Make You Miss Me

Chapter 3

Lily was almost finished going through and responding to all of her unread emails when her phone vibrated on her desk, interrupting her train of thought for the second time that morning.

Glancing over quickly, she saw that it was an Instagram notification.

tseguin92 liked your photo!

She picked up her phone, swiping it open. She laughed when she saw which picture he liked. He was definitely creeping. It was a picture from a few months back when her and her best friend went to Santorini for a week. Clicking on his username, she went to his profile to peruse. She scrolled down a few times, finding a picture also from a few months back, and double tapped. She could be a creep too, she thought.

Turning her attention back to her work, the phone vibrated a second time…then a third, fourth, fifth and sixth time. She tried to ignore it and go about her work, but she realized she was having a hard time properly focusing after the third or fourth time she reread the same line of the email on her screen. Sighing with a huff, she took her fingers off the keyboard and leaned back in her chair and picked up her phone.

@tseguin92 sent you a message: Hey

iMessage: Jason Demers sent an image

iMessage: Jason Demers

iMessage: Jason Demers

iMessage: Jason Demers

iMessage: Jason Demers

Lily groaned, knowing exactly what was waiting for her in her Messages. Swiping the screen to unlock her phone, she opened up Instagram first and replied to Tyler’s message.

@lilforbes: Hi :)

Pressing her home button and opening up her Messages app, she braced herself for Jason’s barrage of texts.

Jason’s first message was a screen capture of his Instagram “Following” news feed, showing that her and Tyler had followed each other.

Jason: EXPLAIN YOURSELF LILIAN

Jason: WHAT THE FUCK

Jason: NO HOCKEY PLAYERS

Jason: I’M TELLING JACKSON. HE’S GOING TO KILL YOU. OR ME. FUCK HE’S GOING TO KILL ME. STOP IGNORING ME WOMAN!!!

Lily couldn’t help but laugh and roll her eyes are her friend. Why was everyone making such a big deal out of this!

Lily: YOU ARE BEING RIDICULOUS, J A S O N

She put her phone down and got back to work – until her phone buzzed again. Fully expecting it to be another all-caps message from Jason, she was surprised to see it was another Instagram message from Tyler.

@tseguin92: How’s your day going?

Lily giggled, amused that Tyler Seguin was attempting to start a conversation with her. She most certainly didn’t have time to entertain it, but she replied nonetheless.

__

Tyler lay patiently in his hotel bed, phone held above his face, waiting for her reply. He couldn’t decide if starting a conversation by asking about her day was super lame, super smooth, or super stupid. Much to his delight though, she replied almost immediately.

@lilforbes: Busy, busy, as usual. How’s yours?

@tseguin92: Dems came into my room and tried to tear me a new one, but other than that, I managed to get a pretty girl to accept my creep request, so I guess my day’s looking up alrea –

Tyler paused before hitting send. Was that too forward? Was that douchey and presumptuous? You’re such an idiot. You’ve used these lines on girls a thousand times. Get your head in the gam—annnnnd that’s what Dems was talking about.

Tyler frowned and hit backspace on his initial message, wracking his brain for some kind of substantial response.

@tseguin92: Dems tore me a new one after he saw that we followed each other on IG, said I was stalking you. Hope you don’t think I’m a total creep now :P

@lilforbes: Not a total creep, maybe just like a 70% creep after you liked a picture that was posted MONTHS ago lol!

@tseguin92: Could say the same for you too!

@lilforbes: I’ve got a PHD in creeping, Tyler.

Tyler burst out laughing. What the hell was Dems talking about – she seemed totally normal and thankfully didn’t think he was a complete loser after the previous night.

They texted back and forth for a while longer. He told her they were going to that Mexican place that she had apparently recommended and she proceeded to tell him everything he absolutely had to try on their menu “You will LITERALLY DIE after eating their guac. It’s THAT amazing. Not actually die but like food-die…y’know?” She was cute, funny, incredibly witty and smart. Tyler was smitten all but twenty minutes into texting the girl.

He would be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed when she ended their conversation because she had to get back to work. He would have gladly skipped lunch and dinner and maybe even sleeping just to talk to her some more. He wished her a good rest of her day, and got a quick “you too!” reply.

Sighing, he put his phone down on the bed beside him and stared up at the ceiling. She really was busy, just like Jason said. This girl lived a life that was way beyond anything he could ever comprehend.

Jason was right about her not being like any of the girls that ‘guys like them’ gravitated towards. She was hot, yeah, but she also had substance. She had a life – a real one - not one that revolved around being associated with someone famous, or to reap financial benefits of being with someone who was a millionaire—no, she didn’t need any of that. Hell, she probably had more reason to worry about someone wanting her for those reasons than he did.

He was about to pull up her Instagram profile again when a knock sounded at his door followed by Jordie hollering from the other side, “Pitter patter, Seggy! Mucho tacos are waiting for us!”

Tyler rolled his eyes while shouting an acknowledgement to his teammate. He quickly changed out of his hoody and shorts into a pair of jeans and a black v-neck. Grabbing his wallet and cellphone, he made his way out of his room to meet up with the rest of the guys.

They took a couple of cabs to the Mexican place. It looked a little dive-y, but the boys were thankful that they were the only ones in there.

Once they were seated, Cody spoke up, “Dems, you sure this is what your hot friend was talking about? Hottie had on Christians – doubt this is the kind of place a girl like that would eat at.”

Jason stared down into his menu and inhaled deeply through his nose to avoid losing his shit at the ginger. He was regretting bringing Lily around more and more with every passing second.

He was about to open his mouth and teach Cody a lesson on talking about women when Tyler interjected.

“Uh, Ginger McGingerson, her name is Lily and yeah, this is the kind of place a girl like that would eat at.”

Jason raised his eyebrows across the table at Tyler, who took the words right out of his mouth.

Cody giggled and elbowed Jordie, gesturing towards Tyler, “Seggy talks to the girl for eight seconds and all of a sudden he thinks he knows her! Good one, Seggy!”

Tyler’s brow knitted together and he pursed his lips, debating whether or not to spill the beans about actually talking to her earlier that day. He decided against it when he saw the death stare Jason was giving him across the table and conceded while frick and frack snickered away at him.

Barring that moment, the rest of the lunch went well. The boys stuffed themselves full of food and took goofy pictures of each other and posted it on social media, naturally.

As instructed, Tyler made sure to order the guac that Lily said was to die for. He took a picture of the scraped out bowl and posted it to Instagram with the caption “I food died #bestguacever”. Almost immediately after posting, he got the notification of a thousand likes and fan girl comments, none of which were what he was actually waiting for.

Finally later than evening, as he lay on his hotel bed flipping through channels on the TV, his phone vibrated twice. He quickly picked it up and brought the phone to his face.

@lilforbes liked your photo!

@lilforbes commented: TOLD YOU! :D

Swiping his screen open, he commented back immediately.

@tseguin92: @lilforbes I may or may not have ordered seconds. And or thirds.

Much to his surprise, he got a notification right away.

@lilforbes: Haha no judgement. When’s your food baby due?

Tyler laughed out loud and started typing back a response.

@tseguin92: @lilforbes any day now, I’m sure. I’ll name her after you since this food baby is all your doing.

@lilforbes: I will take full parental responsibility. Let me know where to send the child support cheques :P

Tyler burst out laughing again. This girl was something else. He got a notification of another comment and quickly refreshed the screen, waiting for something from her to come up, except it wasn’t from her - it was from Jason.

@jason_demers: @tseguin92 @lilforbes stop talking to each other. Like right now. Thx xoxo

Tyler was about to send a comment back to Demers telling him to mind his own business when another notification popped up. Much to his amusement, it was from Lily.

@lilforbes: @jason_demers mind ya bizniss, just miiiind ya biznissss

Tyler burst out laughing. Did this girl seriously just quote Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?

He pulled up his direct message chat with Lily and sent her a message.

@tseguin92: BEST. REPLY. EVER.

@lilforbes: haha Jase and I used to watch Fresh Prince re-runs for hours. I remember one time in college, I’m pretty sure every message we sent each other was first replied to using that line no matter what the context lol

@tseguin92: that’s hilarious!

Tyler hit send before realizing that that was the lamest reply on earth and kicked himself for basically ending the conversation. He wracked his brain for something cool to say, panicking with every second of radio silence that passed. After what felt like an hour, but was really maybe 30 seconds, he started typing.

@tseguin92: For real though, I hope I haven’t caused you too much trouble by adding you and messaging you.

WOW, YOU’RE A LOSER, Tyler chastised himself.

When she didn’t reply immediately, Tyler’s brain started rapid-firing. Maybe she did consider the conversation dead and put her phone away and thinks he’s totally lame and never wants to speak to him again? No, maybe she’s out with friends and isn’t being antisocial by being glued to her phone? WAIT. What if she’s on a date. With a guy. What if she’s on a date with a guy. WHAT IF SHE’S ON A DATE WITH GUY?! Tyler’s brain screamed at him. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and reigned himself in. Jeeeesus Christ, Seguin. She’s just another girl. Chill. The fuck. OUT.

__



Lily looked around the floor of her room - three large suitcases open and completely full despite her feeling certain that she was forgetting something. Her flight out to South Dakota was originally scheduled for the afternoon was rescheduled to a very early morning departure to fit in a last minute meeting – South Dakota being the first stop on a nearly two week tour. Providing that everything in South Dakota went according to plan, her travels would then take her to Wyoming, down to Colorado and over to New York for a few days before heading overseas to the UK for more meetings.

She grabbed her work phone off the end table and pulled up her flight itinerary for the next morning. Their family pilot had emailed her to reconfirm her breakfast catering order for the private flight. Sighing, she rolled her eyes, before sending a quick reply acknowledging that it would be fine. If it were up to her, she’d be completely fine with grabbing a coffee from Starbucks on the drive to the airport and calling it breakfast but evidently spending hundreds of dollars on champagne, freshly squeezed orange juice, sliced fruit and bagels and muffins was absolutely necessary.

Wanting to give her brain a break, she picked up her personal phone and opened Instagram. Tyler had posted a picture from lunch and used her words in the caption. She laughed out loud and typed a quick comment. Jason was quick to interject, trying his best to prevent any and all interactions. She replied back with an inside joke between her and Jason which prompted Tyler to send her a DM.

@tseguin92: BEST. REPLY. EVER.

@lilforbes: haha Jase and I used to watch Fresh Prince re-runs for hours. I remember one time in college, I’m pretty sure every message we sent each other was first replied to using that line no matter what the context lol

@tseguin92: that’s hilarious!

She looked up from her phone when she heard a knock at her door.

“Come in!”

She smiled when her dad peeked his head into her room.

“Hi Pun’kin! How’s my girl?”

She got up and met her dad halfway where he wrapped his arms her into a big giant bear hug. Moments like these were few and far between these days. When he wasn’t jetting around striking deals with foreign businesses, he was jetting around with his wife, her step-mother, wherever she deemed was the newest hot spot and place to be seen.

“Just getting packed up for the flight tomorrow. You sure you don’t want to come with me?” She smiled up at her dad, the only way his only daughter could.

William chuckled and let go of her, “You know I would love to, but your mother—“

“--STEP mother” she interrupted.

Lily and her step-mother, Rebecca, never saw eye-to-eye. The woman knew nothing about the industry, yet insisted she needed to know everything that was going on within the business. That and she was also a raging gold digger.

“Yes, you know your stepmother has had this trip to the Maldives planned for ages.”

Lily sighed dramatically, “Of course, how could I have forgotten the trip to the Maldives.”

“Be nice, Lillian. You really ought to get to know her one of these days. You might find that you’ve got a bit in common…”

She turned and walked towards her closet, remembering a few more items that she needed to pack, “Hmm…yeah, maybe one day. Not today, but sure, maybe one day, daddy.”

“Have you gotten a chance to look at that geological report I had Jax give you?” William asked.

She answered from inside the closet, “Not yet. Just barely caught up on work from my last trip. It’s not urgent is it? I was planning on going over it while I was in the air…”

“Nothing too pressing, but something I’d like to move forward with if you agree with it.”

She walked out of the closet with an arm full of clothes and another suitcase.

“Sounds good. I’ll let you know as soon as I look through it and we can take it from there.”

William smiled and shook his head at the heap of clothes in front of him. “It looks like you’re quite busy here – I should leave you to it.” He gave her a hug and kissed the side of her head. “Make sure you fit in a vacation for yourself after this trip, you hear me?”

“I will. I hear the Maldives is all the rage…” she winked at her dad.

“Cheeky monkey. Take Jackson with you. The boy’s been working too hard. He’s in Fort Mac almost every day.”

Lily suppressed her laughter, knowing damn well her brother wasn’t spending all his time in Fort Mac working. She knew he went often, but definitely didn’t think it was almost every day. She made a note to tuck that little bit of information away in her ammo bank for a rainy day.

“I’ll make sure to take him on vacation with me. Have a good trip. Love you”

“Love you too pun’kin.”

She continued packing, and almost an hour later, was finally able to say she was done. It was only 9pm, but she got herself ready for bed – her alarm was set for an ungodly hour.

Once she was in bed, she grabbed her personal phone. She had been so preoccupied with packing that her phone was the furthest thing from her mind. It seemed she missed quite a few notifications as she scrolled through them on her lock screen.

Her best friend Jenna had texted, wanting to know her whereabouts and near-future plans. She regrettably informed her she was off on another trip for a couple of weeks but promised a get-together immediately upon her return. Fortunately, Jenna owned a pretty successful bakery in Calgary and was quite the busy body herself, so Lily didn’t feel too bad about her own lack of availability. She made a mental note to ask Jenna about her availability for a little vacation sometime.

She opened Instagram and saw that Tyler had sent her another message.

@tseguin92: For real though, I hope I haven’t caused you too much trouble by adding you and messaging you.

She smiled – she could only imagine the gears that Jase had been putting him through for adding her.

@lilforbes: Lol it’s all good. Sorry Jason’s been ridiculous about it. My brother’s a pretty big dude and has put the fear of God into Jase, so he’s become pretty protective. Don’t take it personal :)

@tseguin92: Trust me, Dems has been VERY clear about the size of your brother. What did you brother do to him??

@lilforbes: I honestly have no idea – neither will tell me! I mean, I’m certain it wasn’t anything physical, but with Jackson, he usually only has to tell someone something once. Deep down, he’s an absolute teddy bear though, I swear!

@tseguin92: Can’t wait to meet him ;)

Lily smiled and shook her head at his response.

@lilforbes: You’re pretty confident there. What makes you think you’re gonna get the chance to meet my brother?

@tseguin92: I’m pretty irresistible, which you’ll probably notice pretty soon if you haven’t already.

She laughed out loud. She was about to reply but he sent a second message.

@tseguin92: That came out so cocky. I’m not very good at this.

@lilforbes: Lol don’t worry, I didn’t read it as you being cocky. But what exactly is it you aren’t very good at? It can’t be talking to girls, because from personal experience, I’m pretty sure that is something you excel at :P

@tseguin92: Ha ha, you’re hilarious. I don’t usually sound like this much of an idiot when I talk to girls, I swear. I’m not used to talking to girls who don’t care who I am. You kinda make me nervous.

Lily scrunched her nose. The conversation took a very unexpected turn. She didn’t know how to respond. She wasn’t sure if he was joking or being serious. She wasn’t oblivious; the effort he’s put in to communicating with her – she knew he was interested in her. Was she interested in him? Maybe a little intrigued if she was honest. She didn’t want the conversation to take a too serious tone. They had, after all, only been chatting for a day, so she tried to lighten it up a bit.

@lilforbes: I have that effect on men haha jk I can only imagine the types of girls that throw themselves at you on a daily basis. I mean, girls throw themselves at Jase left, right and center, which I’ll never understand, but that’s a conversation for another day, lol.

@tseguin92: lol yeah, Dems thinks he’s such a babe magnet. Hey, you’re leaving tomorrow, right?

Lily was surprised by his question. How did he know she had a flight out the next day? Then she remembered their brief conversation at the bar the other night – he had asked if she was going to the game and she told him she had a flight out. Maybe he wasn’t that drunk after all…

@lilforbes: I do! It was supposed to be in the afternoon but something came up with a client so we had to move some visits up to squeeze in a meeting – anyways, long story short, I’ve got my alarm set for 4am and a plane to be on at 5:15.

@tseguin92: Oh man, that’s brutal! At least you get to make the trip in a Learjet!

@lilforbes: It’s definitely not the worst thing to happen :) I should get to bed though. I don’t want to scare my pilots by showing up looking like a bridge troll tomorrow morning lol

@tseguin92: Pretty sure that’s not possible, but you should definitely get some sleep! Sorry to keep you up so late!

His low-key compliment did not go unnoticed, but she definitely didn’t make a point of acknowledging it.

@lilforbes: Have a good night, Tyler.

@lilforbes: Score some goals tomorrow!

@tseguin92: yes ma’am! I’ll score three for ya.

She replied with a thumbs up emoji and set her phone on the nightstand to charge.

She sighed and closed her eyes. What was she getting herself into…

Notes

OMFG I'm so sorry this update has taken me like 8 years to post. I've had it half written for nearly a year but just got the motivation to finish it a few weeks ago (thank you to biosteel camp instagram updates. unfitty unf unfffffff!). I'm not going to make any promises on when I'll be able to post again, but I will try not to take a million years to do it this time. Thanks for sticking around!

xoxo