Our Town

Emma had been staring at the baseball since Katherine had dropped her back off at her apartment, she knew she had to put it away once her roommates came home, for fear of prying eyes, but she couldn't stop looking at it. Emma felt as if the ball might just turn into "coffee guy" himself if she stared at it hard enough.

She knew it was weird but it seemed as if she had a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. One was saying call him, you know you want to and the other was saying that she was too unattractive and weird to even be touching something someone so attractive had held in his hands.

You don't even know his name, the devil said, grinning with a pitchfork in his right hand, Well you know his name, who in Dallas doesn't, but you don't want him to know that.

Perfect excuse to call him and get to know him, show him you aren't like the rest, the angel said, staring the devil down.

"What the fuck am I doing? I'm imaging conversations with figments of my imagination." Emma took the ball, still sitting on the kitchen island and started to roll it around. Eventually she started to shake it, like a magic eight ball. Of course she didn't get any answer except either she doesn't call him or she does.

Well that was helpful, Emma thought before putting the ball back on the table. Eventually she gave up and walked back to her room, not caring if her roommates saw it, maybe they could even help her make the decision. Of course when they found out "coffee guy" was Tyler Seguin they would probably take the ball and call him themselves

Emma thought the best thing to do to get her mind off such a silly subject was to take a shower, so letting the water rinse off the perspiration from earlier Emma also let the subject of the number roll right off her, that was until she stepped out of the shower and into her room to see her roommates standing near her bed with the baseball in hand.

"What the hell is this?" Carly said referring to the baseball she had in her palm.

Emma shrugged, "A baseball?" It was meant to be a statement but Emma's tone of voice made it seem like she had no clue what a baseball looked like.

Emma's other roommate Kylie spoke, "Yes we know it's a baseball Emma, we want to know who the number belongs to." At the same time both of Emma's roommates crossed their arms over their chests, eyes wide in intrigue. They wanted to know who had finally gotten Emma's attention.

"You guys won't believe me," Emma said, but nevertheless she walked over to the computer that sat on her desk by the window of her room. She tapped the mouse, pressed the keys down, and soon enough was hovering over the search button in Google, Tyler Seguin, in the search box. Both Carly and Kylie looked at each other, brows bent in confusion. Emma pressed the magnifying class near the search bar and soon enough images and news articles were showing up on her computer screen.

"No fucking way that Tyler Seguin is coffee guy Emma."

Emma just waved her hand at whichever roommate had said the statement, and went to a recent article that talked about him attending the Rangers game earlier that day. She heard gasps behind her and then her wheeling chair was scooted away from the desk and her place was taken by her friends, reading the article as if their life depended on it. Once they were finished, both the girls turned around and stared wide eyed at Emma.

"It isn't that big of a deal," Emma said picking at her nails.

"HA HA HA NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING YOU BETTER CALL HIM RIGHT NOW," Kylie said running towards Emma's phone that was sitting on her bed, as if it was waiting to be used to call Tyler. Carly tossed Kylie the baseball and she started to type the numbers in. Emma wanted to yell for Kylie to stop, that she didn't want to call him and hear all the drunk excuses for giving her that baseball.

But a different side of Emma was waiting for her roommates to call him for her, to get the process moving, to figure out why he was so interested in her.

Probably just for charity, the devil on Emma's shoulder said, she didn't remember him reappearing. Kylie put the phone up to her ear until it started to ring. Then she put the phone on speaker and walked closer to Emma, but not close enough that Emma could end the call if she just leaned in, Kylie knew better.

It rang, three times and by the fourth ring Emma was letting out a large exhale, going back and forth between being upset he wasn't going to answer, and happy that she wouldn't have to embarrass herself in front of him.

She spoke too soon.

"Hello?"

Emma could recognize the voice over the receiver, it sounded huskier on the phone than it did in person though. Kylie pushed the phone towards Emma, willing her to talk, otherwise Kylie and Carly would take the phone and start talking all about how embarrassed Emma was to talk to him, and then everything would just be ruined.

The voice repeated the greeting, "Hellooo?" Emma still couldn't find her will to say anything. She would probably end up blabbering about how weird she was and then hang up and hide herself in her room for the rest of her life. Then the voice spoke again, "Boston?"

Kylie and Carly stared wide eyed at Emma. He had used her nickname, that he had given her for some odd reason. Maybe she reminded him of home. Not that Boston was actually his home anymore but you know professional athletes never really spending much time in one place, so the city their representing becomes home eventually.

Kylie threw the phone at Emma, "Uh.." She coughed, "Hey, sorry. Bad reception." Tyler laughed, he knew it wasn't bad reception, the whole god damn world knew it wasn't bad reception.

"Hey Boston, how's it going? Did I ruin your shirt?"

Almost as if on cue, Carly and Kylie stared down at Emma, for what seemed like the eightieth time in the past fifteen minutes. Emma just shook her head, to try and convey that they didn't know the whole story, they both wiggled their eyebrows and then Carly went in search of the so called shirt.

Emma spoke, "Actually I kind of forgot about it."

"Good I'm glad, except that doesn't give me the chance to buy you a new one," Tyler said on the other line. "Which doesn't give me the excuse to ask you out."

Emma choked on her spit. The whole world had shattered. An earthquake had sounded, a tsunami crashed onto the beach, a fire took down a whole forest, a volcano erupted, all because Tyler Seguin had asked Emma, or well hinted at asking Emma out on a date. Kylie, still standing in the room, immediately ran out and squealed, telling Carly what Tyler had just said, Carly then joining in on the excitement. With them both out of the room, Emma quickly got out of her desk chair and sauntered towards the door. Shutting and locking it before going to sit on the floor near her bed. She could hear yells of protest from the behind the door, but she didn't care, she needed privacy.

"Is that so?"

Tyler hummed, "Yes actually it is, and it is very blunt eh?" Emma just laughed in return, Tyler joining in.

"Well actually on my way home, some guy smelled the beer on the shirt and made me give it to him, so I don't have a Boston University shirt anymore, all because of you," Emma said, hoping he didn't ask about her walking home naked, if she had given the shirt to a man.

Tyler chuckled, "So does that mean I get to take you out?" Emma hummed, partly from excitement of the situation folding out in front of her, but also trying to sound like she had to think about it.

"I think you might have to work a little harder, uh.."

"Tyler."

"Ah yes, well Tyler that was my favorite shirt so you might need to try a little bit harder," Emma said, hoping she wasn't pushing it too far.

"What's your last name Boston?"

Emma was confused, "Uh Blake. Why?"

"Because I'm looking you up," Tyler said, all too nonchalantly. Emma just walked over to her bedroom door and unlocked it, hoping Carly and Kylie were still standing by. They walked back into the room, Emma silently explaining what was happening, hoping they would understand. They didn't.

"Emma Blake," Tyler said, "43 Westchester, now I just need the apartment number." He said, waiting expectantly. Emma looked at her roommates, them telling her to say the numbers to the cute boy on the other line.

"19," Emma said.

"Great, see you at seven Boston."

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Tyler hung up before Emma could protest about him taking her out. If it was as friends or more Tyler honestly didn't know. The only thing he knew was that he had been waiting for her to call since the second he had given her the baseball. And each time his phone buzzed he was moving heaven and earth to find it, each time being disappointed. His frown was turned upside down fast, when he saw a Dallas area code, the number unknown.

She had seemed hesitant, and had asked for his name, which could mean a number of things.

One, she didn't watch hockey.

Two, she was pretending to not know him so he would buy her expensive things and use him

and Three, she knew who he was, she just didn't care.

Tyler hoped for the latter, but would be fine with option one. Option number two would make him leave faster than the hostess could seat them at a table, at the restaurant he was going to take her to tonight. It was casual, he had forgotten to tell her that but seeing as how she didn't wear heels and curled hair to the Rangers game, Tyler guessed she would be fine.

Now just three more hours, Tyler thought, already wracking his brain for conversation topics and what outfit he should wear. He knew he was going overboard with this whole thing. He was probably just going to fuck her and go, do the usual thing he always did. No strings, no attachments, the regular Tyler Seguin. But something in his stomach told him he would be yearning for this girl when she was the one who left him, hanging and wanting more. Something Tyler never wanted, not even with his ex-girlfriend, which is probably why she's now an ex.

Maybe she's different, Tyler thought, knowing he could probably use a change of scenery.

Tyler sighed, "I hope."

----------

Tyler hadn't told Emma if he was taking her somewhere fancy but since he hadn't told her anything, she guessed it was casual. So when the knock on the door came, Emma was wearing patterned shorts, with a long sleeved black shirt, throwing in a nice looking jacket just incase she was out of place.

Carly and Kylie had stayed home, canceling their plans just to see what Tyler looked like in person. Emma had tried to warn them they would be blown away and that they should take it in strides but nevertheless they ran towards the door, both trying to turn the handle to see the chiseled man behind the door. They put a good name to the word teamwork and opened the door, only to have their jaws drop when they saw Tyler in person.

Emma stood laughing at the situation, she had already done her ogling at the game, and seeing her roommates made her hoped she didn't look like that when she had met him. Tyler reached out his hand to each of the girls, introducing himself, neither of them making any move other than to shake the large, rough hand in front of them, not even bothering to tell him their names, he wouldn't remember anyways.

He looked away from the girls and towards Emma, to say she looked stunning wouldn't be the half of it, she looked drop dead gorgeous, the most natural gorgeous Tyler had seen in a long time. She was wearing just the perfect outfit for tonight, showing off her sexy curves that Tyler couldn't help but start to love. He nodded his head towards the door, she stood up straight and walked towards where her friends were blocking the entire doorway. She quickly separated them, trying her hardest to squeeze between the two of them.

She said her goodbyes to her friends, both of them still in their own little world, daydreaming over the man they had just mind raped. Emma just closed the door behind her before asking, "So where are we going?"

"It's a surprise." Emma knew Tyler was going to say that, what guy didn't say that on a date.

A date.

Was this even a date? Could it be classified under that? Only if there is a goodnight kiss, which Emma knew there wouldn't be. She would be surprised if he even lasted the night with boring old her. They reached her lobby, Emma waved to her doorman before exiting the building to see Tyler holding open the door for her.

And who said chivalry was dead, Emma thought to herself as she watched Tyler walk around to his side of the door. Once he was settled in his seat, he turned towards Emma, "Hi."

Emma blushed, "Hi."

The ride was a silent one, which Emma was fine with, she wasn't going to force Tyler to tell her all his secrets so she stared out the window at the lit up Dallas in front of her.

Little did she knew Tyler was watching her watch the city, hoping that one day they could be doing this same thing, going out on a date, except then he could be holding her hand, kissing her when she got out of the car and telling her just how much he loved her.

She'll wreck me, she already is, Tyler thought to himself, turning his eyes back towards the road.

Notes