Minneapolis 22 Oct 17 11:20 CDT

“Come on Jenny! We are going to be late!” I called out to my fiancée. Kickoff was in about 45 minutes and I wanted to be there for it. As usual my better half had only a brief recognition of time. As organized as Jenny can be in life, time was just an annoyance for her when you had to be somewhere. Most of the time, I was just as guilty of being late but not on game day.

“Relax babe,” I heard Jen call out. “It will be fine. We will make it there before the game. Daddy gave us our tickets already and if we are a little late so what?” I want to scream out “So what?! This is important game! This is for bragging rights!” My anger quickly dissipated as the love of my life came out of the bathroom, fully made up and dressed in her typical game day attire of jersey and leggings, same as me. This time however she had her hair in braids with little purple bows at the end. Now I lost track of time as I moved towards Jenny and began to kiss her. “Come on, we will have time for that after the game for that” Jenny told me and took me by the hand and led me out the door

London 5:53 PM BDT

“Has it started yet?” Jessica asked breathlessly of her fiancée who was seated on the sofa, resplendent in her Ravens t-shirt that had acquired a strategic tear shortly after her fiancée’s parent had headed back. “Your fine. They haven’t even done the National Anthem yet.” Paige replied. Both women had taken the day off, but there had been a rash of illnesses recently and being a supervisor, Jessica had been called in to cover the Dublin route. Thankfully it was a quick turnaround because Jessica did not want to miss this game. There was too much on it, there was no way she was losing this bet. She rushed to the bedroom and quickly changed into her Ray Lewis jersey and a pair of comfortable pants and returned to the couch, where she shared a long kiss with the beautiful Scottish woman that Jessica was so lucky to call her partner. Paige picked up an Jessica’s nervousness. “Don’t worry about the game. I am sure the Ravens will do fine.”

“The Ravens have to win. We can’t lose this bet or we will never hear the end of it!” Jessica said. An evil smile crept across Paige’s face “I don’t know, I would love to see you in a cheerleader’s kit” Jessica giggled at that. “Well maybe if you are lucky I will wear the Raven’s one for you.” And the two shared another kiss.

Minneapolis 1:27 CDT

Marty couldn’t help but laugh at his future daughter-in-law as she stormed about the private suite. “We should be up big!” I said to Marty as the halftime festivities were underway. “How can we only be up by a field goal?” I asked. Marty just shook his head and tried to calm me down. “The defense is playing great Alexa. They have held them to two field goals.” I just gave Marty the ‘look’, as if he was crazy. After dragging Jenny to the restroom, we returned and I had calmed down a bit. Mostly because Jenny had pulled me aside in the hallway and gave me a long deep kiss. As we returned where we found Marty all full of questions. “Alexa, you seem a little more wound about this game than usual, which is saying a lot. How come?” We looked at my future father-in-law for second before looking down a bit embarrassed. “We have a bet on this game.” I said. Marty started to get a little red in the face and then asked how much. Jenny handled the answer “We bet with two of our friends over in London, one is a big Ravens fan. Losing couple has to wear the other’s cheerleader’s outfit.” Marty shook his head. “I almost wish it was money” he said

London 7:33 PM BDT

“We still have a chance” Paige said, “It’s only 9 to 6 at half.” Paige was trying to be as optimistic as possible because she could see that Jessica was not too happy with the way things were going. “We aren’t going to win with just field goals. And with Wallace out, Flacco has no receivers left. This is not good.” Paige tried to find ways to relax her lover, but could find none so she decided to take her mind off the game, but even that didn’t work. “Are you really that nervous of losing?” Paige asked. Jessica nodded “They are going to be here in a couple of days and we are going to the game with them next week. If the Ravens lose, I will never hear the end of it.”

Minneapolis 1:58 CDT

Jenny looked at me at the end of the third quarter. “This is looking better. Start of the fourth, it’s 18-9. The defense is playing great, you should feel much better.” I just shook my head “It’s not over until it’s over, babe” I told her. I was still nervous. As I lifelong Viking fan, you knew that there was no such thing as a sure thing, though silently I admitted that it was looking good. I sat back and began to think about how Jessica was doing. As much as I wanted to text her, I hadn’t. We did send Paige a couple of selfies before the game started and received replies at how cute we looked. She sent us one back of her sitting on the couch in her Ravens t-shirt all alone and a frown on her face. After the game started we had cut off all communication with our friends. I did feel for Jessica. I knew how it was.

London 8:39 PM BDT

Jessica had resigned herself to fate. It was the two-minute warning and the Ravens were down 24-9. “We need a miracle here to win this thing.” Jessica pouted as she collapsed into the arms of her fiancée. “We aren’t good enough to beat this defense.” Paige held Jessica and lightly massaged her back. “It will be OK Jess. We can have some fun with this. You know I have always wanted to wear a cheerleader’s kit. So what if it’s not a Cowboys.” Paige was trying everything to try and comfort Jessica. She reached for her iPad and went to the Vikings website. She pulled up the cheerleader’s page and showed the uniforms to Jessica. As she looked at the website, she pointed out “See, they aren’t that bad. Sure, they are the Vikings but so what. Besides, you will be the best-looking woman to wear a Viking kit in the UK, ever.” Jessica smiled as she realized what Paige was trying to do. Jessica looked up her partner.

“No, I’ll be the second best” Jessica said and shared a long, deep kiss with Paige

Minneapolis 2:53 PM

I collapsed back into my seat. It was over. The clock showed all zeros and the scoreboard showed the Vikings had won and I would not have to wear the Ravens outfit and would still have bragging rights over our friends in London. I looked over at Jenny and was surprised to see Jenny sitting there with a bit of a sad look on her face. “Jen? What’s wrong? The Vikings won. We won the bet and we are getting on an airplane for London in a few hours.” I said as I leaned in and gave Jenny a kiss. “I know” she told me “but I was kind of looking forward to seeing you in that little skirt.” I smiled to myself.