CHAPTER 12 #2
A knock on her door took her out of her thoughts, and she quickly went to open it.
On the other side of the door was Brinley Matthews, her old college roommate.
They had become friends immediately back then.
Their personalities were very different but for some reason that made them click together well, and there was a deep emotional trust between the two of them that she had been desperately missing when she had to leave Abigail and Amber in Nashville.
“Oh my God!” Brinley’s mega white smile hadn’t changed a bit, and Tessa’s heart swelled at the sight of her. Brinley threw her arms around Tessa, having to reach up a bit since Brinley was shorter than average and Tessa was taller than average, but their hug still came naturally to them.
They both pulled back and Tessa invited Brinley inside.
“I’m so happy to see you,” Tessa said with a smile and handed a glass of wine to Brinley.
“Oh, I so need this,” she said, taking a big gulp before flashing another smile at Tessa. “You know, mom life and all.”
“It looks good on you.”
“Girl, whatever you’re doing looks good on you,” Brinley said, setting her glass down and giving Tessa a once over.
“Thanks,” she said with a giggle. “Turns out actually eating food does wonders for a woman’s body.”
Brinley nodded and gave Tessa a wink.
“You look fucking amazing, Tessa. And I’m so glad that you’re here, and you have no idea how much I talk about you to people. My college bestie.”
Tessa smiled at her and gave another hug, feeling the warmth and familiarity of Brinley’s presence was like a rainbow after a thunderstorm.
They sat at the table together and ate their food, neither taking a single second to breathe as they talked, filling each other in on what had unfolded in their lives over the years, and before they knew it they were both tipsy from their wine and laughing hysterically at old shenanigans they got into at the college bars.
“So, what’s it like being a WAG,” Tessa asked with a mischievous lift of her eyebrows, taking another sip of her wine, not that she needed it. She was all kinds of warm and tingly at this point.
“It’s so fun Tess, I’m not even going to lie,” Brinley said with a laugh. “Phillip is doing fucking amazing, obviously, I mean, he is the best.”
Tessa laughs at her friend’s cocky attitude about her husband but also loves it. Brinley was always so proud of Phillip, and it made Tessa yearn for the days when she had her own football player to be proud of.
“And I like all the other wives here. Which reminds me, I may have ulterior motives…”
“Oh God,” Tessa said as she got up on wobbly feet and put their plates in the sink.
“We’re all going to our favorite bar tonight, pleeeaassee come,” Brinley said, dragging the word please out and clasping her hands in front of her in a prayer.
“Fuck no,” Tessa said with a hearty laugh.
“Oh, come on!” Brinley said with a huff, “I thought if I got you drunk enough you’d at least consider it.”
“You got me drunk on purpose?”
Brinley shrugged and winked at Tessa before continuing her plea.
“Tessa, listen to me” Brinley said, getting up and walking towards her in the kitchen, “I want you to meet my friends. I want you to have fun. You’re only here for a few months and then who knows if I’ll ever see you again.
You’ll go back to your big fancy job in NYC and forget all about us Kansas City folk.
Come out with me, plleeasseee,” she slurred the word please again, but this time clung onto Tessa’s arm and gave her a shake.
“What kind of place is it?” Tessa asked, and Brinley’s eyes sparkled with anticipation at Tessa considering it.
“It’s super chill, not a club at all. They usually reserve the top floor for us, so it doesn’t get too crowded. And we get free drinks, come on, you can’t pass that up.”
“Who will be there?”
“Are you asking if the players will be there?”
“Uh yeah,” Tessa said with a sarcastic laugh. “I need to know if any players will be there.”
“Why? Is it like a conflict of interest? I can make sure they don’t go.”
“No, that’s not it,” Tessa said with a sigh.
“Then what is it?”
“I would just feel more comfortable if it was just your girlfriends.”
“Well, I know Phillip and a few of the other guys are at some nighttime golfing place or whatever the fuck it is they do together,” she said with a snort.
“So I think most of them are pretty tied up. Plus, the season’s about to start, they do most of their partying in the off season. Most of them are lying low now.”
Tessa swallowed and considered her options.
Stay here and sulk about Tristan and be drunk while doing it, which is never a good combination.
Or, push herself out of her comfort zone and distract herself from her own spiraling thoughts.
Maybe make a few new girlfriends, get even drunker, maybe meet a guy.
Yeah, that would help.
“Fine, I’ll go,” she grunted.
“Yyyyessss!” Brinley said, wrapping her arms around Tessa again. “Okay now get changed, you can’t go in sweatpants, sorry.”
Tessa laughed and looked at what Brinley was wearing, jeans, heels, a nice top.
She looked casual but put together, and Tessa breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t have to get too dressed up.
She liked being girly and putting on fancy dresses, but with how emotionally spent she was from her day, she just wasn’t in the place for that.
“Give me 10 minutes,” Tessa said and pushed past Brinley.
“Oh, we’re going to have so much fun!”
“Yo, thought you guys were out at Top Golf tonight.”
Tristan shakes the hands of a few of his teammates as he climbs the stairs into the private area they always frequent. Seeing Tessa today threw him for the biggest loop of his life, and he desperately needs a drink.
“We got there and realized we weren’t feeling it,” Tristan says. “Need a drink instead.”
Tristan comes up to the second floor with Phillip behind him, and they join their teammates and a few other familiar faces who are standing around the bar. Tristan notices some of the WAGS beginning to show up, and he throws back a shot like his life depends on it.
“What’s up with you today?” Phillip asks, concern etched all over his face. “Ever since the meeting this morning you’ve been off.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Tristan responds, breathing through the burn of his shot of whiskey, avoiding eye contact with Phillip at all costs.
“Is it the woman from today? Tessa? Why were you asking me about her?”
There’s a moment of silence between the two of them while Tristan contemplates what he should or shouldn’t say to Phillip. Phillip has been nothing but an amazing friend to Tristan since the day he joined the team, but he’s not sure how real he can be about this particular situation.
“I know her,” he says finally. “We were together back at Vanderbilt.”
Phillip lifts his eyebrows in surprise and takes note of the quiet way Tristan is speaking, understanding immediately that this might be a sore subject, best not discussed out in the open, so he leans in before speaking.
“Like together together?”
“Yep,” Tristan says. “Remember how I told you about my time at Vanderbilt? How I got kicked off the team and they took away my scholarship?”
“Hell yeah I remember,” he says. “That’s like my worst nightmare come to life.”
“Yeah, well it was mine too, and she was at the center of all of it.”
“What do you mean?” Phillip asked, confused at how Tessa could have been involved in football at all. “I thought you got kicked off for fighting?”
“Yeah, I beat the shit out of some douche bag who messed with her. She was my girlfriend at the time.”
“Damn,” Phillip says, taking a step back and letting this new information process. “Wait, you told me how they let you back on the team but, what happened with her?”
“She ran,” Tristan said, signaling for another shot. “Far the fuck away from me.”
“And this is the first time you’re seeing each other?”
“Yep,” Tristan carries out the word and sarcastically pops the ‘p’ at the end before throwing back another shot.
“Well, brace yourself my dude,” Phillip says, putting two firm hands and Tristan’ shoulder and giving him a shake, “Because she just walked in with Brinley.”
“Fuck,” Tristan curses under his breath and closes his eyes tightly.
He is so not in the mental headspace to deal with this right now.
He is still reeling from unexpectedly seeing her this morning, how hot and cold she was, how he could practically see her walls up around her; how beautiful and radiant she was, how she exuded both mind bending sex appeal along with unbearable beauty but also managed to be adorably cute at the same time.
And now he’s drunk and in the same room as her. He’s so screwed.
It feels like a knife to his chest when he hears her laugh and reluctantly turns around to see Brinley introduce Phillip to her.
“It’s nice to see you again,” Tessa says with her perfect smile.
And then Tristan remembers she knew Brinley when she was at Texas Tech, and Phillip said he had met her a few times, and suddenly Tristan feels that green eyed monster creep under his skin again, thinking about how Phillip knew her during the years Tristan was in agony over her.
Well, he still is, always has been, but those first two years in particular were brutal.
Tristan notices the way her cheeks are slightly flushed pink, and she seems to sway a little bit in her heels, and he wonders if she’s already been drinking tonight.
What does she like to drink? Is she still a light weight?
How hard did she party at Texas Tech while he was sulking back at Vanderbilt?