Page 46 of Shameless
She glared at me. “Yeah. Football is out.” She turned back to the TV and scrolled through the guide. “Yesssss!” she cheered.
“What?”
“So …” She turned to me. “I have this rule.”
I arched a brow. “A rule?”
“Yeah.” She nodded excitedly. “Whenever there’s an 80s romantic movie on, I have to watch it.”
“Oh, god,” I groaned. “Why do you have this rule?”
“It started when I would spend the summers with Aunt Deb.”
“Oh,” I replied. I couldn’t recall watching any rom-coms with Sarah and Deb when I had been there that summer. Then again, I usually went to my room early because I had to get up at the ass-crack of dawn to pick fucking apples. “Okay?”
“Well.” Sarah’s grin widened. “Say Anythingis on and we have to watch it.”
“That one with the guy holding the boombox over his head?”
“That’s the one.” Sarah was beaming, and it surprised me to learn she was so into 80s movies.
I enjoyed seeing her happy, but I couldn’t believe I was going to watch some cheesy rom-com that she probably had seen a hundred times. But it was her TV and her rule, and I wanted to do anything she wanted to do. “Well, let’s do it.” I popped a pork potsticker into my mouth.
“How many times have you seen it?” she asked as she selected the channel it was on.
“Can’t say that I have. I don’t recall specifics other than the guy with the stereo in the air trying to win back the girl or some shit.”
“Oh, well, I hope you like it because you might be watching it a lot with me.”
“Is it your favorite 80s movie?”
“Um, no. That would beDirty Dancing. Hands down,” she gushed.
“That one I’ve seen for sure.”
“You know what would be fun? We should go on an 80s movie binge to make sure you’ve seen them all.”
What had I gotten myself into? Was I about to agree to watch rom-coms from the 80s for the foreseeable future? Yes. Yes, I was. But I had a counteroffer for her. “How about for every movie of your choice that we watch, we watch a sporting event of my choice?”
“Only football?” Sarah asked.
I shook my head. “No. I like all sports: football, baseball, hockey …”
“And you watch them all?”
“When I can.”
She thought for a moment before sticking out her hand. “Okay, deal.”
We shook on it and Skye barked as though she agreed too.
Even though I watched sports as often as I could, I didn’t catch a lot of the games because of work obligations. Maybe that would change because I was eager to spend as much time as I could with my arms wrapped around Sarah, and a movie on the TV would suit my purposes. Besides, baseball had a 162-game season.
A good thirty minutes into the film, we’d polished off a container of honey walnut shrimp, most of the Mongolian beef, and a good amount of fried rice. We paused the movie, cleaned up, and then returned to the couch, where Sarah snuggled against my side. Skye already seemed at home because she jumped up onto the other side of Sarah and got comfortable as Sarah pressed play and the movie continued.
Once the iconic scene played out where John Cusack held the radio above his head, Sarah wiped a tear from her cheek. Would I ever be that guy willing to put his ego aside, lay it all on the line, and proclaim his love for the woman he wanted more than anything? I knew I was falling for Sarah, but I wondered if what I felt was love. A part of me thought it was too soon, but I’d never felt this way for a woman before.
Even Stacey.
