“Sensei?” she asked, pausing respectfully. “Do you have a minute?”
“Of course, Laurie! You did a great job today!” I told her. She really had. A blush rose on her cheeks, her short blonde hair just brushing her cheekbones.
“I wanted to apologize for screwing up,” she said.
I automatically started to tell her she hadn’t screwed up, but if that blow had landed, she could have been seriously hurt or even killed. Instead, I asked, “What do you think you should have done differently?”
She paused a moment, and I could almost see her mentally replaying the fight.
“…I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off him until the fight had officially ended,” she said finally.
I nodded.
“Exactly. With guys like him, I probably wouldn’t have taken my eyes off him evenafterthe fight ended,” I said, grinning. “You did good, though! I was really impressed with your strategy. You didn’t let his little dance moves distract you from his real objective.”
She blushed even more, her cheeks taking on a rosy glow that even an hour of exercise hadn’t given them.
“Speaking of dancing, I— I wanted to ask you something…” she said, her voice ending on a high note, as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to ask her question at all. I put the last of the equipment away and turned to speak to her. Whatever she wanted to ask me was hard for her, and I wanted to make her feel heard.
“Sure,” I said. “What’s up?”
She stood there awkwardly and cast a sidelong glance at the locker rooms. I heard some giggling and saw the door to the women’s locker room slam shut. Uh oh.
“I-I— We, that is, some of us were going to go, um, dancing, this weekend, and—” She stuttered and stammered, staring anywhere but at me as she tried to ask me out. Fuck.
“Laurie,” I started, shaking my head, “I’m flattered. Really...”
Her face was bright red by that point, and I didn’t hear any more giggling coming from the locker room. I felt badly for the kid. I’d had a crush on one of my instructors, too. Of course, that had ended up with a blow job in his office. I wasn’t going to do that with Laurie… I’d dealt with students having a crush on me once or twice, but it was never a comfortable conversation.
She was looking anywhere but at me, and started to back away.
“No, it’s okay, I get it. I mean, I’m just a kid…” She started to say, her cheeks flushed bright pink as her hands balled into a fist that she struck against her thigh in embarrassment.
“Please stop,” I said. She stopped striking her leg, but still refused to look at me. “It’s not that you are younger than me. I mean, I’m not ancient or anything. If I were into women, I would totally take you up on your offer in a heartbeat.”
“Oh.” She said, then my words seemed to register.“Oh! You’regay!” She yelped, then dropped her voice down to a whisper, looking around frantically, like she’d let the cat out of the bag. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
I smiled again.
“It’s okay, I’ve been out since I was thirteen, and I don’t care if anyone knows,” I said.
“Really?” She asked, looking at me in confusion.
“Yep. I’ve got two moms. The idea never really seemed foreign to me,” I said. “I fell in love with my best friend when I was sixteen.”
I chose to completely ignore my history with Vinnie Avery. Vinnie may have been my first boyfriend, but in more ways than I really wanted to discuss, Nicki had been my first love.
“Awww! That’s adorable! Okay, I-I guess I better go change,” She turned to head to the locker room, then spun back around. “You know, if you’d ever like to join us at the club some time, the offer is always open! See you next week?”
I nodded and waved as I saw her hightail it out of the dojo, pausing to bow to me, then the flag. Mama K stood in the door of her office and I knew she’d seen the whole exchange. My alarm on my watch went off, and I sighed. I was beginning to hate the damn thing.
I showered and headed home. I was hoping that I’d get a nap in, but as luck would have it, sleep was not something I was getting any time soon. I’d just gotten home and gotten out my camera when Anna and Brannon Eames showed up to pick up Gracie. Bran positively glowed as Gracie tore through the house when she heard their voices in the living room. I got some amazing shots of them greeting each other.
Bran was tall and lanky, all arms and legs. Anna was petite, with short brown hair. Well, “petite” except for the fact that she was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with their first child.
Anna sat on the living room couch, her feet propped up on a padded stool as she watched Bran and Gracie roll around together on the floor. She looked… exhausted. She had dark circles under her eyes, her face was unusually pale. I caught her eye over the top of my camera and we grinned together.
“So, have you made your mind up about documenting the hatching?” She asked, teasing me.
