CHAPTER 27

Six hours from now, Drew would be seeing her girlfriend of just over two weeks. No, they weren’t celebrating it like a big anniversary or anything, but Drew had been keeping track of the days like a schoolgirl with a crush who had finally gone on a date with the person she liked. Drew had turned into a romantic sap, and she didn’t even care.

They’d texted pretty much non-stop when not in training or otherwise working, and they’d talked on the phone every night and, sometimes, in the mornings if Selma had time before Gia woke up and she needed to get her to school or make her breakfast. At night, they would use FaceTime, and Drew loved staring at Selma across the screen while they talked about literally anything. She would have, of course, liked it even more if Selma were actually with her in person, but seeing her in any way was still better than not seeing her at all.

Progressively, things had gone from them saying they missed each other, being a little on the overly sappy side, to Selma asking if Drew could take her shirt off so she could see her in her sports bra while they talked. Drew would oblige and request the same. Soon, Selma was asking Drew to angle the camera a little more in order to see the skin that had just been revealed, and Drew would watch Selma bite her bottom lip.

“I miss you,” Selma had revealed after that. “I loved having my hands on your stomach that night.”

“I miss you, too, babe. Can I see you now?” Drew had asked three nights ago.

“You can. But do you really want to? I have–”

“If you say you still have stretch marks one more time, I’m going to punish you when I see you.”

“Oh, yeah? How would you do that, exactly?”

“Hover my lips over every inch of your body but never actually kiss you.”

“Oh, you’re evil,” Selma had replied through her laughter. “And it’s just that I’ve had a kid, and Gia wasn’t exactly the easiest birth. She was a big baby. I tried all the creams and stuff, but nothing seemed to get rid of them.”

“Selma?”

“Yeah?”

“Babe, I love your body. Can I tell you something?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve gotten myself off nearly every day since I last saw you, and I’ve pictured that beautiful body of yours while I’m doing it.”

“You–” Selma hadn’t said anything else after that.

“Yes. And I can’t wait to touch you again.”

Another hour down now, and five hours from now, Drew would be seeing her girlfriend again. She’d checked into the hotel early by her own request since the room was ready, and she’d asked for some champagne and a cheese board, too, hoping they could have a celebratory drink and snacks before going out for their date. She’d planned to take Selma to a nice, American-style eatery this time that she’d been to a bunch and really liked herself. After that, since it wasn’t as cold as the last time they’d seen each other, she hoped to take a walk around town and hold Selma’s hand, maybe stop somewhere for a coffee or hot chocolate, and come back to the room. The rest of the week would be filled with the two of them doing their job, but tonight was all about them, and Drew couldn’t wait.

With the champagne in their room and on ice, she’d headed down the elevator from the third floor, sat in a lobby chair, and waited anxiously for Selma to appear. She wasn’t sure why she was so nervous, but when Selma walked in through the automatic doors, Drew stood up and hurried over to her, taking the roller bag out of Selma’s hand and moving it to her own side.

“Hi,” she greeted, leaned in, and kissed Selma sweetly on the lips. “God, I missed you.”

“Hi. I missed you, too,” Selma replied. “Can we…” She leaned her board bag against the wall and moved back into Drew, wrapping her arms around her neck and letting Drew wrap her own around Selma’s waist. “Do that again, please? But for real this time?”

Drew leaned back in and kissed her more deeply, not taking it too far since they were in the middle of the lobby but still making it clear that she’d missed kissing this woman.

“Upstairs?” Drew asked.

“I guess I don’t need to check in myself, huh?”

“Nope. All taken care of. I’ll get your board if you roll this.” She passed Selma back the roller bag.

“So chivalrous,” Selma teased. “When we get upstairs, I’ll need just a minute to let Grandma know I’m here, and I might also have to talk to Gia because she’s getting a test result back today, and for the first time in her entire life, she’s a little worried about how she did.”

“Chemistry?” Drew asked, grabbing Selma’s board.

“Yeah. How did you know?”

“You mentioned she didn’t like it as much as physics, so I guessed.”

They walked toward the elevators after Drew took Selma’s hand.

“Can we maybe talk about her for a minute?”

“Gia? Yeah, of course.” Drew pressed the elevator call button.

“Um… It’s awkward.”

“What’s awkward?”

“We’re together now.”

“Okay…”

“I don’t have a ton of experience with relationships, but in my previous one, I didn’t let him meet Gia. We were only together for six months. He was a great guy, and he wanted to meet her, and he understood that I was a mom first, but every time he asked, I said no.”

“Why?”

“It just didn’t feel right. I don’t know that it ever really did with me, and that’s probably why I resisted letting him meet her, but I’m usually very cautious with my kid. She’s my child, yes, but she’s also really special. She’s emotionally very sensitive and only nine years old, even though she thinks she’s forty.”

The elevator arrived, and they got inside. Drew wasn’t sure where this conversation was going, but she had a slight idea and was a little worried.

“You’ve already met her, though, and she adores you,” Selma continued. “She asks if she can call you all the time. And you’re so great with her, Drew.”

“But you only let us talk once between the last trip and today,” Drew said with a nod. “You want me to cool it with her?”

“Not exactly. I don’t know what the right thing to do is.”

Drew turned to her and said, “I’ll respect whatever you want, Selma. I know Gia is your daughter; I’ll follow your rules. I know you’re worried because it was different when we were just friends, but Gia doesn’t need to know we’re dating until you’re ready to tell her. Everything can be how it was before for her. I’m okay with that. And if you want me to not talk to her as often, I won’t, but I…”

“You really like my kid, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Drew replied as the elevator doors opened. “Don’t take this the wrong way – I definitely miss the two of you very differently – but I do miss her, too. She’s just like this little you. I love talking to her, drawing with her, or hanging out with her.”

“She’s not a little me.” Selma chuckled as they made their way down the hall.

“What are you talking about? She looks just like you. She also taps her foot and crosses her arms just like you, and she’s smart and funny like you, too.”

“She is not smart like me. She’s smart like the people in MENSA. I am not in MENSA.”

“Babe, people can be smart differently. Even though you joke that you don’t know where she got it from, she had to get it from you, if her sperm donor is basically a dunce.”

“Sperm donor?”

“I can’t really call him a father or a dad, can I?” Drew unlocked the room door. “I will if you want me to, and I’d never say that around Gia, but he’s not a father if he’s not around and not helping you raise her.”

“I agree,” Selma said.

Drew motioned for her to go into the room first, and she followed Selma in, closing the door behind them.

“All I’m saying is that you have nothing to worry about.”

“That’s not possible. I’m a parent, Drew.”

Drew put Selma’s board next to her own.

“Wow! This room is…” Selma looked around.

“I’m not going anywhere, Selma.”

Selma turned to face her and said, “We just started dating. You can’t know that.”

“What I mean is that as long as you’re okay with me being in her life, I will be. Even if you and I don’t work out, I’ll still be there for her. And yes, I can’t know what’s going to happen with us, but I know what I hope will happen.”

“What’s that?”

“I want this to work. I want this, Selma. I want us to figure out how it works, with you there and me here. I don’t have a ton of money, but I’ve got some sponsorship and endorsement money that I put away because I didn’t need it to live on, so I’ve got savings. I know you can’t just move to the US, and I can’t just move there without taking some steps, but I want to do that one day. I want us to have that to work toward, whatever that looks like for us. It’s been two weeks, yeah, but I know what I want: I want you and Gia in my life, however I can get you. I’m crazy about you, and I want this to work.” Drew moved her index finger back and forth between them. “So, you tell me what you want, and we find a way to have it. Or, we meet in the middle on some things, and we go from there.”

Selma looked off to the side for a second before she asked, “Is that champagne?”

“Yeah. And a cheese plate,” Drew added, motioning to it. “I thought we’d celebrate being in the same room again before we go to dinner. I didn’t expect this conversation.”

“Oh, babe… I’m sorry.” Selma moved to Drew, and her hands, surprisingly, went under Drew’s shirt and rested on her stomach. “I shouldn’t have blurted all that out while we were just coming up here. We could’ve talked about that later.”

“We can talk about it whenever. I just wasn’t expecting it now, so I did a thing, but it’s okay. We can skip it and keep talking.”

“What? No way. We’re having that champagne and cheese, and I’m going to spend time with my girlfriend, who I missed. We’re also going to talk about the stuff we want to talk about and not the stuff we can talk about later, like the logistics of one of us moving to a different country one day, which seems like a lot for only being together for two weeks.” Selma winked at her.

“So, I should cancel my visa application?” she joked.

“For now,” Selma replied and wrapped her hands around Drew’s back, rubbing it up and down over Drew’s skin in mesmerizing patterns.

“If you keep doing that, I’m going to want to do something else,” Drew told her.

“Like what?” Selma asked in a teasing tone.

“You know what, Selma.”

“Well, you did get us this fancy room,” Selma replied.

“Don’t tease,” Drew said, quirking an eyebrow.

Selma smiled up at her and told her, “I’m ready.”

“You are?”

“If you are, I’m ready.”

“Wait. Right now?”

“Not right now. You did a whole thing, and I know you made a dinner reservation. It doesn’t have to be tonight after that, either. I just want you to know that I’m ready. I don’t want you to hold back like I know you did the last time we were together. I want you.”

“I want you,” Drew said and kissed her nose. “In all ways, beautiful.”

“Will you pour us some champagne while I go to the bathroom?”

“Of course.”

Selma kissed her quickly and turned to go. Drew took a deep breath and reached for the bottle.

“There’s a hot tub in here?!” Selma yelled from the bathroom.

“It’s a jacuzzi tub,” she corrected.

“I don’t care what you call it. This thing has jets! We’re using it!”

Drew chuckled.