I raced around my apartment gathering my things as I prepared to head to Gillette for Rob's game. Some how or another one of my gloves always manages to go missing every time I need it and I'm never left with a complete pair. Right now, the last thing I had was time to locate the runaways and I hoped I could some how pull off the mix matched glove bit.
I heard a knock on my door and I stopped dead in my tracks. I tried to make a mental list of who could be on the other side but kept falling short, I wasn't expecting anyone. I pulled it open and was definitely caught off guard by the visitor on the other side. It was James.
"Oh my gosh! What are you doing here?" I pulled my brother into a hug, I hadn't seen him in ages.
"I'm in town for work and I thought I'd stop by and surprise you but..." He stepped back and gave me a critical look over, "I can say I'm the one that's surprised."
I looked down at my Gronkowski jersey and back up at my brother before walking into my apartment, he had followed shutting the door behind himself.
"A few years in this state and you've already forgotten your roots?" James questioned and I completely understood his view point, it was hard enough for me to put this jersey on but I did it for Rob and only Rob, "They must put something in the water. Remind me not to drink it."
"I always represent. You should know that." I lifted my Patriots jersey to reveal my red Buffalo sweatshirt.
"Why the Gronk jersey? Tell me you lost a bet and I'll respect the good sportsmanship." He folded his arms across his chest, a smile on his face.
"Ugh, well... Not exactly." I was growing nervous, while I had told my family I met a guy, I never mentioned it was Rob. I knew their reaction would be the same as mine, I mean hell, I'm still questioning myself on whether or not this was the right choice. With brothers as protective as mine, that's information you want to keep confidential as long as possible.
"I'm sure there's a good explanation." James prodded at the topic and I knew I would have to tell him.
"Well..." I kind of winced at the idea of it being a good explanation but it was an explanation none the less, "so this guy I've been dating.."
"He's a Patriots fan?" My brothers eyes widened as if that was the worst news he's ever heard, "Ava, I get the whole looking past the flaws but that's a big one."
I laughed at my brothers jokes, he was always so playful in nature and while I knew he was teasing, I knew there was some seriousness to his jokes. While Rob and the girls joked constantly about me turning into a Patriots fan, I reminded them constantly that it was not the team I was supporting. It was the player.
"Well, I guess you could say he's a fan." I shrugged my shoulders and decided that I was going to wait to tell my brother who I was dating until we were in a public place, "Are you willing to see a game at Gillette?"
James glared at me puzzled, "Only if I can buy a jersey for the opposing team on the way."
Again I laughed as I playfully shoved him, "Let me make a quick phone call."
"While you do that, I'm going to use the bathroom." He pointed in the general direction of my bathroom and walked off.
I quickly dialed Rob to find out if any of the seats next to me were empty or if he held the tickets for them. Often he did. He never really knew who he would hand them out to and how many he would need. He confirmed it would be open and let me know he'd leave the ticket information for me at will call. He didn't even ask who I was bringing and I knew he had to have assumed it would be one of the girls.
James entered the room after his brief bathroom break and I shot him a smile, "Okay, so we have a ticket for you. You ready?"
"I'm not sure I'll ever be ready but let's get this over with." He laughed at himself this time.
We headed out to my car and began our journey to the stadium. The conversation flowed as we talked about all that was new in our lives. My brother let me know what was going on with by nieces and nephews and what my sister in law had been up to. I envied the family he had, they were adorable and the typical all American family. I aspired to have the same thing one day and sometimes I wondered if I was on a dead end road dating someone like Gronk.
"I cannot believe that I'm agreeing to this." My brother shook his head looking at his surroundings as I returned from will call with his ticket, "No one is to find out about this."
I giggled and we made our way into the stadium. I knew exactly how he was going to feel walking into the stadium for the first time because I knew how I felt. Dirty. I know it sounds funny but truthfully, when you walk into the stadium of another team and its not because you came to watch your boys play, you feel like you're being unfaithful. There's no better way to put it, honestly. I still had a hard time walking in there, but if I was going to build a relationship with Rob, I was going to have to be supportive. It's an unsaid requirement in any relationship.
"Damn, are we on the field?" James joked as I descended more and more stairs to our seats, "Your boy must have some money."
"Eh.." I shrugged my shoulders, a knowing smile slipping across my face, "you could say that."
First row behind the benches, that's where Rob had been putting me as of late. I will say when I'm at the Ralph I prefer to be up higher to have a better view of the game but being here at Gillette I prefer being close so that I can have the luxury of staring at Rob. I don't necessarily care as much about having a full view game, besides being in close proximity gives me a chance to chat with him when he has a moment.
"Is he meeting us here?" James looked around as he followed me down the aisle, I'm sure he was more than confused right now and I was buying myself as much time as I could.
"Um, yeah.." I nodded looking at my surroundings, "he should be here pretty soon. By the time the game starts at least."
Part of me loved that I had a chance to mess with my big brother because that just didn't happen often. James had no idea what was going and for the moment, I was completely okay with that because I had no idea how he would react.
The game was close to starting and the stadium grew increasingly louder as the announcers prepared to introduce the team, as if any team needs an introduction in their home stadium. I always found that to be funny, I guess it's to hype up the fans more than anything else.
"This new guy of yours is not very punctual. I'm not sure I like him and I haven't even met him." James was turning into the protective big brother I always knew him to be as he looked around watching to see if any of the stragglers were my supposed boyfriend.
"He's actually right on time." I smiled, my eyes on the field as I blew a kiss back to Rob who had blown one to me.
I could feel James' eyes that were on me follow my gaze to the field. I looked over at him as he tried to figure out what he was seeing and I could only imagine the confusion he was feeling.
"I'm here for 87." I tried to hide the nervous laughter I felt emerging as my brother still tried to figure out if he was seeing things.
"You're dating Gronk?" The look on his face was priceless as he tried to pick his jaw up off the floor.
I gave a shrug of my shoulders, a satisfied smile on my face that I managed to surprise him the way I had. Before he could get out another word, kick off began and it became nearly impossible to hold a conversation with the volume of noise in the stadium. I couldn't help but to mentally applaud myself for picking such impeccable timing. However I knew whatever he had to say would be said after the game, but whatever time I bought myself was worth it.
