Chapter 45

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

MOLLY

I'm standing at Will Call at the United Center when I see Ben running toward me. I bend down and open my arms to him. When we connect, I pick him up and spin him around. "Hey, big guy, how are you?"

"I'm so excited," he tells me. "I think this is going to be the best day of my whole life." My heart clenches when he says that. I hope Ben lives to see days much more exciting than this one. Like his wedding, the day his children are born. The day we colonize the moon …

"I'm pretty excited, too," I tell him before handing him the giant foam finger I bought for him. He looks at the Bulls logo on the palm, and exclaims, "Cool!" Then he puts it on and turns to show his parents.

I give Francie and Ward both a hug before asking, "How are you guys doing?"

Francie says, "We're all packed for New York. Heath Fox is letting us stay in his penthouse, if you can believe it." I can believe it. Heath and Trina are two people who really walk the walk in life .

"When do you leave?" I ask.

"Tomorrow," Ward says. "Ben's first appointment is the day after Christmas."

I think about one of the flower bouquets I got this week and announce, "It's always darkest before the dawn." I can only hope that's the case for Ben.

As for the flowers, I loved getting them at first, but then they started to feel kind of weird. I'm pretty sure Kyle is the one sending them, and there's no way I'm going to buckle and date him again.

He's been texting too, which makes me want to change my number. In fact, I finally told him that's what I was going to do if he didn't stop. He did, but the flowers kept coming. I'm not sure what it's going to take for him to leave me alone, but I've decided that if he doesn't cut it out soon, I'm going to text him pictures of the arrangements in the garbage. I wish he'd been this determined to have me in his life when we were together.

As we cross the court to get to our seats, a wave of excitement hits me. Our seats are nothing more special than folding chairs, but they're right on the court, and even I know those are almost impossible to come by.

Ben sits between his parents, and I sit at the end. Once we're seated, a waiter comes by and offers to bring us food. In true Chicago fashion, we all get the deep-dish pizza. The adults order beer and Ben gets a root beer. Ben shouts over the noise of the stadium. "We don't even have to stand in line for food!" I find that pretty exciting as well.

The stadium fills quickly, and the players are all warming up when someone sits down next to me. I turn to look who it is and almost swallow my tongue. "Blake?" I croak. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm the one who got Ben's family the tickets," I tell her.

Ben jumps up from his seat and runs over to hug Blake. He says, "You're the best, Blake. Thank you! "

Blake hands him a large bag and says, "This is for you. I thought you might want to open it before the game starts."

Ben hurriedly rips into the bag and pulls out a Bulls sweatshirt that he immediately puts on. Then he takes out five Santa Hats with the Bulls logo on them. Handing them to each of us, he gushes, "This is the best Christmas ever!"

When Ben goes back to his seat, I lean over and hiss in Blake's ear, "I didn't realize that you knew Ben's family well."

I can't quite define the look on his face. It's sad, with a touch of longing and perhaps a good amount of hope. I try not to let it get to me. Blake tells me, "I kept running into them at the lodge. Francie told me what's going on with Ben and I wanted to do something to help."

While I think that's nice, I'm still annoyed. "How did you get such great tickets?" I ask like he had to have stolen them or something.

"My boss got them," he says. "But they came with a price."

As much as I don't want to talk to him, I want to know what that price was. "Did you have to sell your spleen?"

He grimaces while answering, "I had to write an article based on my personal experience at Trina's singles' event."

Holy heck. He wrote about us to help Ben? "That's why you wrote about us?" And while I suppose that's honorable, didn't I have some say in it?

He nods his head slowly. "I couldn't tell you because I couldn't risk you getting mad at me and outing me before I got the tickets."

"So, you lied to me to help Ben?"

"No," he says. "I lied to you before then. But I made it worse trying to help Ben."

My brain is spinning a million miles an hour and I don't know how to process everything. Instead of trying, I turn my attention to the game and do my best to ignore Blake. But that's harder than you might think. I feel the heat of him next to me like I'm sitting by a space heater set on turbo .

The start of the game is a total blur, and I can't focus on it. Instead, I eat my pizza and drink my beer. I occasionally look over at Ben, who is having the time of his life. As halftime approaches, I realize I'd better get up and go to the bathroom before the line is a mile long.

Leaning over to Francie, I tell her, "I'm going to hit the ladies'."

But before I can walk away, Blake's hand shoots out and grabs my arm. "Where are you going?"

Pulling my arm back, I snap, "To the bathroom. Not that it's any of your business."

"You can't go now," he says, sounding panicky.

"I can go the bathroom whenever I want to, Blake, and you can't stop me." I move to pull out of his grasp, but he holds on for all he's worth.

"Please don't go now or you'll miss it."

"Miss what?" I bluster.

"I have a surprise planned."

"For Ben?"

"Yeah … um … I have a surprise planned for Ben."

Sitting down, I tell him, "It had better be quick because I don't want to wait in a huge line."

"You won't have to," he says. Pointing across the court, he adds, "There's a private club for people with seats like ours. The lines shouldn't be that long."

Of course there's a private club. I can't imagine how much people pay to sit courtside. If I wasn't here with Ben, the cost of my ticket would have been a waste. When the buzzer blasts to signal halftime, we watch as the Bulls dancers take the court. The music starts to play as the scantily clad women shake their booties and assume poses I'm pretty sure I'm not bendy enough to ever achieve.

When they're done, I try to stand up again, but Blake takes my hand and yanks me down. Then I hear the crowd start to chant my name. Looking up, I see my name pulsing across the Jumbotron. Then the camera pans to my face. What's going on here? I turn to look at Blake and growl, "Is this your doing?"

Before he can respond, a member of the Lakers walks across the court and stands right in front of me. He's holding a huge bouquet of red roses that are like the ones that were sent to my apartment the day I got home from Wisconsin. My secret admirer is a professional basketball player?

The giant of a man turns to the crowd to try to quiet them down, but it doesn't work. If I had to guess, they might think he's about to propose to me or something. Please don't ask me to marry you, whoever you are.

Luckily, he doesn't. Instead, he practically shouts, "Miracles happen at Christmastime!"

What in the world is going on? I don't have long to wait because someone comes up and hands Blake a microphone. For the love of God, what now?

Blake taps the microphone to make sure it's on before he starts to talk. In my wildest dreams, I never could have come up with something like this.