Red Reunion: Chapter 11
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine
Teresa entered the restaurant with her mind on one thing and one thing only. And it probably wasn't what it should've been for the transaction with her ex to be all that successful. Maybe if her mind was on its most alert, she would've picked up on the tiny little details and saw something like this coming. But she didn't.
She was thinking of her soon-to-be husband.
Jane's reaction, which on many levels seemed too good to be true, was shaking her. She's known Jane for years and in those years he's proven to her, time after time, that he is as sucky with sharing as she. And then some. In fact, in the years that they worked together, she was often baffled by his almost childlike reactions when asked to share. Why one earth would that behavior change now? And especially when the object in question wasn't a cookie or a piece of pizza, but his fiancé. She knew that she didn't see this as sharing, but she knew Jane well enough to know that when he gets as jealous as his tone suggested, he'd see it exactly that way.
She also knew Jane well enough to know that his fantastically perfect reaction was suspicious. And that whenever things fell too easily in place with her soon-to-be-husband, as they did now, it meant that he had a plan forming somewhere in that damned memory palace of his.
She knew that walking into what was supposed to be a peace-making meeting with her ex while thinking of her new fiancé was playing with fire, but every time she caught herself and averted her thoughts to re-befriending Ross, her thoughts would eventually drift back to Jane's words: You go and have dinner and get past whatever you need to get past. If it helps you, I'm not going to get in your way.
The damn definition of suspicious.
Whatever was making him be so nice and perfect, came with its own evil laugh.
The restaurant, which was situated uptown enough not to be downtown, and expensive enough to be considered fancy without you having to buy a new dress to eat there, was packed to the brim as she entered. To keep from looking too out of place, she wore her fancy black jeans and one of her nicer tops. She still wore her normal shoes, though. While getting dressed (with Jane lying unceremoniously on the bed, commenting on the way she picked out her top and jeans), he laughed at her refusal to even consider the heels.
Maybe that was why she was so suspicious? How he went from 'reluctantly letting you go because I love/care for you' to 'I'm gonna help you pick out your outfit!' He said it was to make sure she didn't wear anything too suggestive (with a joking tone and a side-comment of "That's only for me…"), but it still made her feel weird about it.
It wasn't like she wanted Jane to resist her transactions with Ross – she really wanted to fix what was broken between them – but the fact that he didn't want her to go, that he wanted to keep her his and only his, made her feel special in a way. Was that terrible? Was she a terrible, incisive little girl who wanted the best of both worlds?
She was frustrating herself.
She was abruptly pulled out of her flurry of thoughts when she heard Ross' voice somewhere behind her.
"Hey." He greeted, smiling his crooked smile. "You look nice. I got a table over there." He said, directing her to the table with a gentle hand in the small of her back – not low enough to be intimate, but it lingered like his touches always did. She wondered why she never had a problem with it before, but now seemed to. She was friends with him while being in relationships with other men before..?
"Thanks." Her reply might've been a little late, but rather late than never.
They exchanged the standard pleasantries – How was your day? Do you like your hotel? Are things still good in New York? – all while avoiding the great big elephant that sat in the room (and on her left hand ring finger), until the waiter came to their table and took their order.
They ordered their respective meaty treats and a bottle and a bottle of Chardonnay for the table.
And that's when the shit hit the fan.
Lisbon's phone started buzzing wildly and she took it out of her pocket, intending to either send it to voicemail or take it out of polite company. But the caller ID made her eyes widen just a bit and a smile light her face.
"Look who's calling!" She said with a wide smile, then answered the phone. "Hi Em!"
Ross realized what was going on too late and couldn't stop it. He only sat and watches as his plan slowly came undone.
"Tessie! How are you?"
"I'm fine, thanks! Em, I can't believe your timing! I'm literally having dinner with Ross right now. You want to talk to him?"
Silence. Then: "That sonofabitch, I knew he was there!"
"What?"
"Tessie, I don't know what's going on, but I spoke to Ross over the phone yesterday and he swore high and dry that he was nowhere near Sacramento or you. He lied to me. I don't know what's been going on lately, he's been acting like a crazy person and then he took a forever-long vacation to wherever. Sacramento, I guess."
Automatically – partly because of habit and partly because she's not stupid and can pin a scaly situation when she sees/hears one – Teresa's face schooled itself into a pleasant, conversational montage of expressions.
"Yeah, we bumped into each other day before yesterday. A total coincidence. He was in San Fransisco, headed back your way. You know I heard there was a new boyfriend... Tell me about it!"
"Is he listening? Nice save. Listen, I know Ross better than anybody and he's never done anything like this before. But I also know how special you are to him and how shattered he was when you left. I'm just afraid he'll do something he'll regret. I'm gonna take the red-eye to Sacramento. Maybe seeing me in person would slap some sense into him. But just be careful in the meantime, Tessie."
"Okay, I will. You go do that. Send my love, sweetie, we'll talk again soon."
She hung up and managed a smile. "Em sends her love."
"Is that all?" He asks. She tries to tell herself she's imagining the darkness in her former best friend's tone.
"Yup. Oh, and things are going well with her new boyfriend. But I think you're right, he doesn't sound right for her. I give it another week." She took a sip from her wine, not knowing what else to say. She was grabbing things to say out of the air and she was running out of things to grab.
All the things Jane said about Ross' motives not being pure sprang up in her mind.
For the first time, it really occured to her that maybe he was right. Just because she was desperate to set things right didn't mean he necessarily was. Just because she wanted things to go back to the way they were before they were a couple and before she broke it off to be with Jane, didn't mean he wanted it to.
It was glaringly obvious that things weren't right. The way Emily sounded on the phone and the way Ross reacted to her talking to her.
Something was wrong.
She left her gun on the coffee table at home. Why would she need it, she was going out with a friend? She knew that Ross could overpower her easily; he's had the same training as her and he was almost twice the size and weight.
Teresa Lisbon isn't any damsel in distress; she chose a career where it was regulations to carry a gun and where she received training to kick any bad guy's ass.
But right now, she was scared.
She wanted to believe that Ross was still the great guy he was before, but all the evidence points to 'no'. What can she do?
"You know, I'm kinda tired." She said when she put down her glass. "I think maybe we should skip dessert. It's been a hell of an exhausting day and I feel like dead on feet."
"We haven't even started to talk it out yet." He said with a small chuckle.
"I know, I'm sorry. Maybe we can reschedule?"
"Or we could do it now."
Something about his tone made a shiver she couldn't quite contain roll down her back.
"Okay. Let's get to it then. How do you feel about the break up?"
"How do I feel? Wow, Tess, that's really psychologist-y of you." Another small chuckle. "Let's see, how do I feel? Well, I'm not gonna lie to you. When you first broke up with me, I was mad. I was extremely mad. I wanted to punch out walls, I was that mad."
A stab of fear in throat.
"But then I thought that me punching walls wasn't going to help anyone. It wasn't going to make me any happier, it wasn't going to bring you back to me. So I decided to go on a little trip. Which I'm sure Emily told you all about."
She started to protest, but he hushed her to silence.
"No worries, I know she did. And I'm not going to lie and say my motives weren't to win you back at first. It's completely natural for me to want that, don't you think? I mean, you've been my best friend for years now. And after all that time of having all that chemistry that we could never act on because you were my sister's roommate, or you lived on the other side of the country, we finally got together. And we were practically a legitimate couple there for a minute. You're the woman of my dreams, Tess, you've always been." He clears his throat. "So anyway, my travels bring me to Sacramento. And I meet you here. And I see that you're happy with that blonde creep you chose over me. And I love you, Tess, so I'm happy that you're happy. I would never do anything to hurt you."
She finds her voice. "So you're saying that you got over me here? That you've decided to go back to be just friends after seeing me and Jane together?"
A smile; darker than she ever thought she'd see on him. "No. No, that's not what I decided."
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Much love,
Zanny X
