Sapphic Signs: The Balancing Act by Ann Cory

Howdy lesfic fans!

It's Thursday, and you know what that means: another excerpt from Torquere Press' Sapphic Signs line. This weeks it's:

The Balancing Act

by Ann Cory

Michelle and Gracie became fast friends on the gymnastics team, and were inseparable. That friendship intensified into romance, and they never looked back. More than Gracie’s confidence took a tumble during an important competition, resulting in an injury that has kept her in and out of surgeries, and their once red-hot relationship has never been the same.

But Michelle’s love for Gracie keeps her determined to find balance and revive the passion they had for one another both on and off the beam. She must come clean about where she’s been going during her spare time, while Gracie decides to have one final surgery.

Sample

She caught a glimpse of Michelle walking toward the coach in her navy blue leotard. The tight garment showed off her sinuous muscles to perfection.

Gracie never thought she’d be sitting in this place again. She expected anger and regret to keep her away for good, but she felt neither of those things.

Along the sidelines, Michelle practiced her routine on the floor. Her body moved with the same dancer’s grace she’d always had. Gracie loved how she bent forward, her back arched, with arms above her head. Her legs of pure muscle, the back one extended into a perfect arabesque. She leapt and then spun on her toes with her arms straight and body in flawless alignment.

For a moment she put herself in Michelle’s place. Gracie remembered how she used to glide and turn, flip and leap. Her teammates liked to challenge her to see who could hold a pose the longest without falling.

Much as she enjoyed the floor exercise, she preferred the rush of being up high, to be the envy of gymnastic hopefuls with the way she could hold her body with such intensity. She’d mastered all the dance moves on a small wooden beam instead of a spring boarded floor. Had she known the result of competition night, she might’ve treated her body better, been easier on her muscles, taken better care of her joints, but in the end perhaps she hadn’t been meant to perform in front of a large crowd. Gracie chuckled to herself. She knew this was all her way of analyzing, trying to justify and make the situation right considering there weren’t many options.

A woman in a business suit stepped up the microphone and announced the start of the competition.

The crowd got to their feet behind her and she cupped her mouth, screaming and shouting along with them. She watched her team on the uneven bars and the floor events. When it came time for the balance beam, she saw Michelle seek her out. Gracie nodded and smiled, giving her the thumbs up sign. And then the knots in her stomach doubled.

Find it at Torquere Press: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=78_115&products_id=3360