“No, seriously. I live right around the corner. I’ll see you next week.”
“I still can’t have your number?” He asked, his green eyes searching her blue ones desperately.
“No,” she said simply giving him a small wave, “See you Thursday at 6.”
He sighed defeatedly and watched her walk out of the diner and down the street. He took a deep breath before he turned back towards his teammates, who were all snickering like little kids.
“I fucking hate you guys,” he said with a disapproving shake of his head. “You really know how to ruin everything for me.”
“Man,you better watch out,” Drew said with a laugh, “Veronica isgonnabe pissed when she finds out you’re dating a cute blondebookworm.”
“I’mnot dating herdipshit,she’shelping me raise my English grade. And I could give a fuck what Veronica thinks. I broke up with her becauseshe’scrazy.”
“Yeah,crazy about your dick,” another teammate, Aric said with a loud laugh. “You’vegot that girl following you around like a lost puppy.”
“Christ, don’t remind me,” Tristan said with an eye roll. “Alright listen, you guys better leave Tessa alone and be nice to her. She’s helping me out a lot and she’s very sweet and doesn’t deserve you guys being weird towards her. And she’s helping me not lose my fucking spot on the team, so this is kind of a big deal.”
“Alrightbroyou have our word,” Jordan said, patting Tristan on the back. “We’llleave her alone so you can keep your scholarship. Even though we can tell you have a giant crush on her.”
Tristan grunted and pushed his way past his friends, being done with the conversation and wanting to just head back to the small apartment that he shared with Jordan.
He had so many thoughts running through his mind on his drive home. He mostlywas thinking abouthow Tessa had made him feel. Throughout their whole studysession,she was kind and encouraging. Shedidn’tonce make him feel stupid or not good enough. She gave himvery positiveand constructive feedback, as if sheactually wantedhim to do well. Their conversationafter their study session was meaningful butlighthearted. Hedidn’tusually feel comfortable like this around women. Not because he was nervous, but just because hedidn’tfind that he had much in common with them outside of wanting to hook up and pass time. She had made him feel different, and hedidn’treally know what the meaning of that was. All he knew at this point was that he likedher andwasvery happythat their paths had unexpectedly crossed.
CHAPTER 2
10 Years Ago
Tristan had finally convinced Tessa to give him her number.
They had spent two more Thursdays together studying and he felt like he was making a lot of progress – not only regarding his English class, but also with Tessa personally. She had slowly started to blossom for him. She was growing more comfortable with him each time they were together, and he started to really see her personality shine through. She was quirky, funny, kindhearted, and so very smart. He loved to watch her passionately talk to him about theShakespear they were studying for his upcoming test. The way her blue eyes sparkled and she talked so animatedly with her hands and the way she talked a mile a minute, tripping over her words because she was so excited with what she was talking about was something he replayed in his mind on days they didn’t see each other.
He was truly so grateful for her and thanked coach Adamsnumerous times for setting them up together. His grade wasimproving, and he was getting to spend time alone with Tessa, who was intriguing him more each day.
He had no idea how she felt about him. He could tell that she was getting comfortable with him, letting her walls down, slowly opening herself up to him. He noticed the way her fair skin blushed under his gaze; noticed the way she shyly tucked her blonde hair behind her ears and bit her bottom lip whenever he gave her a compliment. He was torn between wanting to know her better, more intimately; wanting to push the boundaries of their studious relationship and also not wanting to jeopardize something that was helping him keep his spot on the team and his scholarship.
He sat in his truck after practice on a Monday afternoon, nervously clutching his cell phone in his large hand, staringdown at Tessa’s number. She had finally given it to him after their last meeting, but he hadn’t utilized it yet. He decided to give it a few days before he called her, not wanting to seem too eager or making her uncomfortable.
With a deep breath, his thumb ghosted over her name in his phone before he pressed the call button and raised the phone to his ear. Was he shaking?
After a few rings he heard her sweet voice come through, the sound immediately calming his nerves.
“Hey Tess, its Trist.”
“Hi,” she said back sweetly with a low chuckle, “What’s up?”
“I uh just got done with practice and was going through some of the bulletin items from the syllabus for my English class and um, there’s this opportunity for extra credit and I wanted to see if you’d help me with it.” He nervously bit the nail of his index finger, looking out of the window of his truck and watching his teammates pack into their own cars and start to drive away.
“What is it?” She asked curiously. She was a sucker for extra credit.
“Well, it’s more like an event. It says if you attend the Shakespear history play and then visit the exhibit that’s in town it can raise your grade by like half a point.”
“No way!” She exclaimed, her excitement making his heart feel warm. “I’ve been wanting to go to that but didn’t think I’d have time.”
“Well lucky for us there’s a showing on Thursday, our normal meeting day.”
“Oh my gosh that’s perfect!” She said, “Yeah, let’s do it. Sounds fun. We need to do anything we can to get your grade up.”
“Aint that the truth,” he said with a laugh. “Thursday works perfect for me. But um, I was hoping I could see you before then. Maybe we can add another study session in before that?Or maybe I could just, meet you for coffee, or something?” He cleared his throat and ran his hand down his face. He was usually so cool and confident with girls, how did she always get him so flustered?
