Wine After Whiskey

Tessa had sat on her decision of seeing how everything would work out in an attempted relationship with James for almost three weeks before she even brought it up to him. She wanted to make sure that this was the best choice, for both her and Aubree; and that it was something she actually wanted. It took a lot of courage, and balls from her to even bring it up in the first place. Since she had told James that basically there would be no way in hell she’d ever get back with him, he hadn’t spoken a peep of it, and so it slightly terrified her that she would now be the one brining it back up again.

They were sitting on the ‘L’ shaped couch in James’s living room, watching some stupid reality television show on the television, while Aubree took a nap in James’s old guest room; a room that had been slowly transformed these past couple of weeks into a bedroom for Aubree.

Any free time that Tessa had from work and James from training was spent at either of their apartments. On nights Tessa got off late from work, she would head over to James’s place for dinner and occasionally a movie, and then would drag her and her half-asleep daughter back to their place. When Tessa was off, it would be vice versa, that way it wasn’t always one person cooking dinner, or having to make sure their place was pristine clean.

Tessa kept looking over at James, trying not to make it obvious with her peripheral vision. She didn’t know whether or not this was the “right” time or not, but now was as good as ever and she decided to just jump right in. Her stomach knotted, and her hands began to sweat. What was so hard about this? Just a little casual dinner between two… friends? Wasn’t that what they were now?

Why did that make her so goddamn nervous?

“What are you staring at, Tessie-Bessie? My rugged good looks?” James questioned with a raised eyebrow. Tessa’s cheeks twinged pink from him calling her their nickname he always used when they were younger, and him realizing that she had been staring at him. She pursed her lips and shook her head with a small, and embarrassed laugh.

“Of course. You know I cant resist your dirty hair, and unshaved face. It turns me on so much.” She rolled her eyes with a shake of her head, making her hair fall into her face. He patted her leg with a grin, focusing back on the TV.

Get your balls together, girl. Tessa tried to will herself. That hadn’t been exactly how she had wanted to go. She was just going to say it, flat out. Whatever happened, happened. If James hadn’t made that stupid joke, and Tessa hadn’t had to be a stupid, sarcastic bitch, she would’ve just said it. Get. It. Together, Tessa.

“What do you think about going out to dinner… This weekend maybe?” Tessa threw herself from the frying pan into the fire, and only hoped she wouldn’t burn too badly.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” James mumbled, still focusing on the TV. “There’s this restaurant and you watch a show, I thought maybe Bree would like it… Maybe we can go there.” Tessa shook her head slowly, he wasn’t getting it.

“That does sound good,” she began, speaking slowly, and choosing her words carefully. She had no doubt in her mind that James would be fine with giving them another shot- at least she hoped- it was more her mind and will that were making it difficult. “But I was thinking just the two of us. Maybe we go out to the nice steakhouse in Toronto that we tried to go to that one time?” James’s expression changed, and he fixed his baseball cap that was affixed on the top of his head. Nervously, Tessa picked at the cuticles of her nails.

“Tess, what do you--”

“Another chance, James?” Tessa offered a treaty; a hypothetical olive branch. A little smile appeared on his face, it was hopeful, but not hopeful to where he’d get all his eggs into a basket with wishes.

“Are--are you serious?” his voice cracked a little with excitement.

“Yes, but…” she paused. This would be the most ‘tricky’ part. “But I have rules this time. Strict rules that have to be followed. It’s the only way I will allow this to attempt to work out.”

“Okay, what are they?” James thought that wasn’t too bad of a compromise. It couldn’t be that bad. She smirked a little, she realized how he thought it wasn’t that bad… for now.

“First off, no sex. If I needed to explain that, again. Not until we are in more of a ‘physical relationship’ type relationship. That could be days, weeks, months, years. We have a lot of issues, and insecurities that we need to figure out and resolve, sex only complicates it. Second, I don’t want to flaunt anything going on between us in front of Aubree. I don’t want her seeing mommy and daddy all happy together, and then bing, bang, boom something happens and we’re not together again. Not exactly a stable household. Which brings me onto my third rules, and possibly the most important…I want to wait, and take our relationship slow this time. It goes back to resolving our problems. I want you not to expect a kiss on the first date, or whatever you expect. It’s going to be a lot slower this time… That way, I can see any signs of anything. I’m still not 100% sure about this, and before I get myself head-over-heels, I want to make sure that I’m 100%. That’s really it…I guess.”

James looked back at her and blinked. It was going to be that easy? Keep his balls on a short leash for a little while, and made sure not to get handsy while trying to make sure the latter? It couldn’t be that hard. He’d be able to do that. Wouldn’t he?

“Not too bad.” he shrugged, draping his arm loosely around Tessa’s shoulder. She raised her eyebrow towards him- a break already in her ‘rules’- and he quickly pulled it away with a curt nod.

“That’s what you think now, James Neal.” she giggled with a small shake of her head. She knew James. She knew he was a total horn dog, or at least had been when they were together, and would have a hard time just resisting having any kind of body contact with her. Her rules had almost been a test to see how much self-control he really had. Besides wanting to take everything slow, she was sort of playing this game to realize how much he really cared, and what he would do in order to keep her.

How long would he be able to put up with it before he finally broke down and started asking for what every red-blooded male begged, lived, and strived for? Time would tell, and Tessa was going to see how exactly James would handle this little experimental relationship.

Let the games begin...