3rd & Long

Chapter 3: Holding

"What are you waiting for?! Get your ass IN his DM's Nataly Casillas!"

Stef was shouting so loud through Nat's headphones Nat was afraid her eardrum would burst.

"I can't!! What am I gonna say?? Thanks for the follow by the way you have the nicest ass on the team." Nat briefly imagined that Bosa butt but quickly shook her head.

It had been a couple of days since the defensive end had followed her back on Instagram, but besides some small conversations here and there, Nat hadn't had much time to build her relationship with Nick yet. The idea of messaging him was indeed very tempting, but every time she came close to doing it, Ellie's words rang in her mind.

It got so bad they ended up letting the poor thing go.

Nat wasn't sure how being fired would affect her, but she was even more concerned about Raf. Would he lose his job too? Would they force him to come back? For as much as Nat liked Nick, she wasn't ready to risk so many things just for the chance to maybe get her heart broken again.

"TELL HIM SOMETHING YOU CHICKEN" Stef exclaimed

Nat took her headphones off and decided it would be better to put Stef on speaker.

"I don't know Stef, you're good at talking to guys, give me a line"

Stefanie Rosales was one of Nat's closest friends. If Raf had been her rock through high school, Stef had been the one to help her through college. The two met at a chance encounter in the laundry room of their dorm. Stef took one look at Nat's underwear and let out a screech. She made Nat promise her then and there they would go shopping together for a wardrobe that said "catch me at the library during the week but the club on the weekends". Ever since then, the two had been bonded at the hip. Stef had been there for Nat while she was going through her breakup with her obsessive ex boyfriend and Nat had been there to help Stef study when her ADHD was giving her too much of a challenge. They were two peas in a pod.

"If it were me, I would open with something bold and flirty. Something like: 'Don't go too hard tomorrow, I'm not trying to see you at the clinic' and then add a winky face or something. That way he's gonna start wondering if you WANT to see him at the clinic."

"Why can't I just ask him how his day was?!" Nat protested, "Ooh, or maybe I can send him a meme."

"Nataly if you send that fine ass man some shitty meme I'm going to turn this car around and go back to LA"

Stef was driving up to San Francisco for the weekend to go support Nat as she worked her first game for the Pioneers. It had been a few months since they last hung out in person, so Nat was excited for the occasion. Stef was equally excited, though Nat knew half of it had to come from the fact they were going to the game. If there was one thing about Stefanie Rosales, it's that she was desperate to be a football wife. It was their mutual love of the sport and its players that bonded the two every season since their freshman year.

"Maybe I should just wait for you to get here and we can plan it out over some of Raf's tequila. He said it was to die for." Nat giggled to herself

"Ughhh fine. But you know what you should do while you wait? Look for one of those pics you took at my birthday a few months ago. The one where you were wearing that white dress. You looked sooooooo hot. Start coming up with some captions because we are not DMing him without posting and showing him what he's missing out on!"

Nat could feel herself blushing. It wasn't often she got dressed up, she was more of a baggy clothes kind of a girl. But considering it was Stef's 25th birthday, she knew her friend would drag her to filth if she didn't bring her A-game. So she took a risk on a sleeveless white cocktail dress that went a few inches above her knee and showed off the curves her Mexican mom gave her. It had definitely paid off because she got tons of attention- so much so she thought Stef might have felt a type of way being overshadowed. But her best friend stayed true to character and she let out drunken sobs about how proud she was that Nat had been the belle of the ball. To date it was one of Nat's favorite memories of Stef.