The I Love You Challenge

After returning home from her first date with Jonathan, Lizzie was feeling confident. She had played the vulnerable, kind, girl next door because she thought Jonathan would fall for a girl like that, she executed perfectly. Sure, she revealed more than she ever wanted to but no harm, no foul and she really didn’t mind talking to him. It was nice to have someone to tell that kind of stuff.

Jon called her the next day, which Lizzie was completely happy about. He must really like her.

“I had fun last night,” he told her.

“I did too! You’re so easy to talk to,” she replied.

“I’m glad. Hey, do you know what tomorrow is?”

“Wednesday?” she asked hesitantly.

“Well, yes. But, what is happening tomorrow?”

Lizzie scanned her memory trying to figure out what could possibly be going on the next day. She had classes from 8-1 and then was working from 1:30- 6:30 so she could go home to watch the Red Wings game. That’s when it dawned on her. The Red Wings were playing in Chicago.

“You’re playing the Red Wings” she blurted out.

“Do you want to come,” he asked timidly.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah I am,” he said laughing.

“That would be amazing!”

“I could get you a seat really close to the away bench if you want. I usually get them close to us or in the box reserved for WAGs but I can make it happen if you want.”

“Oh my gosh that would be so perfect! You are amazing!”

“You have to promise me one thing though.”

“Anything!”

“You have to cheer for me when I score, okay?”

There was a long pause as she considered that. It would pain her to cheer for someone trying to beat her team but she was dying to see them so close to the ice and Jon might not even score.

“Deal.” She finally said. “But I’m wearing my Datsyuk jersey.”

“Deal.”

“Yay! I’m so excited now! Thank you so much!”

“You don’t have to thank me. Tomorrow go to the box office and someone will give you the ticket and a locker room pass so you can come see me after the game.”

“Awesome! It’s going to be so much fun! I guess I’ll see you then!”

“Sounds great; see you then.”
~~~~

Lizzie was extremely excited to get the day over with the next day. She convinced her boss to let her off half an hour early so she could rush over to the United Center, get her ticket and locker room pass, and then quickly change out of her dumb uniform and into jeans and her jersey. Before sitting down she grabbed a beer.

There were barely any other Red Wings fans in the United Center and several Chicago fans glared at her but she really didn’t care. She was so close to the bench that most of the players looked over at her and smiled; glad to see a fan, which made Lizzie giddy inside. During warm ups one of the players gave her a puck and his stick and she could have sworn she was going to cry out of happiness.

Jonathan quickly picked Lizzie out of the crowd when he went out to warm up. Even though he would have preferred to see her in his jersey, he was still very glad to see her there and he was ready to win. He saw Cory Emmerton, one of the younger guys on the Red Wings, give Lizzie his stick and puck and then he saw Lizzie blush and smile in what seemed like a flirtatious way at him. Jon was so jealous, he wanted nothing more than to be the one to give her the puck and stick and he wanted to take Emmerton out.

Lizzie could sense Jonathan staring at her so she averted her attention from the Red Wings and looked over at him warming up. They made eye contact and she smiled and waved. She guessed by the look on his face that he probably saw her little interaction with Emmerton and even though she wasn’t meaning to flirt, she was and Jon probably wasn’t very happy so she watched Jon for most of the warm up time that was left.

As soon as the game started Lizzie was on the edge of her seat. At about 10 minutes Cory Emmerton scored the first goal. Lizzie began to cheer as loudly as she could while the whole area was booing. Cory skated by her to get onto the bench and nodded at her before winking. It made Lizzie blush but mostly out of embarrassment. This kid had some nerve. She looked over at Jon who looked extremely pissed and was glaring at Cory from across the ice.

No one scored again until the second period when Corey Crawford failed again. Jon felt like he could kill someone and looking at Lizzie cheering made him feel worse. He took his anger and turned it into even more motivation to score.

Every time Jonathan had possession of the puck, Lizzie got extremely nervous and held her breath until it finally happened; he scored. Regretfully, she stood up and cheered just as she had for the two Detroit goals. She danced and sang along to Chelsea Dagger and then landed up on the Jumbotron. She was beyond embarrassed and the Wings bench looks confused, especially Cory Emmerton.

Jon had better love me after this, she thought as she cheered some more.

Jonathan shouted when he saw the puck hit the back of the net and heard the goal horn blasting followed by the familiar sound of Chelsea Dagger. After being squished into a group hug he looked straight to Lizzie who, to his delight, was cheering just like she promised. He skated back to the bench and sat down taking a drink of water and catching his breath, still looking at Lizzie cheering.

“Jon, look at that,” Patrick Kane said nudging Jon and pointing towards the jumbotron. “Looks like you have a fan.” Jon looked up at the jumbotron and grinned when he saw they had the cameras directed at Lizzie who was still dancing despite how embarrassed she knew she must be.

“Looks like it,” he agreed not explaining anything to Patrick.

To Lizzie’s displeasure and embarrassment, Jon went on to score a hat trick earning them the win and her a spot on the jumbotron two more times. She was upset that the Red Wings had lost but she was still glad that she got to see them play and that she had gotten a stick and a puck from them. She got up and went towards the locker room entrance. She was too busy tweeting about the game on her phone that she didn’t look up to see that she was going to walk right into a woman.

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying any attention. Are you okay?” she quickly apologized putting her phone away.

The woman eyed her jersey and her locker room pass before replying, “Yeah I’m fine don’t worry about it. I didn’t know they allowed guest teams to bring visitors to the locker room.”

“I’m not with one of the Detroit players. Actually I came for Jonathan Toews,” Lizzie explained to the woman who had a locker room pass too.

“Jonny brought a Wings fan with him? He barely brings girls that actually support Chicago!”

“Well he made me promise to cheer for him if I came.”

“Oh are you the girl on the jumbotron?”

“Yeah that was me,” Lizzie replied laughing slightly.

“So are you and Jonny together?”

“I’m not really sure. This is date number two.”

“Hmm, Interesting, well I’m Abby, Patrick’s wife,” she said extending her hand for a handshake.

“Patrick Kane is married? But my friend told me that he was single!” Lizzie exclaimed while they were shaking hands.

“Damn, do you know anything about the Blackhawks?” Abby asked. Lizzie shook her head no. “My husband is Patrick Sharp, not Patrick Kane. If I were married to Kaner I would have killed myself by now.

“Oh I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’ll show you the way to the locker room if you want.”

“Please do.”

Abby then lead Lizzie down the hallway to the locker room where they showed the security guards their passes and entered the room. It was easy to find Jonathan, he was the surrounded by the most media. Other players only had one or two reporters and some even had none. It was obvious that Jon was the star of the game.

“It looks like Jon is pretty busy. Do you want to come talk to Patrick with me?” Abby asked and Lizzie agreed. They walked over to Patrick Sharp’s stall where he had just finished taking off him skates.

“Hey babe,” he said as he stood up and kissed her quickly. “Who’s this?” he asked staring quizzically at Lizzie and her jersey.

“Oh this is Lizzie, Jonny’s um, friend,” explained Abby.

“Jonny brought a Red Wings fan? He never brings guests though!”

“I had to promise to cheer for him. I’ve always been a Red Wings fan, Jon can’t change that, but I like him personally.”

“Huh. How did you guys meet?” Patrick asked.

“I was his waitress,” Lizzie told him.

“Interesting, well it’s nice to meet you Lizzie,” he said smiling.

“It’s nice to meet you too!” she replied. The three of them small talked for a while as Lizzie watched Jon talk to the media closely. When he finally finished and the media cleared out, she walked over a tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey there Captain Serious,” she said grinning.

“Hey!” he said turning around and pulling her into a hug. Some of his teammate’s catcalled and wolf whistled. “Did you have fun?”

“Right up until you scored…three times!” she replied scowling playfully.

“C’mon! That was the best part! You got your moment of fame!”

“Yeah for being a crappy fan and cheering for the other team when they scored on us!”

“Well I think you enjoyed it.”

“Yeah, whatever you think. My favorite part though, was when Cory Emmerton tossed me his puck and stick. He’s my favorite player! Do you think I could go into their locker room and talk to him and have him sign them? Maybe I could even get his number. My parents live right outside of Detroit…”

“They don’t let guest teams have visitors,” he said sharply crossing his arms with a face a mixture of jealousy and anger.

“I was just joking, kind of, calm down Captain. I’m here to see you aren’t I Mr. Hat Trick,” she told him putting her hand reassuringly on his arm. Jonathan loosened up and got a slight smile when he heard her call her Mr. Hat Trick. He wanted to kiss her so badly, and he almost did, until Kane stepped in between them and interrupted.

“You’re the jumbotron girl, right?” He asked enthusiastically.

“Yeah that’s me,” she replied trying to take a step towards Jonathan but Patrick stepped in front of her.

“I’m Patrick Kane, the best player here, not to mention best looking,” he said introducing himself with a cocky grin.

“I’m Lizzie-“

“My date,” Jonathan said forcefully pushing Patrick aside.

“Then why is she in a Datsyuk jersey?” Patrick asked.

“I couldn’t convince her to wear mine.”

“You didn’t even try! I’m a hardcore Red Wings fan; I wouldn’t be caught dead in your pathetic excuse for a jersey,” she said, rivalry coming out in her words.

“That’s what it looked like on the jumbotron,” Patrick told her defensively while Jon nodded fervently.

“Jon made me promise to cheer for him if he scored in order to get the ticket!”

“Well what would you have done if I had scored?” Patrick asked her.

“Cried because Patrick Kane had somehow managed to get a goal,” she insulted him.

“That’s hurtful you know! Where did you find her Jon?” Patrick sulked.

“Why are you here Kaner?” Jon asked.

“Why aren’t you defending me against you vicious girlfriend?”

“What am I supposed to say?”

“Tell her it’s not true! I am an excellent player!”

“I’m not going to argue with her! What she said wasn’t even that bad.”

“So you agree with her?”

“I didn’t say that. She’s a Wings fan Pat, she’s not going to admit she thinks you’re a good player.”

“So you’re just going to let her walk all over me like that?”

Before any one of them could get another word in Lizzie interrupted.

“Are you two finished yet? Because I would really enjoy going out now,” she said with authority.

“A feisty party girl? Seriously Tazer where did you find her?” Patrick asked mouth agape.

“Never you mind,” Jon replied to Patrick rolling his eyes. “Just give me 15 minutes to shower and change and then I’ll drive you over to our after game hot spot, ok?” he said to Lizzie. Lizzie smiled and nodded while in her head she couldn’t stop thinking about that $150 dollars she would have in her hand in a few short weeks.