Give Into Me.

Everyone in the office on Monday is dragging from Sunday night's game and I spend 2/3 of my day in the office kitchen refilling my coffee cup to keep my eyelids from drooping shut. The other 1/3 is spent coordinating DCC appearances across Texas, the end of season USO trip, and attending our weekly staff meeting. Why they chose to have it the day after the SNF game is beyond me but we all persevere and thankfully no one falls asleep. At lunch Tyler had texted me the address of the restaurant we were meeting at and it was 30 minutes away without traffic, knowing Dallas like the back of my hand I knew I was going to be late. But I didn’t tell him that, I figured I'd make him sweat a little bit.

Clocking out at a little past 5:30 I had 30 minutes until our reservation, I had no time to change so Tyler is lucky I actually tried for work today. Working in a mainly all female office means we push the 'business' dress code all day every day. Jumping in my Jeep I plug in my iPhone and let the GPS lead me to the restaurant, the traffic isn't horrible yet but It's still 6:10 by the time I pull into the parking lot. Tyler hasn’t texted me yet but I know he's inside, pulling my mirror down I touch up my makeup spray on a little perfume before hopping down and slinging my bag over my shoulder.

"Can I help you, miss?" The cheery hostess asks as I step into the dimly lit restaurant and I flash her a smile only a cheerleader would use, extra wide and definitely fake.

"Yes, my uhh date? Is probably already seated, last name is Seguin." Her face instantly changes from happy to pissed as she scowls and gives me a once over again, clearly she's probably one of his 'puck bunnies' as Hannah would say.

"Mr. Seguin is right this way," The girl turns and I follow her to the back finding Tyler sitting there staring at his phone. He looks up after hearing the clicks of my heels a dopey grin panning out over his face.

"Thank you," I say through the large fake grin on my face to which she nods walking away with a dirty look on her face as Tyler rises from his seat.

"Hey, you look beautiful." He pulls me in hugging me lightly, his cologne flooding my nose and my God does it smell heavenly.

"Thank you, sorry I'm late." I'm really not but that's the polite thing to say, right?

"It's fine, busy day?" Tyler asks pulling out my chair and pushing it in for me once I've sat down.

"Always is on Monday's, not to mention we're all exhausted. Did you have practice today?" He nods as our server comes over offering me wine which I gladly accept needing fuel to get this night going.

Tyler takes a sip of his glass of beer before answering my question, "Yeah, it was this morning. We never really practice at night, I guess that's the best part of my job."

"Having the night off is the best part of being a professional hockey player?" I question and he smiles over at me, that damn smile is slowly starting to get to me.

"There are other things, but it's not all sunshine and daisies. But I guess you probably know that too, Miss professional cheerleader?"

"Ex-professional cheerleader, or I guess you could just say washed up since I coach now. Y'know what they say that those who can't do, coach." We both laugh as server returns taking our orders.

"Can I ask you something?" Tyler asks catching my attention, this is never a good statement.

"Sure," I say fearfully.

"You're not like allergic to seafood are you?"

"What? No? Why?" What an odd question.

"I just wanted to make sure, I mean I love this place that's why I picked it but Jamie was all worried you'd be allergic to seafood." Aww, he was worried.

"Oh, well no I'm not. I'll eat anything, except for bacon."

"Allergic?" I shake my head no, is that even a thing being allergic to bacon?

"So you just don't like it? What kind of person doesn't like bacon!" He's past the embarrassment and moved on to making fun of me again.

"Let me ask you something, you're an athlete, do you eat it?" I counter and Tyler shakes his head,

"There's your answer, elite cheerleaders eat very lean and I've always been tight with my diet. Until I turned 21, alcohol screwed with it a little." I shyly admit knowing it makes me sound like a partier or an alcoholic.

"Sounds like somebody's a party girl?" He mocks with a smirk and I shrug a smirk playing across my lips, "Google says you are too, Boston looks like a fun city I may have to go visit." Tyler's face goes blank for a second, yes I had Googled him at work, I wasn’t stupid and sure he had one hell of a past but it's the past for a reason.

"Breathe, Tyler I'm just kidding. Your past is the past, I didn't believe most of what I read anyway."

"Hannah's right your sense of humor hurts," He picks up his drink and downs half of it.

"You mean my lack of? Pretty sure I'm the only one that thinks I'm funny. Me and my dogs maybe." Saying the word dogs leads us into a comfortable conversation about our families, and most importantly our pets. The chocolate lab I had seen on Tyler's phone I found out to be named Marshall and he shows me another photo of his newer black lab, Cash. I may not want to play with their owner but I sure as hell want to play with those dogs!! I show him a picture of my two dogs that live with my parents, Jude a border collie and Moe who is an Australian Shepard. Boy do I miss those dogs!

"Do you have any siblings?" Tyler asks after telling a story of his two younger sisters, Candace and Cassidy.

"I have a little brother, well he's not so little anymore I guess he's 20. His name is Asher, he plays baseball at UT."

"Is that Hebrew too? You both have odd names."

"It is, Ben and Shayla picked the randomest names for their spawn."

Our food shows up and the whole time we're eating I keep finding myself staring at Tyler. He's hot, and he knows it, every girl in the city knows it, and every female hockey fan probably knows it too. So what in the hell does he want with a maroon headed, public relations worker, that has a crazy family, and a serious case of resting bitch face?

"You know, staring is considered rude in some cultures." Tyler chirps and I can feel my face turn the same shade as my hair.

"Sorry, I'm just thinking." He puts his fork down his brown eyes piercing my blue green ones.

"About what? My face," He grins and I can't help but think that I kind of am, but I am not willing to admit that.

"No, what are you getting at here, Tyler? Why are you trying so hard with me?" I can hear all of the air leave Tyler's lungs from across the table, he swallows and I watch his Adam's apple bob as he leans his tattooed forearms on the tabletop.

"What makes you think I'm trying?"

"You stalked my place of work, bribed me to get my number, you were concerned about my allergies need I go on?"

"Maybe I do that for everyone?"

"Bullshit, Tyler. What do you want from me? I'm not a puck rabbit, or bunny or whatever I barely understand your job so why me?" He can't hold in his laughter and it ruins my serious moment but nonetheless he comes right back.

"I know you're not, and that's a good thing. I want you to talk to me and treat me like some random guy from the bar, not Tyler Seguin the hockey player. That's why I like you Adleigh you do not give a single shit about my job."

"I sense a but coming along.."

"But.. You're a hardass and won't let me in. You keep pushing and you know what?" Tyler stops like I need to ask 'what'.

"Humor me, Seguin. What don't I know about you?"

" A lot. For one, you don't know that I like a challenge, and I'm not going to back down from you. I'll make you see who I really am, and I think you're going to like it."

"Cocky much?" He shrugs his perfectly sculpted shoulders leaning back in his chair, smirk pulled across his lips.

"I prefer the term confident, but to each their own." The boy across from me sasses and I give him props for his sass game, it's almost as strong as mine. Leaning back in my chair I gross my arms over my chest staring at the handsome devil across from me. It's becoming clear to me that we may be cut from the same cloth, and frankly that terrifies me.

You can't fight fire with fire, meaning one of us is going to crash and burn.

"You wear a lot of blue, Adleigh." Tyler randomly points out breaking our awkward silence and I look down at my cobalt blue maxi skirt, it's no lie that half of my closet is blue. From Cheer Athletics to the Cowboys I do tend to gravitate towards that hue, with splashes of longhorn orange in between.

"Random assessment, but yes I do. Thanks for pointing it out, Ty."

"No problem, Ads. So where does this leave us?" I ponder his question for a minute, as of right now I have no romantic interest in Tyler Seguin, sure he's hot and deep inside there is a heart but he's still exuding that fuckboy vibe and I'm not really into that anymore.

"I think for now we can be friends, since you're so hell bent on cracking me."

"Good, and just so you know I'm pretty good at getting what I want." I roll my eyes, typical egotistical statement there Seguin.

"Ha, and just so you know? I'm pretty good at saying no and running away from my problems." I sass back just as our server returns with the paid check. I stand grabbing my bag while noticing that even in heels I am still a good 3 inches or more shorter than Tyler, "Thanks for dinner, buddy." I chirp tapping Tyler's bicep as we exit the building headed for the parking lot.

"Anytime, pal. Wow, nice Jeep." Tyler stops full on staring at my baby, being the daughter of the owner of one of Texas' largest car dealerships and custom automotive building businesses has its perks.

I unlock the doors causing the lights to go off, "Thank you, it's no Ferrari but this is Texas not LA." I raise my eyebrows knowing that Tyler had a Ferrari, Maserati, and a Range Rover among other vehicles scattered across North America.

"Very funny, Reichman. FYI I'm getting a Jeep, built by your dad actually. That's why your last name sounded so familiar."

"Best in Texas 10 years running, I designed this bad boy myself actually, happy graduation to me!" We both laugh and I fling open the driver's side door starting the engine and turning on the headlights and KC's.

"I'll see you around, Seguin." I wave before climbing up into the seat as Tyler shuts my door, he stands there with his hands in his pockets as I drive away and frankly I'd kill to know what was going through pretty boy's mind.

When I return home I notice that Hannah is out with her boyfriend Lucas, they've been together for almost a year and I'm still not sold on him. He's a nice kid on the outside, a Physical Therapy student, which is of course points with her parents but he's just not 'it' for my best friend. Besides he's made her cry more times than I can count which does not settle well with me, I'm very protective of Hannah and Lucas pushes my buttons.

I spend the rest of my evening working on some DCC appearance requests and reshaping a Twitter account of one of the rookies, some of these girls need to be rebranded all together and luckily for me that falls under my job description. I fall asleep to the soothing voice of Ed Sheeran with my MacBook by my side, unfortunately the boy I had dinner with follows me into my dreams and I can't shake him all night long.