Autumn Leaves (Watty Awards 2013)(Editing)

Chapter 17

Two weeks later

“So I’m all set?” Tyler asked Don, one of their trainers.

“You are cleared to play,” he said, walking away to check out David Krejci, who had gotten injured during the game they played the previous night.

Nicki jumped up and hugged him. “Oh Ty, I’m so happy for you!” When she pulled away she said, “But you have to promise me that you’ll be careful. You know that I’m going to be having a heart attack through the entire game.”

He laughed. “I’ll do my best.”

“Promise me.”

“I promise.”

He leaned in to kiss her. “Listen, I want to take you out tonight. If it wasn’t for you, I doubt I’d be better already. We should celebrate.”

Her face lit up. Nicki only had a few days left of her spring break. She had spent nearly all of it waiting on him and taking him to doctor’s appointments. She had been astoundingly patient with him. He didn’t know what he would have done without her.

“Where do you want to go?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Somewhere nice. Maybe in the North End. But I’ll worry about that. You need to worry about getting something to wear.”

“I have plenty of things to wear at my house.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist. “Why do you have to be so difficult?”

“Hey Sexy!” Tyler turned to look at Brad.

“Could you stop calling us that? It’s weird.”

Brad had taken it upon himself to give Nicki and Tyler a celebrity couple name. Since he called Tyler Seggy and Nicki Foxy, he had managed to come up with Sexy. It made for some extremely uncomfortable situations. People didn’t exactly react well to one teammate calling another “sexy”.

“I have to agree with Tyler, Brad. It’s a little strange,” Nicki joked.

He ignored their comments. “So what’s the story Segs?”

Tyler grinned. “I’m cleared to play. As long as warm ups go fine, I’ll be playing tomorrow night.”

Brad slapped him on the back. “Glad to hear it buddy. See ya tomorrow. I’m outta here.”

Tyler looked at Nicki. “We should probably get going, too. I want to enjoy my last day off.”

“What are we gonna do?” she asked him.

“Well, there’s something that I have to take care of today. Nothing big. Just helping Freddy with something. I figured you could spend some time with your dad before we go out. You haven’t seen him in over a week,” he reminded her.

“You’re right.” She kissed him on the cheek. “It’s gonna be weird not being with you.”

He nodded. They had become inseparable. The more time Tyler spent with her, the more he wanted to be with her. It was like a disease. But he had been planning this for a while now. He had to go through with it.

** * * * * *

“Dad! I’m home!” Nicki yelled into her house.

She found him in the living room, watching Deadliest Catch.

“Hey honey! I missed you,” he said as he got up to give her a hug. “How’s Tyler?”

“Great! They cleared him to play tomorrow night. He’s so happy.”