Freestyle Flirting: A Sweet Lesbian Romance

by Nicolette Dane

  “You are a crazy woman,” said Dasha. “And I love it.”

  “And I love you,” I said with joy. Dasha snickered and gave my side a pinch.

  “C’mon,” she said. “Stop.”

  “What?” I said innocently.

  “Marie,” she said, almost chastising me. “How are you going to say that to me?”

  “I just did,” I said, sticking out my tongue.

  “So you expect me to say it back?” asked Dasha with mock firmness. “You expect that I already feel the same way?”

  “Nope,” I said quickly, curtly, grinning. I stepped back from her and turned, returning to organizing some stuff to take to the donation center.

  “Hey!” she said, following me, reaching out and grabbing at the back of my shirt. “Well, I do feel the same way,” said Dasha. “I do love you, Marie.”

  “Good,” I said, shifting my rear backwards and bumping into Dasha with my butt.

  “You’re nuts,” mused Dasha, giving my butt a slap.

  I loved this back and forth, this playfulness. It made me feel right at home. Even though I was about to be basically homeless, with Dasha I knew that I’d always have that sense of comfort that home provides. It didn’t matter where we were. Ann Arbor, Rio, Chicago, Baltimore, or traipsing across Europe. There was something special about her that gave me the premonition that she was meant to be my new family. Maybe I was crazy. Maybe I was moving fast. But when you really feel something deep in your heart, you’re only doing yourself a disservice if you deny it.

  I was tired of being frightened of my feelings. I was tired of pushing things down and trying to ignore them, good or bad, just so that I could retain my laser-like focus on my work. No, I was ready to give in, ready to relinquish control, ready to really smile again. It had certainly been a down couple of years and although I knew I would never get over the untimely death of my parents, at least I had a lot to look forward to. At least I had someone like Dasha at my side.

  Dasha walked over to my dining room table and lifted up my well-worn backpack from the chair. I had essentially lived out of it in Ann Arbor, lived out of it in Rio. She inspected it, opened it up and looked inside, and she seemed slightly perplexed.

  “This is all you need?” she asked. “I mean… how?” I laughed and moseyed over to her. Reaching out, I took the bag from her and straightened it out, widening it to make it look a bit bigger, putting my arm in the main compartment to show the space inside.

  “Lightweight travel is the only way,” I said. “I mean, what do you really need? A pair of pants, shorts, a skirt? A few t-shirts and a jacket? Some panties and socks? A swimsuit? It can all fit in here.”

  “I’ll definitely need your help,” admitted Dasha. “I’m used to traveling with a couple of suitcases.”

  “This will set you free,” I said enthusiastically. “It really opens up your ability to travel faster and with fewer worries.”

  “I trust you,” she said, with a skeptical visage. I laughed. She was so cute. She had this funny stern pouty face that just drove me wild. I felt so fortunate to have found Dasha. Had things gone otherwise for me over the last few years, I might not be standing there with her. Life could have ended up a lot different.

  “One more,” I said softly, edging toward her to steal a kiss from her. This inspired a short spurt of quick kisses, the two of us smiling, giggling, ruminating together. It was more than I could have asked for. It was a new door opening and I was eager and willing to bounce through it, excited for the next stage of my life.

  You really do have to learn to love yourself before you can give that love to someone else. And for some of us, it’s really hard. I admit that after my parents died I didn’t really love myself like I should have. Just because I gave in to my training and focused on my swimming, that doesn’t mean I was treating myself right in my head, in my heart. But I learned so much by competing at a high level, by going to the Olympics, by achieving my dreams. I realized that it’s not the end. When you finally hold your goals in your hands, look down at them, see them for what they really are, you begin to understand that there’s so much more. It never ends. Life keeps moving on and you just need to keep up. You can never rest because otherwise you might get complacent, you might get lethargic, and that’s not treating yourself right. If everything’s comfortable, if you feel done, then you’ve really got nowhere else to go but down.

  I wasn’t going to go down. I wanted to go up and up and up. I couldn’t simply rest on my laurels at 25 years old, clanking my two Gold Medals together, and hoping that complacency would make me happy for the rest of my days. I had another 50 or 60 years left and I never wanted to stop, despite the roadblocks life might throw in my way. You’ve got to leap over the hurdles when you see them coming, you’ve got to keep a smile on your face, and you’ve got to realize that the race is never over. That’s what makes life so grand.

  Give me my next obstacle, world! Marie Mullally wants a challenge.

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  There is more to read in this book!

  Keep reading past Nico’s catalog list

  to find excerpts from her other novels.

  Hotel Hollywood

  A Lesbian Romance

  Audra Durand is stuck. She has slowly come to the realization that life in her small town on the west coast of Michigan isn’t quite what she imagined for herself. And as she sits unfulfilled behind the reception desk of the Hotel Champlain, an old hotel on her town’s main street, she dreams of the places she could go… if only she could muster up the courage and overcome her fears. Life and love have been a struggle for Audra, and she has difficulty imagining a way out.

  But her world is about to change when Hollywood comes to town. Thanks to some easy tax credits a big budget movie production sets up in Champlain, making Audra’s hotel their homebase. And with the movie comes young starlet Kelsie Kent, a beautiful, free-spirited, fun-loving girl who inspires Audra in every way. Kelsie represents the things Audra can’t see in herself, but as the girls grow closer and love begins to bloom, Audra’s fear and trepidation melt in Kelsie’s light.

  Can Audra overcome the demons of both her past and present, open her heart, and give herself over to the freedom that Kelsie arouses? Or will she succumb to her fear of change, do nothing, and remain in her stagnant existence? Sometimes unexpected kismet can deliver what you need most at exactly the right time. You just need to open your eyes to see it.

  See Hotel Hollywood on Amazon

  Chef Cutegirl

  A Lesbian Romance

  Emily Gold, head chef for one of Chicago’s most acclaimed French restaurants, is about to have her life turned upside down. She’s been picked to compete on the hit reality TV show Hot Chef! Everything has been falling into place for Emily in regards to her career as a budding culinary mastermind. But when you dedicate as much of your life to your work as Emily has, some things are bound to slip away from you… like your love life.

  All of that is about to change for Emily, however, when she’s introduced to one of her fellow competitors. Raina appears to be introverted and sweet on the outside, but inside of her burns a flame of culinary talent that instantly draws Emily in. The two become fas
t friends and as the heat in the kitchen grows, so does the heat in their relationship. But reality TV is never drama free, as both Emily and Raina soon discover.

  Will the desire Emily feels for her beautiful competitor overcome her desire to win Hot Chef? Or will this behind the scenes romance come out of the oven undercooked? Emily is determined to have it all, a great career and a partner to share it with, but the realities of unscripted television might just be writing a different script for this driven young chef.

  See Chef Cutegirl On Amazon

  Sweetheart Starlet

  A Lesbian Romance

  Tabitha Bloom has a pretty frenetic life. As head writer for the venerated live sketch comedy show This Saturday, her job is to make people laugh. But she’s spent so much of her time with her head down, her life buried in work, that she hasn’t stopped for a moment to see how far she’s come and what she’s achieved. No time for self-reflection when you have a live show to put together. And, of course, no time for a relationship either.

  But when Corinne Holmstrom guest hosts the show, Tab can’t help but be starstruck over the mega celebrity actress. Who could blame her? Corinne is beautiful, famous, successful and… is she coming on to Tab? There’s no way that Corinne is a lesbian, she always dates the hunkiest Hollywood actors. Best to just forget about her. Move on. Get back to work. Still, there’s something about Corinne that Tab can’t shake and this sweetheart starlet is too special to ignore.

  Will Tab find the romance she’s been seeking in this young Hollywood actress? Or will the pressures that fame has put on Corinne cause this romantic comedy to bomb? With the public watching your every move, it’s no wonder Hollywood’s elite are so secretive… something Tab is about to learn first hand.

  See Sweetheart Starlet On Amazon

  Salacious Stand Up

  A Lesbian Romance

  Despite tragedy in her past, Macy Maxwell has been able to keep a smile on her face and a joke in her heart. In fact, her heart is full of jokes, most of them disgustingly off-color, as she navigates life in Chicago’s stand up comedy world. She’s built a great character for herself on stage, falling into the role of raunchy sex comic talking about all the guys she’s dated… there’s just one small problem: Macy’s a lesbian!

  Things aren’t much easier off stage either. Macy has an admitted attraction to bad girls, the kind of chicks she knows are no good for her. And George, the super sexy hipster butch writer, is no exception. But on the other side of the coin is Macy’s best friend and stand up partner Petra, ever the good girl, kinda mopey, though certainly Macy’s biggest fan. George is undeniably hot and mysterious but Petra actually gives a damn about her friend. Choices, choices…

  Will Macy finally be true to herself on stage as her career begins to take off? Can she stop repeating the same mistakes, always expecting different results, and still find the love she needs to continue on to success? Who will win her heart in this romantic comedy, the good girl or the bad girl? Life can be funny… and Macy is about to find out just how absurd it can get.

  See Salacious Stand Up On Amazon

  Dormitory Dearest

  A Lesbian Romance

  Having just started her freshman year at college, Natasha Blake has a lot of issues to deal with. She’s a bit of a geek, an outcast, a ball of nerves. Oh, and she’s got this feeling mounting deep inside of her — a feeling that’s been there for a lot longer than she might let on — that maybe, just maybe, she prefers girls over boys. Okay, no maybes about it… but that still doesn’t make it easy to accept who she is, having come from a somewhat conservative Irish Catholic family life. Why did it have to be so hard?

  Enter Hosannah. Bright, funny, really pretty, a junior living in Natasha’s dorm. Hosannah was like a liberated version of Natasha, a girl who knew who she was and what she wanted. But having been burned in the past, Hosannah had no time for girls who couldn’t admit their personal truths. Natasha knew that Hosannah could help her come out of her shell, but would she be able to take the first step alone?

  Can this college romance blossom into a wonderful coming out for Natasha? Or will Hosannah’s patience for her uncertainty run thin? Coming-of-age indecision peppered with a dash of anxiety can really throw a girl for a loop. Lucky for Natasha the answer lives just two floors up.

  See Dormitory Dearest On Amazon

  An Excerpt From: Hotel Hollywood

  A Lesbian Romance

  Let’s set the scene. The camera pans in slowly toward a figure slumped down at her desk, the reception desk of a classically ornate, almost Victorian style, hotel. Think reds and purples, dark wood, low light. The hotel is quiet, mostly empty, though it’s been kept up pretty nicely. However, this figure at the counter — a young woman with dark dirty blonde hair, mostly brunette if we’re being honest, and a sun kissed visage — appears bored, tired, unsure as to why she’s even sitting behind that desk. Few people come in to the hotel as it’s off the beaten path, centered on Main Street in a forgotten town on the west side of Michigan. It’s not that far from Lake Michigan, really, but there are so many other nicer resort towns that Champlain often gets forgotten about.

  This hotel is the Hotel Champlain. This young woman is me, Audra Durand.

  I grew up here in Champlain and never left. It didn’t seem like such a big deal at first but now that I’m well into my 27th year, I’m starting to panic a little bit. At one point, probably back when I was a baby and into my early childhood, this town wasn’t so bad. We had an economy. We had a population. But it was all mostly based on manufacturing because even though we’re close to Lake Michigan, Champlain never really set itself up as a resort town like some of the other names you might be more familiar with. You know, Saugatuck or Ludington. Champlain often gets overlooked and our hotel definitely suffers for it.

  The hotel has been around since the 20s. It was the social hub of the town back then, hosting diners at its restaurant, revelers dancing in its quaint ballroom. It fell into disrepair in the 70s and 80s, changed ownership myriad times, until it was bought on the cheap by its current owner, my boss Jake Poe, in the early 2000s. Jake has made a real go at getting the hotel functional and nice but since there’s no draw in our town — and to be honest the downtown area is kind of a mess with empty storefronts — we just don’t get the kind of traffic we might get if we were in a more desirable location.

  I don’t pretend to understand it. We’re close enough to the Lake and that’s good enough for me. The Lake is really the only thing I like about living in this town. It’s my best friend, maybe my only friend. I know that’s a sad-sack thing to say but it’s true. Champlain is one of those places from which most people my age left when they saw their out. And I had my shot around the age of 19.

  My best friend at the time, Katie, had moved to Chicago for school and after her first year there she invited me out to live with her. I had opted to stay at home and do the community college thing, as I was unsure what I wanted to do with my life, and even though Katie’s invitation intrigued me, something inside of me — fear, I guess — persuaded me to turn her down and stay put in Champlain. Big mistake. Slowly, over the next couple of years, Katie and I began to lose touch. Her parents moved away from Champlain so she stopped coming back. They moved to a cabin in Minnesota so she wasn’t even coming anywhere near Michigan on her breaks. But had I moved to Chicago, things might be a little different for me.

  It was like I woke up from a deep sleep and found myself essentially in a ghost town, a place filled with people unable to leave or perhaps too distracted to realize that the town was fading and with it… them. People like me. I don’t know, maybe I’m being naive when I think that all it would take was an enterprising developer, someone who could come up, spend a buttload of money, and turn this place into a thriving hub that’s only 20 minutes from the Lake. I think my boss Jake thought that of himself at one time. But now he was married to this albatross of an investment, a beautiful hotel in an otherwise dead town, and nobody els
e was coming in to save him.

  And now, add all this up, and I feel kind of trapped. I don’t really have the education credentials to get me into some decently paying office job, I don’t have much money, my work experience is sitting behind the reception desk of a floundering hotel, I live with my father who is just as lost as I am. I mean, the walls feel like they’re closing in here.

  The one thing, though, that makes me feel okay is that wonderfully huge body of water, Lake Michigan, ol’ Mishigami. It truly is the Third Coast of this country. I wish I could just live out of a van or something on the beach. I wish I could just walk into it, let the waves overtake me, and never walk out again. I could live in Lake Michigan, like some wonderful spirit child, protecting all those who came into its wake. A girl can dream, right?

  But would Lake Michigan actually give me the job of spirit guardian when I’ve only got hotel receptionist on my resume?

  As I continued to daydream about my life, Jake wandered up toward the desk. He was a tall man, kind of built, usually wearing a grey t-shirt and tan work pants. He was a contractor before he bought the hotel, having refurbished most of it himself, and he had the look of someone who’d worked outdoors a lot. Tanned, very short hair, about the same length as his beard. He was a good guy. I was grateful that he continued to pay me, even though it was only minimum wage.

  “Hey Audra,” said Jake. He saddled up to the desk and put his hands atop it. He had a smile on his face that was much bigger than he usually had. I mean, he was generally a pretty content person, despite the vacancy issues with the hotel, but he looked a little different today.