Wine After Whiskey

James arrived at Tessa’s apartment at a quarter after seven. She was just finishing getting dressed as he walked in the door- looking suave- in his dark, plaid suit and a pale peach shirt with a darker peach tie. Tessa’s innards turned, and she could’ve sworn her uterus dropped a couple of feet as he traipsed in the door.

Boy, did that man look fine, she thought, biting back a giggle. She sounded like a giddy little twelve year old looking at her crush from across the schoolyard- something she had done all those years before James had finally decided to present himself in her life.

“Zip me, please?” she asked, pulling her curled red hair over her shoulder and motioning for the back of her dress.

Easily she would’ve been able to zip up her dress by herself, she had done it before and had gotten along just fine; but her plan was to see what exactly James would do.

The backline of the dress plunged quite low, even with it being zipped up. His hands fumbled- dangerously close to touching her lower back- with the zipper. It was like he had his hands coated in a pound of butter before he tried to zip her up, his hands just couldn’t catch it.

“Nervous there, eh?” she poked fun at his misfortune. At the last attempt, James caught the zipper and pulled it up slowly, his calloused fingertips slowly brushing upside Tessa’s spine, and giving her goose bumps from the tip of her nose to the top of her toes.

“There. All done,” he exclaimed proudly, as if he had just tied his shoe for the first time in his life. Tessa patted his head, jokingly, and ruffled out his already messy looking hair. Her test hadn’t exactly worked the way that she had anticipated, yet he did- for the most part- keep his hands off of her. So far, so good.

“Let me just finish putting on my shoes, and I’ll be ready to go.” she mumbled, straightening out the bodice of her ‘little black dress’ and slipping her freshly painted feet into a pair of sky high red pumps. “Ready?” she asked after checking herself out one more time in the mirror- though she probably didn’t need too since James had been checking her out every two seconds sine he had arrived- and turned off the light to her bedroom, closing her door behind her.

They walked out into the kitchen, she grabbed her clutch off the table, and again James checked her out. This time, her ass. Tessa’s cheeks twinged pink as she realized he was staring at her backside.

“Stop staring, James.” she instructed, as he tried to deny he had been looking anywhere near her direction.

Turning around to give him a look, she noticed how even though he may have been denying staring at her the entire time, his pants- which seemed to be getting a little tighter towards the crotch region- were beginning to tell a different story. Her time to make him feel awkward and uncomfortable.

“You know, Jimmy boy, we’re just going to go eat a nice steak dinner. No need to get the snake ready for a plate of lobster…” James’s face turned redder than a beat. It was partially because he realized how his penis was overpowering his brain in the blood flow department; and also how Tessa had just been so vulgar, and crude about describing what exactly was happening.

“Oh shush.” he tried to play it off as she grabbed her clutch off the counter, and began walking towards the front door.

In all the years he had known Tessa, James knew when she was shaking her stuff just to get a reaction from him. And in all honesty, he wouldn’t have been lying when he said the way that her hips were swaying- obviously more than usual, but not enough to make her look like a contorted figurine- made his head a little dizzy, and the blood rush to all places that it shouldn’t have been.

Think about cold showers, and the disgusting smell of hockey bags, and liver and onions… James willed himself as they walked towards his car, slowly, but surely his tricks began to work, leaving Tessa with a long laugh. He didn’t find it to be as funny as she did.

_____

They arrived at the small steakhouse on the outskirts of Toronto in pretty good time, for a Saturday night the main roads hadn’t been too packed with drivers going out. They were seated in a back booth, and as soon as they sat down a waiter in his early thirties came to take their drink orders; red wine for both.

There wasn’t much conversation between them at first. There was that awkward kinda ‘first-date’ talk for a little while, but then it began to die down just as their salads were brought to the table. Aubree was brought up a couple of times; mainly conversation about how well she had adjusted to meeting James and all, and how impressed Tessa was that she had began to started calling him ‘dad’ at times. James’s eyes lit up at the comment he had also noticed.

“Maybe we can all go on a vacation one weekend you’re off.” he suggested with hopeful optimism. Tessa grinned. That did sound like a good idea. Besides that weekend trip to hell, aka Boston, Tessa and Aubree hadn’t ever really been on many vacations together.

“Wasaga Beach, maybe.” Both of them agreed. “Remember when we went there right before Bree was born?” James nodded. How could he forget? “And I was so fat and pregnant, and that girl who always had a crush on you when we went up there said I looked like ‘beached whale’ and I seriously thought you were going flip some tables.”

“Yeah, Melanie.” Tessa raised her eyebrow towards James at the remembrance of the girl, who they had both branded a ‘trashy, washed up, too-tan, fake boobed, blonde whore’. “I went on a few dates with her like two summers ago, it was no big deal…” Again Tessa raised her eyes, and in James’s mind red flags, and warning signals began to sound off. He had definitely said the wrong thing.

“You mean slept with her.” she corrected him, and by the dark shade of embarrassed purple he turned, she had guessed correctly. “Well it was a fun trip regardless…” she shrugged, obviously turning down the tone of the mood quite a few levels, and taking a sip of her wine.

_____

After meals were brought to the table, scarfed down, and a few more glasses of wine were consumed, the bill had finally arrived, and James paid for their meal- no questions asked, or arms raised. They retuned back to his car and drove back to Tessa’s apartment in silence. James realized it was probably the comment he had made about Melanie that was still bugging Tess, so when he pulled up into her complex, he turned the engine off, and brought up what needed to be said.

“Mel and I were stupid okay? It wasn’t a big deal or anything…” He wasn’t lying to her at all. James had visited Wasaga a couple of times last summer and they seemed to “connect” every time in his hotel room. Besides the sex, James didn’t really think of her much more than that. He hadn’t had a serious relationship with her- or with anybody else for that matter- since he had left Tessa.

“Everything seems to be stupid with you, James. Why don’t you just live and own up to your mistakes, instead of passing them off as stupid?” His mouth dropped a little bit, surprised at what she said. But it was right. He had been doing that his entire life, a sort of defense mechanism, and it needed to be turned around.

“You’re right.” he replied simply. There wasn’t much more he could say. They sat in silence, neither wanting to really speak. Nothing really was there to say, finally Tessa spoke.

“You’ll pick up Aubree tomorrow, right? Colette said she’d drop her off at school in the morning, but remember she gets out at noon.” James nodded in agreement as Tessa began to collect her stuff. “I’ll see you tomorrow evening, then.” she replied coolly, unlocking her door, kissing James on the cheek, and saying goodbye.

The walk back to her apartment wasn’t too long, and by time she had gotten safely into her apartment with the doors and windows locked behind her, James realized he had made a stupid mistake, said something he shouldn’t have, and needed to apologize for it. He knocked on her door, but she didn’t answer. He tried calling her cell phone, but it went to voicemail. Finally, as he was walking away from her building, his phone chimed from a text message. Expecting one from Tess, maybe seeing why he had called and knocked on her door, he had been kinda thrown a curve ball when he saw the message waiting.

Text Message (1): Melanie -- Wasaga

Hi boo. When are u coming back up here? I really want to see your face again (; Seven days has been nearly too long without you. Call me when you get a chance, or maybe I could come down there again…? Either way, let me know. Xo Mel.

This was definitely not good.