Two weeks later, Booth knew he was in trouble.
"You were late." She'd stood at the party alone for thirty minutes until he'd gotten there.
"I'm sorry, Tessa. I had to run by the Jeffersonian." He told her for the third time as they entered her apartment.
"To see her."
"No, not to see her." And was it bad that they both automatically knew just who the 'her' was?
"Then why? Why didn't you call?" Tessa paused and cringed, knowing she sounded like a nag. She really tried to understand him, she did. But…he'd changed in the past few months. He'd grown quieter, yet he never complained about work. Like now, for example…
"Tessa…"
"Seeley…is this…is this really working out?"
"What? Yes, yes, Tessa, come on…look. I'm sorry. I had to run to the Jeffersonian to bail out Hodgins from going to this bigwig, corporate party."
Tessa flinched. He knew she worked in corporate law, and that she liked it, but he could never seem to get past some of the lifestyles of her clients or her employers.
"So you were late because you had to help out some, 'squint' as you call them?"
Booth frowned. "That's not very nice."
"You call them squints. I'm just repeating what you said!"
"Yeah, but, I don't know, they're kind of on my team now. They are my squints." He chuckled affectionately.
"Even Dr. Brennan?" Tessa's voice had grown a bit colder.
Booth sighed and walked over to her, setting his hands, and moving them down her arms, pulling her into a hug.
"Bones is my partner, that's all."
An image of her in her party dress flashed through his mind. He took a deep breath and tried to dispel the image, but it was just superimposed by another image of his partner…bending down to look into the face of Shawn Cook, empathizing with his experiences in the foster system. He'd understood more about her in that moment, and he knew she understood him when she'd told him she'd made the promises he now had to keep. "But you don't believe in heaven" he'd said. "But you do." She'd replied. They understood each other.
"I just don't understand you sometimes, Seeley" Tessa pulled her face back to look at him. He bit his lip and looked down at her.
"Tessa…" it was now or never "I think…I think we should…go on vacation."
She smiled and wrapped her arms around him.
Booth looked up at the ceiling. He was doing the right thing.