No Expectations
Morgan Thomas
NO EXPECTATIONS
© 2014 By Morgan Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-1499556742
ISBN-10: 1499556748
First Edition
This is a work of fiction. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the author.
Editor: James N. Powell
DEDICATION
For my little love.
CHAPTER ONE
Tess paced from the kitchen to the dining room and back again. She stopped, periodically, when she heard the familiar sound of her phone chiming, and her heart jumped into her throat. She tapped her fingers on the counter, ran her hands through her hair, and willed herself not to cross into the living room and pick up her phone. After a few deep breaths, she began pacing again. She counted thirty-two. Thirty-two text messages in the last two hours.
It had been only a month this time, since Tess had kicked Hillary out. It had been a month since she had seen Hillary with another girl. A month since she had gotten sick, come home, and thrown every last article of Hillary’s clothing into the front yard. A month since she had changed the locks and spent the weekend sobbing into her sister’s shoulder. One month, Tess thought, and she is at it again. The image of Hillary leaning loosely against another woman, fingers twirling in her hair, sent a piercing pain through Tess’s heart. It wasn’t the first time Hillary had cheated on her, it wasn’t even the second, but it never seemed to hurt any less.
Tess swallowed several times, trying to minimize the lump that had formed in her throat, and continued pacing. When the chiming had ceased for a few minutes, Tess took another deep breath, begged herself to have the will power not to look at her phone, and made her way back to the computer. Her assignment was due by midnight, which left her less than eight hours to finish and submit it. Eight hours, minus the time it takes the repair person to fix the computer and actually arrive. Even though she had already pushed the button more than fifty times in the last hour, Tess couldn’t help but push the power button one more time. Five more pushes and the light still didn’t turn on, but the familiar sound of more text messages echoed from the living room.
Tess swore and went back to pacing.
Four chimes later, just as she was about to give in and was reaching for her phone, the doorbell rang and relief rushed through her. She hesitated, glanced sideways at her phone, and then shook the thought from her mind before she opened the door. The woman that stood in front of her was not who she expected.
“Ugh, can I help you?” Tess realized her disappointment must have been visible when the woman raised her eyebrows.
“Tess Crawford? Computer repair…” Courtney thought the woman in front of her, though stunning, looked like she was about to completely unravel. Tess smirked and then her demeanor instantly changed.
“Yes!” Tess nearly jumped up and down. “I’m sorry, I just assumed the same guy who usually comes would be here. Thank you so much for coming on such short notice!” Tess motioned for the woman to follow her inside. “I’m sure it’s the hard drive again. This is the third time this year, and I have a paper due tonight that I cannot afford to turn in late!” Tess showed the woman where the computer was and continued to ramble on about the many repairs that had been made to the computer over the past year. She finally stopped talking when the woman turned and put a hand on her arm.
“I have your file, hun, I looked at it before I came and brought a hard disk, just in case.” She smiled warmly at the flustered woman in front of her. “I’m Courtney. Just give me a second to look it over, and I’ll let you know what’s going on, okay?”
Tess’s face flushed. “I’m sorry, I’m rambling.”
When Courtney started working on the computer, Tess had a chance to really look at her. The woman was gorgeous. She had dark hair that fell just below her toned shoulders, and Tess couldn’t help but let her eyes wander the rest of the way down the woman’s shapely form. Tess willed herself to relax. Between the stress of midterms and everything with Hillary over the past month, Tess was a ball of nerves. She started gnawing on her fingernail and waited for Courtney for look up. Ten minutes later, two of Tess’s fingernails were nearly gone and her phone had started chiming again.
After the fifth time the phone went off, Courtney looked up from the computer she had torn apart in front of her and joked, “You must be in trouble. The only time a cell phone goes off that many times is if someone is drunk, or someone is in trouble.” She glanced at the watch her wrist and grinned. “It’s a little early for happy hour.”
Tess snickered at the truth behind Courtney’s statement and nodded in agreement. “My ex girl—” Tess nearly choked on her words and shook her head. “My ex.” Even after years of being in a relationship on and off with a woman, Tess still had a difficult time accepting her own sexuality. She had never openly used the world “girlfriend” with anyone. Her immediate family knew the sex of the person she was in a relationship with, but it wasn’t talked about. She didn’t hide it, but she didn’t discuss it either, which is why her own open admission to a complete stranger had taken Tess aback.
Courtney nodded in understanding. “I’ve had a few crazy ex-girlfriends of my own.” Courtney had meant to simply glance at Tess, but as soon as their eyes met, she couldn’t bring herself to look away. “You have beautiful eyes… they are so blue.” When Tess’s face flushed Courtney couldn’t help but smile. Adorable.
Tess released the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. Anytime she thought someone might “know” her stomach instantly churned, while she waited for their reaction. When Courtney complimented her eyes, Tess’s anxiety had diminished, and she had instantly experienced a new kind of nervous. She hadn’t felt an attraction to anyone since her on-again-off-again relationship with Hillary had begun, but she was definitely attracted to the woman standing in her dining room. The self-admission panged her with guilt. Here I am punishing Hillary for cheating, yet less than a month later I’m scoping out the repair girl. She frowned.
“Well it is definitely your hard drive.” Courtney looked up at Tess again. “I can fix it, but it will take me a little bit.”
Tess nodded. “Sure, it usually takes the other guy about an hour and a half or so.”
Courtney smirked and made a mental note to tell her brother to stop overcharging people, but thank him for giving her some extra time to spend in the beautiful woman’s kitchen. “It shouldn’t take me that long, I will try to be quick.”
“Oh, you’re fine, take your time.” Tess felt her face flush again when she realized how ridiculous she must sound. I call and ask for someone to rush over, then I tell her I am in a hurry and have a paper due, but when she compliments my eyes, suddenly I have all the time in the world. Tess shook her head and told herself to go to the living room and leave the woman to do her job. When she turned to walk towards the living room, she was stopped by a voice behind her.
“Don’t do it.”
Tess turned around, confused. “What?”
Courtney looked up from the laptop. “If you read them now, while she is sending them, I am guessing you will respond, and from experience, I am also going to guess that it won’t end well.” Courtney unscrewed another tiny screw from the computer and continued. “I’ve learned that it is better to wait until much longer after they stop. Give the other side a chance to calm down.”
Tess shook her head in agreement. “Oh, I agree with you completely.” She glanced into the living room. “I wasn’t going to read them, I was just going in a different room so I wouldn’t bug you.”
Courtney raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t bugging me at all. This is mindless
work anyways, conversation is nice.”
Tess looked back at the living room again and then hesitantly walked back into the kitchen. She could spend another hour staring at the wall, going crazy, listening to her phone chime, or she could spend it talking to a pretty computer repair woman. “You don’t look like someone who repairs computers for a living.”
Courtney chuckled. “I don’t.” She unscrewed another screw and put it on the table, mulling over her answer. “I’m an IT analyst, but I have a few days off, and my brother needed me to step in on a few appointments.”
“IT analyst?” Tess racked her brain, trying to remember what exactly that was. “Doesn’t that mean you… work with computers?”
Courtney snickered. “Yeah, I guess so, just in a different manner.” Courtney looked up at Tess, and their eyes locked again. “I suppose I just gained some geek points?”
Tess grinned. “Definitely rocking the geek points, but I’ll take some off because you showed up in jeans and didn’t bring a pocket protector.”
Courtney looked up defensively. “Well it is my day off. I try to keep my pocket protectors in my good jeans” She cut the packaging for the hard drive and picked at the adhesive. “So what is it that you do? You said you had a paper?”
Tess rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I almost forgot. I’m a nurse. I work in the ER on Oak.” When Courtney raised her eyebrows, Tess nodded, reading Courtney’s thoughts, “geek points?”
“Doctor?” Courtney joked, “I guess you get a few geek points of your own.” She put the last three screws in place and flipped the laptop back over. She motioned to the chair in front of her. “Everything is preloaded. You want to try it and make sure it is up to par?”
Tess nodded, sat in the chair in front of Courtney, and was immediately hit with the woman’s scent. She blinked and hit the power button for the hundredth time that day, but was pleasantly surprised when color lit up the screen. Courtney leaned close, reaching around from behind her to type a few commands on the keyboard. When her palm brushed the back of Tess’s hand, she let it rest for a moment. She removed it, reluctantly, when the screen powered up.
Tess was breathing a little heavier than she would’ve liked. She didn’t want to admit it, but feeling Courtney’s breath inches from her face and feeling her palm brushing lightly across the back of her hand had turned her on. When the screen came on, she followed Courtney’s directives until everything was set up the way she wanted it to be. She watched Courtney pack everything back into the bag she’d brought with her and thought about saying something, but wasn’t sure what to say. When she had everything in the bag and looked up, Tess walked with her to the door. “Thank you so much for coming so quickly. I really appreciate it.”
Courtney grinned. She didn’t want to leave so soon. Standing so closely to Tess had stirred something that she wanted to explore a little further. “Well, it wasn’t too quickly.”
When Tess’s face flushed three shades of pink, she grinned again, having gained the reaction she was hoping for. She pulled a card out of her pocked and scrawled her number on the back. “If you need anything, this is my personal number.” She handed the card to Tess and waited for another reaction.
Tess took the card and thanked Courtney again. “I’m sure it will be fine, it always lasts a few months.” Tess assumed that Courtney had thrown the word “personal” into the conversation for a reason, but she had never been good with flirting, especially when she was flirting with someone as attractive as Courtney. “I will call, though… if anything…” she mumbled her words, trying to think of something clever and flirty to say when Courtney leaned in and kissed her.
Courtney then ran her finger lightly down Tess’s cheekbone and pulled her face gently toward her own. She kissed her just as gently, the second time, feathering her lips on Tess’s before pulling back. “Just in case there was any misunderstanding.” She smiled, looking at the blue of Tess’s eyes intently. “You really do have amazing eyes.”
Tess touched her fingers to her lips and watched Courtney walk to her car. She felt the unfamiliar stirring of butterflies in her stomach and smiled into her fingertips. She watched as Courtney backed out of the driveway and caught her wink before she turned and drove down the road. She stood in the doorway for a moment before the loud chime of her phone jolted her back to reality. She glanced down the road and then turned, closing the door behind her. She set the card with Courtney’s number on the arm of the couch, next to her phone as it occurred to her that the last hour was the first time in over a month that Hillary had not been on her mind. She felt another pang of guilt before shaking her head.
I didn’t do this, you did. Tess took a deep breath and picked up her phone. She had work to do and she didn’t want any more reminders of Hillary tonight. She waivered over the delete button for a few seconds before giving in and just hitting the power button on her phone instead. She looked at the card on the couch with mixed feelings, but smiled.
Today just got a little better, Tess thought, and made her way back to the computer.
CHAPTER TWO
Tess woke the next morning to the click of the front door lock. Within seconds, she had a rambunctious six-year-old bouncing in her bed. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand and was surprised to see she had slept in past ten. “Good morning, Ali.”
“Wake up, sleepy head!” The little blonde girl bounced up and down on the bed, chanting in her sing-songy voice. “Wake up, wake up!” Her singing erupted into a stream of frantic giggles when Tess pulled her down beside her to tickle her. Tess tickled her rib cage, her legs, and her neck while the little girl squealed with laughter.
“Wait, Mom, wait, I have to pee!”
After three more pokes and a kiss on the forehead, Tess finally released the child to run to the bathroom. She noticed Brad standing in the doorway when Ali ran past and groaned, pulling the pillow over her face. “I’m soooo tired.”
Brad crossed the room with lanky strides and sat on the edge of the bed. “It’s nice to see you smiling. A nice change from the perpetual scowl you have plastered across your face.” He pulled the pillow off of her face and flicked her in the forehead. You’re too pretty to scowl.”
“Ha!” Tess scoffed, pulled the pillow back over her face, and grumbled into it. “I smile.” She slid the pillow off her face again and rolled over, grinning. “Just not when you’re around. You must have that effect on me.” She yelped when Brad flicked her in the forehead a second time, but with more force.
“I gave you a perfectly good compliment.” He sat up a little straighter and tipped his chin slightly in the air. “Now tell me I’m pretty too.”
Tess couldn’t stop the incredulous laughter from escaping her lips. “You are pretty too, Brad.” She laughed again when he nodded his head and replied, “Damn right I am.”
Tess and Brad had been friends since grade school and dated all through high school. Neither one of them had ever fallen head over heels for the other, but they were best friends, and everyone needed a plus-one to something. Over the years, they had found that they were much better at being friends than at being in a relationship. It wasn’t until Ali was conceived that Tess had finally accepted the fact that she was not interested in men. Surprisingly enough, Brad was one of the few people that let it slide right over his head, accepted it, and moved on. They both agreed that they were terrible together romantically, but they were great at co-parenting.
“So seriously, kid, how are you doing?”
Tess rolled her eyes. “You know it’s a little weird that you call me ‘kid,’ right? I am only a year younger than you.”
“Fourteen months,” Brad corrected, “and it is not weird, it is sweet and endearing. Don’t change the subject. Is psycho leaving you alone? You look like you had a rough one last night.”
Tess released the grip on her pillow and sat up, yawning. “I was up late working on an assignment and then I couldn’t sleep.” She glanced sideways at her phone on the nightstand. “
She was texting me for a while yesterday, but you will be proud to know that I did not open any of them.”
Brad looked at her skeptically. “Sure.”
“I’m serious!” Tess motioned toward her phone, “you can look, they are all unopened.” She realized her mistake as soon as she pointed her phone out to him, and reached for it but didn’t move quite as quickly as Brad, who snatched her phone up and started pressing buttons before she could get out of bed. “Brad! Don’t!” She reached for her phone, but he dodged her twice before saying, “There” and handed it back to her. “Now you won’t be tempted.”
“Ugh, you jerk!” Tess snatched her phone from his grasp and smacked his shoulder. She checked her phone and noticed that all the messages from Hillary had been deleted. She glared at him accusingly, “Why did you do that!?”
“Because I love you, and nothing she has to say to you is sane or healthy. You would’ve read them, she would’ve guilted you into talking to her, and you would’ve ended up right back to where you always end up.”
“That isn’t your decision to make for me, Brad!” Tess tossed her phone on the bed angrily and ran her hands through her hair. “What if it was something important? What if something happened?”
Brad looked at the mother of his child sympathetically. “If you honestly thought it was something important, you would’ve checked it last night. Look at you.” He motioned towards Tess’s stance. “This is not healthy. You know I’m right.”
Tess groaned, realizing how ridiculous she must look on the verge of panic over text messages she had spent the better part of the night testing her willpower not to read. She knew she should thank him for doing something she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do, but wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. “Whatever,” she mumbled under her breath and waltzed out of the bedroom. She peeked her head into Ali’s room. The little girl was lying on her belly playing with the cat. “Hey pretty girl, are you hungry?”
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