There certainly were enough distractions to go around.
Marchers, floats, pictures and sounds flooded the arena, and kickoff was still an hour away. Giselle wondered how one was supposed to take it all in. Multi-tasking, was that the word? It seemed to her you missed more that way. So Giselle pushed all the sound and fury off to the side, and focused on the two people she and Robert could thank for making it to the Super Bowl.
"Giselle," said Robert, "I'd like you to meet Pat & Patti Coyne. We'd be back home ordering buffalo wings now if it wasn't for them." Giselle met a professional-looking couple in their 40's, sporting new Giants jerseys and a couple of mildly sunburned faces.
"Mr & Mrs Coyne, thank you so much for inviting us," she said, shaking their hands. "I know so many wish they could be here. And of course, Robert has told me about the first time he got to see the Giants play in the Super Bowl, thanks to you."
"Ah, cousin Bill's couch," recalled Pat. "That was a long time ago. That jersey looks like you used it as a pillow that night. He he." Patti winced slightly at the joke about Giselle's lived-in looking Giants jersey.
"Not quite that old," Robert explained in a casual manner, sensing that a smart remark could make for a long few hours ahead. "It shrank in the wash so I tossed it in the closet and forgot about it. Giselle did some organizing one day...", he waited for her to finish.
"...and found it was just my size," Giselle added. "Oh, I was just going to wear it for odd jobs around the place. Then you called, and I knew it had to make the trip with us."
The Coynes grinned, and there was an awkward moment of silence until Pat looked at his watch. "Look at the time! Gotta get in line for some munchies, or we'll still be there come kickoff!"
So Robert and Giselle shuffled past the Coynes into their seats, where she found herself next to a woman of 40 in a Tedy Bruschi Patriots jersey. Giselle didn't set out to crack the ice with her new neighbor. She just said off-handedly...
"They closed the roof."
"Hmm?", the Patriots fan asked.
"I thought I'd see the sun shining down, being out in the desert."
"Oh, something to do with all the wind outside."
"I thought they played football in all kinds of weather."
"They do, until it's the Super Bowl", the Pats fan replied. "Then the fat cats with tickets want to stay warm and dry."
"Like you?", Giselle asked with a smile.
"Don't look at me like that, I'm a gym teacher." The Pats fan gently punched the shoulder of the fellow next to her in a Super Bowl XXXIX tee shirt. "Paul here is to thank for our being here now. He pinched pennies and pulled strings for a year to get tickets and hotel reservations." Paul looked a bit sheepish. "He'd bring a banana and a granola bar to work when the other techs went to the deli for lunch. He'd order up CD's at the library to add songs to his iPod. And all this time I thought he was being a cheapskate!"
"Well, cold cuts are pricey," Paul added with a shrug, though Giselle could tell he was proud that his hard work had paid off.
"She must be very special to you."
Paul was taken aback for a second. Hearing this from someone he had met not 5 minutes ago should have seemed cloying and presumptuous. And yet...it didn't. Not from her.
"She is," he said simply.
"I'm Sharon," said the gym teacher.
"Giselle, and this is Robert", as all shook hands.
"So," said Sharon to Giselle, "you're team's the one thing standing between us and a perfect season."
"Well, who wants to hear a story where everything goes perfectly?"