Lesbian Collections

Chapter 2: Coming Clean

Chapter 2: Coming Clean

After practice, Coach Hannalay offered to take Nicole to dinner. As an afterthought, he invited Ken and I along as well. Ken and I rode together to the Chinese restaurant that Nicole had picked out for dinner.

“So whatcha think?”

“About?”

He glanced at me briefly before looking back at the road. “Nicole. Duh.”

I smiled at him. “She’s alright I guess.”

“She knows her stuff. That’s for sure.”

I nodded. “Yeah. She caught some stuff about Amanda’s landing that I hadn’t noticed until she said something.” When Ken raised an eyebrow, I continued. “She said that Amanda is landing with her feet too close together. It’s causing her to stumble. It’s a tiny step, but it could cost her points.”

Ken pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and cut the engine before he answered. “Huh. I guess I’d never really noticed it either. But I reckon that if she saw it, then the judges would too.”

“Yeah. Probably.”

We met Coach Hannalay and Nicole in the lobby of the restaurant. She was listening to something he was saying and suddenly the air was filled with her musical laughter. The throaty sound sent shivers up and down my spine and heat somewhere lower.

Ken didn’t notice my distress. He strode to where they stood and greeted them. I followed mutely behind, admiring her ass in those jeans.

Once we were seated, Nicole turned to me. “I don’t know that we were introduced. I’m Nicole Bragg-”

I nodded. “Multi-time gold medalist. Yeah. I know who you are.” I shook her hand. “I’m Shelly. Shelly Johanssen.”

She paused, a frown passing across her pretty face. She was still holding my hand and I found that I didn’t want to let go just yet.

“Shelly Johanssen?”

“Yes.”

“I knew a Shelly Johanssen in college. Where did you go to school?”

I told her.

Her eyes lit up. “I thought I recognized you! We went to school together. We were on the same gymnastics team. Remember?”

I thought for a moment. She did seem familiar to me. I vaguely remembered a Nicole being on the team. But I think that I would remember if it had been Nicole Bragg. She had a face that one couldn’t really forget.

“No. I can’t say that I remember.”

She smiled. “You might remember me as Nicole Parker. I had brown hair and braces then.”

Suddenly, it came back to me. “Wait. I do remember. We were teammates. We all thought you were the coach’s favorite because she spent more time on you than she did with the rest of us.”

Nicole’s face reddened. “Yeah. I guess she did. But you were just as good. If I remember correctly, you have several trophies and medals too.”

I nodded. Our conversation stopped as the waitress came to take our drink orders. Once she was gone, Nicole looked back at me.

“How did you get here?”

I shrugged. “After I graduated, I applied for several jobs at various universities. I teach sports medicine and am the assistant coach of the gymnastics team.”

She smiled and another shiver went down my spine. “You could have made the national team. Just like I did.”

I shook my head, taking the glass of sweet tea from the waitress. “Nope.”

“Why not?”

I fiddled with the straw for a moment, my mind going back to the day I’d competed for a spot on the team. “Because a fraction of a point can make or break you,” I said quietly.

For a moment, we stared at each other. She knew. It had been her that had beaten me out for the coveted spot.

“Are you still angry about this?” she asked so that only I heard. “Does it bother you that I’m here?”

Did it? “No,” I said finally. “Honestly, I’m glad you’re here. Maybe you can talk some sense into these guys. They act like they can’t understand English.”

Nicole laughed. “Doubt it. But I’ll do my best.”

She turned away as Coach Hannalay diverted her attention to him. Ken grinned at me.

“Making new friends?”

“Shut up.”

He snickered. “She seems nice. Ya’ll know each other?”

I nodded, taking a sip of my tea. “Yeah. We went to school together. She and I were on the gymnastics team. She beat me out for a spot on the national team.”

“For real? Damn. That’s messed up.” He grinned suddenly. “And now she’s here to take your job. Talk about irony.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. Indeed.

Ken liked to flirt and he wasn’t shy about flirting with Nicole. She laughed and flirted back. I watched her laugh and make conversation. We’d never really been friends, but I’d always secretly admired her. She medaled in every meet we went to, she had all the guys chasing her, her grades were on point. Ok I had been jealous. It seemed that she didn’t have to work hard at anything while I stayed up all night sometimes studying or late in the gym practicing.

“Thinking about me?” Ken whispered, elbowing me in the side gently.

I shook my head, taking another sip of my tea. “No.”

He put a hand over his heart. “I’m hurt.”

Nicole watched us for a moment. “This seems like a good team. I like that you guys can talk and laugh together and still coach the team.”

“Why wouldn’t we?” I asked, stirring my lemon down into my cup.

She shrugged and wiped at her mouth. “Well, I’ve worked with teams where the coaches barely talked to each other. And when it came down to the meets, they were never on the same page. And their teams never won anything and they couldn’t ever figure out why.”

“We aren’t like that,” Coach Hannalay piped up. “We all try to work together for the good of the team. And be sociable outside of practice.”

I snickered under my breath. Coach Hannalay sociable? Ha. He wouldn’t have come to dinner with us if Nicole hadn’t been there too.

So I was surprised when the cheap old goat pulled out his wallet and asked for the check.

“Coach, please let me get the tab,” Nicole said graciously.

He shook his head. “I won’t hear of it. You’re our guest. I’ll handle it.”

Ken looked at me. He was as surprised as I was. Coach was actually going to pay? The people in Hell must be drinking ice water now.

But alas, the poor saps in Hell were still burning. When the waitress came with the check, Coach asked her to split it. I knew it was too good to be true. I pulled out my wallet and reached for the check.

Ken grabbed the paper from the woman. “I got it,” he murmured to me. When I started to protest, he raised a hand. “I always got you.”

I didn’t say anything else and I noticed that Nicole was watching our exchange. She glanced curiously from Ken to me and back before answering something Coach Hannalay said. I knew what she was thinking. She was wondering if there was something going on between the two of us. Maybe she liked Ken. He was handsome with his dark hair and dancing brown eyes. He was an amazing gymnast in his own right, holding several gold and silver medals in the vault and rings. Standing just a foot or two taller than me, he had the tight lithe body that showed his years of training. I could easily see why Nicole or any other woman would like him. I glanced at her again. She was still watching us speculatively. Let her sweat.

We lingered for a few minutes more listening to Coach Hannalay spout on and on about his plans for the team to make it to nationals and how glad he was that Nicole was here to help us meet that goal.

She blushed under his praise and looked over at me and Ken. “Thanks for letting me be a part of your team,” she said quietly. “I know what it looks like for me to come in like this. Please believe me when I say that I am not trying to take anyone’s job. I just want to help.”

Ken smiled at her. “Welcome to the team, Nicole.”

She returned his smile. “Thanks Ken.”

“Anything you need, ask.”

“Thank you.” She looked over at me. “I hope we can have some time to catch up, Shelly. It’s been a while. Things have changed.”

I nodded. Yes. Some things had definitely changed. She had no idea. But I said, “Yeah. I’d like that.”

She stood. “I’m just going to run to the ladies’ room before we go. Shelly?”

I glanced at Ken as he was my ride home. “Sure, I’ll come too. We’ll meet you fellas at the door.”

Ken stood and pulled my chair out. Coach Hannalay drug himself to his feet. I noticed Nicole watching Ken’s actions. I had the feeling she was going to ask the questions that were burning in her mind once we got to the restroom.

I wasn’t disappointed.

“So Shelly,” she said as she peered at herself in the mirror. She reapplied her lipstick and fluffed her hair. “What’s Ken’s deal?”

“What do you mean?” I asked as I checked my hair.

“Well, he’s pretty cute.”

“Yeah. He’s alright.”

She snorted. “Just alright? He’s hot!” She glanced at me in the mirror. “He seems to like you a lot.”

“I guess,” I answered absently.

“You don’t like him?”

I straightened. “Like I said, he’s alright.” I looked over at her. “If you like him, by all means go for it. He’s not really my type.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Really? What is your type then?”

I gave her a crooked grin. “Let’s just say I play on both teams.”

Nicole’s eyes widened. “So that’s how it goes?”

“Yep. Only a few people know. So let’s keep it between you, me and the wall, huh?”

She nodded. “Sure. I won’t say anything. Besides, it’s not really my place to say anything anyway.”

I looked at her closely. Dare I hope? “In college, you had all the boys after you.”

She blushed at the memory. “I guess.”

“You guess? Ha. You were the envy of the dorm.” I gestured to the door. “Shall we get back before they leave us?”

Nicole grabbed my arm as we stepped into the corridor. “I was serious about us getting together and catching up, Shelly.”

“Sure. I’d like that.”

Getting to know her again might not be so bad.