Unlikely

The next day when I got up, I went to go make coffee, only to realize I was out. When I first moved in, there was a basket of complimentary things, one of which was a bag of coffee. I had already used all of it and hadn't gotten any more when I went to get groceries. I didn't feel like going to a store and getting some right then, so I quickly got dresses and made myself presentable to go to Patrick's to see if he had any. I left my condo and walked down the hallway and knocked on his door. A few seconds later, the door opened and a small smile appeared on Patrick's face.
"Hey," he said tiredly
"Did I wake you up?" I asked
"No, I got a call a few minutes ago from my agent, he said something about a good contract offer. I thought you were Jonny, but I'm glad its you. Do you need something?" he asked
"Yeah, I'm all out of coffee." I said with a sheepish smile
"Come on in, I just started some." he said with a laugh. I went past him and inside, where he followed. He showed me to the kitchen and he got out two mugs. We sat down at his kitchen island and waited for the coffee to finish.
"So what did your agent say about the contract?" I asked to break the silence.
"It sounds like this should be it, that Tazer and I would probably be pretty happy with it." he said. I nodded.
"That's good. I was getting kinda worried that the two of you hadn't signed yet." I said
"Yeah, I've heard that from a few people. But I've gotta go up to the UC at 11:30, and the meeting about it could take a while. Would you be okay with making our lunch date a dinner date, around 7?" he said.
"Yeah, that's fine, but date?" I said with a small laugh.
"Well yeah, what else would it be?" he said, laughing a little himself.
"Just going out to dinner maybe?" I said, smiling at him
"Fine, fine." he said, getting up. He went over to the coffee maker and poured it into the two mugs.
"Do you want any creamer or anything?" he said
"Yeah, cream." I said.
"Hazelnut, French Vanilla, or Caramel?" he asked
"Hazelnut." I said. He pulled the bottle out and then came back over to the island with a spoon. I poured the cream into my coffee and stirred it, set the spoon down and took a sip of the coffee I had been waiting what seemed like months for.
"So why can't it be a date?" he asked after a little while.
"Because you just said lunch, not a lunch date." I responded.
"But if I had asked on a date, would you have agreed?" he asked
"I don't know, you'll have ask me on a date sometime and we'll find out." I said. I got up and put my mug in his sink and faced him.
"Alright then," he said, getting up and coming over to me, "Will you go on a date with me tonight?" he said, setting his mug beside mine in the sink.
"Mm, I can't. I've got dinner with an arrogant hockey player." I said, smiling. Patrick crossed his arms and smirked at me.
"I'll see you tonight, Patrick." I said, smiling and turning away then walking out of his condo. I went back to mine and got cleaned up to go on a major shopping ship for groceries and things for my condo.

When I was ready and had my list, I made my way down to my car and searched for the nearest target. When I found it, I pulled in, parked and went inside. I grabbed a cart and started shopping.

A few hours later, I was bringing my cart, completely full of bags to my car. I put them all in my trunk and made my way home. When I was bringing everything into my apartment, my pocket started vibrating. I quickly got out my keys, went inside and set my bags down. I pulled out my phone and answered it.
"Hey, sorry I ditched you last night." Jill said as soon as I put my ear up to the phone.
"No its fine, Patrick brought me home. Turns out we live in the same building." I said
"Ohh, ahuh, I thought you just wanted him to play good hockey?" she asked
"I didn't have to pay, and there weren't any cab's around." I said
"Did anything else happen?" she said
"He asked me out to dinner." I said sheepishly.
"Holy shit, Natalie! You're going on a date with Patrick Kane!" she squealed, "ow ow ow, shouldn't have done that. My head still hurts." she said.
"Its not a date. But anyway, how did things go with you?" she asked
"Pretty good, I don't remember much, but he gave me his number this morning." she said
"Well that's good." I said.
"So when are you going on your date?" she asked
"Its still not a date, and tonight." I said
"Well let me know how it goes. I'm going to go get rid of this hangover." she said
"I'll see you later Jill." I said
"Bye Natalie, have fun on your DATE! ow." she said
"Its not a-" I tried, but she had already hung up. After that, I put away everything I'd bought. When I was done, I connected my phone to my speaker and played some music. I went over to my couch and laid down, and eventually fell asleep.


About half an hour ago, he had gotten home and was flat out wasted. I was hanging a few Polaroids I had taken today on our bedroom wall when he burst in the room. He stood behind me and looked at them, a few of which had one of my guy friends from my job in.
"Who's this?" he asked, stepping beside me and pointing at one with him in it.
"Its just Tom, from work." I said, irritably, hanging another one.
"Don't get bitchy with me." he said, lighting a cigarette and puffing the smoke in my face.
"You're drunk." I responded. I turned away and walked out of the room. He followed me out and in the hallway, grabbed my shoulder and pushed me to the ground, my head hitting the wall pretty hard as I went down. I tried getting up and running, but he stopped me. I was flat on the ground and he was pinning one of my arms down with one hand and holding his cigarette with the other. He blew the smoke in my face once again.
"I can't breathe, Tyler." I gasped. His grip on my wrist tightened and my eyes started to burn and tear up from the pain in my arm and lungs.
"You want me to put it out?" he asked, angrily. I nodded, fighting back tears. He then pulled on the collar of my shirt until it ripped, exposing my shoulder.
"I'll put it out then." he said. He took one last puff of it and then turned the cigarette around, and lowered the hot end towards me.
"no, no, please no,-" I started. He put his hand over my mouth and put more pressure on me with his torso to hold me there as I tried to move away. He lowered the cigarette more until it touched my skin. He dragged from the center of my chest all the way down my collar bone to my shoulder. As he was doing this, my cry out was muffled by his hand. He stood up as I clutched my shoulder and cried from the pain.
"Its out." he said, throwing it down at me and walking away. When he was gone, I got up and went to the bathroom, got a rag and ran cold water over it and placed on the burn. I let it rest there while I looked for some cotton balls and antiseptic. Since the shirt was ruined, I took it off and looked in the mirror. I removed the rag and looked at the blistering line. In a few weeks, it would look like the matching one that went vertically down my rib-cage. I poured some of the antiseptic on a cotton ball, and dabbed it all along the burn. It stung like hell. I stood and looked at myself in the mirror for a little longer, tears escaping my eyes. About 10 minutes later, I went back to the bedroom, got my small handgun and put it into the back of my jeans and changed into a loose, long sleeve tshirt. I was still shaking as I started putting all of my things into my suitcase. I stuffed all of my clothes and everything from the bathroom into it, and then the strings of the Polaroid pictures. I left the ones of him and I up. I wouldn't need them. When I was zipping my suitcase, the door to the bedroom opened and he walked over to me
"I love you so much." he said, walking up behind my trembling body and snaking his arm around my hips, his face buried into my neck. He kissed my jaw all the way down my neck and to my shoulder over the burn.
"Stop shaking babe, everything's fine. Okay?" he said. I nodded, but I was still trembling. A few seconds later, I reached behind me and pulled the gun out and I stepped out of his grip, pointing the gun at his chest. He backed up a little and put his hands up.
"Babe, come on, don't-" he tried saying.
"No, no. I'm leaving Tyler. You let me leave peacefully and I won't go to the police. I need to get a few more things, and you're going to let me, okay?" I said. He nodded. I kept the gun pointed at him and pulled my suitcase off of the bed. I pulled my purse over my shoulder and made my way past him and out into the kitchen and living area of the apartment. I got all of my things from there, put them in the outside pocket of my suitcase. I took a trash bag out from under the sink and opened the cabinet where we kept the liquor and took out all of it that I had bought, which was most of it. I tied it up and lifted it to the top of my suitcase. Lastly, I took my keys out of my purse and took the key to the apartment off and set it on the counter. I put them back in my purse and then walked out of the apartment, got on the elevator and went to my car. I put my suitcase and the liquor in the trunk and then drove away. I went as far as I could from the apartment and found a hotel, got my suitcase and checked in.

My eyes opened with a jolt. I remembered where I was: in Chicago, where Tyler could never find me. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. This was probably the 6th time I'd had a dream of that night. I stood, stretched and walked over to my phone and checked the time. 5:45. I took my phone and went to my room and started getting ready. When I was undressing, I looked in the mirror. It had been about a month since that night, and the burns still wasn't completely healed. There scar would definitely be a scar though. I shook the thought away and then got in the shower. When I got out, I dried my hair and then picked out something to wear. I got dressed and then did my makeup. I had about 20 minutes until Patrick was supposed to come. I took this opportunity to go outside and enjoy the view from my balcony. I sat in the lawn chair that the previous owners had left and looked out over Lake Michigan. Even though it was pretty warm in Chicago, there was always a breeze coming through.

While I was out there, I continued thinking about the night in the dream. The guy was my ex-boyfriend, Tyler. We met one night at a bar and were inseparable until the night I left. He was pretty good to me, most of the time. The last year we were together was when he started changing, but I could never bring myself to leave him. If he had never attacked me again, I probably wouldn't be in Chicago, or even away from him.


When it was nearing 7, I got up and went back inside and checked myself in the mirror one last time. I really hoped that Patrick wouldn't think much of me, I'm not sure I want to start dating anyone right now. Right before I was about to get lost in my thoughts, there was a knock at my door. I straightened my shirt one last time and then made my way over to the door and opened it for Patrick.
"Hey." he said a little nervously and with a sweet smile.
"Hey. Congratulations on the new contract" I said back.
"Yeah, thanks. Glad its over with. You ready?" he asked
"Yep." I said.

The two of us made our way down to his car and then pulled out of the parking deck to the busy Chicago streets. We approached a stoplight and he turned to me.
"You know what's funny?" he asked
"What" I said with a laugh
"I took you home to take you out to dinner." he said smiling.
"Yeah, I noticed that." I said, smiling back at him. The light changed and we started driving again. About 10 minutes later, we arrived at the restaurant. It was a quaint little Italian place in Little Italy. We parked, went inside, and were seated. Patrick got us a nice bottle of wine and once we ordered our food, was being really sweet. When we first started our conversation, we talked about the usual dinner stuff: where we grew up, how we got here, all that fun stuff. Whenever I'd be talking, Patrick kept his eyes on mine, listening and actually caring about what I was saying. It made me think of how Tyler used to not ever do that, but why was I comparing Patrick to Tyler?

Patrick made me laugh more than I had in a while. Some of the topics we got on were just absolutely crazy. I knew he could be funny, I'd seen some of the videos from Blackhawks TV and things like that, but I never thought much more about it. We also talked about his new contract with the 8 year extension. He seemed really happy about it, and that he wanted to stay in Chicago for a long time.

When our food came, we continued talking but a little less because the food was so good and I couldn't help but finish it all.
"How did you find this place?" I asked when I was finished
"Sharpy brought me here when I first got started. Why?" he asked with a laugh
"It's amazing. Best Italian food I've ever eaten, and my grandma is full Italian, but this blows her out of the water." I said
"Well I'm glad you liked it." he said smiling.
"You ready to get outta here?" he then added.
"Yeah, let me leave a tip though." I said, reaching into my wallet and pulling out some cash.
"Already took care of it." Patrick said
"You couldn't even let me do that?" I asked with a smile
"Nope." he said, smiling back. I stuck the cash back in my purse.
"At least let me buy you ice cream or something then." I said
"We'll see." he said, smirking again. We then made our way out to his car and started driving around the city. A few minutes later, we were near Grant Park. Patrick parked and we got out.
"There's gotta be an ice cream stand around here somewhere." he said. We walked around for a while before finding a little pavilion where a Neil Young cover band was playing on a small stage . There were a few beer stands, a pizza stand, and a guy with a snow cone cart, but no ice cream.
"Snow cones?" I asked
"Sounds good." he said. We approached the guy and looked at what flavors he had.
"Go ahead," I said to Patrick while I got out my wallet. He got grape and watermelon and I got blue coconut. As I was pulling out the right amount of cash and about to hand it to the guy, Patrick beat me and handed the guy a twenty. I looked up at him with raised eyebrows. He pretended not to see me as he told the guy to keep the change. We walked away and sat at a bench that faced the stage and ate our snow cones.
"I'm completely capable of purchasing things, just if you were wondering." I said with a small laugh.
"I think I might be a little more capable though." he said, laughing back. We were quiet for a while until we were finished with the snow cones. There was a trashcan next to the bench so neither of us had to get up. We talked a little more and continued listening to the music. When there weren't as many people around, Patrick stood up.
"You wanna dance?" he asked
"Patrick I don't think that's-"
"You'll be fine. And I'm an amazing dancer." he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me to my feet and lead me to where a few other couples were dancing. He put his hand on my waist and took my right hand, my left was on his shoulder. We weren't extremely close to each other so I'm sure we looked a little funny.
"Come on, let's not middle school dance this." he said, pulling me closer into him. Neither of us were leading, we were just swaying and turning in slow circles to the music.
"Yeah, amazing dancer." I said with a chuckle.
"What're you talking about? I'm great." he said, laughing back. I pulled back from him a little so we could look at each other.
"Patrick we're turning in circles." I said
"Isn't that what you're supposed to do?" he asked
"Well yeah, but there's also proper foot placements and you aren't constantly turning." I said
"Well how do you know?" he asked
"Because I was forced through cotillion as a kid." I said
"Cotillion?" he asked
"Ballroom dancing, proper table etiquette." I said. He just nodded.
"Are you gonna teach me then?" he asked
"To waltz?" I said
"Yeah!" he answered.
"It's really complicated, can we do it another time?" I said
"Another time? So like a second date?" he said
"I was thinking more along the lines of me just teaching you how to dance." I said, smirking.
"Why are you so fixed on not going on a date with me?" he said, smirking back at me. I sighed and looked down at our feet, then up and towards the stage.
"I just got out of a bad relationship." I said quietly.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I had no idea-" he started
"No, no its fine. It needed to end and I'm a lot happier now." I said He nodded and we continued dancing for a few more minutes.
"You ready to go?" he asked
"Yeah." I said. We pulled apart from each other and then made our way along the path towards our car. While on the way back, there was a group of guys standing and smoking under a lamp post. One was shirtless with a black leather jacket with a chest tattoo that looked a lot like Tyler's. As we got closer, it started looking a lot more like him until finally we got close enough to where I could clearly see him, and indeed, it was definitely him. Before they noticed us, I grabbed Patrick's arm.
"That's him that's him Patrick I can't go over that way I can't." I said, my eyes starting to tear up and my breath got shaky. He had good friends here in Chicago, so he frequently made the trip from New York. Patrick glanced over his shoulder at the group.
"We don't have another way to go. Walk on the other side of me, it'll be fine. Okay?" he said. I nodded and steadied myself. Patrick and I turned around, him on the inside of the sidewalk blocking my face from their view. My breath was still shaky, and he wrapped his arm around my back, his hand resting on my hip. As we were walking past, one of them called out to us.
"Hey bro, you got a lighter?" The voice was one that I'd heard say those words hundreds of times. He could never keep up with his lighters. I froze and Patrick pulled me in tighter to his side.
"No man, sorry." he said. Patrick turned away and we continued walking. About two seconds later, he called out again.
"What about your girl?" he said.
"What do I do." I whispered to Patrick
"Just answer, but don't look at him." he said
"Nope, I don't." I called back. There wasn't a response for a few seconds, so Patrick and I kept walking.
"I know that voice." Tyler said. I heard quick footsteps coming for us. Patrick pulled me into his side more. Tyler came to the other side of us and I turned the front of my body into Patrick's side and kept my head down.
"Natalie?" Tyler asked. I looked up at him for a second and then back down.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked. I couldn't tell his mood.
"I moved here." I said
"And now you're fucking this guy?" he said
"Hey now," Patrick said coldly.
"Stay outta this." Tyler said to him.
"Tyler, I can still go to the police and you know that. The burn still isn't healed Go back over there to Steven." I said, still not looking at him. Tyler didn't respond, he just scoffed and then made his way back to his friends. Patrick and I continued walking until we got back to his car. When we got there, I could barely hold back tears. Patrick got in and took my hands.
"Hey, hey. It's okay now. He can't do anything, you're fine." he said softly. I nodded and let out a sigh.
"You good?" he asked
"Yeah." I said, wiping my eyes. Patrick started the car and we drove away from the park and to our building. When we got there and up to our floor, he hugged me tightly.
"I'm gonna give you my number, and if you ever need anything, give me a call. Okay?" he said. We exchanged numbers, hugged one last time and then went to our separate apartments. Before going to bed though, I sat out on my balcony and played some music to help calm me. I thought about how Patrick didn't ask me anything about my relationship. He could tell it hurt me and knew that talking about it wasn't the best idea, and I really appreciated it. I also thought about Tyler though, that he was somewhere in Chicago, and would be for a little while longer. He always stayed for quite some time.

Notes

Finally finished! Sorry it took me so long, I've been busy with a few things the past week. Hope you guys like it!! KAZER FOR 8 MORE YEARS HELL YEAH.


Me - The 1975