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“Yup.”
“You’re not telling me anything about it, are you?”
“Absolutely not.” She tapped my cheek before shoving me backwards and disappearing inside with a wink and wave. Tuesday could not come soon enough. Not that I wasn’t going to see her pretty much everyday between now and then anyway.
It should not have comeas a surprise that Chase had followed through on her threat to blindfold me going into our date. She wasn’t usually one to back down once a challenge had been set. She was, however, a little late.
“There’s no need for this now, is there?” I asked, as she waved what looked like an oversized sleep mask in my direction. “I don’t know if you noticed but the date started over an hour ago.” And I was stuffed to the gills with wings and jalapeno poppers as a result. The woman knew me well.
She shot me an indulgent smile, and I was momentarily mesmerized by the cherry red curve of her full lower lip. “In fact, Milton.” My eyes snapped to hers. “That was merely the warm up, now the actual date begins.”
“Is that so?”
“Oh yes.” The amusement in her eyes stuttered for a beat. “I hope I haven’t oversold it, actually. What if it’s not all that exciting? Maybe I should just tell you … the pressure of delivering an outstanding date after you put a fucking tent in your apartment is kind of hectic. I don’t know why I even insisted I wanted to plan it. Well, that was before the tent, wasn’t it? Okay, so we’re—”
“No!” I clamped a hand over her mouth, the other arm curling around her back to keep her from tipping backwards onto her ass. “We have not come this far for you to spill the beans now. Tell Maureen to shut the fuck up.”
“But what if you hate it?” she mumbled.
“Do you really think I’ll hate it?”
She kissed my palm and heat shot down my spine. “No, I don’t think you’ll hate it, but what if you’re bored, or underwhelmed. Do I need to mention the tent again?”
“You do not need to mention the tent again, and if you planned the date then I’m sure it’s going to be great. I have endless faith in you.”
“Mm-hm. Blind faith.”
I kissed the tip of her nose. “You could not plan something underwhelming if you tried.”
“I suppose we’ll see. Come on, put this on.” She slipped the mask over my head and pulled it down to completely obscure my vision. Blind faith indeed.
Ten minutes later we were in an uber heading uptown. Or at least I assumed we were heading uptown. Part of me would have preferred to be on the subway, yes I would have looked like a crackpot, but at least I’d have some idea of where we were going. It was surprisingly difficult to get your bearings when you couldn’t see a thing.
“Stop fidgeting with it.” Chase slapped my hand away from my face before I could adjust the mask. For something that looked plush it was really fucking itchy. Lucky for me the car slowed and it was plucked from my head as we pulled up.
I took in our surroundings. The Garden. “It has been far too long since we’ve gone to a game.”
“That’s what I thought,” she said with an uncharacteristically shy smile. Still worried that I wouldn’t like it—please, she could take me pretty much anywhere and I’d be happy to be there so long as I was next to her.
“Let’s get in there.” I dragged her out of the car and into the swarm of people flowing inside.
I fucking loved The Garden. I still remembered the first time I’d gone. I was maybe six or seven, the sound had been completely overwhelming, and I could barely see a thing unless my middle brother Marcus was holding me up, but I loved every minute of it. I made a mental note to ask Pip about bringing the twins.
Chase and I swung past the refreshments stand before heading to our seats and, despite just eating dinner, she still bought a large popcorn and a hot dog along with our four beers. As a general rule, I didn’t drink watered down, lukewarm beer but basketball beer was the exception. I didn’t care that it tasted like beer-flavored Kool Aid, it was all part of the charm.
“You know you didn’t have to worry, right?” I said once we were in our seats. She’d peeled off her jacket, revealing an old Knicks jersey knotted at her navel. She looked seriously fucking cute.
“It’s not ice skating or a super romantic tent in my apartment though, is it?” she said after swallowing her mouthful of popcorn and washing it down with a gulp of beer. “Who would have thought you’d be such a date overachiever.”
“I can’t say that I have been in the past.” I’d never put any kind of thought into dating in the past. There was drinks, maybe dinner, and then sex. That about covered it. It wasn’t anything against the women I’d dated, I just didn’t feel invested, not like I did now. Not like I did with Chase.
“I bring out your overachiever, do I?”
“You certainly inspire it.”
She tipped her head back and I dropped a brief kiss on her smiling mouth.
The next two-ish hours were spent yelling ourselves hoarse as the Knicks lost by two points to the Timberwolves. Chase and I had been featured on the kiss-cam twice, and I took great pleasure in pulling her in and kissing the hell out of her in front of all those people. I happily finished at least five (maybe six) warm, watered-down beers, and I couldn’t stop fucking smiling.
