We've Got This

The rest of dinner was interesting, but Tyler got the point across that he wasn’t interested in our waitress at all. He wasn’t mean to her per se, but he was stern and never really looked at her when she spoke to him; he kept his eyes on me and held my hand on top of the table.

By the time we were ready to leave it was already almost 10 o’clock at night. “We should probably just head back to my house; we have to be up early tomorrow for the game,” I said as we walked to my car. “You okay with that?” I asked.

He nodded as he opened my door for me. “Yeah, that’s cool. I need to chill out after this fiasco,” he chuckled, referring to our waitress.

“I still can’t believe you tipped her after she flirted so hard,” I replied. “And you’re just lucky I didn’t fight you on paying,” I added as he sat down into the driver’s seat. “Thank you for dinner,” I said, leaning over and giving him a kiss.

“No need to thank me,” he replied, giving me a quick peck before starting the car. “And thank you for not fighting me on paying,” he chuckled.

I shrugged. “I’ll get you back; I’m buying you food at Wrigley tomorrow,” I replied, and he rolled his eyes and chuckled as he drove us back to my house. When we got there I put on my pajamas right away, and we watched Netflix in my bed until we decided to get some sleep for the game tomorrow.

The next morning I was up bright and early, Tyler still snoring away beside me. I chuckled as I carefully got out of bed and went into the bathroom, bringing my clothes with me to take a shower. When I got out twenty minutes later Tyler was still sleeping, so I went over and climbed on his stomach. “Babe, time to wake up,” I said as I gently bounced on top of him. Instead of responding he just grabbed my hips to make me stop bouncing, eyes still closed. “Ty, come on. We have a train to catch, and we need to get to the train station first,” I said.

He then opened his eyes…and quickly rolled them. “Got enough Cubs gear on babe?” he asked, hands still wrapped around my hips. I guess I was wearing a lot of Cubs stuff; my David Ross jersey, my ‘try not to suck’ t-shirt, and my hair was already up in a ponytail with my Cubs hat on. “If you want me to get up, you need to get off of my first,” he chuckled.

I rolled my eyes and climbed off of him. As he stood up I started to put my shoes on. “Go, get in the shower. I took out some clean towels for you, and I snagged my dad’s shampoo and body wash so you don’t smell like me all day,” I said as I stood up.

“Even though I love how you smell,” he said, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me close, capturing my lips in a steamy kiss. “Good morning beautiful,” he said softly, resting his forehead against mine.

I blushed a little bit, but recovered quickly. “Good morning handsome. Now go, get in the shower,” I chuckled, pushing him toward the bathroom to speed him along.

It only took him ten minutes to shower, and we were on our way to the train station fifteen minutes after that. Once again Tyler refused to let me drive, so I was stuck telling him how to get to the station. Luckily it was pretty much a straight shot from my house. He even let me pay for parking once we got there. “Where’s the tracks?” he asked.

I chuckled. “Up there,” I said, pointing above us as we approached the entrance to the station. I blew his mind even more when we got to the ticket machine. “Alright, we might as well get all-day passes; who knows how long we’ll be down there,” I said, more to myself than to him, as I inserted a twenty-dollar bill. Two tickets then came out, and I handed one to Tyler. We then headed up the escalator to the platform. “Welcome to the CTA Blue Line,” I said with a smile.

“So this is kinda like the subway, isn’t it?” he asked. I nodded. “I used to take the subway and buses and all that to get to school when I was younger,” he added.

As the time came closer for the train to get here, I noticed more people wearing Cubs gear. Though it wasn’t surprising; public transportation was a pretty popular way to get down to Wrigleyville. What also wasn’t surprising was seeing all the girls staring holes into my boyfriend; I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.

Without me even having to say anything, Tyler wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and pulled me into this chest, kissing my temple. “Stop worrying about it,” he mumbled into my ear as the train finally arrived.

Luckily our stop was only the second one, so there were plenty of seats available. The only downside was that we would be on trains for a long time. I quickly found a window seat once the doors opened, and Tyler sat down right next to me, throwing his arm around my shoulders. “I love just looking out the window on trains. It’s so relaxing,” I said, as I leaned into Tyler. “And its fun to laugh at all the suckers stuck in traffic on the highway,” I chuckled. We’re gonna be on the train for a while,” I added, turning to look at him. “Then we transfer to the Red Line, and that will take us right to Wrigley.”

“Sounds simple enough,” he replied. “You know where we need to transfer?” he asked. I nodded.

The train rides took about an hour, and we were walking up to The Cubby Bear right on time. “They’re probably already inside,” I said, referring to Kane and Toews, as I dialed Patrick’s number.

“Where are you?” he answered on the second ring.

“We’re right outside, are you guys inside already?” I replied.

“Yeah, we’re already here. I told the hostess that we were expecting two more people, and I gave her your name. Just make sure you show her your ID so she knows for sure that it’s you,” he replied.

“Does Tyler need to show his too?” I asked as we walked inside the door of the restaurant.

“No, I told the hostess that it was you and your boyfriend, so he should be fine. See you in a few,” he said before hanging up on me.

I then approached the hostess stand and pulled out my ID. “Hi, we’re with Patrick Kane,” I said, handing over my ID.

She looked it over and gave me a once over before smiling. “Right this way,” she said cheerily before leading us up the stairs and to a more private area of the restaurant.

As soon as we got up to the foot of the stairs Patrick saw us and his face lit up. “It’s about time!” he exclaimed as we approached the table.

I rolled my eyes. “We’re exactly on time Kaner, calm your tits,” I replied as I gave Jonathan a side hug and Tyler shook Patrick’s hand. “But anyway, are we heading in right away? The gates should be opening any minute now,” I continued.

“How about you calm your tits and sit down?” Patrick countered, pulling out the chair next to him. “We have time; no one is going to steal your seat or anything like that. If anything, Johnny and I need to head inside before you guys do; we need to get situated to throw out the first pitches,” he continued, taking a sip of his beer. Then I saw the lightbulb go off above his head. “Speaking of which, we need to get going Johnny,” he said, standing up and slapping a few bills on the table, presumably to cover the beer bottles on the table.

“See you guys in there,” Jonathan added as he stood up as well, shaking Tyler’s hand as they headed for the stairs.

I sighed and sat back in my chair. “So, what do you want to do?” I asked. “We could stay here for a while, or we can head inside and catch the last bit of batting practice. It’s up to you,” I said.

“Why don’t we head inside? I can tell just by looking at you that you want a hot dog,” he chuckled as he stood up.

“You know me too well,” I giggled, taking his outstretched hand as he led me out of the restaurant. “Wait,” I stopped him once we got outside.

“What?” he asked.

I smiled widely. “We need to get a picture in front of the marquee,” I said excitedly. He just rolled his eyes. “Oh come on! Humor me a little bit. There’s nothing quite like the Wrigley Field marquee,” I argued. He just sighed and nodded, and I happily asked the next person that crossed out path to take our picture. Once they agreed, Tyler and I got in front of the marquee and he put his arm around my waist. After the picture was taken I thanked the man and we headed inside the ballpark.

“Wow,” was all Tyler said once we were through the concourse and heading toward our seats.

“I know right,” I agreed, just looking around. “Welcome the Friendly Confines.” I never got sick of the view at Wrigley Field. “Come on,” I said turning back to him, “I owe you a beer.” He just chuckled and followed me back to the concourse. We got our beers, and I got a hot dog, and we headed back to the seats. Patrick must have known how much these seats meant to me, because he gave me the ticket for the seat on the end of the front row…right next to the Cubs dugout. I nearly fainted when I saw the seat number.

We didn’t see Jonathan or Patrick until they were throwing out the first pitches, and they did pretty well. After the first pitches were done, the hype video that was played before every home game started, set to ‘Warriors’ by Imagine Dragons, and I got the chills; I always got the chills at Cubs games. I’ll be perfectly honest; when the video was playing I was bouncing like a child.

I cheered loudly as the Cubs ran out onto the field to start the game, but I didn’t start fangirling until the bottom of the first; when we were up to bat. “Holy fucking shit, Kris Bryant!” I squealed as he stepped up into the on-deck circle.

I freaked out a little more when Anthony Rizzo walked up the dugout stairs; he was my favorite. I found myself smacking Tyler in the stomach as Rizzo came closer out of the dugout, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. He tipped his helmet a little at me and gave me a small smile, and it was at that moment that Tyler wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. He was jealous.

The game was awesome; we won 8-7 in 13 innings. Patrick and Jonathan did awesome singing the seventh inning stretch, and I belted out ‘Go Cubs Go’ as loud as I could with the rest of the Cubs faithful, waiving my W flag proudly. Yes, I brought the flag.

We said our goodbyes to Patrick and Jonathan soon after; we needed to get back to my house so we could get enough sleep for Six Flags tomorrow. Tyler was grumpy the entire game after the first inning, and he was getting on my nerves.

Not much was said on the trains home; I wanted to talk about the game with him, but I knew it would be a touchy subject for him since I was practically eye-raping the Cubs. Once were off the trains and in the parking lot heading for the car I decided to speak up. “You want to tell me what’s got your boxers in a bunch?” I asked.

“You were acting like such a child during the game,” he said. “You were practically undressing all of them with your eyes,” he continued, trying to stay calm.

I scoffed. “I’m sorry, last time I checked I was a die-hard Cubs fan. I had never sat that close before, so yeah, I was excited,” I replied.

“Yeah, but you didn’t have to go all fangirl and freak out like that. You don’t see me doing that to professional athletes, or famous people in general for that matter. At least I can keep a little bit of composure. Did you forget that you’re dating a famous person? A pro athlete? I never see you freaking out over hockey players, and I never see you looking at me that way,” he seethed.

“I freaked out because I’m not famous, Tyler!” I exclaimed. “So yeah, I’m gonna freak out when I, a complete nobody, am mere feet away from some of my favorite players of the team I have loved my entire life. I was ogling them because that’s probably the closest I will ever get to then, whereas I can get even closer to you whenever I want! S of course I remember I’m dating you! How could I forget that I’m dating a super hot hockey player!? And I look at you like that all the time; I just look away before you notice because it makes me feel embarrassed. I don’t freak out over hockey players anymore because I’m actually friends with some of them now, and I’m used to being around them.” Now I was angry too. “Was the great Tyler Seguin jealous of a nobody?” I asked.

I saw a little light come into his eyes, and I knew I wasn’t gonna like what he had to say next. “It’s interesting that you bring up the term ‘nobody’. There was something I didn’t tell you about Ali,” he started, and I just waited for him to continue. “She’s a pageant queen,” he scoffed.

That was the last straw. Without even thinking, my hand slapped his face so hard that my hand went numb for a little while. “So why don’t you get back with her then!” I exclaimed. He was still holding his face, so I grabbed the keys out of his hand and unlocked the car. “Get in the fucking car,” I said through clenched teeth, getting in the driver’s seat and slamming the door.

Notes