One Door Closes

Rating: PG-13/T

Genre: Drama/Romance/Angst

Summary: For the love_bingo challenge, prompt "I Will Survive". Tess catches Oliver with the waitress.

Author's Note: My first official Smallville fic! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville. It belongs to Jerry Siegal, Joe Shuster and the CW.

()()

"You SON of a BITCH!"

In her fury, Tess grabbed the nearest thing she could- a vase- and threw it at Oliver's head. He ducked, and the naked brunette half-hidden in the sheets of his bed screeched in surprise. It was barely audible over Tess's own bellowing.

"I cannot fucking believe you! I go away for a week, and you hop into bed with the first fucking floozy who will pull her skirt down for you?" Oliver was looking at Tess like she had grown two extra heads and started spewing fire. It was understandable: Normally, Tess was… Not meek, but not loud either. She didn't usually scream when she lost her temper: Her fury was a contained thing that she could point in any direction and fire at will. It was rare that she ever went wild with it.

But then, she'd never caught Oliver cheating on her red-handed before either.

On the chair near the bed, there was what appeared to be a uniform of some kind. It took her a moment, but Tess eventually recognized it as the typical waitress uniform for Oliver's favorite restaurant in Star City. Tess felt her temper boil further.

"And a waitress? Really? When did you bag her, Oliver? Between the appetizers and the main course?"

"Tess, just- Calm down for a second!"

"'CALM DOWN'? I CATCH YOU IN BED WITH ANOTHER WOMAN, AND YOU TELL ME TO 'CALM DOWN'? LIKE HELL, OLIVER!" For good measure, Tess picked up another object- a small clock- and hurled it at him. It missed both Oliver and his bedmate, and crashed into the wood of the headboard, leaving a large, deep dent in its wake. "I GIVE YOU TWO YEARS OF MY TIME, MY HEART, MY LIFE, AND YOU JUST THROW IT BACK IN MY FACE! FUCK YOU, OLIVER!"

Tess turned and stormed out of the room. There were a thousand more things she could say, wanted to say, but the sheer rage had robbed her of her reason and articulacy. Best to leave now with the few coherent sentences she'd managed than stick around and stutter furiously. She could hear Oliver calling after her, stumbling around in the room while his slut demanded an explanation.

Oliver's a man-whore, sweetheart, that's what's going on. Tess thought. She picked up the pace and got out to her car, swearing when her shaking fingers couldn't get a firm grip on the key and kicking the door when she dropped the key-ring entirely. Once she had retrieved it, Tess jammed the key into the door, unlocked it, got inside and floored it out of the driveway, tires screeching.

Tess's grip on the steering wheel was made of steel, and her jaw was starting to hurt from the force of her scowl. It was a long drive back to her apartment, and by the ten minute mark, the anger was starting to bleed into hurt and sadness.

Tess had loved that bastard. Oliver had saved her life once. He had been good to her, and she thought that he'd loved her back and everything was going fine between them. Evidently not. Damn it, Oliver had been the first man in her life to treat her with real, honest-to-God respect, treated her like a lady.

And now he's dumped me for a bimbo he probably picked up on the fly at lunch. Tears stung at her eyes, and she furiously blinked them away.

No. Tess was not going to cry over this. She wasn't going to do what she'd done whenever her father had humiliated or hurt her as a child. She wasn't going to whimper like she had when she and Megan were left alone after Marcos slaughtered their classmates and tormented them on that island. Hell no.

Tess was going to become a bitch. She was going to show Oliver what a massive, massive mistake it was to do this to her. She would survive this, and she would do it without pity- or mercy.

At the next red light, Tess grabbed her purse and fumbled around in it, eyes glued to the light in case it changed. Finally, she fished out the business card she had been looking for. The one that had been given to her a week prior by none other than Lex Luthor, the scion of the Luthor family. He had been impressed by her marine biology degree and was interested in offering her a position at the company in the bio-tech division.

Initially, Tess had taken the card and said that she would consider it with the intention of politely declining. After all, she was dating the owner of Queen Industries; accepting a position at LuthorCorp would be a massive betrayal of Oliver's trust.

A small smile curled across her lips.

Payback's a bitch, isn't it Oliver?

The light turned green, and she pressed on with vigor.

-End

And yes, I'm aware that Tess screeching her head off is highly out of character for her. But this was pre-Lex and pre-CEO (I don't think it was ever quite established how old she was when she was kidnapped or with Oliver, was it?), so I think I interpreted it a little bit.