Page 27 of Spin Serve

“She has a noisy neighbor, though,” Aspen added and took a sip of her water.

“Oh, yeah?” Monica asked. “You have an HOA. Have you complained yet?”

“Um… No.”

“Well, if it keeps up, you should. You just bought that place. You don’t want to have to deal with some asshole for the next decade.”

Aspen laughed.

“She’s not an asshole,” Kendra said. “And she’s not that noisy.”

“Thanks for defending my honor,” Aspen told her, laughing some more.

“Wait… I’m missing something,” Selena said.

“It’s me. I’m the neighbor.” Aspen raised her hand before she instinctively let it fall over the back of Kendra’s chair. “She moved in next door. We found out after she bought the place. And I sometimes train in my backyard, which she’s obviously right next to.”

“You moved into a house next to Aspen?” Monica asked.

“I did. But it’s not that bad. She helped me paint my guest room the other day, and she only practices during the day, so it’s not a big deal.” Kendra then seemed to realize that Aspen’s arm was on her chair, and she made a face that Aspen couldn’t read.

When Kendra returned her focus to Monica and Selena, though, Aspen removed her arm and placed her hand in her own lap. Something was off tonight, and it was probably because she’d been kind of flirting tonight, and Kendra wasn’t into it.

“So, are you going to help her wallpaper the kitchen next?” Monica asked while laughing.

“Probably not,” Aspen said softly.

“I’m not putting wallpaper in my kitchen,” Kendra replied, laughing a little.

For the rest of the dinner, Aspen stayed quiet because, for the first time in a long time, she’d been excited about something unrelated to beach volleyball, and it hadn’t gone well for her at all. When dinner was over, they rode back in a car together, with Aspen taking the front seat again. She said goodnight at the lobby when the other three wanted to sit at the bar for a drink and made it up to her room alone in an elevator.

“Hey,” she greeted DJ.

“Hey, did you–”

“Chocolate cake,” she interjected. “With ice cream on the side that may or may not be melted already.” She held up the bag for DJ to take.

CHAPTER 10

Kendra hadn’t known how to act at dinner the previous night. She hadn’t planned on coming out to Aspen and still wasn’t sure if she technically had. Admitting to dating Monica when they were in college probably did it, but there was always that stereotype – or, maybe it was a joke, she wasn’t sure – about women experimenting with other women in college. She supposed Aspen could’ve thought that of her, but that wasn’t likely. At dinner, it had felt too much like a double date, which, she knew, was her own fault because she’d invited Monica and Selena. She’d only done that to try to get out of a dinner alone with Aspen because she needed to get some separation.

Her producer had called her right before they were supposed to leave for the night, and he hadn’t given her good news. Another of the producers at the network had just been terminated due to his involvement with an employee at the network. He’d been married, so there would now be a scandal when the news broke, and a sexual harassment lawsuit would probably follow. Kendra had been told in advance because they were now all required to come into the network offices for a mandatory sexual harassment training, and she would be interviewed by their HR department and possibly investigators should that lawsuit come to fruition since she’d also worked with that producer. He’d known that Kendra was a lesbian and hadn’t ever given her any trouble, but it had shaken her all the same.

Aspen wasn’t a co-worker in any sense of the word, and Kendra was free to date her should she choose, but after that call and the fact that she now had to go through all of that, she’d frozen at dinner. Aspen had been kind and maybe mildly flirtatious, if Kendra had picked up on that correctly, but Kendra had remained frozen. It had also been awkward, watching Monica and Selena, who occasionally leaned into one another to share a brief kiss and had their hands all over each other otherwise. She wasn’t upset with them or even annoyed – Monica had waited for years to finally be with the woman she loved, so Kendra was happy for her – but sitting across from them with a woman she hardly knew, had just come out to, and had a crush on that was turning into more than just a crush, after getting that phone call, had thrown her off in a big way. Now, she worried she’d upset Aspen in the process.

She was watching the match in front of her between Aspen and DJ and Monica and Selena. Aspen and DJ were winning, and by a large margin. Kendra wasn’t sure who she was supposed to root for, exactly, because Monica had been her best friend since she was seventeen years old, but Aspen was the woman she liked, who had flirted with her just the previous night. Of course, Kendra could be wrong about that. Aspen might have just been nice to her and not flirting. She’d thought the arm over the back of her chair had been intentional and not for comfort, but Kendra had been burned by women she thought liked her before, and she wasn’t about to put herself out there with Aspen Ashley now, given that phone call from the previous night.

Deep in the second set of the match, Monica served to DJ, who passed to Aspen. The set was a great one, and DJ’s kill went well over Monica’s hands, landing in the backcourt beyond Selena’s reach. Down by six points now, there was no way Monica and Selena could come back this late in the set; not after losing the first one by four. When Aspen went to serve, Kendra watched as she first looked in Kendra’s direction. Kendra was standing in the tunnel with her crew, waiting to hurry out and interview the match winners how she always was, and it was as if Aspen knew that and had expected her there.

“Of course, she knows that,” she muttered.

“What?” her cameraman asked.

“Nothing,” she replied as Aspen served a floater over the net and rushed to her position.

Monica went for a line shot, but Aspen was there and dug it out. Kendra recalled an interview with Aspen from years ago, before she began working this tour, where Aspen had said something about not being the fastest on the tour. That might have been true when she’d said it, but it wasn’t anymore. Aspen must have been working on her speed in the sand because barely a ball landed in the sand if she was anywhere on the court. The woman had long arms that enabled her to get to the ball even if her feet couldn’t get here there fast enough, and she had the best form that Kendra had ever seen of popping the ball up high enough and not too far away from her partner so that DJ could set it, get it over in two, or hit a free ball.

This time, DJ hit it over in two, and Selena was ready for it in the backcourt. She passed it to Monica, who set her up for a kill. Kendra had always admired how well these two worked together, and the worry she’d had about them now being a couple getting in the way of their volleyball partnership began to wash away as she watched them play even better than they had before they’d gotten together. Yes, they’d lose today, but most teams on this tour lost to Aspen and DJ fairly regularly, so only their performance today would matter in their loss.

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