A Shot in the Dark

Chapter 7
The next morning I woke up in a great mood. I haven’t been this happy in awhile.
Although I know Matt is leaving, I felt like this was my chance to be on my own. Back in Buffalo my mom was there to constantly look over my shoulder. Here I have Matt for that, but now that he’s leaving I can finally become an adult and take care of myself. I felt like I was entering a new stage of my life.
My mood encouraged me to call Patrick and make plans for today.
I was slightly hesitant to press the call button. What if he had changed his mind and decided it’s best to keep me out of his life. I mean he is clearly doing perfectly fine without me.
Before I could let any more doubt get into my head, I pressed the call button.
The phone rang three times before he finally answered.
“Hello?” he said, his voice filled with sleep.
“Hey Pat!” I said much more enthusiastically than I had to.
“Um who is this?” he asked
Oh my God this is so embarrassing. He didn’t even save my number last night. “Oh um this is Taylor. Taylor Palmeri.”
“Taylor! Taylor, hey. Sorry I didn’t check the caller ID.” he said much more awake now. “Since you’re calling me I’m assuming you might want to hang out today?”
Although that was supposed to be a statement, it came out more like a question.
“Actually yeah. I think it would be good to catch up with you. Can you pick me up in about an hour?”
“An hour? Um yeah that works for me. Just text me your address.”
“Alright no problem. And remember you promised it won’t be awkward.” I reminded him.
“If you remember correctly Palmeri, I do not break promises. Your wish is my command.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, “See you in an hour Patrick.”
I quickly got in the shower and got dressed in black pants, converse, and a sweater. I put on a light layer of makeup and realized I still had about 20 minutes until Pat got here. I texted Jackie and let her know I was seeing Pat today. I got a very quick response.
“OH MY GOD TAYLOR THIS IS SO EXCITING” she wrote. I texted her back saying I would let her know how it went. A couple minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I couldn’t believe I was about to spend a whole day with Pat again. I was really nervous. I opened the door and Pat stood there with a huge grin on his face.
He pulled me into a hug. “This is gonna be really fun. I promise.” He said, leading me out to his car. Although we used to date, I didn’t feel anything like that for Pat anymore. I just felt like he was my best friend, and I finally got him back.
“So what are we doing today?” I asked when we got back to his car
“ Well I didn’t really expect you to agree to go out with me because Jackie told me you didn’t want to see me, so I don’t have any reservations anywhere. So we’re going to go eat at IHOP if you’re hungry. If you’re not, well I am so you can watch me eat.” He said as he pulled away from my apartment. “Then I was thinking you haven’t seen much of the city yet so we can do sightseeing stuff you know? Then Jon and Lindsey want to meet you so we might stop by Jon’s house.”
“Jon and Lindsey?” I asked.
“Well Jon is the captain of the Hawks and Lindsey is his lady friend. They’re who I was having dinner with last night.”
“Oh great. They probably think I’m some emotional psycho.”
He started to laugh, “Jon already knows enough about you to know you’re not some ‘emotional psycho’ and I wouldn’t worry about Lindsey thinks about you.”
“Why not?” I asked as we pulled into the IHOP parking lot.
“Well she’s pretty self centered. I doubt she even noticed you were there.”
“Well why is Jon with her?”
“That’s a question that no one has the answer to.”
“How many will be dining today?” the waitress asked
“Two please.” Patrick said.
“Right this way.” she said leading us to a booth in the corner.
“Here are your menus. Can I start you two off with something to drink?”
“Um orange juice for me, and she wants a coffee with three creamers.” Pat said. I was surprised that he still remembered my coffee order.
“I’ll get that right to you.” she said walking away.
“You remembered my order?” I asked
“Well yeah. How could I forget? I got it for you every morning. I also remember that you don’t eat syrup on your waffles, which I still do not agree with.”
“It just doesn’t taste good to me!” I said a little bit louder than needed.
“It’s weird Tay. Everyone puts syrup on their waffles.”
“They get soggy, and it doesn’t even taste that good.”
“You shouldn’t even be allowed in this restaurant.”
Just as I was about to reply our waitress returned with our drinks. “Okay what can I get you two to eat?”
“I’ll have the chocolate chip pancakes and she’ll have the original waffles with-”
“With extra syrup.” I finished for him.
“Don’t put any on mine. She’s going to want to switch with me.” he said with a smile.
“I’ll get that right out for you guys.” she said before walking away.
“I can order for myself Patrick.” I said with a smile so that he knew I wasn’t being serious.
“Well you obviously can’t since you just ordered something you’re not going to eat.”
“I am going to eat it. Just to prove you wrong.”
“The only thing you’re going to prove is that you don’t like syrup, which is something we both already knew.”
After 10 minutes of random talking our food finally showed up. I had to admit my syrup drenched waffles looked disgusting to me. Patrick’s chocolate chip pancakes on the other hand looked delicious. I decided needed to just force the waffles down and get this over with.
I looked up knowing Pat was already staring at me, “So are you actually going to eat them or are you just going to keep stare at them until they disappear?”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “I’m going to eat them just give me a second.”
After staring for about 15 more seconds, I finally just took a bite. They were way too sweet and they were slightly soggy because I let them sit for such a long time. They were just as bad as I expected them to be.
I guess my face gave away how I felt about them because before I could even say anything Patrick had taken the waffles away from me and put his pancakes in their place.
“I told you that you wouldn’t like them. You need to listen to me more.” he said taking a bite of my syrup drenched waffles.
After about 15 minutes, Patrick and I had both finished all of our food and Patrick called the waitress over so that he could pay the check.
“So where to next boss?” I asked him
“Well we can go sightseeing if you want, or we can just go straight to Jon’s house. I’m pretty sure Lindsey is already there. She’s so clingy. It bothers me.”
“Well I’m sure we can go sightseeing another time. I know you guys never have off days, so it might be smart to meet Jon now.” I said getting up from my seat.
“Next time?” he asked. “So I’m not doing too bad?”
“No you’re doing pretty good, but it’s only 11am. I expect you to mess something up within an hour.” I teased.
“Whatever,” he laughed. “Let’s go.”
We got in his car and made our way towards Lincoln Park. It was so gorgeous in Chicago. I was definitely falling in love with this city.
We arrived at Jon’s house not more than five minutes later. As I was about to ring the doorbell, Patrick pulled out a key from his packet.
“Being his best friend does have its perks.” he said with a smirk.
As we entered the home I could hear yelling towards the back of the house.
“They must be at it again.” Pat said quietly.
“Again?” I asked.
“Yeah they fight like cats and dogs. They only get along about once every two months. Everyone knows that she’s using him for his money, hell even he knows she’s using him for his money, but Jon being Jon won’t admit that. He still thinks they can work it out.”
“That’s so sad.”
“Eh. You learn to ignore it after a while. This is the normal for us.”
Just as Pat said that, Jonathan and Lindsey walked out, looking angry.
“Hey Pat, and hello, you must be Taylor.” Jonathan said in an upbeat tone.
“Hi Jonathan it’s so nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you!” I said. Jonathan smiled and gave Lindsey a nudge.
“Oh, yeah hi. I’m Lindsey” she said quietly. “Sorry guys I have to go. Nice to meet you.” and with that she stormed off.
“Everything ok Jon?” Pat said.
“It’s fine man, you know how she can be. Well come in guys. Since we have the day off I was thinking we could just hang out?” Jon said hopefully.
“Sounds perfect!” Patrick and I said in unison. We both laughed. All 3 of us went into Jon’s living room and sat down. We played mario kart for a few hours and then decided to go out for a light dinner. We went to one of Jon’s favorite sushi places and it was amazing.
I was really starting to like Jon. I knew he could be a really good friend. After dinner, we said goodbye to Jon, and Pat drove me back to my apartment.
“Thanks for the day out Patty.” I said as we walked up to my front door.
“Patty?” He asked with a small smile.
“Yeah Patty. I’ve always called you Patty. Should I not do that anymore since you’re such a big shot now?” I teased.
“No I like it. Love it actually. It’s just that you haven’t called me that all day. I thought maybe you were still holding something against me.” he said looking down, “I just really missed being called that.”
“I’m not holding anything against you. We’re friends again. It’s fine.”
“But not best friends.”
I sighed,”I promised this wouldn’t be awkward.” I laughed trying to lighten the mood.
“Just saying. Hey, come to my game tomorrow?”
“hmm, I don’t know I might be busy.” I said
“I’m your only friend in this entire state, you’re not busy. See you tomorrow at 7 Palmeri.” he said walking away.
“You’re so annoying Kane.”
“You love me though.” he yelled from his car.
After he said that I realized, that standing there on my front porch, I infact do still love Patrick Kane.
So what if we don’t get to date. It’s just great to have him back in my life, and know that he actually wants to be here. And plus, I’ve heard his little hockey friends are pretty cute. I wonder if he could introduce some of them to me...

Notes