CHAPTER 17 #3
Her eyes go wide and she stares at him in shock.
“It’s impossible,” he says, shaking his head and looking at the floor. “Tessa, there’s no fucking way. I’ve never touched any of that shit in my life. I don’t have any of the signs of using Test, I’ve never popped before, it just doesn’t make any sense!”
“Is it possible that it’s a false positive?”
“They said no, but I have to look into it for myself. I have to call my lawyer. They said I can’t play for four fucking games, Tess. I’ll miss the wildcard round. We need that to advance to the playoffs.”
He flops back against the couch and sighs, letting his glossy eyes stare at the ceiling. Tessa immediately moves towards him and climbs into his lap, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and burying her face into his neck.
“I don’t know what to say,” she whispers against his neck. “You must feel so helpless.”
“I do,” he says, wrapping her up in his arms and pulling her even closer. “Like, what am I supposed to do if it's me against a test, you know? I can tell them it’s not true all I want, but there’s no way to prove it.”
Tessa pulls away from him and looks into his teary eyes, running her soft hand down the side of his face and giving his lips a gentle kiss.
“You’re the best man I’ve ever met,” she whispers against his lips. “I’m sorry I fought this for so long. And I’m sorry I ran away when we were younger. There’s not a single person who has a bad thing to say about you, and you don’t deserve this to be happening to you.”
“Tess,” He whispers her name as he presses his lips to hers.
“Call your lawyer in the morning,” she says. “I’ll do some research of my own and see if there’s anything I can figure out. Would you be okay with me speaking to your lawyer too?”
“Yeah,” Tristan says quickly. “I mean, I don’t want you to worry about my bullshit but-”
“It’s not bullshit,” she says. “You’re important to me, and anything going on with you is important by default. Let me help you.”
“Thank you baby,” he forces a small smile and gives her body a tight squeeze.
“You just go to practice tomorrow and try to focus on being prepared for when you guys make it to the Super Bowl, because everyone knows that’s where you all are going.”
Tristan takes a deep breath and grips her perfect thighs in his hands before giving her a mischievous smile.
“You know what would really make me feel better right now?”
“Oh God,” she says with a playful eyeroll. “What?”
“Eating your pussy.”
“Tristan!”
“You think I’m joking, Smith?” he says, standing up with her in his arms as if she’s a feather. “The only place I wanna be right now is between your legs.”
How could she argue with that?
“Thanks for meeting with me,” Tessa says to Tristan’s lawyer, Steven Pearlman, through her computer screen. “I know it’s coming out of nowhere.”
“I’m shocked,” his thick New York accent fills the room, reminding Tessa of the life she has waiting for her when this assignment is over, but she shakes the dreadful thought out of her head and refocuses at the task at hand. “Tristan would be the last person I would expect this from.”
“He swears it’s not true,” Tessa states, folding her arms across her desk. “And I believe him.”
“Mmm, yes but his word doesn’t hold a lot of merit in a situation like this.”
“Is there anything that would cause a false positive? Any way a test could be tampered with? Or tests with another teammate mixed up? Anything?”
“Well…”
She waits anxiously, holding her breath and clenching her jaw as she awaits his answer. She 100% believes Tristan, that’s not the issue, the issue is that she doesn’t feel very hopeful that he’ll be able to get around what the test said.
“Sure there are,” he says. “The problem is that he likely won’t be able to prove it.
A false positive could be as simple as his protein powder being contaminated in the lab, this isn’t unheard of, but could he prove that the contamination happened in the lab, and that he wasn’t the one to mix it into the power? Do you see what I’m saying?”
Tessa nodded her head and let out a long sigh.
“We could even go as far as to say someone intentionally tampered with his test, but he’d still need to prove that with irrefutable evidence. In my opinion, Miss Smith, it’s best if he just lay low and let this blow over and continue playing when the suspension is over.”
“This is about to hit the press, though,” Tessa said, her stomach tightening with dread. “It’s going to crush him.”
“All I can say is support him through it. Great athletes just like him have been through something similar or worse.”
“There has to be an explanation for this,” she whispers, shaking her head, the harsh reality that the man she loves is being falsely accused of something is – woah….loves?
“If you figure anything out, let me know,” Steven’s voice brings her back to reality, and she quickly nods her head. “I will. Thank you again.”
She slams her laptop shut and bites on her nails anxiously.
There are so many thoughts swirling around in her brain.
Did she just admit to herself that she loves Tristan?
And let’s be honest, did that ever really go away?
Also, something was itching the back of her brain screaming at her to dig deeper into this issue, that something about it wasn’t quite right.
She decides to push all of her thoughts aside and leave her office and head towards the practice field, eager to get her eyes on him.
She’s been cooped up all day either worrying about Tristan or organizing her interviews for the article, and her tired body craved to be near him, even if it was just from afar.
She wore flats today, making her ability to sneak around the corner much easier, and she spotted him immediately, all suited up in his football gear, looking impossibly strong, solid, and just downright athletic.
But even from here, even with all of his padding and his helmet on, he looked dejected, and that made her heart break even more than it already was.
“Fuck,” she whispered to herself. “I have to figure this out.”
Tristan had his own ways of being protective over Tessa.
That usually came out with violence, aggression, or showboating, but Tessa was just as protective and possessive over him.
And something in that part of her was unrelenting and nagging – take care of this for him, figure this out, find out who is responsible.