Page 21 of Spin Serve

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just landed weirdly. How is DJ’s foot? I heard she stepped on a shell.”

“No matter how much they rake the sand, something always finds its way in there.” Aspen sighed. “She’s good, though. They checked her out. It broke skin, but it didn’t bleed or anything, so I just have her sitting still and looking pretty right now.”

Kendra looked over at her then because, yes, that was an expression that people used, and DJ was pretty, but did Aspen think DJ was pretty? She couldn’t tell, so she turned away quickly and looked at Monica, who was looking back at her, lifting an inquisitive eyebrow in Kendra’s direction.

“Hey, I got you a sandwich and–” Selena began. “Oh. Hey, Aspen.”

“Hey, Selena.”

“What kind of sandwich?” Monica asked Selena, who walked over to her side.

“Obviously, one you’d hate,” she joked.

“You’re lucky I like you.”

“Yes, I am,” Selena replied.

Kendra felt something and looked over at Aspen, who had just elbowed her gently. When Aspen nodded toward the two women in front of them, Kendra nodded back in confirmation. Aspen gave her an impressed look, which Kendra smiled at. Then, she looked back at Monica, who gave her an exasperated look. Monica knew her too well.

“Hey, Kendra,” Selena finally greeted.

“Hey. Nice match.”

“Thanks,” Selena replied and looked back down at Monica. “How are you?”

“Ice cold,” Aspen whispered to Kendra.

“What?”

“She glared at you.”

“She did not,” Kendra spoke softly before taking a few steps away from the table to give Monica and her new girlfriend a moment alone.

“Uh… Yeah, she did. What’s up with that?” Aspen joined her away from the two women.

“Monica is my best friend. I’ve known her since high school.”

“Yeah? I didn’t know that.”

“We don’t advertise it widely because I sometimes have to interview her, but yeah. We also… Well, we dated in college.”

Aspen’s eyes went wide.

“And they just got together, so it’s entirely possible that Selena is slightly yet completely unnecessarily jealous. We were over a long time ago – like, thirteen-years-ago a long time ago. We’ve been friends ever since. And Monica has liked Selena since they became partners. So, Selena has nothing to worry about there.”

Aspen didn’t say anything.

“Hey, where did you two go?” Monica asked.

“Nowhere. Just letting you two talk about your game plan. Or, possibly, your next date,” Kendra teased and walked back over to the table.

“Hey, DJ is going to hang out in the room tonight to keep off her foot until tomorrow, but I was thinking about grabbing dinner out and maybe bringing something back for her, if she wants,” Aspen said to Kendra. “Do you maybe want to go with me, if you don’t have any plans? I don’t know if you’re covering the later matches or not.”

“Just the four o’clock one. That’s the last on center court today,” she replied.

“So, maybe around seven?” Aspen asked.

Kendra swallowed because she could not go to a restaurant and simply sit across a table from this woman without making it even more obvious that she thought Aspen was incredibly sexy, even in a pair of blue flip-flops.

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