One Step at a Time

We decided to take a taxi to the restaurant simply because Patrick had taken his hummer today, and we figured he could give us a ride home. Plus neither of us really wanted to drive. I didn’t have my car and I didn’t want to take a chance in wrecking Jon’s car because of stupid people, and he just didn’t feel like driving. But who could blame him, with this crazy city traffic and all. It took about 15 minutes to get to the restaurant, but it was a good 15 minutes, well, besides for the creepy taxi driver.

“So where are you two headed tonight?” The old man asked.

“Just dinner with a few friends.” Jon responded quickly. I stayed quiet next to him and watched the driver. He would glance up a few times and look at me. Well, not at my face, but my chest. Once he looked away I looked down at my shirt and pulled it up more. My choice of shirt was laid back, just a long sleeve, black v-neck. Jon looked at me questionably and I made a slight nod towards the driver when he wasn’t looking. Jon smirked and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me closer to him. I felt my phone go off and pulled it out of my pocket. I saw I was getting a face time call from Uncle Q, Jon quickly took his arm off of me and rolled his eyes. I answered the call,

“Hey Uncle Q”

“Hey Lis, what are you up to?”

I looked over at Jon, “Not much, going out to dinner with Jonathan, Pat and a couple others. Whatcha need?”

“Oh, I was just calling to make sure you got the schedule I sent to you.”

“Schedule?”

“I sent it to your email, yes, we have training camp at Notre Dame on Friday, we’re leaving Thursday night and coming back Sunday. Then we have the Training Camp Festival on Monday.”

I heard a loud thump and a clatter of pans coming from his end of the call. I laughed and Jonathan looked over to see what was going on. Q’s face turned bright red and he looked at me.

“I need to get going, the damn dog doesn’t know when to stop running around. Hey Tazer, well I’ll see you guys tomorrow night. Have fun.” And with that he ended the call, I put my phone away and Jon and I started talking about the camp. Before I knew it we were at the restaurant, it looked like a cool place, laid back and casual. Jon quickly paid the taxi driver and we walked into the restaurant. We saw all of the guys and a few girls sitting near the back of the restaurant, and the two of us walked over and joined them. Jon and I sat down together, he sat next to Pat and I sat next to Duncan Keith. From what I guessed was the 3 girls who came were Sharp’s wife, Shaw’s girlfriend, and Duncan’s Wife, they all looked so nice and smiled at me. The waitress came by and took our drinks and our orders, leaving me to get to know everyone.

Duncan piped up and smiled, “Alisa, I would like you to meet a few of the wives and girlfriends, this is my lovely wife Kelly, Sharp’s wife Abby, and Shaw’s girlfriend Chaunette.”

I waved at all of them and said hi. I saw a smirk come from Jonathan’s face and I looked at him with a confused face.

“Just laughing at your shyness. You’re fooling everyone.”

“Shut up, I’m a little shy.”

“Bull.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed. The guys all started talking to each other, leaving me to talk to the girls.

“So, Alisa, what are you going to be doing for the team this year?” Abby questioned.

“Well Uncle Q offered me a job as the assistant equipment manager. I was looking to move back here with my boyfriend until we broke up, then I decided to drop everything and move out here to get away. I truly missed Chicago, I’m so glad I’m back.” I smiled at her and she smiled back

“Wait, where did you move from? No one really filled me in with the info.”

“Colorado, I used to live here until middle school, then we moved to get closer to family.”

“That’s cool, mountains, something no one here ever sees. Well, welcome to Chicago, Alisa.”

“Thank you.” I smiled at her. The girls and I ended up talking about a bunch of things, they all seemed so sweet, I was looking forward to spending some time with them when I wasn’t working. Our dinner seemed to come out fairly fast and I was starving. I had ordered the shrimp scampi and it was delicious. Jonathan leaned over and took a bite of my pasta as I leaned over and stole some French fries. Once we were done eating we all just sat and talked for a little bit.

Around 9’o clock we decided to go ahead and leave, the girls and I swapped phone numbers and we said our goodbyes. Jon and I hopped into Pats car and he drove us home. As soon as I got home I went upstairs to change into my sweats, then I heard a knock on my door and saw Patrick standing in the doorway.

“Hey, everything okay?” I asked him cautiously.

“Yeah, its fine. I jus- can we talk?” He asked nervously. I nodded and sat on my bed and motioned him to sit with me after he closed the door.

“What’s wrong Pat?” He was quiet and stared at the floor.

“Is there something going on between you and Tazer?” He glanced up at me and rubbed his hands.

“I don’t know, why do you ask?” I was worried, was there something going on between us? I liked him, but how far was that going to go?

“I just want you to be safe. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, I’ve never seen him look at someone like that before, let alone latch on and be so friendly around them all the time. It’s a good thing, Lis. I just don’t want either of you to get hurt. If there is something going on, it’s okay, you don’t have to hide it. But promise me one thing; you’ll be nice to him. I know it sounds stupid, but like I said, he doesn’t do this, I’m happy for him and for you. And please don’t let anything affect the season.”

I watched him ramble; he looked at me, afraid almost. He was truly my best friend, and I know he’d do anything to look out for me. It was sweet he came up here to tell me this.

“Pat,” I said as I touched his arm, “ I promise, I would never do anything to him or you on purpose. I know, I really like him Patrick. He’s different, he’s so kind, he cares, I’ve been here for 2 days and he’s already been amazing to me. Thank you for caring, I don’t want to hide it, I was going to talk to you about it eventually, to see what you think about this. And I promise I won’t do anything to ruin the season.”

Patrick finally smiled. He stood up and walked over to me and hugged me. “I think you two will work out. I’m glad we could get this situated.”

I smiled back at him as he let me go. I stood up to leave my room and looked at him.

“What about you, are you with anyone right now?”

He laughed, “Funny story, I’m talking to someone, I have been for about a month now, I like her and don’t want to ruin anything.”

Wow, the Patrick I knew before and the Patrick now stunned me. I was so proud of him, I smiled at him and gave him another hug. “I knew you’d grow up one day.” He laughed and hugged me back. He then pulled away and looked at me.

“Get down stairs to your lover boy and let’s watch a movie.” I obeyed and grabbed my phone and put it in my hoodie, Patrick let the dogs out of their cages and I ran downstairs to Jon, who was sitting on the couch. I plopped down next to him and threw my legs over his lap. He looked at me and rolled his eyes.

“What do you think this is?”

“It’s comfy and it’s also you being nice and letting me lay on you?”

He looked around and then at me. “I heard you talking to Pat…”

“Yeah…”

“I’m glad he’s okay with this.” I had a feeling he wouldn’t normally hide someone, but considering the situation, I was nervous as well.
“Does this mean I can lay on you?”

“I guess you can lay on me.” He laughed as he wrapped his arm around me and grabbed a blanket. I threw it over my legs and he placed his other hand on my legs and ran his fingers in circles. I snuggled into his neck and smiled when he kissed my forehead; I looked up at him and saw him staring. I smiled and reached up to kiss him. He kissed me passionately, I could feel him smiling when he did and pulled me closer when we broke apart.

Kaner came downstairs and got all of us drinks and snacks for the movie. I texted Tris and told her about everything. We caught up and I then turned off my phone when Kane started the movie. We all decided on The Big Lebowski. Which was a movie I was okay with but the guys loved. I ended up falling asleep halfway through it and when I woke up it was about one in the morning, Kaner was in bed, but Jonathan was still here with me, He was asleep and resting his head on me, I pulled myself closer to him and quickly fell back asleep.

Notes