Celestial Love (Anthony Rizzo)

.63. We Belong Together

Anthony

While baseball is predominate in my life, I still focus on the life aspect of it too. So for a night I put all the baseball and charity work to the side for a few hours and take Celeste out on a date. Focus on us for a little while and try and make new memories. I know she loves going on dates and she thinks a big reason people fall out of love is simply because they quit trying. That excitement and the lust gets lost when every night you stay in doing the same things and she didn't want to lose what we had. So we make plans for a evening to get a little dressed up and have a nice dinner and walk around. The city holds many wonders so I am sure something will find us this evening.

"So how is school going" I ask Callie as we walked out of the restaurant we just had a beautiful dinner in. It was only about 7 at night so we were going to watch the sun set over the city from the pier.

"It's going, that's for sure. I might not have straight A's but besides a few B's I'm doing good. I'm just ready to be done so I can start working and creating. It's been a dream of mine for so long I wasn't sure if I would ever get to this point but I'm happy to be here. The Darvish's place looks so cool and I want to do more houses but I want to be all official and stuff" she explains.

"You'll get there. I know you will" I promise. "Have you found a agency here in Chicago" I ask.

"I narrowed it down to a few and reached out to the managers to see who I would fit in the best with. A few said they would hire me right now as I finished up my degree but working and doing my studies and being there for you, it just seems like a little too much at this time. You can't just swallow your food you have to bite and chew and I'm not finished with school so it makes no sense for me to take another bite. Gotta finish what's on my plate before I get more" she shrugs.

"That was the greatest food analogy I have ever heard" I admit as she starts to giggle.

"I know how to get through to you" she teases.

"Food is a good way to get me to understand. But don't worry, when it comes to you I always listen and I always understand. I think it's a good idea to take your time and weigh your options. Life comes at you fast and if you're not careful you'll pass up the best things it has to offer if you're so focused on one thing and not the others. It's nice to be able to chill for a little and look at the bigger picture before going out there and getting it" I say.

"That it is. Plus you did a lot to take time off so we can have a beautiful night such as tonight. We gotta work together on a lot of things and I have no problem putting some homework off to see this beautiful city with the one person in this world that makes me feel like I am actually worth something" she insists.

"You're everything to me" I promise her.

After walking for a while we find a nice spot in the middle of the pier and we watch the sun set. Her head rests on my shoulders as the late April sun starts to disappear over the buildings. It seemed like this month was just flying by, between baseball and school and the foundation it's so easy to take moments like this for granted. But I was so thankful she knew just as I did how important all of this is.

"What is something in this life you have always wanted to do, but never got to do" I ask her randomly. She furrows herself eyebrows as she thinks hard and long about the question.

"There's a lot of things I guess. I want to swim with sharks and go up in the Eiffel Tower and go to Japan to see all the cool things Seiko showed me and meet all kinds of new people who can inspire me in new kinds of ways. In a way there isn't anything I haven't gotten to do yet that I wouldn't want to do" she claims.

I just smile because a few months ago that answer was completely different. Her fear of the things she did not know or understand stopped her from trying new things, going new places. And now that she is free to dream there isn't a thing in this world she couldn't do, and she finally saw that.

"I think this off-season we tackle a bunch of those. Make a big vacation out of everything and see the world. We can go on a African safari and maybe do some volunteer work in Africa. Then we will swing up to London and see how they live. And in the end we will end up in Japan trying all their foods listening to their music.

Then at the end of it all we will come home and know that no matter where in the world we are, there is nothing quite like the sun sets here in Chicago" I insist.

"That sounds... amazing" she sighs as she smiles up at me. I can see a sparkle in her eyes as she day dreams about the things we could do. The places we could go. The possibilities are endless and I nothing will stop us from trying each and every opportunity we can get our hand on.

After realxing for a while we decide to finish the night off in our favorite ice cream shop. It's been a year since we first sat here complete strangers trying to figure out where we belong in this world. Turns out we belonged together, we just didn't know it at the time. She was a beautiful mystery and in a lot of ways she still is. But as we sit here in the same booth but on the same side I couldn't help but realize how far we've come. A year is chump change to some relationships. And we haven't even been together all that long. But it feels like forever I've been falling in love with her. And I hope for years to come we can have nights like these.