23. Kelly

Kelly

I was sitting at a table castigating myself for maxing out my credit card on a one-way ticket to Austin in the hope of somehow finding Betsy when a notification popped up on my phone that I had an email.

By the time I thumbed it open, I had a second one. I read Betsy's second email about five times, trying to verify that I wasn't hallucinating. When I'd reassured myself that it was real, I shot off a text.

Her timing was impeccable.

Betsy: Stay right where you are. I'll be there in thirty minutes. Forty-five if I obey traffic laws.

Me: Please obey the traffic laws. I can wait another fifteen minutes.

Exactly forty-eight minutes later I saw Betsy jog into the coffee shop. Her eyes locked on me, she made a beeline for my table. By the time I stood up she was there, grabbing my face between her hands and kissing me like I'd just returned from war or something.

"Holy fuck I missed you," she gasped as we pulled apart.

At the next table, some older lady made a sound of disapproval. We both ignored her.

"Did you really come here to find me?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah I realized when I got home that we'd never exchanged numbers and, well, I really missed you."

Her whole face lit up. "Let's go to my place where we can talk."

She grabbed one of my roller suitcases in one hand and threaded the fingers of her other hand through mine, leading me to the short-term parking garage where she'd left her car. We made small talk the entire way back to her place, talking about the weather, the reception we'd received when we got back from the Games, anything but the words she'd shared in her emails.

"Oh, you'll never guess who reached out to me when I got back to Colorado," I said.

"Who?"

"My parents. I haven't heard from then in ten years, but apparently now that I'm a gold medal winner, they want to meet and catch up."

"How did they even find you?" she asked as she turned the car down a residential street. "Don't they live in Kansas?"

"They're friends with the parents of one of my long-time friends and asked them to ask their daughter to relay the message to me. Once I stopped laughing, I told my friend to let my parents know they can go fuck themselves. Not that I think the message will be relayed."

"Wow, they have some nerve."

She pulled into the driveway of a cute little cottage. It had a beautiful old tree in the front yard, and a swing on the porch. I liked it immediately.

"This is home," she announced.

"Do you live here alone?" I asked, realizing we'd never talked about it. Then again there were a lot of things we didn't talk about in Paris, probably because we were too busy fucking. Oh, and playing volleyball.

After our part of the Games were done we spent four days exploring Paris, visiting landmarks, eating in little Parisian cafes, walking hand in hand along the Seine, then making each other come over and over again when we got back to our room. It had been perfect, just the two of us in our little bubble, until it was time to go home.

I'd spent the entire ride to the airport practicing what I should say. But then Betsy had just kissed me goodbye and left me at my gate and my heart had broken. Yesterday I'd finally realized that if I never said anything about my feelings I'd always regret it, so I hopped on a plane to Austin Texas, not realizing until I got here that Austin was a big city, and I had no way to find her.

At least until I received Betsy's email – which is when I realized I could have just sent her an email and saved five hundred bucks.

"Yeah, I live alone," she said, answering my earlier question. "I normally couldn't afford a place like this on a teacher's salary. Austin's housing market is ridiculous. But my grandmother left me a nice inheritance when she died, and I used it to get this house."

"That's awesome," I said wistfully. If she noticed my sad tone, she didn't comment.

I followed Betsy into her house, admiring the simple but comfortable furnishings, the warm environment, and the very affectionate orange cat I found stretched out on the couch.

"Who's this?" I asked.

"Dominic. I found him in my yard one day and he never left."

I petted the cat's back while he purred loud enough that I was surprised the couch didn't shake.

"You want something to drink?"

"Sure."

Betsy got us each a bottle of water. We sat at the table in the bright kitchen and after a long, awkward silence I spoke up.

"About your email…"

Betsy's eyes flew to mine.

"I love you too."

Her face lit up. "Oh my God, really?"

I nodded. "Really. But there's something I need to tell you. Well, three things."

"Hit me."

"First, I'm homeless."

"You can move to Austin and stay here," she said.

"You don't know me well enough to ask me to stay here," I protested.

"Sure I do," she scoffed. "We lived together for like two weeks in Paris, I'm already familiar with your more annoying habits."

I resisted pointing out that I could say the same about her.

"I'm unemployed."

"You'll get a job here. Anything would be better than that shitty sales job you had. What's the third thing?"

"I've never had a long-term relationship before."

She gave me another smile. "Don't worry, I'm glad to be your first, and we can figure that one out together."

"So, we're going to try this then? Being together?"

Betsy popped out of her seat and kneeled down next to me. "I love you. You love me. We've already seen each other at our worst. You'll move in, get a job, and we'll see how things go, how about that?"

"It feels like it's happening kind of fast."

Really, I was fine with it, but I didn't want Betsy to feel pressured.

"You can stay in the guest room if that makes you feel any better," she offered.

"Only if you stay there with me," I replied.

Betsy pushed my chair back and straddled my lap. "You can't get rid of me now."

Our mouths crashed together in a kiss that left us both breathless. We stared at each other for about ten seconds, then kissed again until we were practically dry humping each other on the kitchen chair.

"How about I show you my bedroom now?" Betsy asked, scooting off my lap and pulling me up behind her.

"You always have the best ideas."