JP’s eyes widened in surprise. The bottom of the screen read:Windy City Whalers’ Defenseman JP McQuaid. The crowd immediately cheered for him. A guy behind us yelled, “Go Whalers!”
“JP,” I said warily. My stomach rumbled. My face flushed. My body felt like it was a volcano ready to erupt.
“Ali.” He laughed.
He leaned over to kiss me, but I went under his arm and barfed into the bucket of popcorn sitting right on his lap.
My ears were ringing, but I could still hear the crowd’s collective “Ohhh!”
When my body was done heaving, I pulled back to see JP sitting there with his mouth dropped open, his left hand up in complete shock. I slapped a hand over my mouth, wanting to disappear on the spot. My eyes went back up to the jumbotron, which wasstill showing us, and I wanted to cry.
I covered my face with my hands because I couldn't look at him. “Oh my God. Are you mad?”
“No, no, I’m not.” He immediately set the bucket down by his feet and rubbed my back. “You wanna go home?”
Home. With him. Our home. I had a home. I almost started crying for totally different reasons. “Yeah, I do.” My voice cracked.
“Me too.” He gave me a knowing grin. He cringed slightly as he picked up the bucket of barf, and he held it far away from himself as he carried it up the stairs.
The crowd was laughing and shouting things at us as we made our way out of the stadium. I pretty much blocked everyone and everything out, focusing only on JP’s back until we reached the safety of the almost empty rotunda.
“I amsosorry,” I told him again.
JP just laughed. “It’s fine, Ali.” He took my hand again and led me toward the parking garage.
“Are you mad you’re missing the end of the game?” I asked nervously.
“No, not at all.” He waited until we were in the elevator for the parking garage before saying, “Can I tell you something?”
“Yeah, anything.” I leaned against his left side, feeling the need to be close to him because I was still nervous that he was actually mad that I basically barfed on him.
“I think I was trying to push myself to go out tonight because I'm afraid you’ll get bored here, but this may have been too soon.”
I looked up to study his face. His face looked tired and worried. “I won’t.”
“Really?” His throat bobbed with a swallow. “I feel like you’re used to seeing the whole world and all this cool stuff. I just really want you to like Chicago, but you haven’t even seen much of it. You’ve basically been stuck at my place.”
“I love Chicago,” I said simply.
“Yeah?” he asked skeptically.
I nodded. “Because you’re here.”
He smiled, then winced.
“You okay? You need more medicine?” I asked hurriedly.
“Yeah, my kind of medicine.” He gave me a lopsided grin, but I could tell it was strained. “Snuggling up on the couch with you.”
I went to my tiptoes to kiss his jaw. I loved how freely he loved me. He didn’t withhold his affection or emotions from me, and he held my hand the entire way back to his truck.
31. JP - FRIENDSGIVING GUILT
The next afternoon, we stood on Mer and Colt’s porch holding homemade cookies for a Friendsgiving dinner. We were celebrating a week before Thanksgiving because Piper and Kappy were going back to Michigan to spend the actual holiday with Mrs. Kappers.
As we stood in the lightly falling snow, our warm breaths hung in the air while Christmas lights sparkled around us. It would’ve been a very beautiful, peaceful moment, if it weren’t for my phone constantly buzzing in my pocket. It hadn’t stopped going off since we arrived home last night after the basketball game. Our team group chat was having an absolute field day with the unfortunate kiss cam video. Ali gave me another look of apology. I moved behind her and rubbed her arm.
Kappy threw the door open, a huge shit-eating grin on his face. “Dude, you’re viral!” He gave me a bone-rattling slap on my good shoulder, making a shock of pain ricochet through my upper body.
