Misadventures of a College Girl (Misadventures #9)(57)
Tyler’s meteoric rise in Miami happened exactly the way I would have scripted it if I’d been writing the movie of his life. Last year, he wound up having a stellar rookie season that far exceeded everyone’s expectations of him. And that’s saying a lot, seeing as how football organizations and fans tend to have extremely high expectations of a guy being paid forty-one million bucks. And now, in the middle of Tyler’s second season, he’s performing even better than he did last year. In fact, thanks to Tyler and some other notable impact players the Dolphins acquired in the off-season, the formerly abysmal Dolphins have more than a snowball’s chance at making the playoffs at the end of this year.
Of course, thanks to Tyler’s stellar play and good looks and larger-than-life personality off the field, not to mention his omnipresent message T-shirts, Tyler’s become a huge fan favorite, and not just in the greater Miami area. He’s a star across the entire country. And it all started when Tyler showed up for his first press conference as a rookie wearing a shirt that read “This is what God CALD a job WELL done!” Those first images of him looking so gorgeous and cocky went completely viral, and a star was instantly born. And the best part? Tyler had already gotten that catchphrase and a bunch of others trademarked the prior year, which meant when Nike came calling toward the end of his rookie season to propose a global line of “Tyler Caldwell” brand sportswear, he was in the driver’s seat.
And now, here we are. After a season and a half in the NFL, Tyler’s already one of the league’s most recognizable and valuable players. When Tyler’s sportswear line launched this past summer, it was an instant smash. Plus, he’s a featured face in Nike’s latest ad campaign, a series of glossy commercials showing Tyler and other highly attractive athletes shirtless and full of muscles in black and white, working out while sweat drips down their glorious muscles. Seriously, it’s hard to figure out what they’re trying to sell in those ads besides sex. Not that I’m complaining. Tyler in particular looks like a freaking wet dream in those commercials. They’re one tick shy of soft porn. So, yeah, needless to say, Tyler’s quickly attracted a massive fan base in record time. Which has led to even more commercials and ads for products like cologne and watches and suits and cars and celebrity fashion shows for charity. Which means Tyler’s not hurting for cash these days. Or adulation, both of the male and female varieties.
Speaking of female adulation…I don’t know if Tyler’s dated anyone while he’s been in Miami this past year and a half. If he has, he’s had the good sense not to mention it to me. He certainly hasn’t been photographed with anyone. If he had been, I would have seen the photo by now. Because I’ve been looking. Hard.
For my part, I’ve had no interest in dating anyone else, though I’ve certainly had plenty of opportunities both at school and here on the road. The first and only time I kissed someone else, just out of curiosity, my stomach revolted and I instantly realized, if I can’t have Tyler, I’d rather just be alone. At least for now. Obviously, I can’t be alone forever. But I just can’t seem to move on from Tyler. Not when my heart still belongs to him so completely. When it comes to Tyler, it’s like my heart is bursting with joy and panging with emptiness, all at the same time. It’s wonderful and horrible, all at once.
It was only when I accepted this job with the official traveling production of Wicked almost six months ago, right after the end of my second year at UCLA, that I finally found myself leaping out of bed every morning again, the same way I used to do before Tyler left for Miami. Before I got this job, I went about the business of my second year of school, including throwing myself into all sorts of new activities. I got cast in the Spring Sing. That was awesome. I went to football games to cheer on Aaron and Hanalei. Hung out a ton with Clarissa and Dimitri, who are as cute together as ever. And, of course, I studied like crazy, too. But, through it all, I always felt like I was missing a limb. Was I happy? Sure. Most of the time. But never completely.
On the few occasions when Tyler and I saw each other during his rookie year, we always picked right back up where we’d left off, both emotionally and physically. But while those short reunions were wonderful and amazing at the time, they were torturous, too. Each and every goodbye became harder and harder on us both. It was like we kept wrapping bandages around our broken hearts only to take a sledgehammer to them right afterward.
Just when I felt like my heart couldn’t bear another swing from the sledgehammer, the off-season arrived, and Tyler came to stay in LA for four solid months. And our hearts mended. We were as in love as ever before.
And then, dang it, June rolled around. School ended. Tyler left for Miami again. So I got a waitressing job and went to a slew of auditions, just for the heck of it…and immediately landed this job right out of the gate. Of course, I was over the moon about it…until I found out the job would require a nine-month commitment, not the three months I’d originally thought. Which meant I’d have to take a year’s leave of absence from school to take the job. Not that big a deal, actually. But it also meant Tyler and I wouldn’t be able to spend his second off-season together. And that wasn’t okay with me. Not at all.
But Tyler was adamant I take the job. In fact, he wouldn’t hear of me turning it down. And my dad was surprisingly encouraging about it, too, especially when he found out the pay was two thousand per week plus a per diem for food and lodging. Plus, two professors both told me accepting the job was an absolute no-brainer. “You’ll learn more on tour for nine months than you would in a classroom for three full years,” one of my professors said.