Beautiful Pt. 01

I grimaced at her. "You do know who she is, right?"

Coach chuckled. "Yeah, I've been informed a few times. As in, a few times more than I needed to be. But I do this for fun, and because I love it. I don't play politics. If they fire me tomorrow, well, it's not like I quit my day job."

I laughed, and she smiled at me, and my heart fluttered inside my chest. God she was, um, pretty wasn't the word, striking, maybe. Whatever the case, I had a hard time looking away from her face.

The girls started to filter out of the locker room, which brought me back to myself. I saw Paige walk past the door on the far side. "Well, I really need to go collect my daughter, and I have a pair of hungry boys at home." I reached a hand out and she shook it. I felt my cheeks heat up as I looked into her piercing green eyes. "It was nice talking to you, Coach Dalton."

"Same here. And my friends call me Sandy."

"Sandy. And I'm Melanie."

Sandy grinned at me. "I know."

I fought off a giggle, but not a blush. I was still holding her hand when Paige walked up. "Mom! You ready?"

I dropped the Coach's hand like I'd been caught snitching cookies from Grandma's cookie jar.

"Hi, Sweetie. Yeah, let's go." I stood up and stepped down a little too fast, losing my balance for a moment and reaching out.

Sandy reached up and caught my arm so I didn't fall. "Careful now."

"Sorry." She held my elbow as I stepped over the last two rows and onto the floor, my blush intensifying with embarrassment.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, thanks, Sandy." I savored the feeling of her name on my lips. It was nice.

"You're welcome. And you," she turned to my daughter, who was coming closer, "good job today."

Now it was my daughter's turn to blush. "Thanks, Coach."

Coach Dalton nodded. "See you both tomorrow." She waved and walked away, her track pants moving over her firm, perfect backside.

"Mom!? C'mon, I'm hungry."

"Hmm? Sorry, yeah, let's go."

"What's with you?"

I tried to shake the fuzz out of my mind. "Nothing. I'm fine."

I don't think I was really fine. I let Paige drive home, mostly so I could daydream about the incredible pair of green eyes that I'd just experienced. I couldn't wait for the kids to go to bed so I could get into the tub, since I hadn't been able to think about anything else all evening.

******

My week was awful. I'd accepted an editing job which consisted of looking over about a dozen online instructions manuals for an overseas manufacturer. Halfway through the first one I was convinced it had been translated from Norwegian to English by someone who only spoke Chinese. Technical editing like this was my least favorite, and with my subconscious's exciting new obsession, it was a mighty struggle to stay on task. Unfortunately, between Will and Charlie's after school activities I hadn't been able to get over to any more of Paige's practices.

By noon on Friday I was very much over both my work tasks (which were barely two thirds done) and the Marie Callender frozen meals I'd been eating for lunch every day. There was a new Ramen Noodles place open in the Village District, and I figured I could take a decent lunch break and head over for some takeout. I really just wanted to get out of the house, and picking up was a ton cheaper than having things delivered.

The place was packed. I was able to grab a takeout menu, but the only seats in the waiting area were between other people, and I didn't want to try to squeeze in, so I was leaning up against the wall, looking at my choices and trying to be as small as possible. I swear nothing makes you feel fatter than being in tight spaces with other people.

I was just thinking that after I ordered I was going to head out to my car to wait when I heard my name.

"Melanie?"

My jaw about dropped through the floor when I saw Coach Dalton. I almost didn't recognize her for a second, wearing a smart yellow blouse and tight, tailored charcoal slacks. She looked very professional, and quite stunning.

"Coach Dalton! Hi!" I waved my menu. "Just getting some takeout, if I can figure out what I want."

"It's intimidating isn't it?"

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, if you don't have anywhere to be, I just sat down. I can talk you through it."

Something about her tone of voice had me almost breaking out in goosebumps. My brain tried to make me hesitate, I mean, I barely knew this woman, but it never stood a chance. Somehow I managed to squeak out a very shaky, "Okay."

Sandy grinned at me. "Are you sure? You don't have to."

I returned her smile and took a steadying breath. "No, really. I'd love to. Thanks."

Sandy's smile widened, and she spoke quickly to one of the waiters. "Ni neng za wo de zhuozi shezhi ling yige wei zhi ma? Xie Xie."

The waiter nodded.

I giggled. "What did you say to him?"

"I just asked him to set another place at my table. Even though Ramen originated in Japan, it's just as popular in China. The family that owns this place is originally from Hong Kong. Which is good, 'cause my Japanese is horrible." She nodded over her shoulder. "C'mon, let's go sit down."

We walked through the busy restaurant to a small table about three-fourths of the way back, where the young man Sandy had spoken to was indeed placing a napkin, menu, and glass of water at a table, which only held a glass of iced tea on the far side.

I sat, smoothing my skirt underneath me as I did. Sandy walked around the table and took her spot. "So, have you been here before?"

I shook my head. "It hasn't been here that long, but reviews have been good. You?"

"A couple times. They do spicy pretty well; it's like being back in Asia."

"You lived in Asia?"

"I've played in a lot of places around the world., semi-pro leagues, international leagues. There isn't much money in women's professional field hockey. You have to go where you can support yourself if you want to keep playing." She chuckled, her eyes looking into the past. "My life would have been very different if I'd fallen for soccer or tennis."

"So why field hockey, then?"

She shrugged with a far away smile on her face. "Ask my mother. She loves to tell the story of me at age five making up a game where I started smacking around some little plastic ball with a broom."

The innocence in her naturally intense face softened her features adorably, and I was staring. She looked up at me, and I pulled my eyes away on instinct, but when I nervously glanced back she was still gazing at me. Heat rose in my cheeks, but I didn't look away.

Sandy leaned back and took a sip of her iced tea. "So tell me about yourself, Melanie."

I looked down, fumbling with my napkin. "Not much to tell, really. I'm pretty boring."

"I doubt that. How many kids do you have?"

"Three." I smiled into my water. "You know Paige, she's my oldest. Will was sixteen last month, and Charlie, my youngest, will be thirteen in January."

"I don't see how being the mother of teenagers could be boring."

I giggled. "Well, it's busy, that's true. They oughta make parents of teens get chauffeur's licenses, cause that's what I really feel like, most of the time."

"And your husband?"

I held up my bare left ring finger. "Divorced. Ten years now." I felt the emotion rise in my chest, my eyes burning as the shame of my abject marital failure surfaced in my mind.

Sandy reached out and took my hand. "I'm sorry. It's okay. Let's just have a nice lunch. No sad talk."

I wiped my eyes. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't, um, god." I made myself look up at her, and saw her eyes shining with concern. "I'm fine." I glanced at her hand, still covering mine. That felt nice, and I let my palm turn over for just a moment, and gave her hand a squeeze before pulling back.

She looked at me kindly for a second, an expression I doubted any of her players had ever seen, but I appreciated it for the moment it was there. Sandy picked up her menu, her voice bright. "So what are you going to get?"

I grinned. "I have no idea. I feel like I'm throwing darts. It's all Japanese to me. Literally."

"I get that. Okay, so, you're choosing between various kinds of broth and noodles." She took the next few minutes to walk me through the various options, and when the waiter returned I confidently ordered my Spicy Miso Ramen. My companion ordered something called Tsukemen, and she added something called gyoza.

"So are you a foodie, Melanie?"

"I wish." I sat back in my chair. "My youngest is one of the pickiest eaters I've ever met. So when we go out there are only about five Charlie approved restaurants in town."

"Does your ex get the kids every other weekend, or something?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Go then. You could try out anything you want."

I let go a bitter laugh. "Yeah, okay. I am not going to restaurants alone."

"How come? I do it all the time."

My ears burned in embarrassment as I lowered my voice. "It's different when you're me. I mean, when, um." I let go an exasperated breath.

Sandy's face grew angry, but it wasn't directed at me. "Because of your weight?"

I nodded, ashamed. "I hate eating in public, especially by myself. Buffet's are the worst, I'm always conscious of everything I put on my plate. I feel like everyone is judging me, looking to see what and how much I'm taking. I know most of the time they aren't, but I feel that way." I wiped a tear away.

"I'm so sorry, Melanie. It's not the first time I've heard that." She looked at me kindly. "Is it okay that we're here?"

I smiled at her. "Yeah. It's better when I'm with a friend." That caused a smile to spread across her face. I liked that, a lot.

Our waiter snapped me out of my appreciation of Sandy's face, dropping off our gyoza. I smiled up at him and said thank you as he did.

"Okay, now try these." She picked one of the dumplings up and dipped it into the soy sauce that came with. She bit the morsel in half, her eyes closing in pleasure as she did. I copied her, taking one of my own and biting through the soft exterior into the savory, spicy pork filling inside.

I hunched my shoulder as some of the juice rolled down my chin. "Mmm, that's good."

I grabbed a napkin and dabbed at my chin, while Sandy giggled at me, and I couldn't help but join her. We each finished our dumpling and took another, our bowls of noodles arriving only a few minutes later.

We worked our way through our lunch, me tilting my bowl up to drink the last of the delicious broth. I hadn't thought about who was watching the entire time. We'd been here almost forty-five minutes, and I was dreading the moment ending. "Do you have to get back to your office?"

"There's no rush. I don't see patients on Friday afternoons. It's generally just me catching up on charting. You?"

I shook my head. "I don't think I'm going to be able to make myself open my computer for the rest of the day. I'll only have a few hours before the boys get home, anyway."

"What do you do?"

It felt so much better that I had an answer to that question now. "I'm a freelance editor. I do editing for several online magazines and publishing houses whenever they need it."

"Really? Do you do, like, novels, and things?"

"Sometimes. I do more articles, sometimes small publishing and short stories, anthologies, things like that. This week I've been doing instruction booklets for a Norwegian small appliance company trying to break into English markets."

Sandy winced. "That sounds like it could be awful."

"Total nightmare."

We had a good laugh, and when I looked up she was sitting back, smiling at me in a way that made heat flood my body. I gave a nervous giggle, brushing a strand of my dark brown hair behind my ear and turning my head to the side. "What?"

If anything, the nervousness in my voice made her smile wider. "You have the most beautiful laugh."

I giggled again, covering my mouth with my hand. "I do not."

"I think you do." She leaned forward, cocking her head to the side. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you nervous."

Looking at her, I'm not a hundred percent sure that was true. God, why couldn't I stop blushing? I heaved a sigh and looked at my phone. It was almost one. "I probably should be getting back. I need to change the laundry and get dinner ready. Boring mom stuff."

"Don't sell it short. Some of us never got to do boring mom stuff." There was a note of pain in her eyes.

"Is that something you wanted?"

"I still do, very much. I think it's why I got into family medicine. I get to be part of people's families, even if I don't have one of my own."

"You could. You're still so young."

It was her turn to laugh, only hers was on the bitter side. "I'm forty, with no relationship in sight. I know I could do it myself, but that's just never how I pictured it."

Our waiter chose that moment to drop off the check, breaking the energy of the moment. And there was energy, I could feel it thrumming between us. I opened my purse.

Sandy held up her palm. "No, no, I've got it."

"I can't let you do that."

"Sure you can. This was the best lunch I've had in months. And not because of the food."

I blushed. "Me, too."

She smiled, almost shyly, and placed her hand on the check. "Please."

I nodded. "Okay." Her smile brightened, and I wagged a finger at her. "But just this once."

"Fine. Next lunch is on you."

"Deal."

She paid and we walked out together. I tried to keep my voice casual. "Do you really go to restaurants alone a lot?"

She nodded. "Sure. Why?" A little smile played at the corner of her mouth.

Oh my God, what the hell was I doing? I knew it was a terrible idea, but I couldn't help the words tumbling out of my mouth. "Well, I, ah, if you ever want some company, um, just give me a call." Why the hell had I said that? There was no chance she'd want to spend any more time with me. She was probably insulted that I'd even asked.

She turned her body towards me, and I felt the full force of her presence, and I wanted to melt into a puddle right there.

Sandy held out her palm. "Give me your phone." I fumbled it out of my purse and handed it to her, glancing at it just long enough to unlock it. Sandy tapped on the screen for a few moments, and I heard her own cell buzz in her handbag. She gave mine back to me, and I saw that I'd sent a text that just said 'Melanie Pierson'. I watched her tap on her own, and a message popped up that just said 'Sandra Dalton.'

"I'll be in touch."

I nodded stupidly as she turned and walked away, glancing back once with that smile of hers. I just stood there like an idiot. I'll admit, part of me was admiring the way her tight, pinstripe slacks set off her round, firm backside and trim waist, but most of my brain was still trying to make sense of what had just happened.

When I made it back to my car I just stared at the two short messages in my new conversation. I immediately added her to my contacts, Googling her for a picture to add. The one I found was from her days with Team USA. She looked pretty much the same, maybe a few more lines around her eyes now, but in my opinion the miles looked good on her.

I reached out and gently touched my phone. She was beautiful. Not in a traditional sense, maybe, but still. I'd spent the last, god, what was it? Almost thirty years of my life? Avoiding exactly this type of relationship. Ones where I'd fall hard and get my heart broken.

But it was just a friendship, wasn't it? At least, to her. Even if she were gay, there's no way a stunning former Olympian would be interested in a fat old cow like me. I looked at her picture again, and I felt a tear slide down my cheek. Yeah, it would be better if I let the truth of that fact sink in post haste, before anyone, by which I meant me, got hurt.

I'd been correct in predicting I'd get no more work done that afternoon, and truth be told I didn't even try. Will was going to a party with his girlfriend, Anna, that evening, and I was running him over to her house after picking up Paige. We pulled into the field house parking lot, my son putting the van in park and turning off the engine.

"You did well, sweetheart. You're getting a lot better."

That actually managed to elicit a smile from my normally very serious boy. "Thanks, Mom."

I unbuckled my seat belt. "You want to come in?"

"Nah, I'll think I'll stay in the car. Practice my donuts over in that empty parking lot."

That made me laugh, especially since he delivered the line in a perfect deadpan voice. "Nice try, C'mon." He followed me inside, demonstrating the same ability as his sister to text and walk without tripping or banging into things. How do they do that?

I made my way to my usual spot. There were fewer parents watching than there had been on Monday, likely due to some of the novelty wearing off. The team was scrimmaging, and my eyes found Coach Dalton almost immediately, striding confidently amongst her players. She was wearing a long sleeve, zippered top with a collar, but below were a pair of blue and black exercise pants that hugged her butt and toned legs and made my mouth go dry.

I gathered myself, glancing at Will to see if he'd noticed anything. He hadn't seen my expression, but he had noticed that the area in front of him was filled with athletic young women in workout clothes, and somehow his phone suddenly got a lot less interesting.

Sandy blew her whistle. "Penalty corner!"

As the girls lined up to our right the coach glanced up at me, the left corner of her mouth lifting into a little grin. My heart fluttered as our eyes met, and I gave her a nervous little wave. I wasn't able to keep the silly smile off my face.

Coach Dalton turned back to her players, and I took a moment to take a deep breath and remind myself I wasn't a sixteen-year-old debutante. I watched the last fifteen minutes of practice, and saw Paige score a goal. I was proud of her, and not just for scoring, but she was also leading, calling out plays and defensive assignments, basically behaving like a leader.

Adrienne Perry scored twice, and I could see the smug satisfaction on her mother's face. But she wasn't nearly as impressive to the trained eye. At least, I thought so. And she certainly wasn't the one the younger girls were looking to when they were unsure of what to do. I could see it, and I was positive Coach Dalton could see it, too.

Paige came out of the locker room twenty minutes after practice broke up. "Mom, can I go to Dani's house tomorrow? Some of the girls are going to go swimming." I furrowed my brow. I'd met Dani's parents at games, but I didn't really know them. Dani was a year behind Paige, and she hadn't played much yet, but she was likely to start at right wing this year, and she'd been playing on Paige's side during the scrimmage, so Coach Dalton must see something in her. But be that as it may, I still didn't know her mom well enough to agree blindly.

"You know the rules, sweetheart."

"Yeah, here's her mom's number." She tapped on her phone and mine lit up with a text. "Will you call her?"

I gave a sigh. "Okay. I will. You have everything?"

Paige glanced back to the locker room. "I need to get my bag. Be right back." She ran back down the side hall. I shook my head and turned around to find Will. He was sitting on a bench by the wall, trying to subtly watch the girls around him, so I figured it was a good time to try Dani's mother.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. Williams?"

"This is."

"Hi, my name is Melanie Pierson, I'm Paige Pierson's mother? Your daughter just invited mine to a pool party tomorrow?"

"Oh, yes! I'm glad she did. She was nervous about inviting any seniors. I swear, Dani can't stop talking about how much Paige and Kaylin have been helping her this year."

I felt my heart warm as Dani's mom paid my daughter a few more compliments. I did the same, but eventually I did remember why I called, and confirmed that the party would be well chaperoned. I had Dani's mom text me her address and I hung up the phone