The Presidents Daughter

Try Again

Aaliyah

Even though Patrick and I have hit a bit of a rough patch, we were going to work through it together. Every couple has its ups and downs and our ups are far more than the downs. I make sure he's going to be talking to me and I'm making sure I can be there for him when he needs me to listen. There's no right and wrong in this situation, we both need to change to be better and I believe we both were going to do that. One small step at a time.

And since his birthday is during the circus trip I decide to go surprise him. He certainly wouldn't expect me to be there after the way he left, but I wanted to get better together and I want him to know that. I know it sucks that he can't be with friends and family on his birthday so I wanted to remind him that he's loved. So I pack up my shit and fly to him because love makes you do some crazy things. I get into town and find a car waiting for me. I take it to the hotel Patrick was staying at and check in. My stuff gets sent up as I finish setting up my cards. I find one of his teammates in the lobby probably on his way to breakfast and figure they could help me locate my puppy.

"Aaliyah, is that you" Brent asks and I smile.

"It's me" I assure him.

"Woah, I didn't know you were coming" he insists.

"No one did. But I figured I should come see Patrick on his birthday. You guys give him a hard enough time, he needs some love love, not tough love" I insist.

"Of course. He's in room 445 and he's been there all morning" he tells me.

"Great, thank you. It was nice to see you Brent" I say and he smiles back at me.

"You too Leah. See you around."

I go and make myself at home in my room before going to find Patrick's room. I walk up to the door and take a deep breath. I'm not sure if he would be happy that I popped in on him. Hell, he could still be asleep at this point. But if he missed me like I missed him then he'll be pretty pretty happy to see me.

So I knock on the door and I wait for him to answer.

"Duncan, if this is that holding up a picture of Aaliyah to my peep hole joke again I'm going to murder you" Patrick says and I giggle.

"You guys are ruthless" I say. A second later the door flies open and I see him standing there in his boxers. His body looked tight like he had just worked out and his hair was a mess. I just wanted to run my fingers through his hair and give him a kiss.

"Come here right now" he says as he grabs my hips and pulls me into his room. He closes the door behind me and pull me into the bedroom. He turns to me and he just looks me over, like I was a ghost.

"Happy birthday" I try and he just shakes his head.

"Nope. Not good enough" he claims.

"Surprise" I say.

"Try again" he insists.

"I'm not wearing any underwear" I smirk and he smiles at me. He just shakes his head because I stopped playing his game and threw him off.

He pulls me into a hug and I wrap my arms around him. He nuzzles his head into my shoulder and I knew I had my boy back. He didn't try to undress me and he didn't play victim. He knew that what he needed to feel better was now in his arms and he wasn't going to let me go again.

"I didn't get to tell you before I left, but I love you Leah. I hope you never forget that" he insists.

"How can I forget that" I tease.

"If I don't tell you" he claims.

"I don't want to hear it, I want feel it. And this hug tells me that you love me" I insist.

"I can do a lot better than that" he says lowly and I grow a smirk. He pushes me backwards until I get to the bed. I fall back onto the bed and he takes no time following me to the bed. He presses his lips to mine and suddenly none of that crap mattered to us anymore. It's behind us and we were ready for a better future.

After we make-up I shower and change and we go out for lunch. We find a place who had a good birthday special and we get a table to ourselves.

"So how are things at home" he wonders.

"Pretty good. You know Antonio changed his number for the big game Friday night" I tell him and he looks at me weird.

"What? Why" he wonders.

"He changed it to 88 for the guy who gave him a chance to be great" I say and he smiles.

"Really" he asks.

"Yeah. It's playoffs and he is getting a lot of looks by colleges. He wanted to do something that would make him feel stronger and he said he wanted two great people to wear that number in the city" I explain.

"That's so cool. This birthday is turning out to be better than I thought it would be when I woke up this morning" he claims.

"Oh! That reminds me" I say digging into my purse. I pull out a little black box with a red bow on it and set it on the table. Patrick looks at me weird as I just nudge it to him.

"What did you do" he asks.

"Just open it and it'll explain itself" I promise.

He grabs the box and opens it up slowly. He smiles big when he sees a brand new Rolex in there. It was black and red and customized to the Blackhawks. It had "88PK" on the back and it was the nicest watch I could find. He kept saying he wanted one and what my baby wants my baby gets.

"I can't believe you actually got me this" he laughs.

"Well I did. I know you would appreciate it and it is your birthday after all" I say.

"Thank you baby, I love it" he insists.

"And I love you"