Limelight Love Story

22. Performances

For a serotonin boost, Lucy rewatched what had become her favorite postgame interview (only featuring Tim, of course). The clips she had seen of when she was interviewed with her husband after his hockey games were some of her most beloved moments that they shared in front of cameras. Even when she was not sitting at the table of microphones with him, Tim tended to get asked questions about Lucy, and he was good about answering shortly and sweetly for the perfect soundbite, but his postgame interview from the night before was quite the exception, hence why she kept replaying the clip. It started normally with him reviewing strong plays and impressive players of the game while he humbly danced around his own performance albeit just as great as his teammates. Then, it took its usual turn into asking about her.

He was asked: "We saw you blow a kiss after scoring a goal tonight. Was that an homage to your pop star wife, Lucy Chen, who hasn't been in the stands for the last few games?"

To which Tim replied with a smirk: "I score every goal for my wife and send her a kiss afterwards. No matter how far she is, and even if she isn't watching, I want Lucy to know I do my best for her, because she's made me a better player. Hell, she's made me a better man. I don't have the words to tell you how much her constant support means to me. Lucy's probably even watching this when she's supposed to be sleeping after her concert to which I say: Good night, wife. I'll call you when it's morning over there in Paris. Love you."

Lucy gushed over his answer and the way his face lit up the longer he spoke about her. She had already memorized his whole answer.

"Wear headphones if you're gonna keep watching Tim be weirdly lovey, please," Tamara requested. The private jet was not big enough to escape the audio of his interview that seemed to be repeating nonstop for the entire flight from Paris to Los Angeles.

"Sorry," Lucy apologized. "I-I can't help it. Tim barely says this kind of stuff to me when we're alone, but he really just said all of that on national television in front of a room of reporters? He must really miss me."

"Three weeks. You act like you've been apart for a year. It hasn't even been a month."

"Feels like forever," she groaned. "God, can this jet fly any faster?"

"Don't you dare ask the pilot for the hundredth time. She'll never fly for you again if you keep bothering her."

"Okay, fine," Lucy resigned and replayed Tim's interview video to which Tamara grunted dramatically, so she paused the clip and showed the screen to her. "Do you wanna know why I'm so obsessed with watching this?"

"Because you're so madly in love with Tim you keep calling him your husband even though you conveniently forget you're not legally married or ever actually had some sort of ceremony?" She replied smartly.

"Don't worry, we set a date to resolve that little problem. June 19th is going to be our new anniversary."

"You haven't even known each other for six months. You do realize how insane it sounds to get married already."

"We're already married in all the ways that matter. I went over all of this with Angela already. What's a marriage, anyways? A piece of paper? Some person pronouncing it at the end of some ritual? No, it's work and commitment every single day, which we already do, and this video proves it. He loves me so much he'll announce it in the middle of a postgame interview. He's never pissed when he's asked about me like the other people I've dated. He works so hard and plays well in his games only for that to be glossed over to make time for questions about me, and he talks about me with a smile on his face. Emmett wouldn't even let me meet all of his friends, but Tim will shout about how much he loves me from the rooftops. I finally got the kind of guy I always wanted, and conveniently, we're already married. This," she shook her phone again to punctuate her point, "is what l've always dreamed of, so excuse me if I'm happy and can't wait to get home to see this man."