CHAPTER 15 #2
“Let’s go!” Coach Rice’s voice booms next to Tristan and Tessa, making them both jump in surprise. “No dilly dally-ing. We got check-in to complete.”
Tristan gives Tessa an apologetic smile before starting to walk with the rest of his team.
“You coming to the team dinner tonight?”
“I’m not on the team, Trist,” she says with a laugh.
“Staff go. It’s a tradition before an away game.”
She nods and smiles at him as he continues to walk away but doesn’t give him a definitive answer.
Instead, she sighs heavily and wraps her arms around herself, watching the man she once loved walk away, realizing that everything she once felt for him may very well still be there. And that is terrifying.
Tessa walked through the front door of her NYC apartment about an hour later.
She wasn’t required to stay in the hotel with the other team and staff members due to having her own place here, and she was shocked by how cold and uncomfortable it felt as soon as she walked in.
Whatever was making the place she had called home for the past few years not feel like a home was startling.
She closed the door behind her and threw her carry-on luggage onto the floor. With a heavy sigh and hands firmly planted on her hips, she took a few seconds to digest the events of the past few days.
The long hours and impending deadline of her assignment, hooking up with Tristan, traveling with the team, finding out Tristan broke up with Kiana, discovering the severity of Kiana’s craziness, and being back in New York.
“I need a fucking drink,” she whispered to herself and found her way into her small kitchen but frowned when she realized she hadn’t stocked anymore alcohol since she knew she would be living in Kansas City for at least three months.
She grunted and threw her head back, knowing this meant she would have to go out to get alcohol, but then perked up again when she realized that she was finally in the same city as Amber again.
Quickly pulling her phone from her back pocket, she scrolled to Amber’s name and pressed the icon for Face Time, which Amber answered within seconds.
“Hello stranger!” Amber’s pretty face and blonde bob came into view and Tessa felt her shoulders relax immediately.
“Guess where I am,” Tessa teased, pulling the phone further away from her face so that Amber could see the background of her kitchen, where they had spent many nights drinking and baking together.
“Wait, what?!” Amber exclaimed. “Is your assignment done already? Damn, that team sucks, huh?”
Tessa laughed and brought the phone back to her face.
“No, the team is like, really good. We’re in New York playing the Jets.”
“The what?”
Tessa laughed and started rummaging through her small luggage bag for something nicer to wear. Amber was just as clueless as Tessa was regarding sports, maybe even more so.
“Do you want to come to dinner with the team?” Tessa asked, pulling out a classic black dress and then walking towards her closet to look for shoes. She had brought most of her stuff with her stuff to Kansas City but knew she left a few of her staples here.
“Do I want to come to dinner with a bunch of giant men? Uh, yeah Tessa, I do.”
Tessa giggled and felt her body relax even more knowing her friend would be with her tonight. Her and Amber were so close back in Nashville, and grew apart once Tessa left, but when they reconnected in New York as grown up independent women, it was like no time had passed at all.
“Wear your heels,” Tessa said. “They really are giant.”
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Tessa asked.
Amber had made her way to Tessa’s apartment with a bottle of wine in hand a few hours later, and Tessa had promptly spilled the beans about Tristan being on the team and what had transpired between them over the few weeks Tessa had been there.
Amber was silent with her mouth wide open, wine glass shaking in her tiny hand, and the room was so quiet the only sound you could hear was the ticking of Tessa’s antique clock that hung on the wall.
“I mean, I knew he played professional football,” Amber said, “But I never put the pieces together when you told me about your assignment. How could you not tell me this!”
“I didn’t tell anyone until I got there, really. So now my mom, you, and Abigail know.”
“What did Abigail say?”
“She essentially told me to bang him even though he had a girlfriend,” Tessa said with a dry laugh.
“God that girl loves drama almost as much as me,” Amber replied with a shake of her head. She was still stunned by the news and brought her wine glass slowly to her lips as she stayed deep in thought. “So I’m going to see him tonight then, at the team dinner?”
“Yep.”
“Jesus, Tessa,” Amber groaned in agony. “Do you realize the last time I saw that man was the day after you left? And he was in our living room crying over you? Do you know how alarming it is to see a million-foot-tall giant football man cry?”
“I promise it won’t be as awkward as you’re thinking,” Tessa said, trying to save her friend from backing out of the dinner. “Don’t you remember how charming he was? Well, it only got worse over the past 10 years. You’ll practically be falling at his feet.”
“Ugh, great,” Amber rolled her eyes but then realization hit her. “You know what? This actually is great. Abigail’s right. You should fuck him.”
“Amber!”
“What? Have you been with anyone since Joseph?”
Tessa felt her cheeks blush as she contemplated the question, and then shyly shook her head no.
“And we both know that man-boy wasn’t much to write home about in the bedroom department,” Amber said dryly, and Tessa couldn’t argue that.
“I’m not sure I could just hook up with Tristan, though,” Tessa said, suddenly feeling vulnerable.
“Even if him and Kiana did finally break up, there would be so much working against us. Like our jobs, for starters. He plays football in Kansas City, and my career needs me to be in big cities like New York or LA. How would I do my job living in Kansas? And it’s not like he could just move to whatever team he wants; he has a contract he needs to uphold. ”
“So we’re going from a one-night stand to getting married. Typical, Tessa.”
“You know I’ve always been like that,” Tessa argues. “I’m just not a hook up girl, and I’m okay with that. But thinking about Tristan and how much I loved him back then, and still feeling all crazy inside all this time later? I think it’s a horrible idea.”
“I just hate how much time you wasted on Joseph,” Amber replies, and Tessa solemnly nods her head.
“He was such a buzzkill in your life, always weighing you down, never supporting you, always making you feel like you had to be small. We’re 30-year-old women, Tessa.
We need to be focused on what makes us happy, and you spent so much time on Joseph not being happy. ”
“I know,” Tessa whispers. “I had tried for years to duplicate what Tristan made me feel, and Joseph was the first time I felt even a semblance of a real spark, and I just held onto that with a death grip thinking that was the best I was going to get after Tristan.”
“And now he’s right in front of you again,” Amber said, leaning forward and making direct eye contact with Tessa. “And it sounds like he’s just as much of a little puppy dog for you as he was back in college. Did you not just tell me he was literally on his knees for you in that linen closet?”
Tessa’s hands flew up to her face as she felt the blush on her skin burn and her heart race at the memory.
“He sure was,” she whispered.
“And didn’t you once say that Joseph was like a blind lizard when he tried going down on you?”
“God Amber, I don’t know why I tell you anything!” Tessa was so embarrassed that she had to flop down on the couch and cover her face with her arms.
“Oh please, sit up,” Amber put her wine glass down and walked over to Tessa, pulling her up by her hands. “Let’s go to dinner. I need to see 30-year-old Tristan Kelly with my own eyeballs. Something tells me the few pics I’ve seen of him over the years won’t do him justice.”
Tessa walked into the dimly lit restaurant with Amber in tow, clinging desperately to her friend’s hand.
They had walked the few blocks to the trendy restaurant that Tristan had texted Tessa they were at, and Tessa was happy to hear it wasn’t far.
Tessa wore a simple black dress with black tights and black knee-high boots that were more than comfortable to walk in, with her hair in long flowy waves down her back.
Amber was her cute, petite self in a little red dress and matching black boots to Tessa’s.
“Girl, you’re going to break my hand,” Amber whispered into Tessa’s ear.
“Shit, sorry.”
“Why are you so nervous?”
“I have no idea,” Tessa said, letting out a defeated breath.
“Are you nervous for him to see me again?”
“No, that’s not it,” Tessa said quickly, turning back to her friend and giving her a smile. “You’re making me feel way less anxious by being here. Imagine what a wreck I’d be if I showed up alone.”
“So then what is it?”
“I don’t know, I just think now that he’s not with Kiana anymore, there’s so much potential for what could happen next. I just don’t know what to do about it.”
“I think you should just let him take the lead,” Amber replied. “Speaking of, he spotted you a mile away and is heading this way.”
Tessa whipped her head around to see Tristan towering over the other patrons in the restaurant, dressed in a fitted black button down and perfectly fitted pants, hair and beard perfectly trimmed, and the most annoyingly sexy and cocky grin on his face.
“You’re joking,” Amber whispered with a laugh. “Tessa if you don’t fuck that man I will never forgive you.”
“Ssh!”
“Hey,” Tristan approached them with ease and confidence, quickly taking Tessa into his warm arms. The act shocked her at first, and it took her a moment to regroup, but she eventually found a way to hug him back but broke it just as quickly.