“No Tess, I want to do this here. Right now. Tell me why.”
She sucks in a breath and feels her skin prickling with nerves. She figured all of this would spill out between them eventually, but she didn’t think it would happen so soon or so aggressively.Over the years she imagined millions of times what he felt toward her – did he hate her? Regret loving her? Did he carry on like she wasn’t a big deal to him at all? She had thought about these things over and over, and she was finally being faced with it and quite literally trapped with the reality that he was, in fact, angry.
“I had to,” she stammered out, but he shook his head in disagreement.
“Bullshit,” he says. “You had to leave me like that? Disappear without saying goodbye? Without telling me how you were feeling?”
“You lost everything you worked your whole life for because of me.”
“No, I didn’t. I was a grown man. Yeah, we were young, but we were adults. I knew damn well what I was doing that night. And I’d do it again, Tessa. Knowing that douchebag made you feel unsafe? Violated you? My only regret is that I was pulled off of him before I could do more damage.”
“Tristan,” she had to look away from his intense gaze, her insides stirring from the fierce protectiveness and loyalty that he always had; it was equal parts infuriatingly insulting and alsoso fucking hot.
“No, you listen to me, Tessa,” he says, leaning in so close she could feel the heat emanating from his large body. “You didn’t even give me a choice in the matter. You didn’t give me a chance to speak to you or try to figure everything out. You took my future into your hands, and you left me.”
Her head is tipped down, small tears forming in the corners of her eyes, and out of all the things she’s been through in her life, she doesn’t know if she’s ever felt this vulnerable.
“We could have figured it out,” he whispered, his voice gentler now. “I would have figured anything out to be with you. And Ihate that you took my chance of having a life with you away from me.”
She sniffled and let a tear fall, but quickly wiped it away, not allowing it more than a second of shining against her fair skin.
“I was scared,” she whispers. “I was scared that you’d hate me. That you’d think I wasn’t worth losing football over. Jordan was livid at me, and I don’t blame him. But I just felt so guilty, Trist, so fucking guilty.” She turns to look at him now, pleading with him to see just how tortured this has had her since it happened.
“And I loved you,” her words come out shaky and whispered, unsure if she should even be saying them. “And I just did what I thought loving someone whose whole life was football would do. I would have never made you choose me over football.”
He nods and reaches a hand out to carefully grasp her tiny one, and she feels her whole body relax at the sensation of being in his embrace, even if it’s just from hand holding.
“I don’t know why the universe crossed our paths again,” she says after a few minutes of silence,.“And I don’t know why it’s when you’re not even available but, maybe we can make the best of it and be friends?”
He scoffs and lets the acidic reality of their situation wash over him bitterly. He is with Kiana and has been for almost four years now. As much as he wants to throw himself at Tessa, he can’t do it with a good conscience. And the last thing he wants to do is cause Tessa to doubt his integrity.
“Friends?” he says, spitting the word out as if it’s poison.
“What, would you rather me say coworkers?”
“Fuck no,” he says, and she laughs.
“Guys we’re about to land,” Phillip yells at them from a few rows back. “Stop chit chatting and put your seatbelts on.”
When the plane lands they are in a new state, and it also feels like they’ve reached a new state in their relationship too; onethat is free of lingering resentment and unanswered questions; one that has an underlying feeling of hope.
The week following Tristan and Tessa’s forced airplane confessional was quiet and uneventful. They had both agreed to move forward with a mutual respect and understanding for each other and their feelings, eventually deciding that friendship was, in fact, the correct word for what they would be pursuing. In Tessa’s mind, Tristan was in a relationship and focused on winning another Super Bowl, so she figured that no part of him was interested in anything more than friendship with her, even though he looked at her with stars in his eyes every time their paths crossed.
Tristan, however, knew it was only a matter of time before Tessa was his again. He decided to be careful about his strategy this time, though. When they were 20, he aggressively weaseled his way into her heart, but he knew the stakes were much different now. Multiple people were now involved, they both had big careers that they shouldn’t mess with, and a lot of emotional baggage that would take time to sort through. But something about that Monday morning told Tristan that his days of sitting back and waiting for Tessa to be ready weren’t going to be around for long.
He was currently sitting across from her in the press room, as were the two other tight ends on the Titans, Noah and Caden, and Tristan did not miss a single second of Caden flirting his face off with Tessa the whole interview.
She was questioning them about their roles, their strengths, weaknesses, how they worked together as a team, what made the team so great, what made them love the sport, etc, but all Tristan could focus on was Caden’s over the top flirtation and one liners.Tristan couldn’t help but roll his eyes by the time the interview was over. He wasn’t a fan of this, at all. He prides himself on being a great teammate, always getting along with everyone, and not having a hateful bone in his body. But then Tessa appears, looking unbearable beautiful and charming, and suddenly all his teammates look like enemies.
“Tessa, you got a sec?” Tristan hears Caden speak up as they stand up and start gathering their things. Tristan turns around to see Tessa smiling up at the handsome football player, and his stomach surges with white hot jealousy.
“What’s up?” she asks in her sweet sing song voice, her blue eyes sparkling and full of life.
“I want to take you out,” he says, his voice even and steady. He seems confident and sure of showing his interest in her, and Tristan knows by experience that this will make 99% of women fold immediately. Fuck.
“You do?” Tessa says with a shy giggle, tucking her hair behind her ear, and the endearing innocence only appears to interest Caden more.
“Absolutely,” he says. “Dinner tomorrow? It’s the only day I don’t have physical therapy.”
