Chapter 5: gonna take a little more than sweet-talk to sweep me off my feet
"Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past can be changed." – Oprah Winfrey
"Want me to kick his ass?" Jax asks, looks completely serious. "Seriously, I can hop on a plane right now. I've been saving Air Miles."
I laugh wetly and shake my head at the phone screen, where I am on Facetime with Jax. "It's okay. Besides, do you know how many Air Miles it would take?"
"Well, I'm sure dad would –ʺ
I cut him off right there. "Do not tell dad."
He nods solemnly.
Telling my dad would do no good whatsoever. It would probably just make the situation ten times worse. Telling Jax and Maddie was bad enough. I had to stop Maddie from storming to Tyler's house and punching him.
"I appreciate it, but I'm okay." I reassure him, and he doesn't look completely convinced but lets it slide before diving in to a story about what's going on home.
Sometimes I miss home, but then I think about what happened there and I don't miss it anymore.
***
Weeks start to pass, and life goes on. Eventually, I can move back in to my house and I see Tyler leaving and coming to his house through my windows. He doesn't look bothered, but I wasn't expecting him. There is only one person Tyler cares about, and that is himself. He never takes into consideration the feelings of anyone else, and that was my first mistake when I agreed to do this.
Come to think of it, my first mistake was even letting him in my life. If I just had forgotten him after his awful attempt at picking me up, then I would never have gotten myself into this whole mess. What was I thinking by agreeing to pretend to date him? It's the least responsible thing I have done in years, and I did it all because I made the mistake of trusting Tyler with what happened. I let him use it to manipulate me in order for him to get what he wanted.
I was stupid enough to believe him when he said he cared.
About a month later, a couple of weeks from Christmas, I hear a knock at my door. It's around 8 o'clock in the morning so I don't know who it would be. I look through the peephole, and when my eyes land on Tyler, I nearly fall over. I debate whether to answer or not but I'm curious why he's here. I might feel better if I get to yell at him again.
I unlock the door and slowly open it. It's raining, and Tyler is soaked which means he's probably been standing here for some time, most likely having the same internal battle I was. I hate that he still looks good, even though he's doing a pretty good impression of a drowned rat.
"What do you want?"
He holds up a piece of mail. "This accidently got delivered to my house... also I thought we could –ʺ
I scowl and shut the door in the face. Then I groan because I forgot the mail.
I quickly open the door and reach to snatch it from his hands but before I can slam the door, he stuffs his foot there. I try kicking it, but it doesn't budge.
"I'll scream so the neighbours hear if you don't move your foot." I threaten, and he sighs.
"C'mon Daisy, can we please talk?"
"No. Now move your foot."
"You're being unreasonable."
I swing the door open, so I can glare at him. He's standing with his arms crossed, mirroring the scowl I'm wearing.
"What is there to talk about?" I ask curtly.
He rolls his eyes and drops his arms to his sides. "Seriously?"
"What do you want from me?"
"My friend back?" He asks too innocently. There's something more to it.
I raise a brow, trying to see through him. "And?"
I watch him shift uncomfortably. He tucks his hands in his pockets before spitting it out.
"Well, the family skate is this weekend at the rink and I was thinking –ʺ
He's not expecting it, so I give him a shove backwards and slam the door shut.
"Asshole." I mutter.
I wait a few minutes before looking through the window and see that Tyler is sitting on my steps stubbornly. He's absolutely drenched now, and it's still raining. I begin to wonder if he's a little bit crazy.
Against my better judgement, I walk back over and after a little hesitation, open the front door. He hops up quickly, and beams as he walks over to me.
"You look like a drowned rat." I tell him.
"I missed you too." He replies cheerfully, pulling me into a bear hug which leads to my clothes being soaked but I honestly can't bring myself to care.
***
After I find Tyler some dry clothes that he must have left here at some point, we sit at the table.
"I'm not going to the Christmas skate. Especially not as your girlfriend." I say, and he looks disappointed but nods.
"I know." He presses his lips together. "I'm sorry. For what I said."
"Which part?"
He hesitates, "I shouldn't have called you a cold hearted bitch, even though your heart is kind of icy sometimes." He laughs when I glare at him. "But I'm mostly sorry for what I said when I was drunk."
I freeze because I was hoping he wouldn't bring this up.
"It's fine, I know you didn't mean it. You were drunk –ʺ
He cuts me off. "Would you be mad if I said I meant it?"
"Tyler..."
"Just listen, okay?" He pleads, and my brain is screaming at me to leave but I can't.
So, I nod, not trusting myself to say anything.
"It wasn't fair of me to ask you to do this in the beginning, especially since I used what you told me about Clara to get you to say yes. And I'm really sorry about that." He says, and he seems sincere about it, but I don't know if I am ready to believe it one hundred percent.
"It's... okay." I say but we both know it's not true. It's going to take me some time before I trust him again and forgive him. But this is a start.
"and you know that I'm not good with... feelings," he says feelings so awkwardly, and it makes me want to laugh.
"But I thought that if the um, feelings, were – you know, mutual we could try to..."
I decide to put him out of his misery. I've never seen someone trying to confess their feeling this bad. You would think he's a teenager trying to ask his crush out on a date.
"No." I tell him, and I only feel a little guilty when his face falls. He opens his mouth, but I put my hand up, and it closes.
"If you think that I'm going to just cave and let you in after what just happened, you must be gone silly." I grin. "Get out your A-game, Seguin. It's gonna take more than a little sweet-talk to sweep me off my feet."
The smile that spreads across his face is mesmerizing.
"Challenge accepted."
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quick a/n:
- short chapter but at least daisy and tyler cleared things up a little
- even though they both admitted there is a mutual attraction between them, i dont want to just stick them together right away because of what just happened
- that'd just be dumb lol
- also I have no idea if the Dallas Stars does family skates around Christmas? I'm kind of assuming because I've seen it with other teams lol
- anyways hope you all liked it!!
- and vote, if you wanna
-- Alexandra