Celestial Love (Anthony Rizzo)

.50. Take A Chance

Anthony

In the circumstances that James went from a man with a smoking hot wife tearing up the NFL to being divorced and imprisoned, the divorce went through quicker than originally expected. It's kind of hard to do that whole process while he is in jail so the judges granted that the divorce be finalized and that Celeste was free and for once James was not. I'm sure he won't play another snap of football which only sucks for the organization who has struggled for so long to find a good quarterback. And now they need to find someone in the middle of the season at that. But this also means the Bears are free from him and his blow ups at practice and never letting him talk to media because he says the wrong things. Morally the team is in the best position but it doesn't take away the fact he won two superbowls and two MVP's in the past three seasons.

But for the first time Celeste actually feels free. She doesn't feel bad for being seen with me since the divorce is final and she feels like more people believe her since they're finding out James is kind of a really shitty person. And since this year has already tested Celeste and I and we passed I had one important question to ask her.

"What do you think about moving in with me" I ask as we sit on my couch. She was over here most every day, sometimes I just watch her do homework or we watch a movie. It's almost like she lived here anyway.

"Why do you want me to live with you" she asks blatantly. But you can't blame her for being cautious. You really can't.

"Because I love you and I love having you around. We can learn how to cook together and have a movie night every night. I won't be so worried about if I'm making you happy because I can just roll over in bed and ask you. And I won't have to say goodbye as often, I hate leaving you" I admit.

"I don't like leaving either. But I hate the feeling that I'm not allowed to leave even more" she explains.

I know her concerns with this. And like always they're valid, her feelings are there for a reason. But we don't know what it would be like when it's just her and I, and I'm willing to take that chance. But that doesn't mean that she is willing to now that she has something to lose.

"Anthony you know I want to be with you" she starts.

"It's okay if you're not ready to move in yet" I assure her.

"Carmen has a point though. I'm so scared of this because of James and the longer I keep things in because I don't want it to be like when I was with him the longer he keeps me from being who I want to be. Physically and legally I'm free but he's still in my mind. It's not your fault what happened to me yet you're the one who is effected by this. I just... I don't know" she sighs.

I pull her into my lap and wrap my arms around her. I close my eyes trying to figure out what to say. Sometimes the best thing isn't to say anything at all. But to think about what to say first so when you finally do speak it's the right words.

"For a moment, forget about James, forget about being married and the last ten years. If none of that happened and you were in this situation right now, what would you say" I ask her.

"I would probably have your last name by now" she claims and I smile.

"Alright. So without him in the picture you would move in" I ask.

"I can't just forget about ten years of my life. It's not that easy" she insists.

"I know baby, I'm not asking you to forget. I'm asking you if you want to move on by moving in. And you don't have to say yes just because I want you to. I want you to say yes because you're ready" I assure her.

"That's the thing. What if I never figure it out? I can be sitting at Jordan's place waiting for the perfect moment that's not ever going to come" she says.

"You're going to have to take a chance on love, take a chance on you, on me" I insist.

She softly cups my cheek as she stares deep into my eyes. I know that she was thinking hard about what she wanted to do. "You are the best reason for us to do this" she promises.

"There is no better reason than you and I together" I assure her.

A smile crawls onto her face before she leans in for a kiss. If she's trying to distract me it was working. "I never got a answer from you" I remind her.

"Yes" she whispers on my lips.

I stop her from her advances as I softly push her away. My mind going a mile a minute trying to figure out what she just said.

"Excuse me" I ask as she giggles at my response.

"I will move in with you. I mean you didn't go home for the holidays or during your break to stay close to me. We decided that we were going to do whatever it takes for this to work and this is something that I need to do. I cannot let him win this, this is exactly what he wanted to happen. He wanted me to be weak and clueless without him and I am not. I am stronger because of what I've done to rid myself of him and I'm not clueless. The one thing I know for sure is my love for you and I am willing to take a chance on that. I know I could get hurt but I hurt sitting around waiting for the pain to magically stop. You wouldn't do anything to hurt me, I trust you" she promises.

"Are we going to let anyone know about this" I wonder.

"I think that's best thing to do for a little while longer is move forward with four feet instead of thousands of them, our path isn't big enough for the world right now. It gives me time to be comfortable here before I have angry Bears and Cubs fans down my throat" she chuckles.

"Don't let them get to you. Those people haven't a clue as to what you went through and you have no need to defend yourself or your love. People are always going to talk, especially about someone like you who lived one public life people knew about and a totally different one you had to live every day once people could no longer see. They'll never know the things we have been through just as they'll understand the love we share. And that's okay, as long as you're happy" I insist.

"You make me happy" she smiles.