Through Thick and Thin (Anthony Rizzo)

Birthday Boy

Jazmyn

It was Anthony's birthday today and in a surprising turn of events, he didn't have a game. Some players on the Cardinals tested positive for coronavirus on top of the cases they already had so they had to move the games to a later date. No point in risking exposure, especially since their cases don't seem to stop coming in. So the Cubs were given a extended break until they played their next opponent. They've been kept busy and David did a great job of keeping them engaged in the present not too worried about the future. And this also gave us a chance to celebrate Anthony's birthday with him.

I wake up early this morning and head into the city in order to pick up the rest of Anthony's birthday stuff. He really wasn't supposed to throw party's and gather in large groups so he had a dinner planned with some of his friends later on tonight. But until then it was my time to spoil him.

So I get back to my apartment and set everything up to my liking. I send him a text to come up and he finally does.

"Baby" he yells out into my apartment. "Where are you?"

"In the bedroom" I yell back.

I hear his heavy footsteps get closer until the door opens. He was still in his drawers from last night and it made me giggle. His curly hair a mess on top of his head as he tries to figure out why I called him up here so early this morning.

"Happy birthday" I cheer as I pop a party popper. His smile comes up on his face as he walks right over to me past his boxes of presents and balloons and cake I went to pick up this morning.

He wraps his arms around me and picks me up before pressing his lips to mine. "You're just what I wanted" he teases as I roll my eyes.

"I'm not your present goofball" I assure him.

"You're right, because you're a gift to have every day" he says with the cheesiest of smiles on his face.

"How long have you been working on that one" I ask him.

"All week" he nods and I laugh.

"Figures" I admit.

He sets me down and I pull him to the presents sitting in the corner. He doesn't even ask questions as he just tears into the boxes. The first one he opens was a stuffed bear and he looks at me weird.

"I feel like there is more to this" he claims and I laugh.

"Press the heart on his right hand" I tell him.

He does and the words "I love you" in my voice comes out. He presses it three more times before turning to me with the biggest smile on his face.

"His other hand and his paws and his stomach also has some phrases like "I miss you" and I believe in you" and things like that. Since I can't come to games and stuff like that I figured if you have that you can hear things you need to hear when you need it most. And no matter what you know I truly mean all of those things" I explain.

"Jazzie... this is perfect" he says softly making me smile.

"I even got a nice little bag to put him in so the guys won't see you traveling with a bear" I laugh.

"There's no need for that" he claims. "He's going to be in my locker so when I get done with games I can hear your voice. I'm bringing him everywhere with me" he insists.

"Well I'm glad you like it" I admit.

"It's perfect" he smiles.

He opens the rest of his gifts which some were from me and some his parents left for him before they went back to Florida that I kept at my place. Every year he usually gets the kids in the hospital to sign one of his jerseys and his parents got that done without us being there. He was super excited about that one. I got him some personalized workout things for our days we spend in the home gym. Then the last thing was the coolest thing I got done.

This season they're letting the players play with personalized cleated. Usually the MLB are sticklers for following the rules, both written and unwritten. But these are unusual times and that calls for unusual rules. Meaning they can wear whatever cleats they want within reason.

So I got him some special ones with his favorite things on them. There was his boat and the dolphins emblem and a bunch of other things that makes him, him.

He pulls them out of the box and looks at them. On the inside of his right shoe it said "through thick" and in the left one said "and thin".

"Jazmyn these are insane" he gasps.

"Your dad helped me out a lot. I know nothing about personalized cletes but he knew exactly where to go. I gave him a list of your favorite things and he was able to make these. I think he did a pretty amazing job with them. They look great" I admit.

"They're perfect" he smiles as he turns to me. "As are you" he claims making my cheeks get hot.

"I'm not" I argue.

"To me you are. And not perfect in the way that you haven't done any wrong. Perfect in the way that I couldn't say a bad thing about you. Perfect in the way that if I could have one thing in this world to keep me company for the rest of my days, it would be you.

Perfect in every way" he claims.

I pull him into a kiss causing him to toss his shoes to the side. We fall onto my bed as he crawls on top of me. "Oh! Is this a part of my present too" he asks.

"I mean this isn't really a once a year occurance " I tell him.

"You're right" he smirks as he hovers over me. His lips press against my neck softly and all of the sudden I felt like it was my birthday.

"You're not even gonna look at your cake? I got it to be your face" I insist.

"We will get cake in a little" he says lowly. "But we're gonna work out a little first."

"You're breaking in your work out stuff already" I asked a little bit more excited than I should be.

"Not that kind of workout. This workout doesn't involve any clothes" he tells me.

"That's a weird worko-" I start before gasping. "Oooh, okay. I'm caught up now" I admit as he laughs at me.

"Shut up and kiss me" he demands as I smile up at him.

"Whatever you say birthday boy" I tease.