Start Me Up

Tessa was late for lunch with Amelia, Shea and Pekka. She had slept in after being up most of the night putting together pages and pages of idea's for Pekka's house, scrapping the ones she didn't like and changing things here and there as she went. It was like suddenly she reminded herself why she loved what she did, she felt like a whole new Tessa lately.

She dropped into the chair next to Amelia, pushed her sunglasses up onto the top of her head in front of her big, blonde bun and she told Amy, "Sorry, slept in."

Amelia laughed and told her, "It's fine we just got here like ten minutes ago tops."

Pekka looked over at Tessa with a smile and asked, "So... did you come up with anything?"

She nodded her head, "For every room but the kitchen, downstairs bathroom and the mud room. I'm not touching those rooms."

"Cool, I figured as much." Pekka told her, nodding his head.

Amelia glanced between her three lunch companions and then she turned her full attention to Tessa and asked, "Wait, what?"

Pekka grinned and informed her, "Tessa has agreed to let me hire her to do my house."

"It's about damn time you had something done about that place." Amelia said, and he let out a laugh. She then turned to Tessa and asked, "So that job interview didn't pan out?"

Tessa shook her head, "Nope. Apparently they wanted someone with more experience. I kind of figured as much."

"I'm sorry." Amelia told her, patting her hand on the table.

Tessa shrugged her shoulders and told her, "It's okay. Besides, Pekka's place is basically a dreamland for someone like me. It's like a nice clean canvas to do whatever I want with."

"And by the way, you totally can do whatever you want. I'm not picky as long as it looks good." Pekka informed her.

She grinned and asked, "So I can paint your bedroom neon pink?"

He narrowed his eyes but smiled at her from across the table, "Okay, whatever you want within reason."

"Can we stop talking about work at lunch please?" Shea muttered from next to Pekka.

Tessa raised her eyebrow at him and Amelia told her softly, "He's been in an awful mood all day, don't mind him."

Shea rolled his eyes, "I'm not in a bad mood."

"Could have fooled me." Amelia stated, shooting him a pointed look when again he rolled his eyes at her.

Tessa changed the subject and asked Shea, "When's your next game?"

"Tomorrow night."

"Is it a home game?" She asked him curiously.

Again he kept his answer short, "Yup, the Wild."

So Tessa nodded her head slowly in response, and their table fell into a rather awkward and uncomfortable silence after that. Shea pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jeans and spent his time staring at that, and Pekka glanced back and forth between Tessa and Shea in confusion. There was never usually a dull moment when the two of them were around.

Amelia broke the silence by tugging gently on Tessa's top and saying, "I gotta say, I like the new and improved wardrobe."

Tessa grinned and joked, "Yeah, nothing perks up a girls life like divorce."

Pekka choked on his water, Amelia let out a laugh and Shea, as usual, kept his eyes on his cell phone and didn't even crack a smile. Amelia was right, he was in a foul mood today.

Amelia simply told Tessa, "Well... it looks good on you. It's nice to see you dressing more like yourself... being more like yourself now."

Tessa didn't really know who she was anymore, but it seemed everyone around her did.

She shrugged her shoulders, "I mean, the best perk about being single is I don't have to have my outfits approved anymore, and I can wear as much leather as I want."

Amelia laughed, "Truth."

An hour later Tessa found herself in the front seat of Pekka's SUV as he drove back to his place. Tessa wanted to go over a few idea's, and figured why not do it now. Pekka glanced over at her as he drove, and finally he had the nerve to ask her, "Is everything okay?"

"Hmm?" She asked him, looking up from her open portfolio in her lap.

He smiled and asked her, "You and Webs just seemed weird at lunch."

Because I thought he was about to kiss me yesterday, and I wouldn't have minded if he had?

She shrugged her shoulders and told Pekka, "He's just in a crappy mood lately. I think Amy being gone all the time is starting to get to him."

Pekka nodded his head, he didn't believe her but he dropped the subject. He drove on in silence, and once he pulled into the driveway he said, "I'm kind of excited for this."

"What? For me to spend thousands of dollars of your paycheck?" Tessa joked with a grin that made him laugh.

They got out of the vehicle and headed inside the house which was when Pekka told her, "I'm just... I don't know. When I bought this place I had every intention of doing all this stuff and then the season started and I got busy and it was like I woke up one morning and realized I didn't even like living here anymore."

Tessa glanced around again and she told him, "The house is gorgeous, I can see why you bought it but it needs some changing. Paint mostly, you'll be surprised the different feel you get from the house when you throw a coat of paint up on the wall."

"Can we stay away from super bright colors? I know I said you could do whatever you want but..."

When he trailed off Tessa let out a small laugh and she assured him, "I'm not gonna go turn the place into a fun house don't worry. Actually I was thinking more earthy, deep and rich tones with maybe a few pops of color here and there."

"How do you feel about teal?" Pekka asked her and when she looked over at him in surprise he flushed and explained, "For the guest house. It's my moms favorite color, and usually it's my family that stays in there when they visit."

"I think we can figure something out." Tessa told him, nodding her head. She then asked, "How do you feel about blue?"

"Blue?"

She nodded her head again and explained, "For the front door. Like a deep, darker blue but not quite navy. It gives a little bit of character to a white house without being as common as a red door."

He shrugged, "Maybe... can I think about it?"

She laughed, "Yeah."

Three hours later Pekka was dropping Tessa off at Shea and Amelia's. She waved from the front porch as she walked inside, and she hung her jacket up on the only empty hook by the door before she took her portfolio filled with her notes and new idea's for Pekka's house to the coffee table in the living room.

She was unbuckling one of her heels while sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table when she heard Shea's raised voice from down the hall, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

It was followed by her sisters, "What do you want me to do Shea? I can't say no."

"No, you just don't want to say no."

"It's my job! I go where they tell me to go when they tell me to."

"You were just gone for four days Amelia, this is ridiculous."

"It's another five days and then I'm home for three full weeks Shea."

Tessa busied herself with her notes, spreading them out on the coffee table as she pretended not to be eavesdropping when the bedroom door opened and Shea came barrelling into the living room.

He stuffed his feet into his shoes and was grabbing his keys from the wall when Amelia came out and asked him, "Where are you going?"

"Out, you're not the only one who doesn't want to be here right now." He stated, slamming the front door behind him as he left.

Amelia let out a sigh, and her eyes met Tessa's from across the room. She dropped onto the couch beside Tessa and said, "Sorry."

She shrugged, "Everything okay?"

She sighed again, tucked her brown hair behind her ears and admitted, "I don't know. He's so...weird lately. It's like a switch flipped over night with him. You guys talk, do you know what's going on with him?"

Well I almost kissed him last night. Or he almost kissed me. I'm not sure which came first.

Tessa shook her head as she kept her eyes on her notes in front of her and told her sister, "No, sorry."

"Hey, this is all pretty great. This is for Peks place?" Amelia asked, leaning forward to get a better look at what Tessa was working on. Tessa nodded her head but didn't say anything so they sat in silence while she made little notes and changed around color patterns. Finally she told her, "I have to go back to St. Louis for work tomorrow."

"And I take it Shea's upset?" Tessa asked her.

"Oh he's pissed off is more like it." She mumbled, before she asked Tessa, "I don't know... I guess he has a point. We've barely seen each other in months. If he's not travelling I am, and... I mean I miss him but I wish he would understand that its part of my job the way I understand about his, you know?"

"I know."

"Shit. Tessa I'm sorry."

Tessa turned to her with a raised eyebrow when she said that, and she asked, "For what?"

"Bitching about my relationship to you right now... especially given...you know." Amelia said, trying to skirt around the subject like everyone seemed to.

Tessa told her, "It's been over six months Amy, really I'm good."

"You don't just move on from ten years with someone in a few months Tessa." She told her, as if Tessa didn't know that. When Tessa didn't respond Amelia told her, "You know... you never did tell me what really happened between you two."

"It just didn't work. Happens all of the time." Tessa stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

"You're avoiding the question." Amelia told her.

Tessa smiled and told her, "You never asked a question."

With an eye roll Amelia asked Tessa, "What happened with Jake Tessie?"

Tessa let out a breath of air and she leaned her back against the front of the couch as Amelia dropped onto the floor next to her. She tucked a curl behind her ear and said, "Honestly I don't really know."

"What's up with the people I live with having avoidance issues?" Amelia wondered out loud and Tessa raised her eyebrow so she explained, "You're constantly avoiding the elephant in the room who's name is Jacob, and Shea's just... avoiding everything to do with me right now honestly."

"I think Shea's just having a rough go with the season and honestly yeah you never being around probably sucks." Tessa told her, and when Amelia shot her a look she held her hands up in a surrender motion and told her sister, "I'm not saying he should be taking it out on you, or that it's fair because he's gone just as much as you are through the year but... Amy think about it. You guys are engaged, trying to plan a wedding and you barely see each other. Doesn't it bother you?"

"Of course it does but-"

"No buts. If it bothers you then it bothers Shea, and Shea's a guy they don't deal with things the same way that we female's do. I'm sure things will settle down and go back to normal once you're home for more than a few days at a time." Tessa assured her, patting Amelia's hand while she was at it.

Tessa sure hoped things went back to normal then, because whatever they were now was really screwing with her head.

"So this thing with Jake..." Amelia started, trailing off with the intent of letting Tessa fill in the rest.

When Tessa had told Amelia and their mother about the divorce she had purposely left all of the gory details out, they didn't need to know them. As she thought her mother cried, and practically begged her to go to Jersey and make things work. Amelia simply told her she was sorry and that he was an idiot, much like Shea had two weeks previously.

She still hadn't told them what had really happened. All she said was that she and Jake had decided that things weren't working so they were getting a divorce and that he was moving to New Jersey and that was it. It was all Tessa could say at the time, because she had no idea what was coming after that. She had no idea that she would spend months fighting with him about every little thing, that she would practically be forced out of their house and that when she hit rock bottom it would have been her sister and Shea that picked her back up.

"Tess..."

"I don't know what you want me to say Amy. Things didn't work out." Tessa told her, a little snippier than she wanted.

Amelia rolled her eyes and informed Tessa, "You guys were married for six years, together for ten. It doesn't just happen."

"Well, maybe I just don't want to talk about it yet." Tessa told her, gathering her things from the coffee table and heading down the hall to the guest room again.

- - -

When Tessa woke up the next morning it was close to ten in the morning and the house was quiet. Amelia had left for St. Louis at six, she hadn't bothered to say goodbye and Tessa figured she was probably trying to give her some space. Tessa pulled herself out of bed and across the hall to the bathroom where she got ready for the day before she shuffled out into the kitchen in her pyjama's.

Shea was sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of steaming hot coffee in front of him and Tessa let out a chuckle at the fact that he was reading the newspaper. She didn't even know people still subscribed to the newspaper instead of just using their cell phones, but figures Shea would be one of those people.

His brow lifted at her laughter, and she shrugged and joked, "Aren't you supposed to be younger than me?"

"I am younger than you." He told her with a nod of his head.

Tessa motioned to what he was doing, "Yeah but drinking coffee and reading the newspaper?"

"What's wrong with that?" Shea asked her, his brow lifted again.

She shrugged as she filled a bowl with milk and cereal and brought it to the table, taking the seat across from him. She rolled her eyes when Shea reached out and grabbed three Froot Loops from the top of her bowl and then she told him, "Nothing... my grandpa used to do that. It's adorable."

He narrowed his eyes and tossed a piece of cereal at her from across the table before he popped the other two into his mouth. Tessa smiled to herself as she started eating her breakfast. Curiously Shea asked her, "You got any plans for the day?"

"Going over to Pekka's to get approval on some designs." When she said this Shea nodded his head mechanically but he said nothing. He took a drink of his coffee and went back to reading the newspaper, it was clear to Tessa that she should just stop bringing up Pekka and his house all together because obviously when Shea had said it was fine it really wasn't. She wasn't going to try to understand his mind, because to do that it would mean she would have to try to understand all of what had been going on lately and she wasn't sure she wanted to.