Mindy watched her until she was gone. She didn’t know if she could handle having a girl who would tease her that way, saying she might not contact her again.
But she didn’t think she could handle the other option, which would be cutting off Shayna herself. So she would just have to live with the uncertainty.
And in the meantime, she could get back to work.
Chapter 5
Mindy’s head buzzed without focusing. She was at ArriveSpace, working on one of her daily tasks, trying to reach out to new clients, by going on a site she alway enjoyed where designers competed to be chosen for a project by creating a design to particular specifications.
It was a lot of work for not very much money—since she was far from guaranteed to be chosen and even on the infrequent (but improving) number of times that she was chosen, it was less than a hundred dollars for what might end up being several hours’ work—but Mindy usually loved it. She needed the stretch to her skills, and it was a great way to meet new clients. In fact, it was how she had connected to her favorite client, the one she’d done the movie poster for over the weekend.
That job had gone very well. After Shayna left, Mindy had gone back to it, and returned the revisions to the client within the hour. They had pronounced it perfect and had promised payment by the end of the week. Mindy would have appreciated prompter payment, of course, but that was usually a pipe dream, and this client hadn’t stiffed her yet.
Today’s competition design was not going so well. Mindy had picked something she thought would be interesting and challenging, an idea she thought she could focus on… and yet all she had so far was a few scribbles.
She sighed and rested her chin in her hands. The movement drew her eyes to the clock in the corner of the screen. It was almost time to leave for roller derby.
She immediately jumped up, saved the scribbles she’d done, and closed up her laptop. Roller derby was what she needed. She loved her job, and she focused on it as much as possible, but even Mindy knew that her brain needed a break sometimes. That was exactly her problem today.
“Off to derby practice?” Dena asked her, looking up from the desk she shared with her brother Alex as Mindy packed her things into her derby bag.
“It must be Tuesday,” Alex commented.
“It sure is,” Mindy said. “Today I get to find out which of my teammates made it onto the all-star team.”
“Will you miss them?” Dena asked.
Mindy shrugged. “Sure, but they won’t be gone long, and I’m excited for them. Besides, the tournament is going to be awesome!”
She headed out of the building, saying goodbye to all her friends, and grabbed her coat before heading out to meet the bus. She frowned up at the gray skies as she went. She wasn’t a fan of November, stuck as it was in a dull space between the warm brightness of summer and the cheerfulness of the winter holidays. At least she had derby to get her through it.
The bus took her almost to the space where they practiced derby, but before she’d walked the couple of blocks, it had begun to rain. She ran the last few yards, clutching her bag protectively to her chest—there was a lot of important equipment in it, and she didn’t want the pieces banging around in there and injuring each other.
She saw a few cars already parked in the lot, so some of her teammates had driven. Maybe she could beg a ride home from one of them if it was still raining when they left.
Shelly, Tara, Lisa, and Christy were already there. “Hey,” Mindy greeted them, giving Shelly a hug. “So how many team members are we down?”
“Three,” Shelly said proudly. “Gayle, Megan, and Leya all made it onto the Sisterly Love All-Stars.”
“That’s awesome!” Mindy put her bag in a locker, puller out her derby clothes—her laptop was fine—and began to change.
“They won’t be at our practices, will they?” Christy asked.
“No, they have to practice with the all-star team every day. The tournament is just over a month away; they have to really be ready.”
“Our practice is going to be really quiet,” Mindy said, waving at Kristine, then Tiffany, as they came in.
“Don’t think that means I’m going to go easy on you.” Shelly grinned, looking around at all of them. “I’m about to whip you into shape. Next year the all-star team will be all Monsters.”
“Woo!” Mindy cheered, but she was the only one. A few others laughed, but everyone was chatting and getting changed. Mindy shoved her feet into her skates and got them laced up.
Helen was the last to arrive, looking downcast, but she brightened when she saw Mindy. “Hey, you didn’t make it either. I’m not the only one.”
“Nope.” Mindy grinned and shrugged. “Which just proves my point that they had to pick randomly, in the end. If you and I didn’t make it on, they were just making sure they could fill out a team.” So she’d been having that conversation with Shayna, not anyone on the team—that was fine. They got the idea.
Helen snorted. “Yeah, sure. Thanks for the ego boost.”
“Next year we’ll do better.” She rolled her feet back and forth impatiently, waiting for everyone to be ready so they could get on the track.
“Okay, everybody, listen up,” Shelly called when everyone was dressed and almost all of them had their skates on. “We’re going to do some fun stuff, all right? But we’re also going to work hard, because our three best players are gone for a couple of months, and we want to totally impress them when they come back.”
Mindy cheered again. This time a few people joined her.
“Mindy, Helen, do you want to lead a practice?”
“What, me?” Mindy laughed.
“No way,” Helen said, shaking her head emphatically. “I’m a follower, Shelly, you know me.”
“I mean it,” Shelly said, looking at both of them. “You two were the other ones Amelia spoke to. You obviously have something.”
“Let me think about it,” Mindy said. “Not today.” She couldn’t reject the offer the way Helen had, but she wasn’t sure it was something she wanted to do, either. Lead a practice? Tell other people what to do? That sounded like a lot more thinking than she wanted to do during roller derby. Half the reason she did this was to get out of her own head for a little while.
“No problem,” Shelly said. “All right, ladies, let’s practice some speed. Come on.” She led them out onto the track and divided them into two groups, five at one line, five at another, with Shelly on the line behind the second group.
“Speed laps!” she called from behind them. “Five times around the track, as fast as you can. And, go!”
Mindy took off, laughing with exhilaration as the wind of her speed flung her hair back over her shoulders. This was so much fun.
True to her word, Shelly worked them hard during that evening’s practice. Mindy skated fast, slow, and backward; she jumped cones, mats, and Tara; she blocked her teammates again and again. It was a wonderful time.
When she got home, she showered all the sweat off and immediately dived back into her competition design. Roller derby had been the break she needed, and apparently shaken something loose in her brain, because she completed what she thought was some of her best work less than an hour after getting back to it.
She submitted it to the site, went to the kitchen for a snack, and went back to her laptop deciding to work on a personal project—just something fun and different to add to her personal portfolio. It had been a few years since figure drawing class in college, so she went to a website for some figure drawing practice. It was after midnight by the time she’d tired herself out enough to go to bed.
In the morning an annoying buzzing sound awakened her. It was a phone alert.. She pulled her extra pillow over her head to block out the sound, intending to go right back to sleep, but in the time it took to do that, she woke up just enough to realize that the alert might be Shayna.
Groaning, Mindy rolled over so she could reach for her phone and drag it to her face. She swiped
it open and read the text, squinting in the dim light of morning. It was Shayna. Want to hang out this afternoon?
Sure, Mindy was typing back before she’d even finished reading the text. Where?
She was half hoping that Shayna would invite her to her own apartment, since she didn’t even know where it was and Shayna had now been to Mindy’s place twice, but the text that came back was, Your place?
Well, Mindy wasn’t going to turn down an opportunity to see Shayna, even if the location wasn’t quite what she’d hoped for. Anyway, that meant she didn’t have to get up anytime soon.
Though she would need to get some work done before Shayna got there.
Sounds good. What time will you be here?
Noon-ish.
I’ll be awake, Mindy texted back, but that was all she could promise.
With the plans made, she rolled over and went back to sleep.
Chapter 6
Mindy managed to wake up, get dressed, and check her email before Shayna arrived at her apartment, but that was about it. Her mind was still fuzzy with sleep and her muscles ached.
When she heard the doorbell ring, she yawned and walked over to open it, realizing that her stomach was rumbling. “Hey,” she said as she opened the door to Shayna, adorable as usual in another cropped sweater that just met the high waist of her jeans. “Want something to eat?”
Shayna raised her eyebrows as she stepped inside. “This is the second time you’ve tried to feed me while I’m at your apartment. Are you trying to fatten me up?”
Mindy shook her head and shut the door behind Shayna. “Just trying to be polite. I’m going to eat, and I figured as long as I’m making my own breakfast, I can make something for you, too. That way you don’t have to sit around and watch me eat.” She felt off-balance—last night’s derby practice had been harder on her than she’d realized. Maybe she should have been more like Helen and Tiffany, who had held back when they felt like they’d pushed themselves enough… but then she wouldn’t have had as much fun.
“You haven’t had breakfast yet? Mindy, it’s lunchtime.” Shayna put her purse on the table next to the couch and pulled out her phone. “Okay, it’s ten to twelve.”
“I don’t judge your life.” Mindy went into the kitchen and started looking for something to put together quickly. “I was up late, okay?”
“Doing what?”
“Working.”
Shayna sighed and looked around, draping her coat over her arm. “Is there somewhere better I can stick my coat than on the back of your couch? I notice you don’t have coats hanging around all over the place.”
“Closet,” Mindy said, pointing to the corner of the living room. “I don’t really have extra hangers, but there should be space, at least.” She turned back to the fridge and got out some eggs.
As she cracked the eggs into a frying pan, she could hear Shayna open the closet door. “I’ll just hang it here over your gold lamé bodysuit, shall I?” she called.
Mindy grinned. She didn’t own any such thing as a gold lamé bodysuit. “What’s mine is yours, babe. If it makes you feel better, you can get changed into the gold lamé bodysuit. I’m sure it’s more comfortable than what you’re wearing.”
The closet door shut, and Shayna came into the kitchen as Mindy put two pieces of bread in the toaster. “I don’t actually know what lamé is,” she confessed.
“Oh, good, because neither do I,” Mindy said. She checked on the eggs and turned so she could see Shayna, who was leaning with her hands and lower back against the counter, looking delectable. “I just know that it’s tacky, which means it might be something I would wear.”
“Certainly not something I would wear,” Shayna said, raising her eyebrows. “I always thought your style was pretty classy, actually. I love the button-down for roller derby.”
“You know that’s just to look like Bowie, right? The Thin White Duke?”
“I figured,” Shayna said with a nod. “But that’s cool, too. Most girls just use their names as silly puns. I mean, look at me, I use Manson Girl but I dress for the totally wrong era.”
“But it suits you so well,” Mindy said, sketching an hourglass figure with her hands before turning to make sure her eggs cooked correctly. “Anyway, what would you wear to look like the sixties? You could put flowers in your hair.”
Shayna hummed a bar of the song. “I like it. Kind of twisted. If you are going to San Francisco, be sure to put some flowers in your hair, and then get addicted to drugs and dragged into Charles Manson’s cult and kill people.”
Mindy laughed. “Okay, I didn’t mean it like that, but if it amuses you, I’m all for it.”
She felt warmth against her back—Shayna was standing right behind her suddenly. “You don’t find my dark obsession with murderers disturbing?”
Mindy turned off the stove and turned, pulling Shayna against her. “If you’re obsessed with murderers, I haven’t noticed it. Then again, I don’t think I’ve mentioned Bowie once to you, and I’m pretty obsessed with him.”
“Hmm.” Shayna tilted her head up toward Mindy, her hands on Mindy’s hips. “Actually, you have. You dressed as him for Halloween, right?”
“That’s right.” The toast popped up, and Mindy leaned forward to press a kiss to Shayna’s lips before turning to put her breakfast together. “And you didn’t dress up as Charles Manson, so I guess my obsession is stronger than yours.”
“I did dress up as the personification of Death.”
“And it was kind of hot.” Mindy flipped her eggs and toast onto a plate and spread one piece of toast thinly with jelly.
“Only kind of hot?” Shayna grinned, stepping out of the way and looking around the kitchen. “You don’t have any chairs in here.”
“It’s just me,” Mindy said, heading for the couch. “I usually eat at my desk while working, but since you’re here, I can be friendly and sit on the couch. You actually didn’t want anything to eat, right? You never answered my question.”
“I guess I didn’t.” Shayna followed Mindy out to the living room, but, instead of sitting with her on the couch, she continued walking around the room, looking at the small pieces of art on Mindy’s walls and the books and decor on her bookshelf. “But no, I don’t want anything right now, thanks. I may raid your cookie stash later.”
“Go for it.” Mindy cut and ate her food efficiently as she watched Shayna move around the room, as interested in what caught her attention as in the movement of her curves.
Shayna stopped to read almost all of the spines of Mindy’s books, but seemed even more interested in a small, framed art print she had on a shelf on its own. She picked it up to look more closely at it. “What’s this?”
“A friend of mine from college did that. It’s called Woman Alone.” The print showed a woman, half in shadow, standing in a doorway in a dark room. It was eerie, but had always attracted Mindy.
“I like it.” Shayna put it back in place carefully, then stood with her hands on her hips, looking around the room. “I like your apartment. It’s very you.”
“Well, thank you.” Mindy grinned and leaned back in her seat. “I’ve lived here for a while and, well, I think I have excellent taste. I’m glad to hear that something that makes you think ‘Mindy’ is also something you like.”
Shayna smiled. “Did you doubt it?” She walked over to the couch.
“I don’t know,” Mindy teased. “You keep dodging the question of whether you want to be my girlfriend.”
“You haven’t asked that question.” She sat down next to Mindy, leaning on her shoulder.
“Haven’t I?”
Shayna grinned up at Mindy. “Not directly.”
“No hinting with you, huh?” Mindy put her arm around Shayna and pulled her close. “All right, here goes. Do you want to be my girlfriend?”
“Sure.”
“Well, that was easy. Jeez, if I’d known it was that easy all throughout high school, I might even be married by now.” Mindy’s to
ne was light, but her heart was fluttering. She shouldn’t have been surprised, but… well, she hadn’t had much luck in the last few years, and Shayna had already seen her at her worst: messy and mumbling in the morning, unable to pull herself away from work in the evening.
“Okay, that’s going a little far.” Shayna snuggled in close, the curve of her spine meeting the curve of Mindy’s side.
“Oh, you don’t want to get married? You should have said something earlier. I’ve got everything all set up—the rabbi, the cake, invitations sent to your parents…”
Shayna snorted and smacked Mindy’s knee. “Don’t even joke about that.”
“What, cake? I know you take it seriously. I’m sorry, darling. I should have ordered from Buttercup Cakery. Well, scrap that wedding, we’ll do better on the next one.”
“That’s better. I knew I could count on you.”
Mindy hugged her close and kissed the top of her head. She shifted position, lifting her legs onto the couch and turning so that she was facing Shayna and could see her face from above… and, not coincidentally, her breasts. She arranged herself into a cross-legged position and pulled Shayna gently back against her chest. “Is that comfortable?”
“Yeah, it is. Are you?”
“Yeah, sure. I have the arm of the couch behind me.” Her muscles were still sore, so she knew she might not be able to keep the exact position forever, but it really was nice to have Shayna lying back against her like this. “And in seriousness, I’ll avoid any subject you don’t want jokes on, so was it the rabbi, the invitations, or the whole idea of weddings?”
Shayna smirked, raising her eyes to look at Mindy above her. “I can take what you dish out, unless it involves either of us talking to my parents.”
“No parents. Got it. My parents are great, by the way. We can meet them whenever you want.”
“Hmm, let’s wait on that a bit. I don’t want to be the sexy lesbian corrupting their little girl.”
Mindy snorted. “First of all, I may be the youngest but I’m no little girl. Second of all, my older sister is both gay and trans, so if they weren’t upset with her, they won’t be upset with me. Third of all, my parents are lesbians and if anything, they’re disappointed in Tamar for being straight.”
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