Promises to Keep

"I'm sorry, Ty" Tayla smiled meekly at her depressed boyfriend.

"It's okay" Tyler murmured, sighing heavily. After a hard fought series, the Dallas Stars just fell short; losing in game seven in overtime, knocking them out of the playoffs. It was devastating for everyone, but especially hard for Tyler. He had felt an intense amount of guilt because of two bad games he had had. He knew he should have been better; he knew his team deserved better.

"Are you okay?" Tayla asked the more important question.

"I'll be okay" Tyler muttered, in no real mood to talk, but not wanting to hang up at the same time. He was back in the hotel room, laying in the bed, still fully clothed, just staring at the ceiling with the phone resting on his chest on speaker phone.

"My work will be slowing down now, on the bright side you get to spend more time with me" Tayla tried to make him feel better. "Erm- I think that's a good thing?" she added, trying to get him out of the funk. She knew it wasn't going to happen right away.

"Of course it's a good thing" Tyler laughed. Only Tayla would try to cheer him up this way. "Maybe we can go home for a few weeks. Would be nice to be around the family for awhile" Tyler spoke aloud.

"I'd love to see my parents. I haven't seen them since I moved here" Tayla commented, loving the idea already.

"What about your sister?" Tyler teased, and he could practically hear Tayla roll her eyes over the phone.

"Shush about her" Tayla snapped jokingly. "I haven't spoken to her in years" she confessed.

"I'm still sorry about that" Tyler replied, sheepishly, feeling slightly at fault for the falling out of Tayla and her sister.

"There's no need to be sorry, you have no reason to be. She just thinks about nobody but herself, that's the problem, and it'll always be the problem seeing as she doesn't think she does anything wrong" Tayla ranted, and Tyler immediately regretted making the joke. "Sorry." she then added, feeling bad for unloading all of that.

"Anyway, yeah. I'd love to go home. I think it's a great idea" Tayla eventually brought up. Her sister had left home very early on, so running into her was not of concern.

"Sounds great. Just give me a few days to, you know, unwind and stuff" Tyler grumbled, shutting his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Ty" Tayla sighed with a whisper. "I wish I could help"

"I know" Tyler half laughed. "And I love you for it. But I think it's time to hit the hay. I love you" he smiled, never tiring of being able to say that to her.

"I love you too, Ty. Sleep well" Tayla smiled half heartedly. And with that, they both hung up the phone. Tyler shutting his eyes, willing the loss to be a terrible dream, and Tayla sitting at her desk, taking a crack at the last article about a game she would write for the 2018-2019 season. She would still cover the off season, such as trades and what not, but it never was quite as fun as dealing with the regular season. She typed continually, until finally, she was ready to submit. It was a lot later than she would usually submit an article, but she couldn't bring herself to write it this time, not with how disappointed Tyler was.

"Oh good, you're still awake" Katie walked into the room. The pair had been watching the game together, at home. Typically, they would have travelled for the potential elimination game, but because of work, were unable to make it. Tayla had obligations at the American Airlines Center that sometimes prevented her from travel.

"Yeah, I just finished the article" Tayla commented, closing the laptop after she had sent in her final draft.

"A lot later than usual" Katie commented, sitting on Tayla's bed.

"How's he taking it?" Tayla asked, referring to Jamie.

"Probably equally or slightly worse than Tyler" Katie confirmed what Tayla already suspected. "He feels like the worse captain in Dallas Stars history" she frowned, hating to see him so down.

"That's completely untrue" Tayla laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of the statement, and Katie laughed a little too.

"I know right? But you know him- once his mind is set on something, it's hard to change"

"Don't I know it" Tayla agreed, shaking her head. "Sometimes they're a little ridiculous"

"I think stupid is more the word" Katie teased, and the girls laughed some more, clearly now becoming aware of how tired they were. "And I know this is awful, but- no more anxiety ridden games!"

"And no more angry guys, and we can see them more" Tayla added, though both felt guilty for even voicing it.

"We shouldn't feel guilty about it though" Katie tried to reason, but Tayla shrugged. She jumped up from her bed, and headed towards her walk in closet. She emerged in her bikini, with a bottle of wine, and two glasses.

"Okay, I have some major questions" Katie laughed, gladly accepting the glass of wine.

"I'm listening" Tayla asked, setting the glass down and simply drinking right from the bottle.

"One, why are you in your bathing suit? And two, why the fuck do you have A) a bottle of wine and B) two wine glasses in your fucking closet?" Katie asked, snorting with laughter.

"Well, one, I want to go for a swim" Tayla began. "And two, for moments like these! Though I'm seeing now I really only needed one glass..." she trailed off with a smirk.

"Count me in for the swim" Katie hopped up, and went into Tayla's closet. "You still have my bathing suit I left here last- found it!" Katie finished her own sentence, and within a minute emerged ready to swim. "Let's do this"

*****

After hanging up the phone, Tyler let out a heavy sigh as he tossed it to his right. He was happy they had at least made the playoffs, but what did that accomplish? In the end, they still lost. In the end, they were no closer to a cup than any other eliminated team.

He cursed himself for the stupid mistakes he made in the games. He cursed himself for so many things; but he had to stop himself. the season was over; he blew it. There wasn't anything he could do to go back and change it now. He could picture Tayla telling him this, as she had so many times in the past. The only way to move forward is to learn from the present mistakes, and not drag them with you into the future.

He stripped out of his clothes and was crawling into bed when his phone dinged, signalling a text message. Picking up his phone, he almost dropped it on his face upon reading it. The area code was familiar; it was from back home in Canada.

1-555-555-0971 12:02 a.m.

well well. I see you lost. that's not the only thing you're going to lose if I have anything to do with it.