Kali Gagnon
KATE
I knew it wasn’t one of my brightest ideas when I’d left Piper’s and instead of staying home, I had changed and gone straight to Tyler’s. I couldn’t help myself though.
When he had told me after the game that nothing else would happen between us, I knew in my head he was right. But really, how often did people listen to their head?
Of course, the sex was once again mind-blowing. I didn’t have words to describe what it was like between the sheets with him. Our chemistry roared, and I hated that it should end.
Technically, it should have ended after the first time, but I was acting on hormones instead of my brain, which I normally turned to.
His surprise when I showed up unannounced didn’t go unnoticed, neither did the deep hunger in his eyes when I asked him, “One last time?”
I had fallen asleep in his bed, which I shouldn’t have done, but it was midnight and once again, Tyler had exhausted all of my energy.
He woke me with more sex, which I couldn’t complain about, but after, I knew I had to find my phone. I had kept it turned off for hours, which wasn’t good in my line of work.
I could see countless missed calls, but they were all from the same number, one I didn’t know. Then going through my text messages, I saw a few from Piper and one from Tyler, a link.
I glanced over at him, gazing at his muscled biceps. His hands were back behind his head, and the grin he shot at me made me weak all over again.
I clicked the link from him and saw an obnoxious article along with a picture of Tyler and me. We both appeared as if we were ready to kill each other. I suppose we were in a way.
I skimmed the article and slapped my phone down. “Motherfucker,” I said.
To my surprise, the asshole laughed. I didn’t think my reaction was funny, but apparently, he found it that way. His hand reached to rub my thigh, and I slapped it away. He sat up in bed, not appearing angry that I’d hit his hand.
“Sorry, Kate,” he said. “I don’t know what to do about that.” He gestured toward my phone.
It was my turn to laugh. I shook my head and said, “This picture makes you look worse than me. Anyway, we can’t do anything about it now.” I shrugged, then he pulled me to him.
“I thought you were going to strangle me after seeing that,” he uttered between planting kisses on my neck.
I was about to answer when my phone rang again. It was the same unknown number I had so many missed calls from.
“Hello?” Sniffling came from the other end, but no words. I tried again. “Hello?”
A little, high-pitched voice entered my ears. “Is this Kate?”
“Yes, it is,” I answered. “Who’s this?”
Tyler watched me, sensing my concern. He stayed upright and curious.
“It’s Tessa,” she replied. “Remember me from the airplane? Well, you said I could call you.” She was crying.
“Of course, I remember you, Tessa. Are you okay?” As I waited for her to answer, I jumped out of bed and pulled my clothes on. I had a bad feeling about Tessa’s phone call.
Tyler followed suit, getting himself dressed.
“Daddy had to go to work. The babysitter is weird, and she’s sleeping. And there’s a loud banging on our door. I’m scared, Kate.”
That was all she needed to tell me. I sprinted out of Tyler’s bedroom, while she gave me her address. I asked for her dad’s name and cell phone number, which Tyler typed into his phone.
Grabbing my purse, I told her I was on my way. Tyler insisted on coming with me, and, in case the situation was worse than I’d hoped, I was glad to have him by my side. Her address wasn’t in the best area: 108th street.
But Tyler did make me feel safe. He drove, and as I sat in the passenger seat, I tried her dad’s cell multiple times with no luck of an answer. Once ten minutes away from Tessa’s address, my phone rang.
I answered before even a complete ring. “Bill?” I asked. My voice was shaking, something I wasn’t used to.
“Who is this?” he asked.
I put him on speaker, so Tyler could stay up to date. I’d given him the details of how I’d met Tessa, but didn’t feel like reiterating my entire conversation with Bill.
“This is Kate. A week ago, I flew next to you and your daughter on the flight from Paris to New York. You thanked me for watching her.”
“How’d you get this number?” he asked.
“I saw how busy you were on the plane and gave Tessa my number. She just called me crying.
“She’s scared, the babysitter is passed out, and people are banging on your door,” I said, waiting for him to react. “She gave me your address; I’m heading there now.”
Bill sighed. His voice came out strained. “Thank you.” He had decided to trust that I wasn’t some creepy stranger, which made me nervous, but I was thankful at that particular moment.
“I work for someone insane. Please tell her I’ll be there as soon as possible. And please don’t take her out of my apartment.”
“I understand, sir. I’ll wait for you.”
Tyler and I pulled up to Tessa and Bill’s apartment complex. It looked run down, and I wondered if we had the wrong address.
When I’d met them, they were sitting in first class, and Bill was in nice dress clothes and working on a laptop. Either way, I had to find Tessa.
We walked into the building and climbed up three sets of stairs.
“Kate!” She jumped into my arms, and Tyler closed the heavy door behind us.
“This is my friend, sweetie,” I said, not wanting her scared. “And I just spoke with your daddy; he will be home from work as soon as he can, but I’m going to stay with you until then.”
She hugged me for a few more minutes, with her little legs wrapped around my waist. Eventually, she looked up to see Tyler and slid down. A shriek escaped her lips.
“You’re Tyler Carlson!” she yelled. Her smile was captivating.
Tyler knelt down in front of her and asked, “You like hockey?”
“Daddy and I watch every single game! You’re one of my favorite players. My dad even bought me a cake when we read that you have come to play for the Blades!”
Tyler laughed, and I melted. Kneeling in front of that sweet little girl, he engaged in a conversation with her. She hugged him. When he spun her around, his eyes locked with mine, and I was done.
I couldn’t avoid him forever after this. In fact, I wanted to be around him.
I had been gifted with the opportunity to see him as an actual person, not a sexual object or a player whose name was always thrown around in the media in a bad light.
Tessa pulled his hand, dragging him over to the fridge. She opened up the door and carefully held a half-eaten cake.
The cake was decorated in the Blades’ colors of black and red, and the number eleven was painted on the top. Tyler’s number. Once he saw it, he looked back at me and smiled.
I shook my head, knowing he loved the attention.
“Tessa, you are my absolute favorite fan,” Tyler said. “Do you want me to sign some things for you?
“Kate can take some pictures for us too.” He smiled his dazzling smile at me again, and I couldn’t help but return it.
Tessa ran to her room to find a jersey for him to sign. It was his old team’s jersey, so I gave him a fake dirty look, and he just laughed.
While Tyler kept Tessa busy, I took the opportunity to glance around the apartment. They didn’t have much, just some old, worn furniture, and that was it.
A small television in their living room seemed to be the only extra thing they possessed. A single lamp lit the living room, and a ripped curtain barely covered their window.
I found the babysitter sleeping in Bill’s bed, oddly enough, and woke her. I had her call Bill so that he could confirm Tessa was allowed to stay with Tyler and me.
The babysitter left soon after, but not before flirting with Tyler and touching his bicep one too many times. He blew it off, only paying attention to the stories Tessa was telling him.
Not long after, I could hear the rattle of keys at the door. I positioned myself in front of Tyler, wanting Bill to see me before the strange man in his small apartment.
I knew he’d recognize Tyler eventually, but for now, all he needed to see was that Tessa was safe. She ran up to him and hugged him.
“Kate,” he breathed. “I can’t thank you enough.” He opened up his wallet and looked through the dollar bills he had in there. I put my hand out to stop him.
“No, no, no. Don’t give me anything, please.”
Bill appeared tired, with bags under his gray eyes and his brown hair disheveled. “I have to give you something for your troubles.”
“No, you do not. I don’t need anything.” He hadn’t even glanced at Tyler yet. Bill pulled out a metal chair, set his briefcase down, and sighed. “Bill, this is my friend, Tyler Carlson.”
Glancing upward, he noticed Tessa’s huge grin and then held his hand out firmly.
“Tyler Carlson is in my apartment!” he yelled and glanced at Tessa again. “We are huge fans, and my daughter loves you.”
“I showed him our cake, Daddy!”
We sat around Bill’s kitchen table and chatted about hockey. The metal chairs were chilly, and the apartment wasn’t well heated.
Bill and Tessa were obsessed with Tyler, so I didn’t bother mentioning who I was. It wasn’t important, anyway. Checking the time on the stove, I saw it was two o’clock in the morning.
Tessa was still awake, and I knew Tyler had an early morning skate.
I waited until he excused himself to go to the bathroom and followed him. “Tyler?” I asked. “I’m going to stay to talk with Bill.
“I’d like to find out what’s keeping him from his daughter, but you have an early skate in a couple of hours. Why don’t you head home?”
“You should come with me. I don’t want to leave you out here.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “I’ll be fine. I grew up in the city and was living in Paris by myself for the past few years. Plus, I’m all of twenty-seven years old.”
He faked astonishment. “Mmm an older woman, I like that.”
I laughed. “Seriously, be quiet.”
“I still don’t like leaving you alone,” he whispered.
Without the pressures of dating, we were giving each other more of ourselves. We gave each other some memories, hopes, and the entirety of our bodies.
Tyler and I both realized a relationship wasn’t plausible, yet that caused us to open ourselves up more and actually act like we were a couple. It was weird how that worked.
He didn’t need to join me that night; he didn’t need to entertain Tessa while I cleaned the dishes in the apartment.
He didn’t need to help make her bed and clean up her few toys that the babysitter hadn’t bothered paying attention to. And Tyler sure as hell didn’t need to worry about how I was getting home.
Every moment we spent together, we liked each other more, which was going to make it all the more difficult when we truly listened to our guts, knowing our union wasn’t a good idea.
We needed to stop that before we began to sink, unable to breathe and desperate for air.
To my surprise, he pulled me to him and planted his lips on mine. He held my head against his chest for a few minutes without saying a word. We pulled away, and he quietly walked into the bathroom.
Tessa was heartbroken when Tyler said he had to leave to get some sleep.
“It was great to meet you. You have made my daughter’s life complete,” Bill said with a laugh.
Tyler opened his wallet and pulled out two tickets. “I was going to give these to my brothers, but they’ve been to plenty of my games. It’s for Saturday night.” He handed them to Tessa.
“Really?” she yelled.
“I’ve never been able to afford tickets before.” Tears brimmed Bill’s gray eyes.
“I’ll see about getting some more,” Tyler began. “I have a pretty good relationship with the owner.” His lips curved up.
Bill and Tessa retreated to the living room. I told Bill I’d like to talk to him for a few minutes and then I’d be out of their hair.
I stayed in the kitchen to see Tyler out. He brushed his hand across my cheek before opening the door.
“So, I’m this pretty badass hockey player. Everyone loves me, if you couldn’t tell.” His smile widened. “I have this game in two days, you know, if you want to come check me out.”
“I might be able to make it,” I said. “Depends on if I can get tickets.” I shrugged.
He laughed, then squeezed my hand. “We can keep this between us,” he whispered in my ear.
I closed my eyes. My mind spun for minutes before figuring out what to say. “We both know that’s not possible.”
Tyler stepped away from me, and I immediately saw his good mood turn sour. Shaking his head, he opened the door. “Have it your way.” The door slammed behind him as a knot formed inside my stomach.
Slowly, I entered the living room to see Tessa showing her father the precious signed items she had received from no other than Tyler Carlson.
They were both sad to see him leave. I watched on as Bill thumbed the tickets for a New York Blades game.
I sat beside him, and he politely asked his daughter to retreat to her bedroom for the night. She hugged and thanked me, blabbing about Tyler for another minute. I kissed her forehead.
It was odd how quickly I had developed a relationship with the little girl; perhaps it was only because I saw myself in her eyes.
My mother neglected every aspect of my being, yet what I was looking at then was different.
The first time I’d met them, Bill looked too busy to be bothered with her. But seeing them together that night told a different story. He was loving and present. I wasn’t sure what to make of their situation.
I tried to focus on Bill sitting in front of me, but my mind continuously wandered off to Tyler. He’d left, and things weren’t pleasant.
We were acting like a couple, but we weren’t; and more importantly, we couldn’t be.
“I… I can’t thank you enough,” Bill said. “I really can’t. And that Tyler, boy he was wonderful. I can’t tell you how happy it made me when I saw Tessa’s eyes light up.”
“I’m glad we could help,” I replied. “And as for those other tickets he was talking about—”
“I don’t expect him to follow through, Kate. He went out of his way enough.”
Bill took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes. It was too late, and I knew he needed some sleep. As for me? I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep no matter how much I wanted to.
“Well, I know season tickets have a long wait list, but I can do you one better.” Bill’s eyes lit up. “I’m the owner,” I said, laughing at his startled expression.
“Anytime, and I mean that sincerely, anytime you’d like to come to a game, just call me and I’d be more than happy to have you and Tessa sitting beside me in the owner’s suite.”
I knelt down by Bill’s side as he started crying. I wasn’t used to a father crying, having never seen my own dad do that.
“You’re so young,” he pointed out. “I really don’t know what to say,” he said between whimpers.
“Don’t say anything.” I lowered my voice, knowing I had to ask him an awkward question. “Bill, could you tell me what you do for work? I’m worried about Tessa.”
Sitting in the broken flower-print recliner, he crossed one leg over the other. I had a feeling that the recliner wasn’t the only broken thing; Bill himself looked broken.
“I work for a woman. She’s very wealthy and very demanding. She doesn’t care that I’m a single father. She lets me take Tessa with me on her business trips, but she never wants to see her.
“When you met us, we were actually on our way home from a business trip.”
He told me all about his boss, Meredith. She sounded like a psychopath, screaming at Bill if she so much as laid eyes on Tessa.
She paid him only enough to live in the city, but not enough for him to purchase anything else. He’d go days at a time without eating, just to make sure Tessa had food in her stomach.
He was a recovering alcoholic and had entered into some trouble with the law in the past. No one else would hire him, even as just an assistant.
To make things worse, Meredith’s late-night calls weren’t for work; they were her booty calls, which he had to attend to keep his job.
Tears streamed down his face as he told me his life story. I cried with him.
“That’s no way to live,” I told him when he was finished.
“What choice do I have?”
I ran my hand through my hair and took a sip from my cup of water. “Work for me,” I blurted out.
He suddenly stood up from the recliner. “No,” he said. “Don’t feel pity for me, that’s not why I told you that. I just thought you deserved to know after everything you’ve done.”
“I’m not pitying you, Bill. You have an incredible work ethic and a beautiful daughter who needs you.” More tears welled up in his eyes. “I’m looking for an assistant here, anyway.
“I’ll pay you three times what Meredith pays you, and I can promise I’m hardly demanding.”
Bill’s shoulders shrunk, and I stood to hug him. For what felt like an hour, he kept thanking me and checking multiple times if I was seriously offering him a position.
I promised him I was and had him call Meredith right in front of me and quit. She screamed at him through the phone and threatened that he’d never have a job in New York City again.
We laughed together, and he felt better than he had in years. I left Tessa and Bill’s apartment that night with a sense of pride that I was able to offer a dad in need something he thought couldn’t possibly exist.
That pride gave way to sadness when I lay in bed, remembering the look on Tyler’s face just before he had slammed the door on me.