Our Town

“Hello?”

“What’s your favorite color?”

Emma laughed, not quite expecting this call to start that way, “What?” Tyler smiled to himself, knowing full well that it was his question that got that laugh that he loved so much out of Emma.

“I realized during practice that I never asked you what your favorite color was.”

Emma thought for a little before she replied, “You aren’t supposed to be thinking about me during practice.”

“There isn’t much else to think about anymore.” Emma stopped smiling, and on the other end of the line Tyler was sitting in his apartment, sitting with Marshall and Cash. Emma hadn’t responded, and Tyler started to wonder if she had hung up, maybe he had pushed too far.

“It’s purple.”

Tyler smiled.

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Emma left class earlier than she had expected that day, after her conversation with Tyler. She had told him her favorite color and then had made some lame excuse to get off the phone with him before he heard her start crying.

She had started her last hour class, flustered and a little bit too emotional, so Emma chalked it up to not feeling good and let her students go fifteen minutes early. She would make it up the next week.

Throughout the whole class she had been thinking about the time when Tyler first called her, she was still smiling about it.

“Hello?”

Emma could hear someone breathing on the other end of the line, but no one was answering. She looked at the caller id and her stomach dropped.

“Hey Ty.”

Tyler, on the other end of the line, dropped down onto his bed and took a deep breath. He didn’t quite know what he was doing when he picked up his phone and pulled up Emma’s contact information, but all of sudden the phone was ringing and he realized that he just wanted to hear her voice. Hear her laugh. Just pretend for a second that she wasn’t across the country.

“Hey Boston.”

There wasn’t much else to say, they just stayed on the line with each other for an hour, neither of them talking, just listening to the other one breathe, until Tyler could hear Emma’s breathing slow and he realized that it was just past eleven back in Boston, and that she had fallen asleep to the sound of him breathing. He smiled to himself.

“I love you Emma.”

Then he hung up the phone, making sure that the next day he called her again.

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Emma reached for her phone to silence the ringing, it was too early in the morning for Marimba, “Why are you calling me so early?”

“Wow we haven’t talked in months and that’s the hello I get? Yeesh I’m not gonna call you before eight in the morning again.”

Emma sat straight up in bed and smiled, “Jamie!”

Jamie was sitting on the team plane, smiling, he had missed Emma, “How’s Boston treating ya?”

Emma sighed. She hadn’t talked much about Boston to anybody. Mostly because she didn’t want to admit that she hated it. That it was too much work and she desperately missed Dallas. But who would she tell that to? Definitely not Tyler because he would try and bring her back. Not her friends because they would do the same as Tyler. So she opted for Jamie.

“I’m going to be completely honest,” Emma sighed, “I hate it. It's so much work and the students hate me because I'm practically the same age as them.”

Jamie laughed, “I thought so, when are you coming home?”

Emma bit her lip, “I’m not.”

Jamie looked at Tyler, sitting across from him, “He misses you, ya know.”

“I miss him too, like crazy.”

“Well that’s great! You can come back and you guys can be together,” Jamie was smiling, still staring at Tyler.

Emma looked down, staring at her bed sheets, “I don’t think so Jamie.”

Jamie looked back towards the back of the seat in front of him, hearing the captain come across the speakers and say they were ready for takeoff.

“What was that? Where are you?”

Jamie cursed under his breath, knowing full well that Emma wasn’t keeping up with the Stars schedule, “We’re on the plane.”

“Where are you going?” Emma didn’t know if she was hoping Jamie was going to say Boston, or if he was going to say somewhere in Canada.

“New Jersey,” Jamie smiled through his teeth.

Emma let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding in, “Well good luck, I hope you guys win.”

Jamie looked back towards Tyler, “Don’t be a stranger.”

Jamie hung up the phone, just in time to hear the end of the Captain speaking.

Have a relaxing flight, we’ll be touching down in Boston in four hours.

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Emma was scrolling through the channels on her tv, realizing full well that she was sitting at home on a Friday night, when she should be out and moving on from Tyler. She was now in the sports section of the cable channels, and a few seconds away from giving up and grabbing her laptop to watch Netflix when she immediately stopped scrolling. She hadn’t remembered paying for the NHL channel, but when she saw the familiar green sweaters skate by, she allowed herself five seconds not to care.

One second of seeing who was the opponent, the Bruins.

Another second of seeing who was winning, the Stars.

The third second was looking for number 91.

The fourth second was seeing Tyler skate down the ice on a breakaway.

And the last second to see him knock one in past Rask.

Emma then took one more second to realize that she was so screwed.

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Tyler came out of the locker room, showered and smiling after winning their game against the Bruins.

He felt Jamie come up behind him, grabbing his shoulder, “You going to see her?”

Tyler had thought about it. He had honestly thought about skipping the game to go see Emma, tell her he loved her, maybe even propose to her just so she knew it was real. But then he thought about how she was probably happy without him, so he decided to just play his game, and if she called or texted he would be at her apartment in a heartbeat. Given that she gave him the address first.

Tyler shook his head, “She probably doesn’t want to see me.”

Jamie had promised himself that he wouldn’t tell Tyler just how much Emma hated the teaching job here, but seeing him look upset every time he saw him was getting old, and it was making Jamie sad too.

“Tyler I talked to Emma,” Tyler looked towards his Captain, “And she hates it here. She misses you and her old job and everything.”

Tyler smiled, “I already knew that Jamie, I could hear it in her voice whenever she would talk about it.”

Jamie laughed, “Of course you did.”

Tyler and Jamie walked out of the TD Garden together, towards the bus that would take them back to the their hotel, neither of them feeling very up for drinking and partying that night.

They were talking about the game and strategies for the next game when Tyler could smell her vanilla perfume. And he didn’t know if he was just imagining it or not, like maybe he was missing her so much that he wished her into existence.

So when Tyler heard her say, “Hey Dallas,” he didn’t know if it was real or not. Not until Jamie turned around, and stared, Tyler turned around too.

And there she was.

Standing in front of him.

Her hair was shorter than the last time he had seen her, before she slipped out of his bed and moved to Boston and she had a scarf wrapped around her neck, a scarf that he had given her at one point in their short relationship.

Tyler smiled, “Hey Boston.”

Notes

A little scrappy, and I know that I need to update more often, but I hope you like

xoxo