Tessa Ever After

by Brighton Walsh

  She looks up at me, a smile on her face. “Hey! I just got here, so I haven’t ordered drinks yet.”

  “I slept with him.”

  The smile disappears as her mouth drops open. She slams her menu closed and leans toward me across the table. “Girl, you had better give me every gory detail right fucking now.”

  And so I do. I tell her everything—about Jason coming over Saturday morning, about him spending the day and night with us, about what it was like to see him with Haley and how the chemistry between us was as potent as it was undeniable.

  “I knew it. I knew it would be good. He totally fucked those cobwebs out, didn’t he?”

  A throat clears from off to the side, and I look up into the smirking face of our waitress. With my cheeks as bright as a neon sign, I turn to my best friend and shake my head. “Oh my God, Paige. You should not be allowed out in public.”

  “What?” She shrugs. “I’m just sayin’.”

  After we order our drinks and dinner, the waitress leaves us and Paige digs for details, completely undeterred by what happened not even three minutes ago. “Well?”

  “Well what?”

  “Well, how was he? God, it’s like we’ve never had the sex talk before. I always tell you everything.”

  “Not because I ask.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m a good friend that way. I like to share the wealth and all that.”

  I shake my head at her and thank the waitress when she places a much-needed glass of wine in front of me. “I’m not saying anything.”

  “For fuck’s sake, Tess, I didn’t ask you to draw a diagram of his cock. I just wanna know if he was good . . . if he wasn’t a two-pump chump and he made sure you got yours before flopping on top of you like a dead fish.”

  I laugh over the rim of my glass. “Fine, yes, he was good.”

  “Just good?”

  “No, not just good. It was . . .” I sigh and slump back against the booth. “Unparalleled.”

  Paige stares at me, hanging on every word. “Damn.”

  “Yeah, and he absolutely wasn’t a two-pump chump. And even if he was the first time, I would’ve forgiven it because of the sheer quantity of opportunities he had to make it up to me.”

  “Twice in one night? Nice.”

  “No, not twice . . .”

  Her mouth drops open and her eyes grow wide. “Holy shit, you bitch, I’m jealous. Me, the girl who gets laid every weekend, is actually jealous.” She heaves a giant sigh and rests her elbow on the table, palming her chin. “I forget what that insatiable want is like . . .”

  “What do you mean, you forget what it’s like? You just said yourself you get laid every weekend.”

  “Yeah, but that’s different. These are guys I only know at the most artificial level. It’s different when you have a connection beyond just insert peg A into slot B.”

  “Well, we definitely have that.” I take another swallow of wine, then say, “He asked Haley and me to his parents’ for Thanksgiving.”

  Her eyebrows shoot up on her forehead. “No shit? Well, well, well . . . It seems this isn’t just insert peg A into slot B for him, either.”

  “Yeah, I sort of got that when he asked, but, shit, Paige . . . they are going to hate me. They do hate me. They think I’m some kind of evil slut woman, what with those three times I had sex—with the same guy—before I got pregnant with Haley. This dinner is going to be awful. Awful. And I’m willingly subjecting myself to it.”

  “It’s going to be fine. They’re too classy to be openly rude to you. Rich, snooty people always are.”

  I’ve been so worried about how they would receive Haley that I didn’t even have time to think about how they’d receive me—the woman I am now. “Oh God. I have purple hair, Paige. Purple!” I reach up and grab a stripe of the bright violet as if she can’t see it from two feet away. “This is not the kind of hair one has to meet rich, snooty people! There’s probably some law against it in their handbook. There has to be.”

  Paige rolls her eyes and laughs at me. “Since when do you give two shits about what people think?”

  “Since they’re the parents of my . . . my . . . Jason.”

  “Your Jason, huh? This might not take as much persuasion as I thought it would.”

  “What won’t?”

  “Getting you to see how great you two could be together.”

  I deflate against the back of the booth, my shoulders slumping, because she’s right. It’s not going to take much persuasion. Or any at all.

  “What’s with the slump over there?”

  “I . . . I think I’m in trouble.”

  “Why would you be in trouble? You finally have a man to help you relieve some tension whenever you want.”

  “I think I’m falling for him.”

  “With three times in one night, I don’t blame you.”

  “Paige, I’m being serious.”

  “I know you are, honey, but I don’t see the problem.”

  “This is Jason. Jason of the frequent one-night stands. Jason, the aficionado of threesomes.”

  She shakes her head at me, like I’m an idiot. “Yeah, but this is you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means it’s different. I think that boy has been falling for you for a long time, if the secret looks he’s been giving you are any indication.”

  I let her reassurances sink in, hoping she knows what she’s talking about, because I absolutely do not want to be the only one falling.

  The waitress drops off our food, and before I pierce a bite with my fork, I say, “You know, for someone who’s allergic to commitment, you sure are eager to see me fall into the trap.”

  “I’m not allergic to commitment for everyone, just for me.”

  “Speaking of, when are you gonna move on? It’s been almost four years, Paige . . .”

  She narrows her eyes at me and swallows the rest of the wine in her glass. “Tell you what, when you do draw me that diagram of Jason’s cock, we can go there. Until then, let’s talk about something more interesting. Like the guy I met on Saturday . . .”

  I don’t push, letting her change the subject and go right into telling me about Jared and the things he did with his tongue, because if nothing else, it stops me from thinking about the stupid flip my belly did when she said she thinks Jason’s falling right along with me.

  jason

  My last class of the week ends, and I bolt out of there like my ass is on fire. Kristi calls my name, desperate to talk to me about the project she keeps holding over my head, but I offer only a wave over my shoulder before I’m out the door, down the steps, and out into the fucking freezing late-November air. I haven’t been able to see Tessa since I left her place on Sunday . . . after I asked her to come to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving. And though I want her there—both her and Haley—I sort of want to punch myself in the junk for suggesting it.

  My parents have always tried to rule everything in my life, and being able to get my undergrad in a degree I actually wanted, something I liked, and then taking my sweet time to graduate were the only ways I could push back, avoid the inevitable for as long as possible. After their ultimatum, I don’t even have that. And now they’re going to see a part of my life I don’t want them to be anywhere near. I don’t want them to get their hands on this, too, on the one part of my life I’m not hating at the moment.

  My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I open my car door and slide inside before I pull it out. Adam’s ugly mug brightens the screen, and I answer. “Yeah.”

  “Honey, I’m home.”

  I laugh, despite the mood I’m in. “What the fuck does that even mean?”

  “It means I’m inside your apartment. Goddamn, when was the last time you washed a load of laundry?”

  “Fuck off,” I say through chuckles. “I didn’t know you were coming back. When’d that happen?”

  “Decided a few days ago. I could use a drink or three. You wanna grab some food or ar
e you busy with your new girlfriend?”

  The smile falls off my face, his casual use of the word sending a wave of panic through me. I’ve never—not once—had a girlfriend. I’ve had girls, of course, but never anything one could consider serious by any stretch of the imagination. Never more than casual flings or ongoing booty calls.

  And now there’s Tessa, who totally threw me for a loop, knocked every idea of relationships I ever had scattering to the ground. And if I’m being honest with myself, the thought of her as just a casual fling or an ongoing booty call sends a wave of a whole different kind of panic through me. Since some point all those months ago when she first caught my eye, it’s been building. Slowly, but surely, and now I’m in it. Despite everything I’ve ever known, despite everything that used to work for me.

  “Ah, yeah, I can tonight.” I glance at the time on the dashboard, seeing it’s just after four. “You wanna meet at Shooters and get in a couple games of pool before?”

  “Yep, see you there.”

  • • •

  I WALK INTO the bar and order a couple beers from the bartender before claiming one of the free pool tables in the back. I’ve only just racked the balls when Adam’s voice reaches me. “Don’t expect me to put out just because you bought me a drink.”

  “Damn, I was really hoping that’d work.”

  With a grin, he grasps my hand and pulls me in for a one-armed hug with a slap on the back.

  “You ready to get your ass handed to you?” he asks.

  I snort and turn back to the table, grabbing my pool stick. “You’ve been gone too long. Your memory is all foggy and shit.”

  “Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is? Loser buys drinks all night and dinner. I’ll even let you go first.”

  “Hope you brought enough cash with you,” I say as I break, calling out stripes after three have found their way into different pockets.

  “Well, fuck.”

  I smile at the table and take my next shot. “So what’s with the sudden trip here? Thought you weren’t coming home till Christmas?”

  “Yeah, well. Some shit’s going down at my parents’ shop.”

  After missing my last shot, I step back and let him move in. “What kind of shit?”

  He doesn’t answer until he’s made two shots, missing the third, and turned the table over to me. “Business has been slow, I guess. I just don’t know how long it’s been that way for. And they’re not telling me jack, but it’s got my mom all freaked out.”

  “So what’s your plan? Busting in during the middle of the night and going through their books to find the dirty secret?”

  He shrugs. “I wasn’t planning a five a.m. break-in or anything, but yeah. Something like that.” He takes his next turn, and effectively takes the spotlight off himself and puts it right back on me. “You talk to Cade yet?”

  Sunday night, after I left Tessa’s, I called Adam. Filled him in on how shitty a job I’d done at the whole staying-away-from-her thing. And, just like I knew he would be, he was all laughs and virtual pats on the back. And then he told me to get my head out of my ass and tell Cade. Problem is, I like my balls a little too much to deal with that right this second.

  Leaning against the wall, I grab my beer off the high table and take a healthy swig. “Nope.”

  “You’re only delaying the inevitable and making it that much harder on yourself.”

  “I just . . . I’m already going to be dealing with my parents around her and Haley this week. I don’t want to deal with her overbearing, overprotective brother on top of it all.”

  When I glance over at him, his eyebrows are nearly up to his hairline. “Since when do you bring a girl—or anyone, for that matter—home to meet Mommy and Daddy Dearest?”

  “Since I’m a goddamn idiot, that’s when.” I take another swallow of my beer, then set it back down before heading over to take my shot. “I asked her to come for Thanksgiving. Because I’ve clearly lost my fucking mind.”

  “Well, holy shit.”

  “What?”

  “I mean . . . I honestly thought this day would never come. My baby’s all grown up,” he says in a falsetto.

  Laughing, I say, “Shut the fuck up. I don’t even know what that means.”

  He levels me with a stare. “Really.”

  “Yeah, really, so stop with your Dr. Phil bullshit and just say what you want to say.”

  He waits until I pull the cue back to take my shot before he says, “You’re in love with her.”

  I scratch and spin around to face him as he laughs. “What the fuck.”

  “You gonna deny it?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.

  I open my mouth to do just that, then snap it closed because the words won’t come. Jesus Christ, am I in love with her? Is that why the thought of spending all this time with her doesn’t send me into a blind panic, why words like spend Thanksgiving at my parents’ didn’t break me out into a cold sweat?

  When I don’t say anything, he continues, “Come on, man. You’ve always had this weird protective streak when it came to her. You were nearly as bad as Cade was. You just needed to fuck your way through anything that had two legs and the right parts in between before you actually acknowledged it. It’s not really that much of a shock, is it?”

  But it is a shock, because I never saw this coming. Not in a million years.

  I think back to all the times Cade and I had roughed up some asshole who tried to talk shit about Tessa in the locker room in high school, about the rage that coursed through my body when I found out Nick bailed on her after knocking her up . . . how I wanted to find him and beat the living hell out of him. How it felt to know she was searching for some guy on a goddamn website and the answering pang every time she went out with one of them. How it felt when she went out with that boring-ass orthodontist right under my nose.

  Blowing out a breath, I grab my beer and swallow the rest. I set it down with a heavy clank. “I’m fucked.”

  “That you are, my friend. You also owe me drinks and dinner. Pay up.”

  TWENTY

  tessa

  “Baby, you need to hurry up. Cade’s gonna be calling any minute,” I yell down the hall to Haley.

  “Coming, coming!” She runs into the living room and dives on the couch just as the call comes in. Having done this a hundred times, she already knows how to accept it. Her smiling face is close to the camera on my laptop, and when Cade’s face pops up, he smiles, too.

  “Hey, short stuff. Has your head gotten bigger?”

  Haley falls into a fit of giggles, and with a smile, I leave them to their talk while I go change into some yoga pants and a loose long-sleeved shirt, thankful for a few minutes of solitude. This week has been nerve-racking, my thoughts constantly swirling around the conversation Paige and I had over dinner and the barrage of feelings toward Jason I’m suddenly all too aware of.

  I never thought it would happen like this. I always figured that when I fell in love with someone, it would be a slow, gradual process, like scattered snowflakes accumulating on the already-warm ground. It would take a while for anything to stick, for anything to grow, and when it did, it would be steady and consistent.

  I didn’t think it’d hit me like a frickin’ avalanche, burying me under all these conflicting feelings I have. Worry and anticipation and intrigue and excitement and, yeah, love.

  Maybe it’s because I’ve known Jason for so long . . . I know exactly what kind of person he is, his good points and bad points, and really the only thing missing between us was the physical intimacy, and that’s obviously not an issue any longer. Our chemistry is off the charts.

  Really, I should’ve seen this coming from a mile away, yet I was still knocked on my ass.

  I’ve never been more thankful that we’ve had a legitimate reason not to see each other for a few days, because I’ve needed the space to sort through everything in my head. We’ve talked on the phone every night and texted throughout the days, but both of our schedu
les are hectic because of the upcoming holiday, so that makes any visits nearly impossible. I had clients trying to squeeze in, wanting to get their hair touched up for whatever family gatherings they were traveling to, so I’ve worked late every day this week. Thankfully, Becky was able to pick up Haley from Melinda’s and stay with her until I could get home. I hate twelve-hour days, not just because they’re exhausting, but because I feel like I see my daughter only long enough to get her ready for school in the morning and then to put her to bed at night. I miss her.

  I walk out into the living room and see Haley holding up a drawing she made of everyone sitting at a table for Thanksgiving, a giant, deformed turkey placed right in the middle. “There’s me and Mama, and that’s Jay,” she says, pointing out each of us. “The empty chairs are ’cause I dunno what his mommy and daddy look like, so I didn’t draw them, but I’ll finish it after we see ’em.”

  “That’s great—wait, after you see them? When will you see them?” Cade’s normally smooth voice has gone tense, and I blow out a breath, knowing this is going to be a topic he covers repeatedly and in great detail with me until I give him exactly as much information as he wants.

  I knew going into this thing with Jason that Cade would take issue with it. He, of all people, knows exactly what kind of shadows mar Jason’s past, and combine that with how needlessly protective of me he is, he’s going to be like a volcano ready to blow.

  Haley talks more about our plans for Thanksgiving, and Cade answers appropriately, though I can hear the strain in his voice. When they’re done, Haley blows him a kiss and slides over for me to take my turn.

  I sit down in Haley’s spot, sighing because I know what’s coming. “Hey.”

  “Is she still there?” he asks.

  Oh boy. If he wants to make sure Haley’s out of earshot, this is going to be worse than I expected. I glance over at Haley, who’s admiring her picture, and say, “Go brush your teeth, baby, and then pick out what book you wanna read tonight, okay?”