“I really can’t. I need the money.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out more bills. “Would a grand work or do you want two?”
My mouth fell open. “Seriously?”
He leaned forward again. “I like you, Tessa. I want to keep you happy so you stay working for me. A party will be fun.”
“Why not Sommer? At least she’d sleep with you.”
Sebastian chuckled. “Yes, that’s true, and so would a lot of the other girls. Sommer will be there.”
“Okay, but I won’t sleep with you.”
“I’m not asking you to sleep with me. I’m asking for you to come to a party at my house. What’s wrong with having some fun?”
“I—but you want to pay me to come to your party,” I stated.
“I want you to come to have a good time. You said you needed the money and so I’m offering you both. Think of it as a thank you for coming with me tonight.”
“Really?”
“Really. There will be music, dancing, people having fun. Bring a friend if you’d like.”
My first thought was Vinny, but I didn’t know if he’d want to come to a party on a school night. I needed to talk to him, and I’d have to do that tomorrow night because I assumed he was getting drunk with his buddies—though it was a school night too. “Okay, I’ll bring a friend.”
“Great. Here.” He started to count the bills in his hand, and then reached toward me with a stack. “Two thousand to make up for your missed shift.”
“You don’t need to pay me to come to a party.”
Sebastian grinned. “I make a lot of money, Tessa. Two, three grand is nothing to me.”
Two or three grand was about a week’s worth of dancing for me, and he was saying it was nothing to him? What the hell was his other business, or did he make that much just from Red Diamond?
“Some of the other girls from RD will be there,” he continued. “Bring whoever you want. I’m only extending an invite because I truly like you as a person.”
“Okay. Thank you for inviting me tonight.”
“Thank you for coming.”
I smiled and said my goodbye just as the driver opened my door.
As I drove home, I wondered if making three grand for having fun was the start of something good or bad. It had taken a year for Sebastian to invite me to do anything. Maybe I was just the next one in line, and this was how it all started with the girls who did sexual favors.
I’d quit Red Diamond before that ever happened.
I knew once I told the guys that Tessa was at the fight, they would give me shit. I didn’t care. Sure, we were having a guys’ night out for Paul’s bachelor party, but I wanted to get close to Tessa and let her know I was there. Luckily, when she found out, she wasn’t mad.
“You have it bad for her,” Gabe stated as I watched Tessa walk away—with a fucking bodyguard. What the hell was that all about?
“We’re just friends,” I lied. We were friends, but damn it if she didn’t make me hard, especially in that dress she was wearing with the deep V neckline. It was also blue, not Dodger blue, but close.
“You keep saying that, but it’s not true,” Gabe replied.
“Like I told you yesterday, I have shit I need to figure out before I get serious with her.” Tessa walked out of sight, and I turned my attention to Gabe. The other guys were staring at me, too.
“You better not be saying what I think you’re saying,” Nick warned.
“He is,” Paul stated.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not quitting.”
“Yet,” Gabe threw in.
“I’m not quitting,” I repeated.
“Yet,” Gabe said again.
“I’m going to talk to her and figure out what she wants. I’m not quitting until I talk to her and even then, it would only be a break.”
“She’s into you,” Paul affirmed. “If things get serious, your break will turn into forever.”
“Well, we can stand here all night and talk about it, or we can go get drinks and get back to our seat before the fight starts,” I suggested.
“Don’t get all pissy. You wanted to come see your girl. You’re lucky we came along.” Bradley slapped me on the back and started to walk away. We all followed to get drinks before heading back to our seats just as the fight started.
The fight was fucking awesome.
The older I got, the harder it was on me the day after drinking. That was why I didn’t have dates or drink on school nights anymore, except last night, and that was Paul’s fault. Okay, it was my idea to go to the fight, but it was his fault we all drank like fish after the fight.
I strolled into school hungover as fuck. Hell, I didn’t even remember much after leaving the fight other than we went to Commonwealth on Fremont Street. The guys and I drank and drank and drank some more. I should have known better, but Paul was getting fucking married, which meant he was getting married before Gabe, and none of us saw that shit coming.
Bypassing my classroom, I went straight for the teachers’ lounge in search of coffee. I needed something to wake me up and help with my pounding head, and I hoped the caffeine would help.
“You look like death. Are you coming down with something?” Kandace, one of the other teachers, asked as she walked into the room.
“No.” I chuckled slightly, which only made my head hurt more. “My friend had his bachelor party last night and … Let’s say I don’t remember much past ten.”
“You had a bachelor party on a Monday?”
“Yeah. He’s getting married on Saturday.” I poured the java into a mug before setting the pot back onto the burner.
“Why not have it on Saturday?”
“He just got engaged, and we didn’t have time to plan a bachelor party for another night.”
“It’s a shotgun wedding or something?”
I laughed again and then sucked in a breath. I needed to find aspirin for my head. “Not exactly. We went to the fight last night.”
“Oh, right. Heard about it. Weird it wasn’t on Saturday too.”
I moved to the fridge to grab the hazelnut creamer. “It wasn’t a title fight. Title fights are usually Saturday.”
“Oh. Well, I hope you feel better soon.”
“Thanks. I should be fine after this coffee and some aspirin.”
“I have some if you need it.”
“You’re a lifesaver. I would love two, please.”
“Sure, I’ll go get them.”
“I’ll come with.” I poured creamer into the coffee and stirred it slowly for a few seconds. After putting the creamer back into the fridge, Kandace and I started to walk toward her classroom. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“Hypothetically speaking, if you won a bet and the prize consisted of a guy cooking you dinner, would you expect the guy to bring flowers?”
She stopped walking and looked up at me. “Are you telling me you have a date?”
“It’s not a date.” Or was it? Hell, I didn’t know anymore what anything with Tessa was. I just knew I wanted to spend all my free time with her.
Kandace snorted. “It’s a date.”
“Fine, it’s a date. I should bring flowers, right?”
“A girl never turns down flowers, Vincent, but it’s all about which kind you buy that will tell her how you really feel about her.”
I dated for a living, and I’d like to say I knew how women worked. Most of the time, I didn’t even need a woman to say the words for me to know what she was thinking. Of course, that was because all the women I dated were into me because they’d specifically hired me. But I felt as if I was going in blind with Tessa. What kind of flowers did she like? How does she like her steak? Did she drink wine with dinner? All of those questions never needed an answer when it came to other women because I had their preferences in their client sheet at my fingertips, or it fucking didn’t matter. But with Tessa, it all mattered.
“How do I
know which ones to get?” I asked just as we walked into her classroom.
“Well …” She grabbed her purse from her desk drawer. “Don’t get her red roses unless you know she likes them. It’s everyone’s go to, and really not that thoughtful.”
“Really?”
Kandace bobbed her head. “Flowers are always thoughtful I guess, but go outside the box and it will seem like you put a lot of thought into them and didn’t just pick them up at the grocery store with dinner.”
Damn, that was exactly what I was thinking of doing. “Do you have any suggestions?”
She handed me two pills, and I stuck them into my mouth with a swallow of coffee. “Go with whatever ones remind you of her.”
I thought for a moment, bobbing my head slightly. “That’s a good suggestion.”
The bell rang, and I quickly thanked Kandace before dashing off to my classroom. The entire day I thought about what flower reminded me of Tessa.
I had no fucking clue.
I stared at the cooler of flowers in the grocery store for several minutes. I’d already gotten the steak, lobster, salad, garlic bread, a package of hot dogs for Colton, a bottle of wine, a bottle of Bacardi, Coca-Cola, chocolate milk for Colton, and chocolate cake, and now, I just needed the flowers. Every item I placed into my cart made me realize more and more that this was a date. I wasn’t taking her out, but we were going to be alone, just the two of us—and Colton, who would be engrossed in his cartoons or toys—and we’d be cooking dinner like a couple. I thought the idea of doing something so domestic with a girl would be frightening, but it wasn’t. I was actually looking forward to seeing a relaxed Tessa at home with Colt.
Just as I was about to grab the first bouquet of mixed flowers in front of me, a person stepped beside me and slid something into the cooler. I looked over at her, and noticed that it was someone who worked in the department. After she stepped back, I looked to see what she’d put into the fridge, and knew the moment I saw the pink and purplish flowers, they were the ones I needed for Tessa.
“Excuse me,” I said, getting her attention. “What kind of flowers are those that you just put in there?” Right off the bat, I knew the pink and white ones were lilies, but I didn’t know the others.
“They’re oriental lilies with lavender gillies, blue irises, lavender daisies, and purple matsumoto asters.”
The colors reminded me of cotton candy, and the moment I saw the flowers, I swore I could smell Tessa’s sweet scent filling the air around me. “Thank you,” I replied and reached for them. “They’re perfect.”
When Tessa opened the door, I couldn’t hide my smile, even after I noticed she was wearing a Giants T-shirt again. I’d missed her, and it had been less than twenty-four hours since I’d seen her. What was wrong with me? Gabe and Paul were right. I was scared to pull the trigger.
But it was also only a matter of time.
“Your chef has arrived,” I stated.
She grinned back and waved for me to come in. “Thank God, I’m starving. I had a small salad for lunch because I wanted to save myself for my surf and turf winnings.”
I’d never made lobster before, but what the lady wanted, the lady would get. It couldn’t be that hard. Plus, it was just the tail, and I knew how to make a bomb steak in the oven. “I’ve had a hangover all day,” I confessed.
She chuckled as she closed the door behind us. “Really?”
“Yeah. It was a good night.” I brought the flowers from behind my back and held them out to her. “These are for you.”
Her blue eyes brightened. “You got me flowers?”
I grinned. “They reminded me of you.”
Tessa chuckled. “Really?”
I nodded and stepped up to whisper into her ear. “Reminds me of cotton candy, and we know how I feel about cotton candy now.” I winked and then moved to where Colton was sitting on the floor in front of the TV, his attention on the iPad he was holding. I set the bags down and got in front of him, cupping his ears. “Hey, buddy. Do you want chocolate cake for dessert?”
He flapped his arms excitedly, and I grinned. “Good.”
“Feeding him sugar again?”
“You have to have dessert after dinner.”
Tessa chuckled as I continued to talk to Colton. “I also brought you this …” I dug into a bag and pulled out a volleyball I had brought from home. “In a few years, I’ll teach you how to volley back and forth. For now, you can play with it like your baseball.” He rocked back and forth in excitement, and I handed him the ball.
“You remembered,” Tessa stated.
I stood and picked up the bags. As I walked toward the kitchen, I replied, “Of course I did. I’m going to teach him everything I know.” I smiled and set the bags on the counter.
“So, what else did you bring besides lobster, steak, and chocolate cake?”
“I’ve brought a three-course meal, sweets. And hot dogs with no buns for Colt.” I’d remembered at the game that Colton had a hot dog without the bun and so I figured that was the safest thing to get for him.
Tessa followed behind me. “So, now you’re calling me ‘sweets’?”
“Want me to call you ‘candy’ instead?”
She grinned. “Just not ‘baby’.”
“Why not ‘baby’?”
Tessa groaned and leaned on the counter while I began to unpack the bags. “My boss called me that last night.”
I stopped, holding the cake in my hand. “What?”
“Not like in a romantic sense—I don’t think.” She started to help me unpack the bags.
“Then how?”
“He called me ‘Tessa Baby’.”
“In what context?”
“I don’t remember exactly, but something along the lines of the story of his life and then he added the ‘baby’ after my name.”
“Why were you talking about his life?”
She shrugged and walked to the fridge and put the cake inside. “Well, it started off by him asking me to go to a house party at his house on Sunday.”
“By yourself?”
“No, other girls from Red Diamond will be there, and he said I can bring someone. So, you want to go with me?”
“On Sunday?” I asked, looking around for a knife—not to kill anyone, though the thought of her boss wanting to spend more time with her was weird and made me want to have a talk with him. “Knife?”
Tessa pointed to the cabinet above the stove, and I opened it to see the knife block was inside. “Yeah, on Sunday.”
I sighed. “I’d love to go with you, but …” I stopped and looked at her. This was it. This was the time to ask her if she wanted to try dating. I wasn’t even sure if people still did that, but under the circumstances, it seemed like the only way to move our relationship forward. Luckily, I had a plan if she gave me an ultimatum about S&R.
“But?”
I placed the knife on the counter next to me and leaned against the cabinet, my butt resting on it as I faced her. She was filling a vase with water for the flowers. “This is going to sound like we’re in middle school or some shit, but do you wanna be my girlfriend?”
Tessa turned off the water and slowly turned to face me, her hip resting on the sink. “As in us dating?”
“Pretty sure that’s what boyfriends and girlfriends do, even though I’ve never had one before.”
“Wait, what? You’ve never had a girlfriend before?”
I shook my head. “Don’t get me wrong, I had plenty of hook-ups in high school and college. I was the star volleyball player, and everyone wanted to date me, so I gave the ladies what they wanted.”
“Ah, you were one of them.”
“What does that mean?”
“A player. Both on and off the field—or court, in this case.”
I shrugged. “I like the term ‘ladies’ man’ better.”
She chuckled. “Okay then.”
“But seriously …” I took two steps to stand in front of her, my hip resting on
the sink. “I like you a lot, Tess, and I want to try—with you.”
“Why me?”
“Because I like you—a lot,” I repeated.
“But what about S&R?”
I swallowed. “You want me to quit?”
She sighed. “Well, I can’t ask you to do that, but if we’re going to date, I want to be exclusive. Even if it’s for your job.”
“Then we need to start dating after Sunday.”
“Why?”
“Because, I have a date on Sunday with a regular, and I need to keep it so I can tell her face to face that I’m taking a break to pursue a relationship with you.”
“Okay. I can wait a week. I’ve waited this long.”
I grinned. “So, you’ve been wanting this for a while?”
“Maybe?” She smirked.
I brushed her hair behind her ear and leaned down to taste her lips after all this time. My lips were an inch from hers until she turned her head. I blinked, not understanding what happened until she looked down and I followed her gaze. Colton was standing next to us, patting her leg.
“What is it?” Tessa asked him. He was already worked up by the look on his face, and he started to cry as he dropped to the floor in immediate frustration. She looked up at me as though she was embarrassed for his outburst. “I’m sorr—”
“Hey, it’s okay.” I touched the back of her arm. “I’m used to this, remember?”
“Right.”
From an outsider’s perspective, one might think that Colton was having a temper tantrum when, in fact, I knew this to be an autistic meltdown because kids like him weren’t able to express or communicate what they wanted like a typical child his age. When someone with autism reaches a point of sensory, emotional, and information overload, or even just too much unpredictability, it can trigger a variety of external behaviors that are similar to a tantrum. It was clear to me—and apparently Tessa—that Colton needed something. Figuring out the what was the hard part.
“Are you hungry?” Tessa asked.
Colton laid on his back, kicking his legs out and screaming in frustration.
I looked around the small space and saw his sippy cup sitting next to the fridge, and probably just far enough back on the counter that it was hard from him to reach it—and maybe see it too. “Thirsty?” I asked, and grabbed the cup with Superman on the outside.
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