They went to a big school. Vanderbilt was in the heart of Nashville and a verywell knowndivision1 football school. It was a great school for him to be at if he wanted topursue theNFL, which she heard he was good enough to do.
Her roommatesgave hera hard timeabouther new tutoring student. They teased that heprobably didn’tknow how to read at all, and that she would be better to spend her time with him doing something other than studying. Her best friend Abigail at one pointeven alluded to the fact that everything on him must be big, and she hid her face in horror. And now here she was waiting for thisvery largefootball guy, and he was 7 minutes late.
She was about to get up and leave when hebarreledthrough thedoor,his duffle bag slung over his shoulder, his face red and his hair damp.
“Sorry, I’m so sorry!” He said frantically, slinging his bagoffhisshoulderand onto the floor before he sat down heavily on the chair across from her. “I had to take a shower afterpractice;couldn’t make you sit in here with me all sweaty.” His smile was big and genuine, and itmade being annoyed withhimdifficult.
“Well thanks I guess,” she said with a chuckle.
“Chivalryaintdead or whatever they say,” he smiled and put his elbows on the table,leaning incloser to her – so close that she could smell the fresh scent of his body soap. “Are you sure yourboyfrienddoesn’tmind you spending time alone with me?”
“Tristan come on,” she said with an eye roll, giving him a stern look.
“Okay, okay I’ll stop teasing you.”
“Gee thanks.”
“Only if you give me a real answer.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend!” She said exasperated. They had only been here forall of5minutes,and he was already causing her to roll her eyes multiple times.
“How can a girl as pretty and smart as you not have a boyfriend?”
“Oh please,” Tessa said with a heavy sigh, “How many times a day do you use that one?”
“Just right now,” he said with a shrug and a snarky smile.
“AlrightI’mgoing to give you one more chance to be serious before I leave and tell your coach I quit.”
With that he decidedto quithis antics and turn studious. It took a lot of effort forhim,but he listened intently and followed her directions throughout their study session. It wasevidentto him how naturally gifted she was, and it was easy to guess that she wasprobably goodatalmost anythingshe put her mind to. He alsocouldn’thelp but notice how kind she was – it genuinely seemed like she wanted to help him, and her warm and gentlenature allowed him to relax and stop putting on the mask and show that he wasusedtowithpeople.
Tessa had lived a decently sheltered and very comfortablelife. She was from an uppermiddle-classfamily in Pennsylvania. Her childhood was warm, happy, andvery easygoing. And Tristan was right – she didpretty much perfectanything she set her mind to.
Her first love was reading, and then she started writing poetry ata very youngage. Eventually when she picked up the guitar and piano, she began turning her poetry into songs. Over the past fewyearsthough,she had developed a special interest in journalism. Sheloved the diversity and research aspect of it. She loved the idea of getting to know many and alldifferent kindsof people,placesand things. She had gotten lost deep in the world of reporting andaward-winningjournalism and at this pointcouldn’tsee herself doing anything other than writing intense and emotionally captivating articles forestablishedand respected newspapers.
Tessawouldn’tsay she was innocent or naive. She hadparticipatedin her fair share of parties, enjoyed occasionally drinking with her friends, had gone on more than enough dates and had plenty of spicy makeoutsessions. She had a copiousamountof girlfriends and lovedgetting to know new people and challenging herself with new activities.With that being said though, she wasa very cautiousyoung woman. Shedidn’tpush herself too far outside of her comfort zone and wasnot easily impressed, especially byboys. She still considered herself a hopeless romantic, and she loved writing poems and reading romance novels, but she had yet to really be sweptoff ofher feet.
After a few hours of studying, Tessa and Tristan decided to call it a night. Their conversation and the overall energy between them hadgreatly improvedas time went on. They had both lettheir guards down, and Tessa even allowed herself to laugh at a few of his corny jokes.
“What are you up to after this?” Tristan asked, glancing down at his watch to see it was around 8o’clock.
“I’m just gonna head home,” she said casually.
“Would you maybewant togo grab a bite to eat or something?” He couldimmediatelysense her apprehension andtriedto ease her anxieties. “Nothing fancy, we could justgo runto the diner down the street.Don’tworry,I’mnot asking you on a date or anything.”
She laughed nervously and bit herlipin contemplation. Hesaidhimself itwasn’ta date. It would be a neutral and casual place – the local diner. She ran through the pros and cons and realized thereweren’treally any significant cons.Her friends had been telling her for her whole life to loosen up and do something fun,maybe thiswas the perfect opportunity to push herself.
“Um...yeah sure. I guess that would be okay.”
Tessa was surprised to find that their easy and comfortable conversation hadflowedover to their casualdinermeal. They sat across from each other in the small booth in the back of the room. Tessawasn’tparticularlyhungry, butwas very much enjoying a slice of blueberry pie and cup of coffee while Tristan was ravenously devouring a massive burger and fries. He had mumbled something to her aboutstarvingand not eating before practice or their study session. Sitting across from him as he ate made his size andmasculinitythat much moreevident. Itdidn’tbother her atall;she was justkind of inawe. Shehadn’treally been around a football player before. At least definitely not one this tallwiththese kinds of muscles.
“You know for someone who kept making so manyjokes about how they can’t read you’re really very smart.”
“What?” He said, stuffing a fry into his mouth. “Are you insane?”
“No, and I mean it,” she replied, pushing the remaining pieces of pie around her plate. “You caught on quickly to everything we were reading and discussing. Idon’tthink your issue is intelligence. I thinkit’smore your attention span.I think youget bored easily and have trouble focusing on thingsyou’renot interested in.”
Tristan stopped for a moment to contemplate what she was saying. He swallowed his foodbefore responding.
