Promises are Meant to Be Kept

We got out of the car, and Andrew pulled out a wicker basket that resembled a picnic basket. I gave him a questioning look with an eyebrow raised, but he rolled his eyes and chuckled before tugging me into the dark building.

Immediately after we walked into the building, it got chillier. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms and looked around the hallway we were walking in.

“Are you cold?” Andrew asked. I smiled sheepishly and nodded. He chuckled and put his free arm around my shoulders. We kept walking until we reached our destination.

I smiled widely once I saw where we were. I looked up at him, only to find him looking at me with a smile. “You brought me to the Madhouse?” I asked him. He chuckled and nodded.

I stood in the tunnel and watched Andrew walk closer and closer to the ice. He turned back at me, “What are you waiting for?” I laughed and caught up to him. He grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the bench.

“So Andrew, what do you have planned for the evening?” I teased him.

“Well, I brought dinner, then I thought we could skate for a little while…” he smiled at me. I smiled and started unpacking the picnic basket. He grabbed my hands to stop me. “Here, let me…” I blushed and sat on the bench and watched him finish unpacking.

I started playing with my fingers and sleeves; something I do when I’m nervous. Andrew must’ve noticed because he asked me, “What are you thinking about?”

I looked up at him and smiled at the sight of him handing me a tupperware of pasta salad. “What was I thinking about?” I chuckled, “I was thinking about my family.” Julia! What are you doing? I shook the nasty thoughts from my head. Just be honest with him.

“Ahh. Tell me about your family…?” he made it sound like a question rather than a statement.

“Well, I have an older brother, Tyler, who’s in college playing baseball and majoring in Engineering. I grew up in St. Louis, which is where my mom is still living. And my dad…” I trailed off at the end.

Andrew grabbed my hand and looked at me, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” he assured me as he squeezed my hand. I smiled at him.

“No, you deserve to know. Growing up, my dad was a very successful and wealthy business man. You know the company that sells electronics to big name businesses? Parker Inc.?” he nodded as I continued.

“Well, he owns that company. When I was around 11 or 12, he started to sleep around when he was on business trips. My mom ignored it for the first few times because he always came home begging for her forgiveness and showering her with gifts, telling her it was just a mistake.” I took and deep breathe before continuing, and I felt Andrew squeeze my hand again.

“Finally when I was 13, he found some gold-digging whore that was more important than his wife and kids in St. Louis, so he filed for divorce, dumped a shit-load of cash into mom’s bank account, picked up and left.” At this point, I had silent tears streaming down my cheeks. I felt Andrew pull me into a hug before I completely broke down.

“Shhh, it’s okay. He’s gone, it’s okay.” He rubbed my back. After about ten minutes of me crying into his sweatshirt, I pulled back and looked at my hands again.

“Sorry I got you shirt wet…” he chuckled and used his thumbs to wipe my tears away while he held my face.

“It’s okay, water dries. You know Julia, if your dad did all of that, then he isn’t worth your tears. Thanks for telling me this, though. I know it was hard,” he said as he stroked my cheek.

I nodded and put my forehead against his while closing my eyes. We sat like that for a few minutes.

“Hey Jules?”

“Yeah?”

“I promise I’ll never hurt you like that.”

I looked at him. “Really? Pinky swear?” I offered a small smile.

He hooked pinkies with mine while chuckling. “Pinky swear.”

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After we ate our dinner, Andrew disappeared around a corner.

“Andrew?” I called out but only received a “Yeah, I’m coming!” in return. I waited patiently on the bench for a couple of minutes before Andrew rounded the corner wearing a pair of skates and holding a smaller pair in his hands.

“You know, I really hope these fit you. I kind of guessed on the size,” he said with a grin.

I laughed and grinned back. “I’m sure they’ll do the job.” Andrew came a kneeled in front of me. He took my boots off gently and started to lace up the skates.

“Have you been skating before?”

I scoffed, “Of course I have!” Once he finished lacing up the skates, I jumped on the ice and skated a lap with my hands in my pockets. I was smiling ear to ear as I gained speed and did a simple jump.

I turned and looked at Andrew, who was standing on the ice with an incredulous look on your face. “You’re a figure skater? You never told me that!” he said as he skated to me.

I shrugged. “This is what I spent my time doing when I was growing up.”

“Were you good?” he asked.

I laughed. “I knew that was coming! Yeah, I guess. Some judges and coaches said that if I kept at it, I would’ve been good enough to go to the Olympics.”

He stopped skating in front of me. “What stopped you? I mean, if you loved it and was good at it, what stopped you?”

“Injury,” I said shortly and skating around him. I was still angry about the injury that stopped me from skating.

“Jules, I’m sorry if that got you frustrated,” he skated to me with a sorry look on his face.

I sighed. “It’s fine. I shouldn’t have snapped. Its just that that was my one thing that I loved to do and was good at it, and it was taken away from me in a blink of an eye just because I tripped after landing a triple axel in practice.”

“You had a triple axel?” he asked me with wide eyes.

“Yep, I HAD a triple axel.”

He grabbed my hand and we skated together around the Indian head in center. I stopped skating and looked up and around us.

“Wow,” I breathed out, “That is a lot of people.”

He chuckled before pulling me to him by my waist. “Come to our game on Saturday,” he whispered in my ear.

I felt my knees turn to jello, and I put my arms on his shoulders. “Sure,” I whispered back. He grinned and I noticed his eyes flick to my lips. I smiled and started to lean in, hoping he’d catch the hint.

He did. He closed the space between our lips and we were soon kissing at center ice at the United Center. Once we both ran out of breathe, I leaned back and put out foreheads together. He pecked my lips again, and then we just stood there in each other’s arms.

I could get used to this…