Today in Minneapolis, MN

Jenny and I were cuddled up on the couch watching the Viking-Packer game. Danny and Katie were in the chair as the first of two annual border battles played out. Things had taken an interesting turn when Rodgers went out, but it was still too close to call “Tomorrow is going to suck” Danny groaned. “If the Vikings win I will have to listen to Carter whine that the only reason the Vikes won was because Rodgers was hurt. But at least I’ll get a free lunch out of it. I’ll just have to wear ear plugs.” Jenny laughed at her future brother-in-law. “You actually bet against Aaron Rodgers? What are you crazy?” Danny shot Jenny a look. “Hey, it’s a grudge bet. They make life fun.” Danny said. I nodded at his proclamation and the four of us went back to watching the game.

It was just before halftime when Danny asked if we were going to the game next week. “I think so. Marty needed all the seats for clients this week. Should be a decent game. The Ravens are OK, even if they are losing to the Bears. Their offense sucks but I still get nervous over that defense.” Jenny looked up at me, “Who are they playing next week?” she asked. I told her the Baltimore Ravens and I watched a slightly wicked smile come to her face. She sat up and grabbed her Surface. I watched as she typed out an email and hit send. “What was that all about?” I asked. Jenny just flashed a devious smile. “You will find out.” Jenny said sharing a quick kiss with me before cuddling back into my arms.

Meanwhile in London, England

The two women entered their flat after both having put in another day at work. Luckily both had been on short flights, Paige to Dublin and Jessica to Glasgow. They both had a day off tomorrow and then another five days on. “As sexy as you look in that dress, I can’t wait to get you out of it.” Jessica told her fiancée as the two shared a deep kiss. “Hmm, that sounds good.” And the two quickly moved off to their bedroom where they spent the next 45 minutes getting re-acquainted with each other. They emerged from their room where Paige moved slowly to the sofa while Jessica went to the kitchen. Jessica returned with two glasses of wine and cuddled into her lover, who was on her i-Pad. “Anything interesting on there?” Jessica asked. Paige told her partner yes and showed her the email from the States. Jessica snatched the tablet from Paige’s hand and typed a quick reply. “You are on” was the reply. Paige tried to protest a bit, “The Ravens got beat today by Chicago, who lost to the Vikings last week, right?”

“Yes, that’s true, but there is an old saying ‘Any Given Sunday’ Jess told her skeptical fiancée.

Back in Minneapolis.

The Vikings had just kicked a field goal midway through the fourth quarter to make it a two score game and giving us fans a little breathing room. I high fived Danny as I made my way to the kitchen to get something to drink. As I came back I heard the ding of an incoming email and I watch as Jenny reaches for her Surface. She began bouncing up and down on the couch. I sat back down and Jenny leaned into me. ‘I did it!” She stated excitedly. I became a bit nervous. “What did you do?” I asked guardedly. “I made my first grudge bet. I bet Paige & Jessica on the game next week. Loser must wear the other’s Cheerleader uniform.” I groaned a bit. Jenny had been trying to get me into a Viking Cheerleader outfit since the season started. “You better hope the Vikes win” I told my soulmate. Jenny leaned in and gave me a long, deep kiss that got me going “I win either way” she told me. “If the Vikings win we won the bet and you will be in a good mood. If they lose, I get to see you in a sexy cheerleader outfit.”

Minneapolis 22 Oct 17 11:20 CDT

“Come on Jenny! We are going to be late!” I called out to my fiancée. Kickoff was in about 45 minutes and I wanted to be there for it. As usual my better half had only a brief recognition of time. As organized as Jenny can be in life, time was just an annoyance for her when you had to be somewhere. Most of the time, I was just as guilty of being late but not on game day.

“Relax babe,” I heard Jen call out. “It will be fine. We will make it there before the game. Daddy gave us our tickets already and if we are a little late so what?” I want to scream out “So what?! This is important game! This is for bragging rights!” My anger quickly dissipated as the love of my life came out of the bathroom, fully made up and dressed in her typical game day attire of jersey and leggings, same as me. This time however she had her hair in braids with little purple bows at the end. Now I lost track of time as I moved towards Jenny and began to kiss her. “Come on, we will have time for that after the game for that” Jenny told me and took me by the hand and led me out the door

London 5:53 PM BDT

“Has it started yet?” Jessica asked breathlessly of her fiancée who was seated on the sofa, resplendent in her Ravens t-shirt that had acquired a strategic tear shortly after her fiancée’s parent had headed back. “Your fine. They haven’t even done the National Anthem yet.” Paige replied. Both women had taken the day off, but there had been a rash of illnesses recently and being a supervisor, Jessica had been called in to cover the Dublin route. Thankfully it was a quick turnaround because Jessica did not want to miss this game. There was too much on it, there was no way she was losing this bet. She rushed to the bedroom and quickly changed into her Ray Lewis jersey and a pair of comfortable pants and returned to the couch, where she shared a long kiss with the beautiful Scottish woman that Jessica was so lucky to call her partner. Paige picked up an Jessica’s nervousness. “Don’t worry about the game. I am sure the Ravens will do fine.”

“The Ravens have to win. We can’t lose this bet or we will never hear the end of it!” Jessica said. An evil smile crept across Paige’s face “I don’t know, I would love to see you in a cheerleader’s kit” Jessica giggled at that. “Well maybe if you are lucky I will wear the Raven’s one for you.” And the two shared another kiss.

Minneapolis 1:27 CDT

Marty couldn’t help but laugh at his future daughter-in-law as she stormed about the private suite. “We should be up big!” I said to Marty as the halftime festivities were underway. “How can we only be up by a field goal?” I asked. Marty just shook his head and tried to calm me down. “The defense is playing great Alexa. They have held them to two field goals.” I just gave Marty the ‘look’, as if he was crazy. After dragging Jenny to the restroom, we returned and I had calmed down a bit. Mostly because Jenny had pulled me aside in the hallway and gave me a long deep kiss. As we returned where we found Marty all full of questions. “Alexa, you seem a little more wound about this game than usual, which is saying a lot. How come?” We looked at my future father-in-law for second before looking down a bit embarrassed. “We have a bet on this game.” I said. Marty started to get a little red in the face and then asked how much. Jenny handled the answer “We bet with two of our friends over in London, one is a big Ravens fan. Losing couple has to wear the other’s cheerleader’s outfit.” Marty shook his head. “I almost wish it was money” he said

London 7:33 PM BDT

“We still have a chance” Paige said, “It’s only 9 to 6 at half.” Paige was trying to be as optimistic as possible because she could see that Jessica was not too happy with the way things were going. “We aren’t going to win with just field goals. And with Wallace out, Flacco has no receivers left. This is not good.” Paige tried to find ways to relax her lover, but could find none so she decided to take her mind off the game, but even that didn’t work. “Are you really that nervous of losing?” Paige asked. Jessica nodded “They are going to be here in a couple of days and we are going to the game with them next week. If the Ravens lose, I will never hear the end of it.”

Minneapolis 1:58 CDT

Jenny looked at me at the end of the third quarter. “This is looking better. Start of the fourth, it’s 18-9. The defense is playing great, you should feel much better.” I just shook my head “It’s not over until it’s over, babe” I told her. I was still nervous. As I lifelong Viking fan, you knew that there was no such thing as a sure thing, though silently I admitted that it was looking good. I sat back and began to think about how Jessica was doing. As much as I wanted to text her, I hadn’t. We did send Paige a couple of selfies before the game started and received replies at how cute we looked. She sent us one back of her sitting on the couch in her Ravens t-shirt all alone and a frown on her face. After the game started we had cut off all communication with our friends. I did feel for Jessica. I knew how it was.

London 8:39 PM BDT

Jessica had resigned herself to fate. It was the two-minute warning and the Ravens were down 24-9. “We need a miracle here to win this thing.” Jessica pouted as she collapsed into the arms of her fiancée. “We aren’t good enough to beat this defense.” Paige held Jessica and lightly massaged her back. “It will be OK Jess. We can have some fun with this. You know I have always wanted to wear a cheerleader’s kit. So what if it’s not a Cowboys.” Paige was trying everything to try and comfort Jessica. She reached for her iPad and went to the Vikings website. She pulled up the cheerleader’s page and showed the uniforms to Jessica. As she looked at the website, she pointed out “See, they aren’t that bad. Sure, they are the Vikings but so what. Besides, you will be the best-looking woman to wear a Viking kit in the UK, ever.” Jessica smiled as she realized what Paige was trying to do. Jessica looked up her partner.

“No, I’ll be the second best” Jessica said and shared a long, deep kiss with Paige

Minneapolis 2:53 PM

I collapsed back into my seat. It was over. The clock showed all zeros and the scoreboard showed the Vikings had won and I would not have to wear the Ravens outfit and would still have bragging rights over our friends in London. I looked over at Jenny and was surprised to see Jenny sitting there with a bit of a sad look on her face. “Jen? What’s wrong? The Vikings won. We won the bet and we are getting on an airplane for London in a few hours.” I said as I leaned in and gave Jenny a kiss. “I know” she told me “but I was kind of looking forward to seeing you in that little skirt.” I smiled to myself.

London 22 Nov 2017

Jessica was in a good mood. Her flight both back and forth between Geneva had gone without incident. For once none of the passengers had been verbally rude, none had asked her about her gender and none had tried to grab her. To make this day even better, she began a 5-day break as soon as she left Heathrow. She and Paige were going to head up to Dumbarton for a few days to spend some time with Paige’s family and do a little scouting of possible wedding venues. What a great day it had been. Little did she know what awaited her.

She came through the door to find Paige waiting for her. She held a glass of wine in her hand as she greeted her fiancée with a kiss. “You look like you had a good day” Paige said as the couple parted. “Aye” Jessica said jokingly, as she teased her lover. “Great. No hassles at all. How was yours?” Paige nodded and told Jessica that it had been a typical day. “Though no one asked me if I was male or female.” Jessica turned and took a big swig of her glass of wine. “I am going to go get changed and then let’s begin this little holiday right.” As Jessica was walking away Paige decided it was time to break the bad news to Jessica.

“It came” was all Paige had to say to her partner, whose shoulders visibly slumped as the words Paige just said sunk in. This was a moment she was regretting. A few weeks ago, their American friend Jenny Thompson had emailed her with a bet on the upcoming Viking-Raven game. The loser had to wear the cheerleader’s uniform of the other team. Jessica thought that the Ravens defense would have no problem shutting down the Vikings offense. She didn’t take into account that the Vikings defense would be so tough, and that Mike Wallace would get knocked out of the game so early. Jessica turned back around and looked at Paige. “Do we have to?”

“Yes, we have to. We made the bet and we must oblige the rules. Plus, Natalie and Zoe are coming over to take pictures. I say we just get it over with so we can enjoy the time back home.” Jessica nodded at Paige’s logic, and Paige got a bit excited. She had always wanted to wear one of those sexy cheerleader kits. And even though it wasn’t the Dallas Cowboy ones she had seen so many times, the Viking ones looked almost as sexy. She grabbed her fiancée’s hand and led her into the bedroom where the box was. The both quickly stripped down to nothing but their thongs and went opened the box. Inside were two skirts, two tops and two pair of white boots. The each grabbed the extremely short purple and white skirt and slid them on. Jessica’s objection to the uniforms slowly began to melt away as she looked longingly at her lover. Next came the matching purple and white halter with the lace up front and the white arm cuffs. It wasn’t long before both were giggling and getting into the dress up session. The last item to put on was the white go-go boots complete with a purple ‘V’ on them. Paige and Jessica looked at each other. Paige was all smiles because this was the culmination of a dream. Jessica was all smiles as she looked at Paige in the uniform she became a bit excited. Before she could do anything about it, there was a knock at the door. Paige grabbed Jessica’s hand and led her out of the bedroom.

“You get the door, I’ll get some glasses” Paige said to Jessica. Jessica went to the door and prepared herself for the teasing that was about to begin. “There she is, the Pom-Pom queen of Baltimore” Natalie said as Jessica opened the door. Jessica just stared at her friend as she let the couple in. “Vous êtes chaud, Mademoiselle Tyler! Where is you cheer partner?” Zoe asked her friend. Jessica shook her head at her friends’ comments. “Enough, I just want to get this over with. “

“No more wagers then?” Zoe asked. Jessica told her never again.

“We will see about that!” Natalie said laughingly. Paige entered at the same time. “I agree.” Paige stated, “And if we do lose I hope my bonnie blonde lass will look just as good as she does now.” The smile Paige flashed at her fiancée seemed to relax Jessica a bit. After draining her glass in one long pull, an even more relaxed Jessica said, “All right, let’s get this started!” Natalie had Jessica and Paige strike various poses. “Come on work it blondie. Prove to your fellow Yanks what a sexy cheerleader you would make.” Zoe was the photographer’s assistant as was choreographing the couple into various poses. Jessica could see how much fun Paige was having and slowly began getting into the posing. By the time the photo shoot was over, Jessica was giggling as much as her fiancé “Thanks” Paige said as the shred a kiss. “You know I would do anything for you.” Jess told her.

A few hours later, Minneapolis

Jenny came home from class. It was a Friday and the she and Alexa had no plans for the weekend other than cuddling up together. “Lex? You home?” she called out. “In the bathroom. Be out in a minute” was the reply. Jenny went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water and after shedding her coat, she plopped down on the couch. Reaching for her Surface, she opened her email. One instantly caught her eye. It was from Jess and Paige, two of their friends in London. “These must be the pictures” Jenny thought to herself as she opened the attachments. The pictures of the two beautiful flight attendants were great. “They look better than all of the cheerleaders we have” Jenny said out loud. “Lex! Get out here! We got the pictures of Jessica and Paige in the cheerleader’s uniforms. Alexa stepped out of the bathroom.

“Did they look like this?” Alexa asked as she stood there in the exact uniforms their friends were wearing. It didn’t take long for the Surface to be completely forgotten about.