I woke up in my pajama shirt and underwear, half sprawled across a very handsome, mostly naked man in my bed. I took a peek at my clock and saw that I still had some time before my alarm was set to go off. We had probably gone to bed just a few hours ago. I groaned and stretched, feeling long forgotten muscles ache from last night’s activities. Man, I guess it really has been a while. My movements caused Jon to move around, too. I don’t think he was fully awake, though, since he just turned towards me on his side and held me in a death grip against his chest. I tried to squirm my way out of his heavy arms, but it was no use. I nudged his stomach with my elbow, trying to get him to release his hold on me.

“Jon, you have to let go. I can’t breathe,” I whispered to him. He mumbled something incoherently and squeezed his already closed eyes even tighter. I sighed from exasperation, which wasn’t very effective since I couldn’t take in a deep breath.

“Seriously, Jon, move your arm,” I elbowed him again, using a little more force than I thought was probably necessary. His grip tightened.

“Shhh, Gi. I can’t sleep with you talking and hitting me.” His voice was low and gravely, and it made my insides feel like Jell-O. I licked my suddenly dry lips and pressed a kiss to his chest while moving my fingers lightly over his stomach as best as I could, hoping a different approach would allow me to finally be able to breathe freely.
My plan worked. Jon loosened his grip on me so he could look at my face. I took in a deep gulp of air and dramatically blew it out of my lungs. He smiled at me, pulling my chin up to get a good angle for a kiss. Before I knew what was happening, I was flat on my back with Jon pinning me down. His was stomach flush against my own, and my wrists were captured above my head with his large hands.

“Since you woke me up so violently, I require some compensation for my injuries,” he said with a smirk on his face. I raised one eyebrow at him, and pursed my lips in mock frustration. Two can play this game.

“Injuries? Give me a break. I doubt you even felt that first elbow.” His eyes went wide, and I stifled back a laugh at his expression.

“You mean you hit me more than once? Well, now I definitely want some payback.” His lips pressed onto mine roughly, and my body betrayed me by responding to his touch. My hips bucked up against his, and I tried to lift my arms to grasp at anything in reach, but they were locked in place by Jonathan’s hands. I moaned into his mouth, unable to hide my want, and he pushed down on my hips even more, no doubt enjoying the reaction he was getting from me. He pulled back from our kiss, looking down at me. The color of his eyes had gone from warm whiskey to dark brown, almost black.

“The things you do to me are probably illegal in at least 27 states,” I said, hoping to coerce him back to kissing the crap out of me. He screwed his eyes shut and groaned.

“You shouldn’t say things like that. They’re likely to make me forget about our pinky promise.” His grip on my hands was still solid, but not painful. I wiggled under him, almost begging him to forget our deal from last night. What was I getting myself into? He pressed a searing hot kiss to my lips and dug his hips down again before quickly letting go of my wrists and jumping out of the bed completely.

Jon snatched up his basketball shorts and slid them on over his boxers. I sat up and got off the bed, walking past him towards the bathroom. He rubbed the back of his neck and gave me a wolf whistle before I closed the door on his laughter.

---

We made plans to use Saturday, a day with no practice or game, as our first actual date. Jon said he needed some time to figure out what we were going to do, and I had to get to work since it was only Thursday. After he left my place, I took Napoleon on a short walk and headed back to grab my things before leaving for the clinic. As we were walking up the steps, I saw my neighbor Lauren leave her apartment. She looked like she was heading to school with a large, heavy-looking book bag on her back.

“Hey, Lauren! Going to hit the books?” She rolled her eyes and grimaced.

“Yeah, I’ve got some big tests coming up, so I figured I’d go to the library before class to study. Did you guys just go for a run?” She bent down to scratch Napoleon behind the ears, and he gave her his signature doggie grin.

“We went for a quick walk.” I paused, thinking about the possibilities of Saturday night. Maybe I should ask her to watch Napoleon just in case I’m not home. While I wasn’t planning on sleeping over right away, I figured I should at least have all of my bases covered. “Do you have any plans for Saturday?” She shook her head ‘no’ without bothering to look up from my dog. “Well, Napoleon could really use a buddy that night because I’m not sure when I’ll be home. Would you want to look after him for me?”

“Oh my gosh, yes! I’d love to!” Her eyes lit up as she agreed to ‘dog-sit’ for me.

“Great! Let me just grab you my spare key really quick before you leave so that you can come over whenever. And don’t forget, I’ll pay you $5 for every hour, plus any of the food you want in my place.” She nodded, as I ran inside, dropping Napoleon off for the day in my apartment. I gave her the key, watching as she tucked it into the front pocket on her jeans.

“Okay, if I don’t see you before I then, have fun with Leon! Come over whenever you want Saturday.” We chatted as we both walked back out of the apartment building, and I immediately thought up a small list for Lauren before I forgot as we parted ways. I would leave her my phone number, some basic feeding instructions for Napoleon, and $15 with the note for her to order pizza for herself, telling her keep what she doesn’t use. Now, to figure out what to wear on a date that I have no idea about…

---

I decided to be ready for anything in a nice outfit that wasn’t too fancy or too trashy. Hopefully, he wouldn’t make us go to a high-end restaurant or skydiving; in any case, I was feeling as prepared as I could be for an undisclosed date. I was told to be ready by two in the afternoon, and I made absolutely certain that I would be. I was dressed and ready to go by 1:45, so I walked out of my apartment to wait for Jonathan outside.

Apparently, we both had the idea to be early because I had just sat down on the top step only to see him round the corner of my block. I stood up and cut the last of his walking distance in half. He was wearing a hoodie, some dark jeans, and a Chicago Bears baseball cap.

“Do people really not recognize you when you wear that,” I asked while walking up to him. He shook his head and whipped out a pair of sunglasses dramatically before putting them on.

“Yes and no, but these always help!” I grinned up at him as he put his arm around my shoulders. “You ready for this?”

“Where are we even going?” His smile matched mine and his eyes seemed to catch a spark of excitement behind his shades as he answered me.

“Navy Pier.”

---

We spent the entire afternoon and part of the evening walking around the pier, eating at some of the food carts, and buying a few knickknacks at vendor stands. I was so excited to be there again, memories from long ago flooding my senses. I’m pretty sure I bounced up and down on the balls of my feet like a child when he mentioned going on the Ferris wheel. I dragged him along towards the entrance of the pier, trying to get to the ticket line as soon as possible.

“Whoa, Gi. Slow down! There’s no rush.” He looked amused at my lack of adult sensibility. I couldn’t help myself. I’ve always loved this place, and the enormous Ferris wheel still made me feel like a kid. It was one of the few things that had yet to shrink in size as I got older.

“Hurry up! Look at that… They just turned the lights on! It’s huge!”

“Yeah, I noticed the giant, spinning wheel when we walked past it the first time, ya know.” I saw his tilted grin, poking a little fun at me, but it didn’t bring me down. During the wait for the tickets and then the wait to board our own cart, we talked about a variety of topics, letting the conversation flow easily between subjects.

He asked me about my hometown, and I countered with questions about Winnipeg. We talked about family members, childhood memories, and favorite everything’s, ranging from movies to ice cream flavors to classic cars. While I was used to conversing well with almost everyone I met, this felt so natural and effortless that I hardly realized we’d made it to the front of the line.

“Miss, are you going on,” the worker asked, bringing me out of my reverie, while gesturing to the empty compartment. Jon grabbed my hand and led me on board.

“She better be going since I paid for these tickets,” he joked, laughing at me. I couldn’t help but laugh, too. And with that, we climbed in our own private vessel. I took a seat across from Jonathan, hoping to keep the cart balanced.

“I can’t really describe how excited I am to see everything from the top! I’m sorry; I can be such a kid sometimes. I hope you don’t hold it against me.” I could feel my face and ears heating up for the first time that day. He shook his head and waved a hand as if to bat away my statement altogether.

“Of course not. I think it’s great. Sometimes, I can get a bit stuck inside my own head with hockey and responsibilities and whatnot. It’s nice to see you get excited about the littlest things because I get pulled into the excitement, too. You’re kind of like an escape for me.” He turned his face away from mine, and I thought I could see his ears turn pink. Well, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one of us who blushes!

“I’m glad I can help with that. Honestly, if you ever need to lose yourself in something other than hockey, I’m your girl.” Wow, double meaning, much? I cleared my throat in the hopes of clearing away the embarrassment I felt coming on, as well. Things were going so smoothly… How had it gotten this awkward all of a sudden? I realized it was probably due to our close proximity and the fact that we were forced to face each other due to seating arrangements. Maybe it wasn’t awkwardness, but sexual tension that had started to flow between us.

I looked up to see Jonathan staring at me, his expression unreadable. Yet, his eyes were warm and inviting. I could practically feel the heat coming off of him, our knees slightly touching. He reached over to grab my hand with his own, running his thumb back and forth over my smooth palm.

“You better look now before you miss the view, Gianna.” His voice was low and quiet, but I easily heard him since he was the only thing I was focused on. I pulled my eyes away from his to look around when I realized we were at the top. I gasped at the sight that I hadn’t fully seen for years, not since our class trip to Navy Pier in seventh grade.

“It’s like a postcard picture. How beautiful…” My mouth hung open slightly, and I stared at the skyline of Chicago from our perfect vantage point, not moving at all. Then, the Ferris wheel lurched forward again, taking us away from the top spot. The magic was broken, and I came back to the here and now.

“Was it everything you were hoping for,” Jon asked. His eyebrows were raised in question, and I was sure he wasn’t just talking about the Ferris wheel ride.

“Everything and more,” I answered, looking at him straight on. His face cracked into a grin, and he let out a breath he must’ve been holding in. My expression mirrored his, and I squeezed his hand that hadn’t let go of my own.

Notes