But she refused to let Shayna down by canceling or postponing their afternoon, so she made another pot of coffee—”Everyone likes coffee, right?” she asked her reflection in the coffee machine—and threw together a sandwich, which she devoured while waiting for the coffee to brew and Shayna to arrive.
She was just licking the crumbs off her finger when the doorbell rang and she jumped—she’d forgotten how obnoxious the doorbell was.
She hurried to the door and opened it without checking to make sure it was Shayna there, but of course it was, looking cute as ever in another pair of high-waisted jeans, this time with a puff-sleeved blouse tucked into them.
“Hi, Shayna! Come in!” Mindy said enthusiastically, partly to hide her own embarrassment at seeing how nicely dressed Shayna was. It hadn’t even occurred to Mindy to change her clothes, though it should have—she was still wearing the same pajama bottoms and tank top she’d put on when she went to bed, with no bra.
Maybe that would be an advantage if things went well today. But she wasn’t going to count on it.
Shayna looked her up and down and her lip twitched, but she didn’t say anything about Mindy’s clothes. “Is that coffee I smell?”
“Yeah, do you want a cup?” Mindy shut the door and moved toward the small kitchen.
“That would be lovely. It’s been a long day.” Shayna stopped to toss her coat over the back of Mindy’s couch.
“How so?” Mindy chose a Disney mug for herself and—she knew she had a Harry Potter-related mug in here somewhere…
“I went in to do an extra shift at work this morning. They were short-staffed so they had me doing some of the icing on the cupcakes, but they had a lot of criticism. If they’d just take some time to teach me how to do it properly I could help out a lot more. I’ve even offered to come in on my days off, unpaid, but they don’t want to fit me in.”
“Is that what you want to do?” There it was, a stylized Harry Potter head with the lightning scar. She poured coffee into each cup. “Do you want creamer? Sugar?”
“Black, thanks. Yeah, I guess. I don’t know, I…” Shayna sighed and reached for the cup as Mindy handed it to her. Then she looked at the image and burst out laughing. “You’re a Harry Potter nerd, too!”
Mindy grinned. “No, I just collect graphic mugs. I’m not really into Disney but I love the way Tinker Bell looks on this mug.” She showed Shayna the glittery, smirking Tinker Bell. “I thought you might appreciate the Harry Potter one.”
“Well, thanks, Mindy. I do appreciate it.” Shayna rose up on her toes to kiss Mindy on the cheek. “And the coffee. And those Girl Scout cookies…?”
“Do you want any real food first? I have stuff for sandwiches.”
“No, I ate on the way here.”
Mindy slurped up some coffee, then opened her freezer. She had an unopened box of Thin Mints and a half-eaten one of Samoas, so she got them both out and spread them on a tray.
Shayna immediately nabbed a Thin Mint and popped it into her mouth with a sigh. “How do you even have any cookies left? Isn’t cookie season in the winter?”
“February,” Mindy said with a nod. “I just buy a few boxes and keep them in the freezer all year.”
“A few boxes,” Shayna said, shaking her head and stuffing another cookie into her mouth. “I’d need a hundred to keep me stocked up.”
“Wouldn’t you get sick of cookies after a few months?”
“I could never get sick of cookies.” She grabbed another, but took a sip of her coffee before taking a bite. “What a perfect combination.”
“You think so? Chocolate and coffee, sure, but the mint…” Mindy took an experimental nibble of a Thin Mint, then washed it down with a gulp of coffee. “I guess it goes okay.” She picked up a Samoa. “This is a better combination, though.”
“Hmm.” Shayna took a bigger swallow of her coffee, then nabbed a Samoa and took a big bite. As soon as she sipped her coffee, she was nodding. “It’s like a perfect caramel latte, with the touch of coconut—delicious. If any coffee shop ever made drinks like this, I’d be a customer for life.”
“I see next year I’ll have to buy a lot more boxes of cookies to keep you around,” Mindy said with a grin.
Shayna raised her eyebrows. “Is that in the budget?”
Mindy smiled wryly and leaned against the counter. “I do find a way for the important things, but at my current income rate, no. I keep looking for the big job, the client that will pay me what I’m really worth, but…”
“The real world doesn’t work that way,” Shayna finished for her.
Mindy shook her head. “I was going to say, I haven’t found them yet. Or maybe I have.” She remembered the job she’d been up half the night working on. Assuming the client didn’t want more than one revision and she kept getting the same amount of work through November as she had in October and September, then her emergency fund would be half full. The problem with the freelance life, though, was that you couldn’t count on one month being the same as the last. She had that flexibility built into her budget, but it made it hard to plan for the future.
In fact, thinking about that client, she had to resist the urge to rush to her laptop to see whether they’d responded. She wanted to see if she would be doing any more work today, but even if they’d sent back a specific revision request, she couldn’t exactly do it now. How could she explain to Shayna that she was cutting their afternoon short to go back to work?
“Do you really think a perfect client like that is out there?”
“I didn’t say perfect,” Mindy said. “But yeah, I think if there is someone out there who will pay me enough to break me out of the month-to-month cycle I’m in, I’ll find them. I’m constantly putting out feelers, participating in contests, that sort of thing. Everything to find new clients and develop my skills.”
“Constantly?”
“I do something to find new clients every single day, Monday through Friday. I have accountability with my friends at ArriveSpace—that’s the coworking space where I go during the week. They check on me to make sure I’ve done my task for the day, even if I’m busy with other work.”
“Okay, I’m impressed,” Shayna said, setting her coffee cup down on the counter. “That’s real dedication.”
“What, you didn’t think I could really focus on something?” Mindy teased.
Shayna shook her head, her pretty lips serious. “I think it’s admirable. I don’t have anything in my life I’m that dedicated to.”
“Not even roller derby?”
“I don’t practice the way I should.” She shrugged. “I always have ideas for things I should be doing differently—like, I would probably be stronger and faster if I did squats on my own time, joined a gym, or just stopped eating so many sweets.” She picked up another cookie with a grin. “But I don’t have that kind of discipline.”
“You’re already amazing,” Mindy said. “Why bother to work any harder?”
“The all-star team.”
Mindy waved that away. “You’re a fantastic player. You’ll make the team, and we’ll find that out any minute now.”
Shayna smiled. “And what if I do make the team, but because I’m just a little bit slower than I could be if I worked harder, we lose the first game of the tournament?”
“Why worry about something that might not even happen?”
“Because it should motivate me. I should be better at roller derby.”
“But why should you? It’s fun, right? That’s half the point, for me—I spend the rest of my time working, so I need something that’s fun with no pressure to take my mind off of design for a while. And it’s not like derby is a professional sport, so you couldn’t make a living at it.”
“I don’t think I’d want to,” Shayna said, then sighed, picking crumbs out of the plastic tray the Samoas were in. “It is fun. I just think it would be more fun if I were better.” She tossed the crumbs into her mouth and straightened. “Why would you try out for the
all-star team if you want no pressure? Surely that’s more pressure than anything else could be, trying to represent the entire city at the tournament.”
“I never thought of it that way. It just seemed like the fun thing to do at the time.” Mindy was saved by having to think about that any more by a loud trill coming from her computer—she still had the volume turned up from the loud music she’d been listening to last night while she worked—reminding her of her client again. It was probably them, so maybe she should just take a quick peek at it…
“Was that your phone?” Shayna asked, looking around.
“My laptop,” Mindy said. “It’s my email alert.”
Shayna’s eyes widened and she licked her fingers before rushing into the living room. Mindy followed her curiously and saw her digging into the pocket of her pink trench coat. She pulled out a smartphone and started swiping at the screen.
She sighed. “I don’t have any new emails.”
“It’s probably my client,” Mindy said.
Shayna looked up at her and flapped her hand. “Go check it anyway! It could be roller derby—maybe you got in and I didn’t.”
“That’s just crazy talk,” Mindy said, but she was happy for the excuse to sit down on the couch and check her email. It was indeed a response from her client, and she gave in to the urge to open it and see what they had to say. Great work, was the first line, making her glow, though it was followed up by a couple of small change requests and one bigger, vaguer one. They wanted it to look less feminine but more romantic. How would she go about…
“Mindy?” Shayna was leaning on the back of the couch, looking down at her. “Did you get in?”
Mindy shook her head and quickly went back to her inbox. She could think about the client request later. “It was my client. I haven’t gotten anything from derby.”
Shayna sighed and came around the couch to sit next to Mindy. “Can I see what you’re working on? I’m curious now.”
“Sure!” Mindy changed windows to show Shayna the mock movie poster. It showed three line-art silhouettes, all faceless. Maybe it was the flower in one person’s hair that made it look feminine. But that had been a specific request, and flowers were romantic, weren’t they?
Oh, the curl of hair in front of one person’s shoulder. That could definitely go. Either it should be straight hair instead, or it should be shorter—that would be less feminine. She saved a new version, her keyboard shortcut making it effortless, and started erasing.
“Mindy? What are you doing?”
“Oh!” She’d forgotten Shayna was there. How could she do something so idiotic? She dragged her hands away from the keyboard. “The client wanted some revisions. I was just working on them. Sorry, I see work and immediately my mind goes into work gear.”
“Wow.” Shayna was staring at her.
Mindy looked away, embarrassed. “What can I say? I do what I love.”
“No, I mean, that’s awesome. You’re lucky to be able to do that.”
She nodded. “I know. On many levels, I know I’m lucky.”
Before they could say anything else, Mindy’s laptop trilled again. They both jumped. As Mindy tabbed to her email, Shayna grabbed her phone again. “I have an email,” she said in a strangled voice.
Mindy had a new email, too, and it wasn’t from her client. The subject line read SISTERLY LOVE ALL-STARS NEWS.
She turned and grinned over her shoulder at Shayna. “Want to open it at the same time and see the good news?”
“I don’t think it’s good news,” Shayna said.
“Of course it is! Come on, are you ready?”
Shayna took a deep breath, opened her mouth, and then closed it again. Finally she said, “Okay, let’s do it.”
Mindy double-clicked on the email to open it.
Hi ladies,
You were all so awesome on the derby track! Believe us when we say it was incredibly difficult to pick our top fourteen for the team. Philadelphia has amazing derby talent, and we can all be proud of that.
We’re sorry it took so long for this email to come out—that’s how long it took us to make our final decisions. Unfortunately, this is the email going to those of you who didn’t make the final cut.
Keep working hard and playing even harder, and we hope you’ll all be back for next year’s tryouts!
Love,
Faith and Kendall
Mindy let out a shaky breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding. Her stomach felt as though a large rock had been dropped into it.
They hadn’t made it onto the team. Well, she hadn’t. She turned to look at Shayna, who was still staring at her phone. Was she reading the email, or had she already finished it and was unable to take it in? There were spots of pink on both her cheeks. They were extremely attractive, but Mindy wasn’t about to say that to her if they weren’t spots of happiness.
They probably were, though. She was blushing because of how great the coaches thought she was. Obviously she was too good a player to be left out. Mindy had probably just been bumped because Shayna was on the team.
She gave it a few more moments, swallowing hard and waiting for Shayna to react, then elbowed her gently. “Hey, how about it? Did you make it?”
Shayna finally looked up. “No. They rejected me. I knew it. But you made it?”
Disappointed, Mindy shook her head. “Nope. Didn’t make the final cut. At our level, though, they were probably just rolling dice for each of us. They had to pick somebody so they could start practicing, and we just got the wrong roll.”
Shayna sat back on the couch and shook her head. “How can you say that? There were so many good players on the track, we probably weren’t even in the running. We have to work a lot harder if we’re going to have any chance of making it next year.”
“Why assume it’s our fault? We’re both really good players.”
“Why assume it’s just up to chance, and that we can’t do anything to help ourselves?” Shayna countered.
Mindy shook her head. “Why don’t you ask Amelia how they chose?”
“If she knows, she won’t tell me.” Shayna looked back at her phone. “I bet she’s on the team, though. I could ask her… but what if she didn’t make it? I don’t want to bug her and make her as depressed as I am.”
“I’ll call my teammates and see if they made it,” Mindy said. She had to get up and hunt for her phone. Shayna stayed silent on the couch while she did, and she called Gayle as she walked back to the couch, but it went straight to voicemail. She frowned and tried Megan, but she didn’t answer, either. Leya didn’t give out her number, and Helen hadn’t made it to the second round of tryouts.
She could call Shelly, the team captain, who might have heard from one of the others… but that was silly, when they would have practice on Tuesday, and she would find out who had made it onto the all-star team by just seeing who didn’t show up. By then Shelly would definitely have the news.
“No answers,” she told Shayna. “I guess Megan and Gayle are celebrating.”
“Or they’re so depressed that they didn’t make it that they’re ignoring all phone calls and hiding from the world,” Shayna pointed out. She stood up and grabbed her trench coat from the back of the couch. “I guess I’ll head home.”
Mindy jumped up, ignoring the part of her that said that when Shayna was gone, she could get back to work on her project with no guilt. She took Shayna’s free hand before she could start putting the coat on. “Hey, just because we didn’t get in doesn’t mean we have to stop hanging out. Why don’t you stick around? We can go out to dinner or something.”
Shayna raised her eyebrows. “Can you afford to take me out to dinner? I thought you used up your date budget.”
Mindy grinned. “You’re right about that. Okay, we can have dinner in, but when this client pays me, I’ll treat you to something really nice.”
“Do you think you’re going to keep wanting to see me then?”
“Hell yeah, I will,” Mi
ndy said, squeezing Shayna’s hand. “I like you a lot, and I don’t see any reason to stop seeing you. Not when we’ve just found out we have plenty of time in between derby practices to date more.”
Shayna laughed. “Okay, how about we see each other in the afternoon sometime this week? I’m not great at staying out late, not when I have to be up for work four mornings a week.”
“Afternoons work,” Mindy said. “You sure you won’t stay for now?”
“Nah.” Shayna gently released her hand and shrugged on her coat. “I need to go home and eat my feelings about missing out on the all-star team.”
“There are some cookies left,” Mindy pointed out.
“These are more ice cream feelings. Do you have ice cream?”
Mindy shook her head in disappointment. “I guess I can let you leave, then.”
Shayna grinned, then stood on her tiptoes to kiss Mindy on the lips. “Soon enough I’ll be hanging around so much that you’ll get sick of me.”
“I could never get sick of you.” She walked with Shayna to the door.
“Then I’ll get sick of you,” Shayna said. “But until then, I’ll text you, okay?”
“Text is good,” Mindy said. “Or call. Or email.”
“You’re starting to sound desperate,” Shayna said. She was standing in the hallway. Mindy knew she should let her leave, but she didn’t want her to go. Maybe she was a little desperate.
“Fine,” she said. “Go, eat your ice cream, text me, whatever. As long as I hear from you, I don’t care how you contact me.”
“If you never hear from me again, that’ll be because I decided I don’t like you,” Shayna said. “And you’ll just have to live in disappointment.”
Mindy shook her head, grinning. “I don’t care what else happens. We’ll see each other again on the derby track.”
“Okay. I guess that’s true. Well, until we meet again, whether it’s because I texted you or because the Rioters are beating the Monsters.” And with that, Shayna waved and disappeared down the hallway.
Head Over Wheels Page 5
