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“You know what I mean.”

Aspen swallowed and said, “No, but it’s different.”

“How is it different?”

“My game hasn’t suffered because I stayed out until after two drinking and flirting with some guy.”

“You’re not dating anyone, though,” Kendra pointed out.

Aspen bit her bottom lip and said, “No, but I’m not holding off on dating because I’m in season. I can handle dating someone and playing at the same time without it hurting my game. DJ might not be able to. She’s dated here and there in the past, but it was, like, one date that went nowhere. It was also during the week and not during the tournament. This is the first time I’ve seen her stay out late like this and play like shit the next day.”

“Maybe it’s an outlier, then,” Kendra suggested. “A one-time thing; and she won’t have any problems after it.”

“She’s into Mark now. Like, really into him. She was all smiles when she got back to the room at, like, two in the morning and woke me up.”

“You must have just fallen asleep then, because I didn’t leave until one.”

Aspen thought back to Kendra’s head resting on her shoulder while they watched a movie after they’d eaten dinner, and she smiled at the memory.

“I had just gotten to sleep, and it was hard to get back to sleep because she was rolling around in her bed and driving me crazy. I was tired, too, but I still played well.”

“Aspen, you two have an important match tomorrow. You might have to put this behind you and forget about it. Brazil’s not going to be easy in Rio, you know? You’re going to be facing a home crowd who loves their beach volleyball. You need DJ on your side.”

“I know,” she replied. “I’ll talk to her. But she wanted to take a nap, so I don’t want to interrupt that.”

“It’ll be fine. I’m sure it’s just mostly exhaustion that’s making you two go at it today. Take a nap yourself and have dinner together tonight; tell her that it’s okay for her to date or something and that you’re going to put this all behind you so you two can win tomorrow.”

“I wish you were here.”

“Yeah?” Kendra asked, sounding happy to Aspen.

“Yeah. And I just… I know we’re going to talk when I get back, but I’m not waiting to date someone until after the season or after we’ve qualified. I just want to make that part clear.”

“Okay. Well, that’s clear. Can I ask you something?”

“Yes.”

“Why are we waiting to talk, then?”

“Because if we do this, what we haven’t talked about and have been heading toward for months now, I want it to be right. I don’t want to risk anything.”

“I want it to be right, too.”

“I’ve also been busy and then injured and worried about qualifying, so I’ve been trying to balance everything with what’s been going on with us. I don’t want to wait. I just needed to take some time to think about how to do it all.”

“And have you? Had the time?”

“Aren’t you the one who just got out of a long-term relationship right before we started hanging out? Shouldn’t I be worried about being your rebound girl?” She laughed at her own bad joke.

“No, Aspen, you shouldn’t. But we should talk when you get back, because there are things that come with dating me that you should know before we get too far into this thing that I think has already been happening without us acknowledging it.”

“Things? What, the traveling? I travel, too. I’m used to it.”

“Not just that,” Kendra told her. “We can talk when you get back, though. I don’t want to cop out and do this over the phone. I’d rather you be home so we can talk in person.”

“Is something wrong?” she asked, sitting up in the sand, worried now.

“No, babe. Nothing’s wrong.”