Stay a Little Longer

As we arrived to Navy Pier, I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the sight. I’ve been here hundreds of times, and it never once gets old. We hopped out of the car and Patrick handed his keys over to valet. He then came around to my side and latched onto my arm, making me smile. “Are you ready for… the Ferris Wheel?” Patrick asked with a grin.

“You know I am, let’s go!” I giggled, tugging on his arm. We made our way out to the wheel and Patrick led me up to the little gondola thing, letting me step in first. “What a gentleman,” I teased, earning myself a smack of his hand on my ass.

“Oh hush,” I heard the smirk in his voice, and I rolled my eyes. Once he was in the gondola, he signaled to the ride operator that we were ready for the ride. As the wheel started turning, very slowly might I add, I felt the light breeze blow through my hair. “So, there is something that I wanted to ask you, and I know it might be a touchy subject, but I want to know,” he asked.

I knew this was coming, but he deserves to know about Tyler and why everyone is so gung-ho about me not getting involved with another hockey player. “You want to know about Tyler, don’t you?” I asked.

“Yeah, if it isn’t too much. I just want to know why dating a hockey player is so bad, like what happened to make you think this way?”

“Well, it’s a good thing this wheel doesn’t spin so fast, it’s a long story,” I braced myself to tell the story. “Well, I guess I should start from the beginning, shouldn’t I?” I nervously giggled.

“Are you sure? If it makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to, I’d understand.”

“Nah, I’d have to tell you sooner or later, of course you could always Google it. God knows that several people have jumped on that train,” I rolled my eyes. “I’d rather just do it now.” He nodded to me and I began the story.

Dallas, TX. Summer 2015
“I was down in Dallas for the summer, working with the Baylor Medical Systems and getting experience in my major’s field when I met Tyler Seguin. It was May, and I was new to the area, and wasn’t leaving till mid August. Well, he had come into my Dallas office and needed help with his workout regiment and also to do some light rehab for his quads. Apparently he slightly tore a muscle while working out, and wanted to know how to make it heal in the best way possible.

Me being me and having a thing for hot guys gladly took on his case. From the get –go, he was super nice and such a sweet talker. I thought I had struck gold with that one. After the first session was over, he had asked me out, just as friends. I accepted and then went from there. Date one turned into date two, and next thing you know I was in bed with him. He knew all the right things to say to keep me happy, and even more so how to get me to stay in his bed.

About a month into our relationship, he asked me to be his girlfriend, and I was over the moon happy about it, so obviously I said yes, and continued to live in fantasy land. A few weeks later, he had to go back to Canada for a week to do some promo things, and I got sick. One day I felt so bad that I called into work and stayed over at his place since I was watching the dogs. Around the afternoon of the day I called in sick, I heard a knock on the door and got up to see who it was.

As I approached the door, I used the peephole to find a puck bunny on the other side of the door. Nervously I opened the door and asked the girl who she was. She told me she was Tyler’s one o’clock and if he wanted her to go to the usual room. I was baffled about what I had just heard and slammed the door in her face, locking up behind me.

I texted Tyler telling him his one o’clock puck slut showed up. He responded that he didn’t have one and the last time he did was before he had met me and he had told the girl to never show up again. Me being naïve, believed him and forgave him instantly, apologizing for being a crazy girlfriend.

The following week, Tyler returned and things felt normal again, until one day a few weeks later. He was going out and coming back at ungodly hours of the night, and I figured he was just out with his buddies and what not.

But, one day, I was at his house doing some light cleaning and found something that I knew was bad. I had found one of his nice dress shirts wadded up in the corner on his bedroom floor, and it had red wine stains and hideous Barbie pink lipstick marks all over it, and it reeked of cheap perfume. Now, Tyler isn’t the one to drink red wine he’d prefer whiskey or beer, and I wasn’t a huge fan of red wine, so I could only imagine how the stains had gotten on his shirt.

I remember just standing there, holding the shirt in my hands, wondering why he would do something like this to me. Finding the shirt had only confirmed my suspicions that he was hiding something from me, so I figured I’d take to the Internet. I had taken a picture of the shirt and posted it on all my social media platforms with the caption, ‘anyone know the best way to get rid of the smell of cheap perfume, cheap wine stains, and even cheaper Barbie pink lipstick?’

I just remember being so furious, he could have at least tried to hid it better, or better yet, burned the damn thing. But no, Tyler being Tyler just played it off as I don’t remember being the one to leave the stains on his shirt because that was the night I got super drunk with him at a charity function. Bull shit. As we were fighting about it, he stopped and started apologizing saying that he’d never do it again, and then he told me he loved me. Now, I don’t know what made me so incredibly stupid, but I believed him and forgave him for being a dick.

We were happy again, or at least that’s what I kept telling myself. A few more weeks passed by and now it was nearing mid July and I had managed to keep myself sane, telling myself that he loved me and he wouldn’t ever cheat on me again, boy was I stupid. After a long day at work, I went back to Tyler’s for dinner that he had promised to make me, and found a mystery car in his driveway.

As I approached the front door, I heard noises coming from inside the house. I should have turned around at that point, but no, stupid me walked in and found my boyfriend who claimed he loved me, balls deep into some skank with another one waiting for him on the other couch. I made eye contact with him and the tears started welling up, but I didn’t dare let them fall. In that moment, I realized just how stupid I was to believe all the lies he had told me, and what was even worse was I smelt the god awful perfume scent that was on his shirt about a month back wafting around the room, a scent that was etched into my brain. To make matters worse, not once did Tyler stop fucking the whore to explain himself. He just kept going and told me to get out and we’d talk later.

I walked out the front and slammed the door shut, hopped in my car and drove back to my apartment in the city. About two hours later, Tyler had barreled through the door. We got into a screaming match and he tried to pull the I love you card again, but only this time I didn’t fall for his bullshit. I quickly gathered up his things, and threw them in a box, shoving them in his face and told him to get out and that we were done. I guess his form of retaliation was to tell me just how many times he had cheated on me and how often he had girls come over while I was at work. He also told me he never meant to do it, it just happened. I remember rolling my eyes at him and telling him to go to Hell, then shoving him out the door.

I was such a mess after that whole fiasco that I cut my time in Dallas short and went to visit my aunt and uncle in Chicago, since my parents were jetting off to Turks and Caicos. When I got up to their house, my aunt and cousins wanted me to explain everything, so I told them everything, all the dirty details, and left nothing untold. Uncle Joel was furious and I thought he was going to fly down to Dallas and kill Tyler himself, but I reassured him that it was not the answer. The rest of my time in Chicago that summer was getting shit faced, and even getting arrested with Lindsey Vecchione, which didn’t go over well with my uncle or Jon for that matter, but I was heartbroken and just needed to let loose.

After my parents found out what happened, they said no more to hockey players and told me to just focus on school, so for the past year, that is what I did. I wasn’t going to let what Tyler did dictate how I continued to live my life, and I put all my energy into other things and eventually got over it. I’m fine now, but I guess a part of me will always be skeptical of everything, especially guys with reputations,” I finished off. Whew. It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I could breath again. Not a lot of people knew my story, the knew of it and had their own interpretations of it, but being able to tell it from my perspective and how I remembered it was satisfying.

“Wow. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I mean, I knew Seguin was a player, but he seemed like the guy to have some decency when it came to those he was close with,” Patrick said dumbfounded.

“One would think.”

“I can tell you this, I promise to never ever do that to you. I may have a reputation, but I’m not looking to uphold it. You are amazing and I wouldn’t do anything to fuck that up,” he smiled sincerely.

“I believe you. But enough talk about skeletons and baggage, let’s just enjoy the night.”

Notes

im so sorry about how long its taking me to update, i just started a new job and it has consumed my life. i will update as often as possible for this story! i hope you all liked learning about what tyler did and why nichole has hockey player trust issues!

Dirty Laundry - Carrie Underwood