CHAPTER 15 #3
“Holy shit,” Tristan said with a smile, looking down at Amber. “How many of my teammates are you going to make out with tonight?”
Amber laughed loudly at Tristan’ joke, remembering how many times they would go to a party with the football team at Vanderbilt and Amber ended up with a different player’s tongue down her throat.
“I’m hoping at least two,” she said with a casual shrug, playing along with Tristan’ teasing.
Tristan leaned down and pulled Amber into a friendly side hug, very different from the one he gave Tessa only a moment earlier.
“It’s good to see you, girl. How’s life?”
“Never better,” Amber said with a big smile. “Although I can’t really measure up to what your life must be like as a professional football player. You and Jordan being in the Super Bowl last year was crazy. You two should be very proud of how far you’ve come.”
“Thanks, Ash. Good to know someone kept up with my career,” Tristan said, flashing Tessa a teasing smile.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Amber said. “That’s literally all I know. Couldn’t tell you anything else about football.”
Tristan smiled, his green eyes shining with joy and that easy confidence that always made Tessa’s stomach flip.
“Still more than she knew,” Tristan whispered, tipping his head towards Tessa, who only rolled her eyes at his antics.
“Whatever. I’m hungry, can we stop talking shit about me like I’m not here?”
“After you, ladies,” Tristan said with a smile, holding his arm out for them to walk past him. “We’re all the way in the back. Just follow the path down and turn to the left when you get to the wall.”
Dinner was perfect in every sense of the word.
The food was delicious, the drinks were flowing, and there was no end to the constant chatter and laughter that erupted around the table.
Tessa was sandwiched between Tristan and Amber, feeling dizzy from the way her head whipped around to each of them as they spoke to her.
Amber hit it off with nearly every player that she met, flashing her mischievous smile that always got her into trouble, which was exactly where she wanted to be.
Tristan had been a complete gentleman all night, giving Tessa plenty of space and keeping their conversation light and casual.
Tessa hated it. She wanted him to lean into her and put his large hand on her leg and push her buttons like he always did, but she knew from their conversation earlier that he could feel the icy walls she had put up all week, and she knew that it hurt him.
Her heart broke at the thought that maybe he decided to pull away from her, too, and she suddenly felt like she needed some air.
“I’m going to use the restroom real quick,” she said, pushing her chair back and standing up.
“Okay,” Tristan replied with a smile. “Do you know where they are? Want me to walk you?”
“No, I see them right over there. I’ll be right back.”
“Kay.”
She noticed the way his eyes lingered on her body, specifically the swell of her full breasts and her thighs that were covered seductively in lacy black tights.
She put an extra bounce in her step, knowing that his eyes were on her, and it made her skin feel hot.
Tessa was aware of how much Tristan had grown up over the years, but she knew how much she had grown up, too.
Tessa had struggled with many years with an eating disorder.
It started in high school and continued through college, peaking about a year after Tessa left Tristan at Vanderbilt.
At the time she was so clouded with the delusion of her disorder, but looking back at pictures of that time in her life was difficult for Tessa because it was so obvious she was struggling.
She was impossibly thin with not a single curve or dip to her body, which wouldn’t have been an issue if that was how her body naturally was, but her frame was thin because she never ate.
She started finding peace within herself after years of trying, and finally felt she was fully recovered by the time she was 25, and now at 30 years old, she was more than proud of the way her body held the curves of a full grown woman, and she noticed now more than ever the amount of male attention she garnered.
Although she was deep in her eating disorder when she was with Tristan, he had told her every chance he could how beautiful she was.
Her heart swelled with affection thinking about how much he loved her despite what she now knows she looked like at the time, but then she felt an intense pang of guilt at the fact that he had no idea what she was hiding from him.
For all she knew, he thought she was naturally stick skinny, and he loved every part of her anyway.
Now though, the look in his eyes was different. It was feral and hungry, and Tessa’s heart raced imagining him gripping onto her hips, grabbing a handful of her ass that was now soft and round from working out, or running his tongue over the plush hills of her breasts.
She was so lost in thought that she almost got lost on her way to the restroom but eventually found her way and quickly finished her business before heading back to the table.
“Tessa!”
She stopped in her tracks at the sound of her name, the familiarity of the voice making her hair stand on end, and not in a good way.
She felt her cheeks flush and heart skip with anxiety, standing frozen, waiting for the inevitable, silently wishing the busy crowd of the restaurant would just swallow her whole, but she knew it was no use.
So she took a deep breath and opened her eyes, squared her shoulders, and turned to face exactly who she knew would be behind her.
“I thought it was you,” he said, finally making his way through the crowd and standing in front of her.
“Hi Joseph,” she said with a sigh.
“Hey,” he said, stuffing one hand in his pocket and holding an old fashioned in the other. “I’ve been calling you, you know.”
“I know. I haven’t been in New York.”
It was a half-truth. The other half is that she simply didn’t want to talk to him, but that was too uncomfortable for her to say, ever the people pleaser.
“Well, where have you been?” he asks, standing up straighter, looking slightly offended.
She squinted at him with annoyed blue eyes and reared her head back.
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
He seemed shocked by her response which was dripping with attitude and disdain and took a step closer to her.
“We’ve been broken up for only a few months, and I think I deserve-”
“Joseph, it’s been like 9 months,” she responds quickly, cutting him off.
“And even if it were 9 hours it wouldn’t matter.
We ended things; therefore, I have no obligation to answer the numerous phone calls and texts that have bordered on harassment and have no obligation to tell you where I am or what I’m doing. ”
“You’re being a little dramatic, don’t you think?
” he asks with a haughty laugh, swirling his drink around in the glass before taking a sip, tipping his nose up in the way that always made her skin crawl.
At first, she had viewed it as him being dignified, cultured, and simply, British.
But over the years she recognized it as a tick he had whenever he felt less than, and suddenly his measly attempt to assert his dominance became an ick.
She much preferred Tristan’s way of asserting dominance, with violence and aggression.
Please don’t revoke my feminist card, she whispered to the universe.
“Isn’t that pretty on brand for me?” she asked dryly. “I don’t have time for this, anyway. I’m at dinner and need to get back. I hope you’re doing well.”
Tessa turned on her heel and flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder, but Joseph caught her by the elbow and pulled her back, causing her to stumble over the wedge of her boot and crash into his chest.
“What the fuck!” she hissed, ripping her arm away from him and rubbing the spot that he held onto her way too tight.
“I wasn’t done speaking with you,” he said back, not bothering to mind his volume or the way he was very clearly being an asshole to her. They were definitely attracting some attention.
“Okay, well I’m done,” she said forcefully. “And if I need to remind you why I cut things off with you, I’m not in love with you, you’re an asshole, this relationship is going nowhere and I’m wasting my time, and we’re not compatible. Now leave me alone.”
“Does 6 years really seem like we’re not compatible?” he asks, grabbing her arm again, stopping her from leaving.
Tessa goes to answer him, but her words get caught in her throat at the sight of a very familiar and very large hand gripping Joseph’s white dress shirt.
Tristan’s towering frame moves in front of Tessa, essentially cutting off Joseph’s access to her, and he pushes Joseph back aggressively into the crowd.
“Back up, asshole,” Tristan says, his green eyes shining with satisfaction at the way Joseph stumbled with the force of his shove.
Tessa’s breath caught in her throat when Tristan turned to glance at her over his shoulder, his thick eyebrow cocking in defiance.
“This guy?” he said, pointing an accusatory finger in Joseph’s direction. “Really?”
“Shut up,” Tessa grunted, crossing her arms.
Yeah, okay, Joseph was the complete opposite of Tristan.
But he was nice to her once upon a time, and handsome, and tall, which was hard to come by.
But seeing him through Tristan’s eyes, she understood where he was coming from, too.
He appeared scrawny and uppity, dripping with classist energy, and he might as well of had the words “I’m a stuck-up British prude” tattooed on his forehead.
Tristan, despite how well he cleaned up when he wanted to be fancy, like tonight, was very much a rough around the edges, good old boy from the Midwest, oozing out pure testosterone and looked like he sweats beer and could bench an elephant.
The intimidation on Joseph’s face was undeniable.