual events and we need you for the team medley. So act like professionals. Got it?”

  “Yes, Coach.”

  “Good,” he said. “Now please get back to work. I’ll be informing your coaches of this conversation and they will be keeping a close eye on the both of you. No more fighting. You’re dismissed.”

  Amber and I stood up together, both with sheepish looks on our faces, and turning from Mitch we slinked out of his office, shutting the door softly behind us.

  Yes, the entire thing was Amber’s fault. She provoked me, she invaded my space, she jumped at me first. I could have just ratted her out to Mitch, which would have caused her to lie to slither out of trouble, digging us even deeper into the hole. But like I’ve said, I didn’t want Amber to hate me. I didn’t want the two of us to fight. There was a time we were friends and I wanted to return to that placid relationship. Telling on her would only escalate everything and that wasn’t a road I wanted to go down.

  “You’re welcome,” I said as Amber and I walked the hallway back toward the locker room. Yeah, I was being a bit snotty myself but I was still pretty upset.

  “You want me to thank you or something?” she snarked.

  “Just… don’t,” I said, putting my hands up and trying to quicken my pace. Amber hurried along side of me.

  “I’m watching you,” she said, giving me the evil eye. I just rolled my eyes and looked away. With that, Amber took off running down the hall, swiftly disappearing behind a turn in the hallway.

  I was happy to have dodged a bullet but I would have preferred the bullet hadn’t been fired in the first place.

  I sunk deep into the leather seat of Dasha’s luxury sedan, starring out of the window at the trees lining the street as we drove away from the natatorium. I was still feeling quite upset about the whole ordeal with Amber and I was even more upset knowing that Dasha now knew about it. It pained me to think that she might now think less of me, like it was my fault, like I had purposefully gotten into a fight with Amber. Dasha had agreed to give me a ride back to the dorms the swimmers were staying in and I knew I was going to hear all about the altercation from her.

  “So,” she said evenly as she drove. “You want to tell me what happened?”

  “You don’t believe what Mitch told you?”

  “Not really,” she said. “I’ve been on the team before. I know the girls aren’t going to tattle on one another.”

  “Ugh,” I groaned. “I hate that any of this happened. It wasn’t my fault.”

  “I didn’t think so,” said Dasha, eyes on the road. “I know you and Amber have your problems.”

  “Amber busted in on me in the showers,” I said. “And she was giving me grief about… you.”

  “Me?” said Dasha, momentarily glancing over at me before returning her gaze out the windshield. “What about me?”

  “Amber said she knows there’s something going on between us,” I said with a sigh. “Which, I told her, there wasn’t anything weird. But she’s convinced and she’s trying to psyche me out or something. Trying to mess with my game so that she can have a leg up in the 400 meter.”

  “Oh God,” mused Dasha, shaking her head. “What a bitch.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “She’s just got something against me. I can’t stand it. But no matter what I do, she won’t back off.”

  “So that lead to a fist fight in the locker room?” she asked.

  “Not really,” I said. “Just some slapping. But it hurt nonetheless.”

  “Essentially a fist fight,” said Dasha.

  “Yeah, okay,” I admitted. “Basically the same thing.”

  “I’m going to have a talk with her,” she said. “I’ll let her know that this kind of behavior is unacceptable.”

  “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” I said. “Amber’s a bit nuts. That kind of affront might make her go even crazier. She’s already got something out for the both of us. If you talk to her about it, it just may add fuel to the fire.”

  “Hmm,” Dasha mused. “As her coach, though, she must listen to me.”

  “Dasha,” I said, looking to her, pleading with her. “She thinks you and I… she thinks there’s something going on between us,” I said. “Something against the Code of Conduct.”

  “What?” said Dasha. “Like some sort of sexual misconduct?”

  “I don’t know,” I mourned. “Something.”

  “Ridiculous,” she said, shaking her head. I could tell Dasha was getting agitated by the conversation.

  “I mean…” I said, trailing off and letting Dasha fill in the blanks with her mind.

  “Marie,” said Dasha, looking at me with a confused expression. “No,” she said. “No.” But her face belied her words, there was something softening in it, something tender, a look as though her words were fighting what she really felt inside.

  “At the pool,” I said. “We had… that moment.”

  “We can’t talk like this,” said Dasha in a hush, like she were trying to speak to me in confidence even though we were already locked away together in her car.

  “Are you a lesbian?” I asked gently.

  “Marie,” she said, shaking her head. The conversation was really tearing her up, I could tell, but I couldn’t back down now. I had to know. I had to know if there was something there, something worth further exploration.

  “I am,” I said. “You can be honest with me. I mean, I’m totally out, everybody knows about it. But if you’re a lesbian and it’s a secret—“

  “It’s not a secret,” said Dasha curtly. She looked over at me with slightly saddened eyes. “Yes, I am a lesbian too.”

  “Okay,” I said, trying not to let the small smile on my face reveal my joy. “So, you know, is there something…I don’t know… something I’m reading wrong? Am I overstepping?”

  “You’re overstepping,” said Dasha succinctly, eyes focused on the road. “But you’re not wrong.” This made me feel positively giddy inside. All the negativity from my earlier quarrel with Amber melted away in that moment. I felt elation.

  “All right,” I said, nodding to myself, hiding my smile.

  “I see that grin,” said Dasha. “Wipe it off. You can’t say anything about this. We can’t pursue anything we’re talking about while we’re in this professional situation.”

  “It’s not that bad,” I said, trying to figure out a way that it could work. “You know, we could just be really discreet about it all and make sure we’re super professional in public.”

  “What are you even saying?” said Dasha, looking at me like I was crazy. “Marie, c’mon.”

  “I like you a lot,” I admitted with a bashful grin. “I’m pretty smitten with you, Dasha.”

  “Oh God!” called out Dasha, tilting her head upwards in exasperation but quickly looking back to the road, remembering she was driving. “No, Marie, we can’t.”

  “I’m not trying to get you in trouble or anything,” I said. �
�It’s just… I really do like you. It’s the truth.”

  “Oh Marie,” said Dasha, looking worried. “I… I feel the same way.”

  “That makes me really happy to hear you say that,” I said with a wide smile.

  “But look,” she said, leveling with me. “We need to wait until after the Olympics before we can really pursue anything. Okay? I mean, if something were to happen, maybe this Amber thing got out of control, and the Board of Review found out. It could be really bad.”

  “I understand,” I said. But at that point, I really didn’t care about the Board finding out. I knew we could keep it close. I knew anything that happened could stay between Dasha and me. “But I can be very discreet.”

  We held a moment of silence there in the car. I could tell Dasha was thinking about it. I hadn’t been sure up until that point how she felt about me, but now that I knew I couldn’t help myself. I really wanted to see how things might go between us. I was lovesick and love starved, eager to feel that amorous desire that I hadn’t felt in so long. I was ready to get my life back on track. I needed this. I needed Dasha.

  “Just—” said Dasha, immediately interrupting herself and returning to her thoughts. After another few beats she spoke up again. “We can’t let anything change how we act together in the pool.” I could feel myself softly shake in excitement.

  “Totally,” I said with restlessness.

  “And if for some reason it doesn’t work,” she continued. “We still have to be professional.” Dasha gave me a serious glance. Like, really serious. “We both have careers here.”

  “Absolutely,” I said. “I want to be a coach, too, once I’m no longer in competition. I don’t want to ruin anything about my future.”

  “Oh boy,” she mused to herself. “Dasha, Dasha, Dasha, what are you doing?” I giggled softly.

  “I’m so happy about this,” I beamed. “God, Dasha, I think you’re so pretty!” I could tell she enjoyed this complement, as her usual stern look dissolved slightly into an appreciative smile.