The Greatest/Worst Cub Game Ever Pt 1.

This is another two-parter. Stay with me. It’s worth it.

All summer, Luca begged to come to work with me. Sure, you can come. Next week. Next week. Next weeeeeeeek.

Suddenly, I was looking down the barrel of a promise with only a few days left of summer break. I had a pretty clear Friday, so I decided to bring the little guy in. I also tacked on a surprise Cub game, you know, to distract from the lateness of my…everything.

I texted Diana to let her in on the plan. I also explained to Eli why I didn’t love him enough to take him to the game (This was actually to even out the Youtube concert I took Eli to earlier in the summer. It’s a great blog post).

The night before, Diana told me that Luca knew everything, since he monitors all her communications like the CIA group tasked with catching Jason Bourne. However, he wanted to give me the pleasure of surprising him, so he was planning on playing possum.

There is nothing more delightful than a child lying to you all day. Rather than let him off the hook, I spent the day turning the knife.

I suggested he wear his Cubs jersey to work, you know, to look nice. Luca and I locked eyes. I knew that he knew. But did he know that I knew that he knew? Luca suspiciously dressed. Yes, you can dress suspiciously.

I was living in a 1980’s sitcom.

On the commute in, Luca kept up the act. “I can’t wait to spend the day at your work. The WHOLE day.”

I named fictional restaurants we could visit for lunch. “Maybe we can go to Michael Jackson’s steakhouse. They have great burgers.” So…many…other…jokes.

My co-workers dropped by to help in my psychological warfare (and suck up). They’d marvel at his Cubs jersey and ask if we were going to the game. They’d even offer to score us tickets. Luca would sit silently, confused as to if this was all part of the plan. It was.

I had a few dumb meetings and then it was time to spring the trap. I glanced at my tickets (Thank you, Gary Doyle) and realized WE WERE LATE.

After that whole build up, I quickly packed my junk and said, “Look. I know you know what’s up. Let’s skip this charade and get to the game.”

Luca said, “Yay!” Everyone wins.

And then we met a celebrity, snatched a ball, lost it, found it, cried, laughed, hugged and many other things, all to be revealed in pt 2.

Stay tuned.