Let Her Go

He had watched as she had walked in, his eyes following her as she took a seat at an empty bar stool, within feet from his grasp.

Her dark brown hair fell just below her shoulder, which was covered by her brown leather jacket. With her drink in hand, she talked intensely to the blonde beside her, someone he recognized as Emma, from the Bruins’ PR office.

He was sure that she would’ve told Emma everything about his abrupt leave, and if he were to have any shot at saying hello, he would have to get her alone.

He watched her for the next twenty minutes, emptying her glass and calling over to the bartender for a new one. He missed her, he felt now as he watched her take a sip from her new drink, her eyes dashing between the straw that was against her lips, and her best friend beside her.

He grabbed the bottle in front of him by its neck pressing the top of it to his lips.

“Dude, you okay?”

He looked over to his new teammates who all seemed to have their eyes on him, making him wonder how long he had been staring at her.

“If you’re gonna keep staring, you should probably go talk to her.”

Tyler shook his head, taking another sip of his drink.

“I’m good,” was all he said simply.

If only they had known what their history entailed, and she wasn’t just another girl he’d be picking up at the bar.

He tried to join in on the conversation that he had missed, while he was watching her, but he could only focus on her, and the fact that she was within arms reach of him. His eyes left the table of his team one more time to just look at her again, before he needed to leave. It was getting late, and he knew he had an early practice the next morning.

There she sat, at the barstool she was occupying, also noticing that he needed another drink.

He nudged his teammate Jamie Benn beside him, “I’ll be right back.”

Jamie watched as Tyler got up and left, noting the he was walking in the direction of the girl that he had been watching.

He could feel his palms getting sweaty, and his stomach tying in knots.

He cleared his throat once, hoping by some chance she’d turn around and all the words he’d been hoping to find would just come to him.

“Riley?” he breathed.

She turned to face him, her penetrating icy blue eyes slicing through stomach like a knife. He had forgotten how beautiful she was, having not seen her in nearly eight months.

Her eyes went wide, as she stood taking a moment to regain her balance having had at least four drinks in the two hours she had been there.

She said nothing though, her fist clenching in anger, but her face remaining soft as she studied his face, and the muscle that hid beneath his shirt.

There standing in front of her was the man who had abandoned her. It was awkward and the tension so thick it could’ve been cut with a knife, but there he was goofy grin and all.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, grabbing her purse that sat on the barstool beside her; she turned on her heel heading for the door.

“Riley wait!”

Tyler threw down his empty beer bottle, hoping that by some chance she wouldn’t already have a cab waiting for her outside.

“Wait?” She yelled, turning to face him. “I already waited for you! I waited for two fucking months straight for you. For two months, hoping by some chance that you’d come back to me. I can’t fucking wait for you anymore Tyler.”

She was nearing tears now, as the blood from beneath her coiled up making her want to explode like a balloon.

He stopped in his tracks, watching tears slip from her icy blue eyes. He didn’t think that them running into each other would turn out in the way that it did. In his mind, he thought she’d wrap her arms around him, and then he’d take her back to his apartment, and they’d spend the rest of the night catching up.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

She shook her head as the tears continued to fall. “No you’re not,” she whispered.

If he didn’t feel bad enough about having to leave her, she was making him feel ten times worse.

“Will you please let me explain?” He asked, his voice rising.

“Explain what, exactly?! You left me Tyler. You left when you promised, you wouldn’t. There is nothing left to explain!”

He took a deep breath, his fist clenching.

He stayed silent, just watching her cry in front of him. There was nothing more he wanted to do than to wrap his arms around her and hug her tight against his chest. He wanted to be the one she cried on, and not the reason why she was crying.

“Riley?”

They had both focused their attention to the voice that had called her name, catching nearly half of his old teammates walking towards them.

He ran to the front of the crowd, noticing her with tearstains lined down her cheeks.

“Baby, what’s wrong?”

Reilly wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, as she lent her head against the fabric of his suit.

“Can we just go?” She whispered.

Tyler’s jaw clenched, and his stomach tied in knots watching her wrap her arms around someone that wasn’t him.

“Reilly Smith?” He laughed, causing their attention to focus back on him. “You’re joking right?”

Riley could feel the body she was holding on to tense, with the words that flowed out of Tyler’s mouth.

Normally Tyler wouldn’t be one to pick a fight, but it was something about watching the way she was wrapped another man that irked him, or it was the beer that he had been drinking previously.

“Reilly, it’s not even worth it,” she whispered hoping by some chance that he would let all of Tyler’s chirping go.

Reilly kissed the top of his girlfriend’s head, before walking away from her.

“Listen, Seguin. Leave it for the game.”

Tyler’s eyes narrowed, watching as Reilly wrapped his arms around the girl he once used call his.