CHAPTER 6
“Just stick with me girl and you’ll be fine!”
Katie, Jordan’s girlfriend, looped her arm through Tessa’s and gave her a reassuring squeeze, guiding her through the huge crowd of the football game as they pushed their way to the family section of the stands.
They had only met a few minutes prior, only finding out right before the game that Tristan and Jordan had set it up so that they were sitting together.
Luckily, both girls bonded immediately, and Tessa was grateful for Katie taking the lead on getting them safely to their seats.
This was only Tessa’s second game, and it was all still very new to her.
“Would one of you big strong gentlemen like to give up a beer for two pretty underage blondes?”
Tessa snickered and hid her face in embarrassment but burst into laughter when all three guys handed over their drinks immediately.
“One for both of us? How chivalrous of you,” Katie said in a suggestive tone as she grabbed two beers and handed one to Tessa. The guys on the end felt left out since Katie did not take his beer. “Don’t worry Romeo, I’ll take yours later. Don’t drink it all!”
Tessa took the beer from Katie’s hand and took a sip of the cool liquid and grimaced slightly. She was never a beer girl but was grateful for the liquid courage regardless of what it was.
“I hear you’re from Pennsylvania,” Katie said before chugging her beer.
“We live near Reading,” she said wistfully, thinking back to her hometown.
“My dad owns a Christmas tree farm on our property so they are very busy right now as you can imagine,” Tessa took out her phone and showed Katie a few pictures of the farm, looking longingly at the multiple pictures that her mom had sent her of the rows and rows of perfectly grown trees.
“You’re shitting me, that’s so cool!” Katie said enthusiastically. “So, you’re only an hour from where my family is! Do you miss it as badly as I do every day?”
“Oh my God, yes,” Tessa replied with a genuine head nod, “I do really like Nashville though. I’m glad I ended up here.”
“What do you think you’ll do after you get your degree?”
“I have no idea,” Tessa said with a laugh, “I mean, the ultimate goal is to be a journalist, I just don’t know if that will take me to New York or LA.
Preferably one of the two since I also do a lot with music so the potential for me to do something on the side in one of those cities is important to me. What about you?”
Katie sighed and looked out at the field of players that were warming up. Her eyes scanned until she found Jordan, and Tessa watched as Katie’s eyes sparkled and she smiled to herself.
“Wherever he goes, I’ll go,” she said quietly.
“You guys love each other?” Tessa asked with a small voice, her heart bursting at the sight of Katie looking longingly at her boyfriend.
“Very much. My dad’s not thrilled I ended up with a football player but, it is what it is at this point. Literally nothing he can do to stop it.”
“Jordan’s also a great guy, so that makes it easier.”
“He’s the best,” Katie said with a smile. “The Eagles have their eye on him. They’ve had their scouts out here a few times and they keep calling him for interviews. I am literally praying to God that that’s where he ends up.”
“That would be amazing,” Tessa said with a smile, “Imagine ending up back in Pennsylvania.”
“And playing for the only team I’ve ever routed for? It couldn’t get any better than that. We’ll know a bit more after graduation so, keep your fingers crossed for him - for us.”
“I will,” Tessa said as she took another sip of her beer. There was a comfortable silence between them as both young women focused their eyes on the field. “How do you handle being with a football player?” Tessa asked nervously.
“What do you mean, like their schedule and stuff?”
“Yeah,” she replied with a shy shrug, “Like their schedule, not knowing where they’ll end up if they even do get drafted. There just seems like a lot of uncertainty.”
“There is for sure,” Katie replied. “I guess I’m just very committed to Jordan.
Like I feel so confident that we are supposed to be together and that he’ll take care of me no matter where his career takes him.
I’m prepared to move around the country if that’s what it takes for him to follow his dreams.”
Tessa sat quietly and processed Katie’s words.
Tessa liked having her life planned out years in advance.
She knew what she wanted to be when she grew up since she was 5 years old and she very rarely leaned into spontaneity.
The idea of being with Tristan when he got drafted in some state she had never been to made her belly flutter with nerves.
“What about your dreams?” Tessa asked.
Katie took her eyes away from the football field and looked at Tessa, contemplating her words and studying Tessa’s bright blue eyes.
“I guess my dreams are pretty simple,” she said, “I just want to be happy and have a family. Jordan can give me both of those things.”
Tessa smiled and nodded her head, her thoughts swirling rapidly in contemplation.
“I think your dreams might a bit bigger than mine though,” Katie said quietly.
Tessa took a deep breath and looked out at the football field.
Her eyes locked with Tristan’s and he gave her a smile that made her insides warm and her heart pound against her chest. No guy had ever come close to making her feel the way Tristan did.
But what if she couldn’t give him the kind of commitment that it seemed like a football players’ girlfriend needed?
Tessa didn’t answer Katie’s question and instead asked Katie another question that had been plaguing her.
“And what about all the female attention? How do you manage that? Does it bother you?”
Katie laughed and finished the rest of her beer.
“Luckily for me Jordan is painfully shy around girls. Trust me, he gets plenty of attention, but he couldn’t act on it even if he wanted to. I have basically made 100% of the moves in our relationship.”
“That’s cute,” Tessa said with a warm smile.
“Trist’s a bit different though, I’ll give you that,” Katie with a long sigh. “He’s much more outgoing and he carries himself in a more outwardly confident way. He’s more comfortable around women.”
“Mmhm,” Tessa said quietly, wrapping her arms around herself.
“But,” Katie said, elbowing Tessa in the side, “He also has a very pure heart. He is genuine, and honest, and was raised to have the same exact morals as my boyfriend. It’s true that Trist has dated around quite a bit, but he has never led any girl on or lied or cheated or anything like that.
He’s very straight forward in his relationships and I think he’ll be like that with you too.
And if I’m being totally honest, I think the way he feels about you is like, light years beyond any of the other girls I’ve seen him with. ”
“Really?” Tessa asked skeptically.
“Hell yeah. Tess, he has never let a girl sit in the family section. He reserves that for his parents and maybe the occasional childhood friend that comes to visit him. And although I have met a few of his exes at bars and parties, you’re the first one he has intentionally wanted me to meet and spend time with.
He made sure we sat together today and go to the bar together after.
You’re different, whether you believe it or not, and whether you’re comfortable with it or not. ”
Tessa felt her cheeks blush at Katie’s words and let what she said sink into her bones.
It was all a lot for her to take in. The way she thought about Tristan nearly every second of the day.
The amount of times they texted throughout the day, their late night phone calls, their study sessions that went way too long into the night every Thursday, the absolutely life altering kisses that they had shared, and the way that her body responded to his in ways she had never experienced before – it was all so new and so overwhelming.
“I really like him Katie,” Tessa said quietly, lifting the plastic cup up to her lips once more.
“I know,” Katie replied with a knowing smile.
They watched the game together with their arms linked nearly the entire time.
They yelled and cheered and booed. Tessa asked Katie about a million questions and Katie was able to answer them confidently and without passing any judgement on Tessa’s lack of football knowledge.
Tessa couldn’t help but let herself lean into the ease and comfort that being around Katie gave her, and how natural it felt to be more integrated into Tristan’s world.
And the more time went on, the more she felt like he really did want her there.
The amount of times he looked over towards her during the game, the way he pointed in her direction when he made a touchdown in the 3rd quarter, and the way Katie brought her straight to the bar after Vanderbilt won the game “under strict orders from Trist that I did not lose you”; could this really be the love she had been waiting 20 years for?
“What do you want to drink?” Tristan asked in Tessa’s ear.
They had found their way to the bar that Jordan requested for his birthday after the game.
It was a hole in the wall down the street from campus.
There were billiard tables and arcade machines and thick smoke that wafted through the atmosphere.
It was a college guys wet dream, and Tessa was eager to be down for the ride.
Especially with Tristan’s large frame looming over her, his arms on either side of her against the bar, cocooning her against his very warm and safe embrace.
“I want wine,” she said looking up at him. He laughed and placed a gentle kiss onto her cheek.
“Look around baby, there’s no wine in this joint.”
“Okay then I want a cosmopolitan.”
That made him laugh even louder and he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face into her neck and inhaling her sweet scent.
“You’re a classy little thing, aren’t you?”