I Found My Heart In San Francisco: Karma Part 1

I FOUND MY HEART.

IN SAN FRANCISCO.

KARMA.

S X MEAGHER.

KARMA.

PART 1.

THE SAND-COLORED LEXUS RX 300 glided down 101, the traffic almost non-existent. "There's something to be said for traveling on Thanksgiving afternoon," Ryan smiled to her partner when she turned off the freeway at the exit for the San FranciscoInternationalAirport.

"You seem pretty darned happy," Jamie observed. "I thought you'd be b.u.mmed that we had to leave so early."

Ryan spared a glance at her partner, as her mouth twitched into a smile. "I hate to admit this, but sometimes I feel a huge sense of relief when we leave a party like that."

"You do?"

"Yep. It's not that I don't love them all, but it's draining to be around that many people - especially in such a small house."

The smaller woman smiled back at her. "I also hate to admit it, but I feel the same. There are so many people, and so much noise, that it's like a blast of fresh air when you leave. It honestly takes me a while to relax after that kind of sensory onslaught."

"Me too," Ryan decided. "It's nice to be alone again."

Jamie looked at her partner for a moment, and said thoughtfully, "As much as the family re-charges me, I get my real sustenance from being alone with you. I'm really looking forward to this weekend."

Ryan shot her a glance and warned, "Most of my time has been scheduled for me, love. Coach Hayes doesn't like to leave much to the vagaries of chance, you know. She's not the laid-back person that Coach Placer was."

"I know," Jamie acknowledged. "But we'll get to sleep together, and we'll have our morning together, won't we?"

"Yeah. I think we meet at eleven tomorrow - but I didn't get a final schedule, yet."

"That's enough for me," the blonde decided. "Sleeping with you and cuddling you in the morning will be just perfect. The rest of the time, I can get caught up on my work."

"I'm looking forward to this too," Ryan declared. "Since I don't know the other players, and for the most part they don't seem very friendly, it'll be nice to have your sweet face greet me after the game."

"I'm friendly enough to make up for all of 'em," Jamie promised, smiling brightly at her.

"You're friendly enough to make up for a pack of snarling pit bulls," Ryan chuckled.

Seven members of the team were already at the gate when Jamie and Ryan arrived. Each was dressed as Ryan was - in the Cal Basketball warm-up suit. Since they were going to Colorado, everyone also had a winter coat with them - in Ryan's case, a s...o...b..arding jacket that had seen better days. Jamie was still trying to understand why the strip of duct tape that sealed a rip in the nylon was a source of pride for her partner, but she had finally decided that some things were simply unknowable.

The crew was quite motley looking, and their att.i.tudes didn't increase their attractiveness in Jamie's opinion. Each woman looked up, but only five of them bothered to acknowledge Ryan or Jamie's presence - and even they merely nodded.

Ryan looked totally out of her element, standing there awkwardly - and Jamie could tell she was trying to decide if she should bother to try to speak to her teammates. "Let's go sit down, and you can give me the run down on these characters," she whispered.

Nodding briefly, Ryan went to the far corner of the seating area and flopped down onto one of the molded vinyl chairs. "Janae and I have our work cut out for us."

"If you're referring to your plan for gaining leaders.h.i.+p of this crowd, I should say so." Jamie shot a glance at the women and asked, "Who are they all?"

"The two sour-looking ones are Wendy and Janet. They don't speak to anyone else on the team, near as I can tell. Strangely enough, it seems like they're favorites of Coach Hayes - although I can't for the life of me figure out why."

"Nice," Jamie nodded, giving the women a glare.

"The tiny woman is Franny Sumitomo. Nice kid. She's a freshman from San Francisco. I think she can speak - but I've never heard her," she smirked wryly. "The two dark-haired ones are juniors, and their names are..." Ryan scrunched her eyebrows together and gave their names her best try. "Drzislava and Zeljka." She gave Jamie a look and added, "I'm not even gonna take a whack at their last names."

"Uhm... I'm guessing they're from out of town?"

Ryan chuckled and said, "They're both Croatians. I'm not sure how, but their families got out during the Balkan conflict, and they got permission to emigrate. They seem like a nice pair, but they don't appear to want to interact with the rest of the team. I suppose language is an issue for them." She smiled wanly and said, "I guess we should be glad that the two of them were on the same side during the conflict. Lord knows we don't need any more dissention."

"Who are the last two?"

"Oh, they are..." She was interrupted by a very tall, very large, black woman, who flashed a warm smile and took the seat opposite them.

"Hey, Janae," Ryan beamed. "Meet my partner, Jamie Evans. Jamie, this is Janae Harris."

"Hi, Jamie," Janae smiled. "Been here long?"

"Not very," Ryan said. "I was introducing the cast of characters to Jamie. I was just about to hit Jaleesa and La Trice. I don't know much about them, though. Have any insight?"

"Yeah, a little. They're locals - they're both from Oakland," Janae revealed. "Jaleesa is a junior, and La Trice is a soph.o.m.ore. They've been close ever since La Trice joined the team."

"Are they friends of yours?" Jamie asked.

"Uh-uh," Janae said decisively. "The only things we have in common are skin color and a love of basketball. They're both very religious - and neither is very accepting of lesbians." Looking at Jamie she grinned and said, "I'm one of you, by the way."

"Duly noted," Jamie said, returning her smile.

"The bottom line is that we just never hit it off - even though I tried when Jaleesa was a freshman. She spent a great deal of time trying to get me to repent." She flashed another grin and added, "It didn't work."

Another small knot of players approached, and took seats near the rest of the team. "Here comes the rest of our happy little group," Janae observed. Jamie considered the threesome. Two blondes and a brunette, they looked fairly friendly and upbeat. "Ella, Hilary and Lily," Janae announced. "Hilary and Lily are soph.o.m.ores, and Ella is a freshman. They're nice enough, but they definitely stay in their own little clique. They seem like typical party girls - they're the reason that a lot of guys come to the games. Hilary is dating one of the wide receivers on the football team, and Lily is seeing a guy from the swim team. If nothing else, they've helped attendance."

"Doesn't anyone hang around with Franny?" Jamie asked, seeing the young woman sitting alone.

"Nope. I've tried to talk to her," Ryan said, "but she's painfully shy. I felt like I was torturing her, trying to make her converse with me, so I've left her alone since then. It seems to be what she prefers."

"Ryan tells me that you two want to try to turn the team around," Jamie commented to Janae. "Looks like you've got your hands full."

"And then some," Janae agreed, twitching her head in the direction of Coach Hayes, who had just arrived on the scene. "She's the biggest part of the problem."

"Why is that?" Jamie asked. "Ryan doesn't seem to have a good read on her."

"Well, primarily because she's an a.s.shole," Janae explained.

Jamie shot Ryan a worried look and asked, "And you two think you can overcome this?"

Ryan shrugged, and Janae spoke up. "Coach really doesn't interact much with us. Lynette is the one we have to work with most of the time - and she's great."

"Does the coach dislike you, Janae?" Jamie asked.

"Oh, yeah. Not for anything I've done, though. I was a good friend to a player named Deborah who stood up to Coach constantly. There was a big controversy last year - you may have read about it in the Daily Californian. One of the seniors was accused of stealing from another student. The other student said that this player, Renee Watkins, stole a mini-stereo from her room. Coach had a meeting with the whole team, and said she was going to suspend Renee from the team until the charges were proved or disproved. Wendy and Janet - my two favorite people on the planet - vocally sided with the coach - just to suck up, of course. Deborah and I argued - loudly - that kicking Renee off the team solely because of an allegation was just plain wrong.

"Deborah was really angry about the whole thing and she let her temper get the best of her during one meeting, and she called Coach a racist. I'm still not sure if Deborah talked to the paper or not, but they printed a story that hinted at racial discord on the team. Now, Coach was a b.i.t.c.h before - but she got a lot worse after that. It seems like she started distrusting the players - like she was afraid that we were going to turn on her. That's when Lynette took over more and more. That's been a good thing - as far as I'm concerned."

"What happened to Renee and Deborah?" Jamie asked.

"Renee was cleared of all charges - it was case of mistaken ident.i.ty," she said with a wry smirk. "Deborah graduated - after riding the bench for the remainder of the year."

"It sounds like a mess," Jamie said, her head shaking slowly.

"Oh, it is," Janae agreed. "But if we can get just a few of the players to work with us, things might really improve."

Coach Hayes stood up and looked around the room, obviously counting heads. When the announcement was made that they could begin to board, Jamie stood up and slung her carryon over her shoulder. "Are you coming with us?" Janae asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Did Coach give permission for that, Ryan?" Janae asked.

Ryan shot her a startled look. "Uhm...I didn't ask. Jamie made her own reservation for the flight, and she booked her own hotel room. Why would anyone care?"

"Coach Hayes cares about everything," Janae informed her. "Absolutely everything."

Lynette came up to the threesome just before they boarded, and called Ryan aside. "You should have checked with me before you decided to bring Jamie along, Ryan. We don't really like surprises."

"I'm sorry if I did something wrong," Ryan said. "I just didn't know it would be a problem. She's paying for herself, and getting her own room. We did this all the time with the volleyball team. I didn't think to ask."

"It's not the reality, Ryan, it's how it looks. Coach doesn't like it to look like anyone is getting special treatment. It's no big deal - just keep us informed, okay?"

"Okay. Again, I'm sorry, Lynette. I'm not a rule-breaker."

"Don't worry about it. It's a small issue." She gave Ryan a very serious look and added, "But don't let it happen again."

They were settled in their seats, a stranger taking up the third spot in their row. Jamie leaned over after takeoff and said, "I was just thinking about our last little photo opportunity this afternoon."

Ryan smiled, thinking about the elaborate photo set-up that Jamie had arranged at the Thanksgiving feast. "That was fun. We should do that more often."

"It was a lot more than I bargained for," Jamie smiled, giving Ryan a little wink.

"I thought you wanted to see the look on my face when I told you how much I loved you," Ryan reminded her in a whisper.

"Tiger, we nearly captured the look on your face when you make love to me. But it will be kinda fun to see on film how we progress from a gentle kiss to near copulation in less than a minute!"

After an uneventful flight and a bus ride to the motel, the two young women sat at a round Formica table, one of the pair resting her chin on her braced hands, staring in wonder at her partner, who was methodically consuming two pieces of pie - one pecan, one pumpkin.

"I was thinking about this pie during the entire flight," the dark-haired half of the couple mused.

The blonde smiled at her, her head wagging the entire time. "I know you love pie, but you can't possibly be hungry, honey. I've seen some prodigious displays of food intake, but today had to be some sort of record for gluttony!"

Ryan batted her blue eyes and said, "I thought you wanted me to gain weight?"

"I do, babe, but you don't have to do it all in one day! I don't want you to have nightmares."

"I never have nightmares from eating too much food," Ryan declared. "Too little? Definitely!"

"Far be it from me to interfere with your well-oiled machine," Jamie conceded. "You know what the beast can handle."

"I do indeed. Want some?" Ryan offered as she extended a fork carrying a tiny shard of the pecan pie.

"Nope. I'm gonna have to borrow your pants if I eat another bite. I will never understand how everyone in your family is so thin."

"Well, most of them do manual labor, and that burns up the calories, you know. But I also think the O'Flahertys have a pretty quick metabolism. As for the Ryan side, they're just small boned and thin."

"Good genes once again," Jamie decided. When Ryan was finished with her snack, she went into the bath to get ready for bed. Jamie followed close behind, and by 10:30 they were snuggling together to try to get warm. "Jeez, it's cold here!" Jamie complained.

"We might have to put on clothes," Ryan agreed. "This blanket isn't very thick. I don't think we'll ever warm up."

"Why can't we leave the bedspread on?" the smaller woman asked, her whole body s.h.i.+vering.

Ryan c.o.c.ked her head, giving her partner an amused look. "You haven't stayed in many motels, have you?"

"Nope. I've been in hotels on every continent, but when the golf team went to Oregon, that was my first motel. Why do you ask?"

"Motels are...different from what you're used to," Ryan said. "The room rate card says this place costs $39.00. That's not a lot of money - even for me," she laughed. "Now, I'm not saying that hotels appeal to low-cla.s.s people, but people tend to subject these places to a lot of... hard use."

"What's your point, Ryan? I'm freezing here!"

"All sorts of things go on in a bed, right?"

Grinning widely, Jamie agreed. "Yes, love. Lots of things. And we've done most of them."

"Right," Ryan nodded emphatically. "And some of those things that we and lots of other people do on a bed cause bodily fluids to be exchanged, right?"

"Uhm... yeah, that's rather obvious."

"A lot of people don't take the bedspread off before they start playing," Ryan said, letting that thought hang in the air for a moment.

Jamie's head swiveled to look at the bedspread, now neatly folded over a chair.

"They don't wash them very often," the dark woman concluded, smiling to herself when a visible s.h.i.+ver raced down her partner's body.

"That would never... ever have occurred to me," she said, a look of complete distaste on her face.