The Love Bug

by Tara Wimble

  Neither of them can differentiate between wanting to keep up appearances or just needing to be in contact after the not so subtle flash of homophobia being thrown up, when Bella grabs her hand to lead them out.

  Jacque sighs because she doesn’t really want to play into this right now, but laces their fingers together anyway and shoves her other hand in her pocket.

  Bella doesn’t drop them until they’re in the McDonalds and sat down with their order. It’s probably the worst food to be having but no one is there to point out that sharing this, slightly unnecessary, amount of fries between them is not good for them. Honesty, after the game, she doesn’t care.

  “Why can’t we live off of fries?” Bella asks jokingly, attempting to break the ice that’d suddenly been thrown up between them.

  Jacque’s face is unintentionally sour because she can tell Bella is trying and it’s the first time in months that she wants to try with her. But all she can do is stab the fries into the tiny cardboard cup of ketchup she has.

  “We were just having fun.” Bella sighs. “Let’s not ruin a good night.”

  “It’s not you-” Jacque chews on her food and Bella raises her brow.

  “For once?”

  “That’s not fair.” Jacque can see them spiraling down into another sad conversation that neither of them want to have. “Sometimes twice.”

  “Oh, you’re hilarious.” Bella does laugh though because at least Jacque is actively trying to keep them afloat. Not quite on the high they were but nowhere near where they’ve been.

  “Just wasn’t my game.”

  “Bowling?” Bella smirks. “Or soccer?”

  Jacque gives her an unreadable look. “No, women.”

  “You know that’s not true.” Bella counters.

  “Woman then.” Jacque corrects herself. “Just the one.”

  It doesn’t derail them though. Bella ducks her head but she’s still wearing her smile because they’re joking a little, even if it is close to home. “It was just a friendly. There’ll be other chances.”

  “At women?” Jacque bites into a few more fries.

  Bella steals some away from her before they all go. “It’s not like you just cost us the Olympics.”

  Jacque laughs self-deprecatingly. “There’s always that, I guess.”

  “Hey,” Bella taps her shin with her foot. “I mean it, it was one game. A friendly. And y’know, shit happens.”

  Jacque waits.

  “More often than not it happens to Canada but-”

  Jacque chucks a fry at her and Bella holds her hands up in surrender, not really up to telling the team they got kicked out of a McDonalds as well.

  “I guess I’m just sick of losing.” Jacque admits leaving it vague on purpose. “Especially to them.”

  There’s a sighing silence that sees them finish the fries together. Jacque is exhausted. The urge to go back to her room and cry, not out of sadness, but frustration is still on her mind. Spending time with Bella, though, isn’t giving her the dread and upset that it has in a while and she doesn’t want to leave quite yet. Her selfishness has always clashed with self-preservation.

  Bella flattens the cardboard that the fries came in. “Do you want a McFlurry?”

  Jacque nods and Bella wanders up to the counter to order for them both. Jacque rests her head in her hands and watches her point out which one she wants while shifting from side to side. Yeah, her self-preservation isn’t doing a good enough job of stopping her from checking Bella out. Even when she brings the ice cream back for her.

  “Here’s your sweet thing.” Bella slides it over to her. “And the ice cream.”

  “You suck.” Jacque knows she’s being teased. Normally it’d piss her off but Bella isn’t exactly lying with that comment.

  Bella licks some ice cream off the spoon and attempts to smile around the mouthful. It’s a grossly endearing sight and Jacque can’t help but shake her head and start in on her dessert. She’s in love with an actual teenager.

  “Do you feel like,” Jacque stalls because now she’s setting herself up. “watching a movie or something later.”

  Bella stirs her ice cream into a warm gloop. “Just you?”

  Jacque nods and relaxes when Bella says yes. “Just us. I’m getting tired of Oliv trying to read my text messages over my shoulder.”

  “It’s a d-.” Jacque cuts herself off before she really sets herself up for embarrassment. “Deal. It’s a deal.”

  “Who do you think will win then?” Bella asks. “My money is on anyone but us.”

  “Whemb.” Jacque answers without hesitation. “All of my money is on Whemb.”

  Bella scrapes the bottom of the McFlurry tub. “You’re meant to have more faith in us than that.”

  Jacque does, but she won’t say. “Finish that and we’ll see if we can sneak back in there without getting kicked out again.”

  She gets a dose of attitude back. “Please, if the homophobes in the middle hadn’t gotten all weird about it.”

  Jacque throws their things in the trash, a little more optimistic now that she knows that she’s not going to be struggling to keep a face on all night, and puts her hands in her pockets. “Welcome to middle America.”

  Bella opens the door for her and looks back at her with a stupid grin. “I miss Canada.”

  Managing to sneak back into the bowling alley isn’t as hard as they thought it would be. The assistant manager gives them a sideways look but it’s only the team left so he can’t really say that anybody would be opposed to their presence.

  They get there and sit back down with Sophie and Sess to watch their inevitable third place finish. Kathryn’s team is about to come last. They’re left to themselves. The team seem to notice the way they’re sitting together, closer and more relaxed than before, as well as the way their ankles accidentally hook when Bella stops swinging her legs and they lay off them.

  They’re in a better place than they’ve been for a while and even those who usually like to punctuate every cute moment with a teasing comment have decided to let them do their thing.

  For once.

  They murmur between each other, clapping when things go right for their team and louder when Imogen does actually award Bella a children’s party hat for having the most awkward moment during the competition.

  The odd distance that the rest of the team gives them lasts even when they get back to the hotel. Imogen reels back and Jacque and Bella find themselves walking to Jacque’s room alone. Sess quickly comes in and walks out with some of her clothes, no one even makes a comment, after they kind of shut themselves in for the night.

  “You still up for this?” Jacque asks. Bella settles herself on Lauren’s bed for a minute but when Jacque has pulled sweatpants out of her suitcase Bella has switched to Jacque’s bed.

  “Yeah, I figure we watch things until we pass out or until you feel better. Whichever comes first.” Jacque laughs at Bella’s optimism and ducks back into her suitcase to throw a pair of shorts at Bella. “As long as it’s okay.”

  “You’re gonna be here for a while.”

  Bella falls asleep after the first film. She nods on and off towards the middle of it actually and Jacque spends the last half an hour checking on her in case she falls the wrong way and onto the floor.

  But once she’s sure that Bella is actually not going to fall off her bed she moves over the Sess’s bed because however much progress they’ve made they’re not there yet.

  *

  4th July 2012;

  Switzerland; Match World Women’s Cup and Pre-Olympic training;

  The USA game was the last game of their North American preparations. They get a break to recuperate before they’re all back together shuffling around an airport waiting for their departure.

  The four days hadn’t really been spent away from the team. Most of them had stuck around in Utah, making the most of the days off, before they had to leave. Jacque had eventually cooled down about the loss to the US but the
strengthening of her fragile relationship with Bella had kept on. At least for the foreseeable future.

  They’d reached a comfortable detente that even bordered on good relations for the majority of the time they spent together and maybe it was the fact that a huge weight was about to be lifted off of their shoulders.

  Well, a couple of them actually.

  Jacque had gotten a call from her lawyer a couple of days ago and they finally had the all clear. It was almost done, everything but the signing of the final documents once they returned from London.

  It was almost over. Bella was almost free of her.

  Bella shuffles through their tickets, insisting that she looked after their passports had been an interesting decision but Jacque trusts her not to lose them. “We’re seat buddies.”

  “We are?”

  “Yeah.” Bella points it out. “Which means that either it’s a row with only two or we’re gonna be sitting with some random knowing our luck.”

  “Let me look.” Jacque reaches over and Bella hands the tickets to her. She looks at the seat numbers and then squints to see the airplane layout on the electronic screen by the boarding desk. “Score!”

  “What’s that?”

  “Two seater!” Jacque shouts out.

  Her enthusiasm is heard by the person behind her who then sticks her head between them with a smirk. “Well isn’t that cosy.”

  “Jesus, Oliv.”

  “Where did you even come from?” Jacque eyes her and the coffee cup that almost tips down her back.

  “The shadows. Along with my personality.”

  Bella rolls her eyes. “You and your personality aren’t sitting with us.”

  “Suit yourself.” Oliv sulks and then disappears from whence she came.

  They wait until Oliv turns back around before they face forward again intending to check the tickets as they were before . That is before they see Sadie staring at them with the biggest smirk on her face. It can only really mean she’s thinking one thing. “Two seats, huh?”

  Jacque pauses for a beat. “I’m going to get coffee.”

  “Me too.” Bella rushes up after her leaving their bags under the watchful eyes of the rest of their team. “It’s been four years, you think they’d be less interested about whether we’re getting it on or not.”

  Jacque snorts. “Gettin’ it on?”

  Bella frowns. “People say that.”

  “Not this century.” Jacque teases back.

  Bella waits until they’re in the line for coffee before loudly exclaiming, to Jacque’s embarrassment. “Would you prefer we called it banging then?”

  The little old lady standing in front of them turns around before Jacque can hiss at Bella to shut up. The offended glare makes them freeze until she looks away.

  “You’re treading thin ice.”

  Bella scoffs. “We’re in Canada. It’s all thin ice.”

  “You’re offending people.”

  “What like you?”

  “Bella.”

  “Told you.” They move forward. “I’m a winner.”

  Jacque actually laughs quietly at that because there’s something delusional about Bella winning when it comes to her. “Really?”

  “Really.” Bella states. “I mean, if you can’t handle me saying ‘banging’-”

  That’s when Jacque pulls out the big guns. “Oh, babe-” That catches the attention of the old lady again. “-I’d prefer if you’d call it ‘making love’ when we’re in public.”

  “Oh wow.”

  “What was that?” Jacque utters under her breath. “About you winning?”

  “You’re so world class.” Bella says sarcastically. She’s covering her face by the time they make it to order.

  Jacque pays for them because Bella left her purse in her bag. “Yeah, and just think. You’ve got two weeks of this.”

  Bella jokingly sobs.

  “Bet you’re regretting making friends with me again aren’t you?” There’s a slight hitch in her voice over the word friends because it’s still, no matter how hard she tries, no matter how many calls from lawyers she accepts, not the word she wants to settle on.

  Bella takes the cup with the badly scrawled attempt at her name on it. She bites her lip before smiling. “God, no.”

  They walk back into a similar feeling of hesitance coming from the team. Jacque’s started to notice the way that the teasing, though still present from the main culprits, has been reeled back on a big scale. She walks into a room with Bella and they’re watched. At first she thought it was because they weren’t doing a good enough job to fake this, but Kathryn is her judge for that. It’s different. It’s as if they’re in an odd awe of them.

  “How long is the flight?” Bella asks. Jacque blinks away from noticing everyone else and focuses on Bella again. It’s still hard to be around her. It’s going to be harder when they’re in England and all eyes are going to be on their team and, to some extent, their relationship. But since Utah, things haven’t been as fractured.

  “About eight hours.” Jacque replies, checking the ticket again. “Not too bad considering.”

  “Haven’t been to Switzerland in years.” Bella says. “Feels like I haven’t been anywhere for years.”

  “That’s dramatic.”

  “Whatever.” Bella sighs out. “You never take me anywhere.” She yells it out, again, mostly for the benefit of everyone around them.

  Jacque rolls her eyes. “Drink your coffee.”

  Bella reluctantly takes a sip with an expression that mocks Jacque for a whole host of reasons. “Wake me up when the delays stop and we have to go somewhere.”

  Jacque stops. “Wake you up-?”

  Bella turns, swinging her legs up on the seats and shuffles down until she’s leaning her back against Jacque’s left side.

  “Are you serious?”

  “I need my beauty sleep.” Bella mumbles, already closing her eyes and cuddling against Jacque’s side.

  “I need my left arm.” Someone snorts laughing behind her. “God damn it.”

  Bella has her eyes closed and arms wrapped over her chest to keep the warmth in. “Just take it.” That’s the end of any protest Jacque could muster as she’s trapped with Bella sleeping on her until they get their boarding call.

  Jacque gets her payback though, once they’re on the flight, when she passes out on Bella’s shoulder midway through and doesn’t wake up until they land in Switzerland. No amount of complaints from Bella that she needs a new arm or calls from Imogen that she got awesome footage or even Sess’s general confusion at what all the teasing is all about can steal away the solid four hours of sleep she got.

  Or the excitement that they’re one step closer to London.

  *

  There’s three closed door friendlies, daily trainings, and two and a half weeks before their Olympic kickoff and time seems to be dragging on. Maybe it’s the excitement for the actual competition to start but everyone’s starting to get just a little bit stir crazy. Even with the hope of redemption and the promise of fantastic soccer in their future people are going off the wall.

  The friendlies are scheduled as part of a Match World Cup competition. They beat New Zealand and Colombia but lose to Brazil. Despite that they still come away with their heads held high and the small glory of having Carla named player of the tournament.

  Switzerland reminds Bella of Sweden. The European atmosphere has everyone playing a little looser. Losing to Brazil doesn’t hurt half as bad as losing to the US. It doesn’t take them days to get over it but a few hours.

  Because there’s no time to dwell on meaningless friendlies anymore. And that’s only punctuated when they’re sat on yet another plane, this time taking them to the UK.

  London. Olympics. Words that were once distant thoughts in the back of their minds are now touchable realities. They have one goal. That final match. That medal chance.

  Bella can see it glimmering in the eyes of the veterans on the team. Whemb sits we
aring Beats headphones, ones they were all given with a tiny maple leaf on the design, and doesn’t talk for their flight over there. Niav and Carla are much alike. Silence and thought. The dream is changing. The reality is fast approaching.

  This will be her first Olympics. Representing a different country than she once thought she’d be representing. Yet the excited nerves are hitting her all the same. It’s every player's dream and, if she’s being honest with herself, the shirt doesn’t feel foreign anymore. No matter her situation with Jacque when she sees that flag, the red and white, she feels something. Something that makes her want to run down every lost cause, fight for every ball in the air, scratch and claw and tackle until she cannot physically do it any longer.

  Imogen had leaned over when she’d tried to put that into words. “That’s called patriotism.” She puts two hands on Bella’s shoulders and squeezes affectionately. “You’re a real Canadian now.” She pauses scanning the room. “So take those feelings and go teach Sess the words to the national anthem.”

  Bella rolls her eyes as Imogen sprints down the hall laughing.

  But she also knows that was a serious request so she heads over to Lauren so they can maybe avoid a repeat of the anthem incident a week ago.

  Chapter 8

  *

  24th July 2012;

  The London Olympic Games;

  Tomorrow it begins.

  The night before they kick off in Coventry against Japan a series of deals are made and somehow Bella and Jacque end up sharing a room. For once it’s not even the team maneuvering to get them together, in fact, Jacque thinks it has more to do with Sadie and Oliv wanting to share than anything else. Things just happened to work out this way.

  It’s fine though because Jacque’s been feeling the nerves weighing on her shoulders and as much as everyone understands there’s not really anyone else she wants to lean on than Bella. Even if that’s problematic for a host of reasons.

  Which is another reason why sharing was fortuitous. They needed to make sure that everything else, the excess baggage, wouldn’t be on their minds during the matches.