Chapter 38

As I sit in my home office I hear my mobile phone ringing, I follow the noise as I could not remember where I left the phone and when I eventually find it the ringing has stopped and it beeps to signal I have a message.

“Hey hunny, so I guess you are not talking to me, I am not sure what I have done wrong but I would really like to see you, if I don’t hear from you in the next half an hour I will just see you after the game tomorrow but I would like to come round tonight. Anyway, talk to you soon hunny, love you.”

I called him back laughing at him being so worried for no apparent reason.

“Hey” he answered almost immediately “is everything ok?”

“Everything is fine, I could not find my phone and once I did you had already left a message. If you are coming round can you bring some food with you, I can’t be bothered cooking and my guess is you have probably not eaten all day.” I ask trying to sound cheery.

“Na I have not eaten, sure I will go and get some pizza and head round, can I sleep at yours? Are you angry with me?” His voice is still worried.

“I am not angry, I just don’t take very well to people who feel sorry for themselves when they are ill due to their own stupidity and I had to look after you all last night, take everyone back to their hotel rooms and put them to bed even after I had a busy day at work and still had to get up early and do another long day while you guys slept it off not even remembering the fact that I got very little sleep because I was so worried that you would all choke on your own vomit! Right, rant over, I will say no more about it, go and get some pizza and I will see you soon.”

I felt bad for having a go at him but drunk and hungover people are something that I can just not cope with very well, being someone that does not drink a great deal it is hard being a round people who do.

Tyler soon arrived with pizza and we sat and ate and when we had finished Tyler turned to face me.

“Gill I am sorry, I never realised just how bad we were last night, I never meant to be an arse and I am sure that if the other guys knew about you looking after them they would be so apologetic too, I never meant the night to get so out of hand, I think it all just came back to us about the cup being taken away from us by Detroit after we were so close to making our dreams come true. I am so sorry Gill.”

“Look Tyler, please don’t worry about it, it is in the past.

“I never got the chance to tell you that my family is coming over at Christmas, I don’t know all the details yet but they will most likely be staying here.” I try to push to the back of my mind about the night before, I was not angry as such, I guess I am just too much of a worrier.

“Oh wow that is cool, I can’t wait to meet them, I will meet them wont I?” His eyes are wide with anticipation, his infectious grin spreading across his face.

“Yeah, you will meet them, I will probably try to get them tickets for a game when they are here but if I were you I would not be getting too excited, they don’t exactly approve of me.” I settle down into him knowing that it will probably be a long night as I explain my history with my family.

“Why do they not approve of you, is it because of me?” His face is full of worry again.

“No, they didn’t even know about you until today, we don’t exactly keep up. When I was still back in Scotland I had a long term boyfriend when I was at university but he cheated on me and it broke my heart, he tried to get me not to break up with him but I couldn’t stay with someone who did that to me, well my Mum and Dad sided with my ex and they could not understand why I did not want him back, they were really angry with me and things were pretty tense. To take my mind off my broken heart and unsupportive parents I looked into starting my own company, I spoke to some advisers and they told me that if I was to open a publishing company in Britain they would be very surprised if it was to make a profit and therefore I could not find anyone to fund the business. I looked into the publishing industry in more detail and realised that if I wanted this to work then I had to come to America so I re-wrote my business plan, went back to the advisers and they agreed that this was the best way forward, ideally they wanted to me go to New York but as much as I liked the city I didn’t want to stay there, when I first said Pittsburgh to them they initially shot me down but after they looked into it a bit more they agreed and we set the ball rolling. I went to my parents house that night and explained to them what we were doing and asked them if they would like to move with me if everything worked out.

“My brothers girlfriend was pregnant at the time and everyone was pretty excited and so I was accused of trying to steal the lime light from them, they went completely mad at me and said some pretty horrible things so I packed my bags, spoke to the my advisers and left for Pittsburgh without telling anyone or even getting in contact and no one looked for me until a few months later when my visa was accepted and my the offices were getting built.

“I wrote a letter to everyone and told them that the company was to open within the next couple of months and that I hoped that they could see things from my point of view. I set up a trust fund for my nephew and sent over some things for him, I eventually got a letter in return telling me that he was fine and they gave me a picture of him. I had never heard from them again until I checked my email the day we arrived in Detroit.

“It breaks my heart to think that they hate me, I never wanted things to be like this, they are my family and I love them but they hurt me so badly and I am dreading seeing them. Little Cameron is already nearly 2 and I have never seen him, we all used to be so close, my mum knew everything there was to know about me and they took it all away from me.”

I looked up at Tyler, tears streaming down my face and he was looking at me with so much emotion, I knew that he was hurting for me.

“Gill, I am sorry, I didn’t mean to dredge up the past, I hope everything will be ok when they are here. The fact that they are coming over at Christmas is a good sign, maybe they want to make amends.”

We talked for a while longer before heading off to bed for a good nights sleep but my night was riddled with nightmares, I needed to stop thinking about the up and coming visit or it would drive me insane.