by Lexy Timms
Chrissy laughed. “I think you did just fine without him. Second place isn’t exactly a bad thing.”
It was a bad thing if you’d been consistently taking first. And if you were a Worlds Junior winner who’d had the tenth fastest time in the world on the hundred meter hurdles in the same year. If you were the person who’d done both of those things, people were always looking to you to excel. To beat your last great accomplishment. In a case like that, second place was a pretty big step down.
“Anyway, Tyler hasn't been at a lot of the meets,” Chrissy reminded her, leaning back a little in her seat and giving Aileen a considering look. “What is it about this one that's different, do you think?”
“This one is after we really became a couple?” Aileen suggested, pretty sure that was the answer. “Well, that and he’s on his way to the NFL draft and I kind of wish that I could be there, too… I don’t know. Support him. Cheer for him the way I do at meets. The way he does for me at them.”
Chrissy nodded. “That's probably it, then. You know…” She paused, taking a drink from her own glass of water, and looked like she was trying to decide how to phrase something. “I think that you should maybe start preparing for the fact that Tyler isn't going to be at Gatica next year.”
Her tone was gentle, but the words still hit Aileen hard. She knew that Tyler would be gone after the end of the school year. He was graduating, and going off to be drafted by the NFL, and she would be left behind to finish college before they could really be together again. The thought of three years so far apart was painful.
“I know,” she said quietly, staring down at the water in the glass that she was turning between her hands, watching it slosh against its confines. “I've thought about it, a bit. Honestly, it kind of sucks to think about.”
“Yeah,” Chrissy said, chuckling a little. “It's not easy when the guy isn't at the same college that you are, but I think that you can make it work. You two have a really good thing going. You just have to put a little more effort into it.”
“Do you think he'll really have time for me?” Aileen asked before she could stop the words from leaving her mouth. “I mean… he's going to be in the NFL. That's not exactly a job with a lot of free hours. And we're going to be so far apart. Is he really going to want to be tied to some college girlfriend three years younger than he is, with all of those beautiful women throwing themselves at him?”
She thought back to the night of the party, walking in to find several of the other girls from the track team dancing way too close to Tyler, and she wondered if she would be able to go three years wondering whether or not some gorgeous pro cheerleader or football groupie had managed to worm her way into Tyler's arms.
“He loves you,” Chrissy said, breaking into her spiral of self-doubt. “It's pretty obvious, Aileen.” She smiled. “He's been smitten with you since the first time that you walked in the door at Wavertree Fieldhouse.”
“Actually,” Aileen said, “he knew who I was when I got there. He watched me race at Nationals.”
“So there,” Chrissy said. “You see? He's totally into you, and he has been from the start. And don't tell me that you weren't crushing on him hard before you ever got here.”
“No.” Aileen shook her head. “He's actually-” She looked at Chrissy across the table. “You promise not to tell anyone this? Not even Jani?”
Chrissy dragged a finger across her heart first one way and then another. “Cross my heart.”
“Tyler is actually the reason that I came to Gatica to visit,” she admitted, her voice hardly above a whisper. Up until now, Becky had been the only one who knew she'd visited Gatica for the guys, and even she didn't know that it had been just for Tyler Jensen.
“Really?” Chrissy asked. She chuckled. “Honestly, you're not the person I would have pegged for doing that kind of thing.”
“My best friend told me that I had to look at one school for something other than running. And we decided Gatica had the cutest guys. But I didn't care about any of the others. I just wanted to meet Tyler. Talk to him.”
“That's actually kind of sweet. If maybe a little bit stalker-ish.”
Aileen found herself laughing. “Yeah. Okay. It was maybe a little bit stalker-ish. I was so surprised when he talked to me I almost forgot how to talk. It was actually really embarrassing. And then Coach Anderson brought him to dinner with us, and I couldn't believe it. It was like the universe was actually conspiring in my favor.”
“Maybe it was,” Chrissy suggested. “Maybe it was fate that you two met. You were drawn to each other at first sight because you were always meant to be together.”
She paused to take a drink of water, and smiled at Aileen over the rim of the glass as she put it down.
“It's like me and Ryan. We never would have met if we hadn't both been injured. And I was mad at first that it happened, you know? I wanted to compete. But after I met Ryan and we started getting to know each other, and now that I've had some time to think about it, I think that maybe things happen for a reason. So it doesn't matter that Tyler won't be here next year. I mean, it will be rough. But I think you'll make it through. Your relationship is built to last.”
It was something that Aileen herself had contemplated. The idea that she and Tyler were meant to be together. Mostly late at night in an exhaustion haze prompted by staying up way too late to finish homework after being up early in the morning to go work out in the weight room. It seemed possible then when, in the light of day, the idea only sounded silly. But hearing someone else say it was like confirmation that maybe it wasn't so ridiculous after all. Lots of people believed in soul mates. Just because she was studying biology didn't mean that she couldn't agree with them.
“I hope that you're right,” she said. “About Tyler and me. And I do think that we can make it. We've made it through some kind of crazy times already. So, I guess that I'll just keep trying no matter what happens.”
“That's the spirit!” Chrissy lifted her glass and held it out to Aileen like she was preparing to toast. “To trying no matter what.”
Aileen laughed and clinked her cup against the other girl's. “To trying no matter what,” she agreed.
Chapter 5
The theater where the NFL draft was being held was enormous. Aileen, her pencil poised over the sheet she was working on, paused to stare at it as the camera panned over the room, taking in the screaming fans packed into the seats. Up on the stage, a man stepped to the podium, and a moment later everyone fell silent like they were hitting a cue. Into the silence, the NFL commissioner announced that the Tennessee Titans were on the clock.
Aileen went back to her homework after that, occasionally looking up at the sound of screaming to see a new player called up to have their picture taken with a team jersey. As far as she could tell, each team got about fifteen minutes to decide who they wanted, although some decided much faster than that. Aileen knew that Tyler was there, somewhere in that enormous theater, waiting to be called up on stage for his turn in the spotlight.
It didn’t come until about eighteen rounds in.
She didn’t quite catch the name of the team that accepted him the first time they called it, because she was only half listening to the television, her attention focused on a difficult chemistry problem that she was trying to solve. But she heard Tyler’s name.
Her head snapped up and she turned to look at the television, watching as the camera zoomed in on Tyler walking up onto the stage to accept a hat with Browns written across it in orange.
“—Jensen,” the announcer was saying. “Defensive back. University of Gatica.”
Aileen reached for her laptop and typed the name of the team into Google. Cleveland. Her heart, which had been singing for him a moment before, dropped. That was a long way from Gatica. Although, she realized, she’d be able to see him in the summer. But summers were short, and athletes’ summers were even shorter.
She reached for the remote and turned off the television, lookin
g back at her homework. Whatever happened she would find a way to see him, but she really wished he didn’t have to be so far away.
***
It was after midnight when her phone rang. Aileen looked up from the problem set she was currently working on, arching her back to stretch it after too long bent over the sheet of paper on her desk, and reached out for the ringing phone, pulling it closer to see who was calling. Tyler's name flashed across the screen. She swiped a thumb over it to answer.
“Hey, Tyler,” she said as she raised it to her ear. “I saw the news!”
Laughter on the other end of the line answered her, and distantly she could hear what sounded like a party going on in the background. Loud music, voices jumbling together. It was muffled, like Tyler had stepped into another room to call her.
“Isn't it awesome?” His words slurred a little, and Aileen wondered if he was drunk.
“It's amazing! I'm so happy for you.” And she was, even if she had her misgivings about the location of the team. She wanted Tyler to be happy, right? And the NFL was what would make him happy. So she would learn to deal with that, despite the misgivings that picked at her. What if a long-distance relationship wasn’t a good idea? What if it ended up doing them both more harm than good?
Tyler was talking, and Aileen tried to force the whirl of thoughts away and focus on his voice.
“I've already been signed by the Cleveland Browns. And—this is where it gets even better, babe… the Patriots are already trying to trade me from them.”
He sounded like he was on cloud nine. Aileen's smile froze on her face. The Patriots? For a moment she’d had hope that maybe he was going to be closer to Gatica. That a team from New York was picking him up instead. When he’d said that it got better, she’d been certain that he meant for both of them. It made it harder, when she'd already been hoping that he would be placed a little closer. Somewhere that she could actually visit.
“That's… cool. It’s kinda a long way away, Tyler.”
There was a pause on the other end, like he was parsing what she'd said. “It's not that far. Close enough that you could fly out sometimes to visit.”
“Fly out sometimes? Tyler, do you really want to live like that? Only seeing each other when I can afford a plane ticket and a few days off from track and school?”
“I can buy you plane tickets, Aileen,” he said, sounding almost confused, like he didn't understand what her problem was.
“It's not really about the plane tickets! I just want you closer. Couldn't you have been signed out of Buffalo or somewhere? At least then I could see you more often than once every couple of months.” She was being ridiculous. She knew she was. They’d hardly been dating. What was she saying? Hadn’t she just kicked him out of her room the other night so Jani wouldn’t see him? Then left him at a party because she was jealous? Now she was thinking long-term? She didn’t have a ring on her finger. There were no promises of anything more than… than what?
She let her words hang on the line as silence grew between them. She should be happy for him. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. He had this huge, amazing future and she was bitching because he didn’t try to get picked by a team closer to Gatica. She hated herself for complaining and yet, she couldn’t take the words back.
She didn’t want to.
Chapter 6
“Buffalo?” He almost couldn’t believe his ears. For a moment, Tyler wondered if he was too drunk and he’d misheard, but he hadn’t had that much to drink and he was pretty sure that Aileen had said exactly what he thought she had. Buffalo. His lips pressed together in a thin line.
Phone still held up to his ear, Tyler leaned against the bathroom wall, one hand cupped over the phone's speaker to keep the sounds of the party outside the bathroom door from intruding too loudly on the conversation. He'd managed to sneak away from the constant line of girls who kept trying to get his attention and his number, and the other draft picks congratulating him.
“Aileen, I've got an awesome opportunity here, don't you see that? I could be part of the Patriots, for fuck's sake. That's huge. They won the Super Bowl the year before last!”
“That's also really far away,” Aileen repeated, her voice catching over the words like she was about to cry, and Tyler pushed down the surge of guilt in his chest. He wasn't going to feel bad for being signed by a good team, or for having prospects that would make most college football players green with envy. She'd known when they started dating that he was going to end up in the NFL. She didn't have any reason to complain.
He could have been signed by the San Francisco 49ers and then he would be all the way across the country. New England wasn't actually that far from Gatica. Not by plane. Although she'd have to drive to the airport. But was it really that much to ask her to do?
“I know that it's far away, but it won't matter for that long. Just a few years and you'll be graduated from university. Then you can come live with me.”
“Just a few years isn't that short a time. It's a huge part of my life. Long-distance relationships are hard, Tyler. They come with a lot of problems. We’re both working on our careers. I’ve got school, varsity track, and trying to make the Olympics. You’ll have a ton to focus on. This is going to be too much work.”
“So we'll work everything out,” Tyler said, starting to get frustrated with the whole conversation. He'd called Aileen, expecting her to be happy for him. Expecting that she would be just as excited as he was over the fact that he had the potential to end up on a major team. Somewhere that he could really make his mark on the world of football. But all she cared about was the fact that she might have to get on a plane every couple of months.
“Do you even understand how big a deal this is?” he asked. “I know that you don't play football, but I do, and this is huge. This will be a career that I can be really proud of.”
“You can't be proud of a career on another team?”
“No,” Tyler said finally. “No, Aileen. I can't be as proud of a career on another team. Not if that team is the Buffalo Bills. They're nowhere near as recognized as the Patriots. And nowhere near as good. Sure, I'd still be NFL, but I'd end up going almost nowhere. On the Patriots, I'll be one of the big names.”
“And being one of the big names is that important to you?”
“It isn't to you?” he demanded. “Tell me that you wouldn't want to be one of the big names in track. If you got to go to the Olympics you would be jumping up and down and you know it, so I don't see where you get to act like I'm being vain because I want to take this opportunity.”
Aileen sighed, and for a minute she didn't say anything at all.
Tyler waited for her to speak.
“It's a good opportunity,” she said finally. But she didn't sound happy. Didn't sound like she was happy for him. Tyler's jaw tightened. “And I'm glad that you got it. I really am, Tyler. I'm just... going to miss you.”
The bleak edge to her voice made him feel guilty again.
“I'm going to miss you, too,” he said, softer. Outside, people were chanting and then there was a loud group cheer. Tyler pressed his hand over the phone's speaker. “A lot,” he added when the noise had died down. “It's going to be really hard to be that far away from you. But it's what's best for me. And best for us, by extension. If you got an opportunity like this, I would be behind you the whole way.”
“It is what's best for you,” Aileen said. “Congratulations, Tyler.”
There was a pause, like she was deciding whether or not she should say anything else.
“I love you.”
“And I love you,” he answered.
Then she ended the call.
For a minute, Tyler stood staring at the screen of his phone, wondering how upset she still was and if he should call her back. Say something to try to calm her down. But in the end he decided that calling her back would just end with them arguing again, and he didn't want that.
He tucked his phone into his pocket and made his way
out of the bathroom and back to the party, smiling as one of the other guys patted him on the back, and accepting a drink handed to him by a blonde girl who kept trying to get him to dance with her.
Aileen would see. This chance would be amazing, and not just for him.
It would be good for both of them.
Chapter 7
Tyler came back, and the media came with him.
They had been at Gatica, on and off, mostly to cover football and the local media covering other sports and Track and Field meets, especially the ones going to the NCAA championships. Aileen had been interviewed a couple times, track just wasn’t a big deal. But they weren’t on and off with Tyler. It seemed like there was always someone watching him. Someone with a camera pointed at them. Usually there was someone with a microphone involved, too, standing off to the side to narrate about Tyler Jensen, the defensive back from tiny D-1 University of Gatica who’d been a top NFL pick and doubled as a hurdler. NCAA champion, All-American, home-grown American boy living the dream.
And Tyler wouldn’t touch her if he knew he was being recorded.
When she’d asked him why, after he’d pulled away from her too quickly as they sat under a tree on the quad and she’d realized that he’d seen a reporter coming their way, he’d told her that he didn’t want to have to share her with the world. Except Aileen wasn’t sure she believed that. Or at least, she wasn’t sure that she believed his reasoning for it. If you were proud of someone, you wanted to share them with the world. So why wasn’t Tyler proud of her?
Maybe he’d found someone better.
She’d heard the female laughter in the background when he’d made his call from New York. Maybe one of the women who had probably been following new recruits around had caught his attention and he didn’t need her anymore.
