“Oh,” she said, sitting up straighter. She hadn’t seen or talked to Jordan or Katie in 10 years, and the last conversation her and Jordan had wasn’t exactly pleasant.
“They both know you’re here and will be very happy to see you,” he said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. Tessa had barely stepped foot into her Kansas City apartment the past few weeks and something about the way Tristan said ‘you’re here’ as opposed to wording it like she’s just visiting made her feel all warm and tingly.
“That really is great, Trist,” she said with a smile. “I know you need your brother right now.”
“Fuck, I do,” he said with a heavy sigh. “We’re playing San Fransisco this week. If we get crushed again, we’re in bad shape.”
“That’s not going to happen, honey,” Tessa says reassuringly. “You have an amazing team, thebestteam.”
“I know,” he says with a head nod.
“I’m going to go to the stadium early this morning,” Tessa says before finishing her coffee and placing the empty mug in the kitchen sink. “There’s a few parts in the article that are bothering me and I need to figure out how to organize my thoughts.”
“Okay,” Tristan says with a nod, also getting up from the table. “I think practice is at 10 today.”
“Okay, I’ll see you there,” Tessa says, walking over to him and getting on her tip toes to kiss him.
“Sounds good. I lo-” He quickly stops himself, Tessa staring at him with wide eyes, the silence between them heavy and palpable. “I love when you’re at the stadium,” he says, recovering smoothly from the near slip of saying those three words.
“Yeah,” Tessa says with a small smile, her eyes flashing something that looks like disappointment for a millisecond before it’s gone, “Me too.”
Tessa walked down the long hallway of the Titan’s facility, her heels clicking on the tile and echoing around the empty space. It was early, barely 7:30, way before any team or staff members show up on a practice day, but she felt like she needed the peace and quiet today. Her head was swimming with so many different things from the article, the deadline, what would happen with her and Tristan when the season was over and she went back to NY, and of course, the nagging in the back of her mind screaming that something was off about his PED test.
She sighed and shook her head, trying to will the racing thoughts to go away. She turned the corner down the hallway that her office was, the tiled floor turning into carpet, her steps suddenly becoming silent.
She walked past each door down the hallway, noticing that each one was closed with lights off, as she expected. When she walked past Dr. Hines’ office, she noticed that the light was on through the crack at the bottom of the door, and she hummed contemplatively to herself, wondering if he’s usually here this early.
“I’m not tampering with the test again.”
His voice cuts through the silence of the hallway as she walks past it, and her feet freeze beneath her. Taking a deep breath, she takes two slow, silent steps backwards towards his door, and waits anxiously for him to speak again. Was she imagining what she just heard? Is she taking it out of context?
“I did what you asked me to,” his stern voice after a few moments of silence makes Tessa jump, but she stands as still as possible and keeps her ear trained against the door. “You didn’t say anything about doing it on more than one test.”
Tessa’s heart was hammering aggressively against her chest, and her hand instinctively came up to her mouth that was hanging open in shock. She closed her eyes and said a silent prayer that Dr. Hine would say something more damning than this, something specific, so that she’d know he was referring to Tristan. Right now, it was simply an eerie coincidence that the team Doctor was talking to someone about tapering with a test, but she knew she’d need more evidence than that.
“Listen, Kiana,” Dr. Hines voice comes back after a few moments, and Tessa’s knees almost buckle. “We had a mutual agreement. I thought we were on the same page. One test for one night. Unless you’re willing to come back out to Kansas City and spend some more time with me, I have no interest in messing up another test.”
Tessa felt her stomach flip and a strong rush of nausea creep up into her throat. She took a deep breath and swallowed down the vomit threatening to spill over.
This was Kiana’s doing? Why didn’t she think of that? Tristan had told Tessa that he was never able to make a clean break from her because of threats that Kiana would make, and it turns out she really was crazy enough to retaliate.
But fucking prostitution?
Tessa felt her body cringe at the thought.
This was who Tristan spent so many years with? A selfish, shallow, vindictive woman who was willing to sleep with 65-year-old men just to get the last laugh?
“Oh, you are?” she hears his voice perk up suddenly, and she leans back into the door. “Well, when is the soonest you can fly out? No, I can’t do Friday. I can possibly do Saturday, I’ll just have to come up with something to tell my wife,” he sighs and Tessa feels rage course through her veins. Not only is Kiana selling her body to get back at Tristan, but she’s also directly interfering with this old man’s marriage.
“Fuck,” Tessa whispers to herself, suddenly feeling shaky on her feet from the adrenaline and anger.
“Okay, yeah, Saturday,” she hears him confirm. “Just come to the facility like last time, we’ll meet in my office. It’s empty around here after practice. Just come around 8 or something, I’ll be here.”
Tessa immediately logs the information into her brain, her mind already racing in ways that she can get physical proof from these two and how they’re attempting to ruin Tristan’s life. She starts to walk away, but then hears his voice come back.
“Oh, and Kiana, remember that I’m not going to switch out his test before I see you. Your part of the bargain has to happen first.”
Tessa suppresses a gag and turns to walk away, officially hearing enough.
