This Ain't My Finest Hour

-March 2, 2014; Cedar Rapids, Iowa-

They had been laying in bed for close to half an hour, their legs splayed out across each other, Tessa's head resting soundly on Colby's chest. He'd made up some excuse as to Leighla about why he hadn't travelled the extra 2 hours to Des Moines to be with her. It made Tessa sick to her stomach that he had done it and she hadn't exactly been quiet about it but once he had kissed her and assured her that Leighla suspected nothing, her worries were pushed to the back of her mind.

Tessa's eyes widened in horror and she pulled away from Colby quickly. She looked to the door and held her breath; someone was knocking loudly and continuously.

"Fuck it," Colby mumbled to himself before calling out, "Hold on!"

"You're not-" Tessa cut herself when she saw him walk towards the door. She asked him in a rough whisper, grabbing onto his arm, "What are you doing?"

"Just... Go hide in the bathroom or something," he suggested. She slowly let go of his arm, shaking her head in disbelief. "Please, Tessy. I'll get rid of them quickly."

She wrapped her arms around her bare stomach and disappeared into the bathroom dejectedly. She shut the door behind her slowly and carefully, not wanting to make any noise.

Colby, once he was sure Tessa was in the bathroom, looked through the peephole and groaned when he saw Jon standing on the other side.

"What?" He asked when he opened the door. Jon said nothing, only pushed past him and walked straight towards the bathroom. "Hey!" Colby quickly moved to stand in between Jon and the bathroom.

"Man, I need to take a leak and it's kind of urgent," Jon grabbed Colby by the arm and forcefully moved him out of the way. Colby planted his feet on the ground. "What the fuck is your problem?"

"You don't want to go in there. Not nice," Colby rested a hand on his stomach. "Something I ate last night didn't agree with me."

"Then I'll hold my fucking breath," Jon shoved Colby out of the way and put his hand on the door handle.

He opened the door and laughed manically when he saw Tessa sitting on the edge of the bath, her eyes wide and her skin drained of colour. "Oh for fuck's sake. Get out."

"What?" She asked hopelessly, looking at her feet. Her arms were still wrapped around her waist, hiding the exposed skin.

"Look, I need to piss. So unless you want to watch-"

Tessa stood up and quickly walked out of the room, the door shutting loudly behind her. She walked right past Colby and began picking her clothes up off the floor.

"I tried to stop him," Colby sighed, putting his hands on her waist and making her stand upright, her shirt in her hands.

"I know," Tessa nodded, shrugging Colby off her. Pulling her shirt of her head, she quickly made to pick up her skirt when the bathroom door reopened.

"All I came here to do was use the bathroom and tell you that you were late to training. But fuck, the last thing I expected was to see June Jacobs hiding in your bathroom," Jon quipped, looking between the horrified Tessa and angry Colby. "See, if I were you... You send her into the bathroom with her clothes, let her put them on and then have her flush the toilet and she walks out casually, she'd just popped in to chat."

"You do this often?" Tessa asked with an out of character snark in her voice. She had pulled on her skirt and was making a conscious effort to not stand too close to Colby.

"With my friends' sisters. I've never had to hide an affair before."

Tessa put her heads in her hand and began to breathe heavily. Colby's hand rested gently on her upper back and she didn't even bother trying to shrug him off.

"You can't tell anyone," Colby said sternly. "You're gonna hurt too many people."

"I'm going to hurt too many people? You're cheating on Leighla, that fault's on you two idiots," Jon said gruffly. "I'm not gonna say anything because I like Leighla. You two need to cut this out."

"Done," Tessa said quietly, moving her hands away and shrugging Colby's hand off her back. "We're done." She turned to Colby who was looking down at her in mild shock. "What? You really want to continue this?"

"Well-"

"You're fucking kidding me," Jon groaned.

"You don't want to," Tess told him sadly yet seriously. "I've been in your position before, remember? It's not going to end well. I was stupid to even begin this."

Tessa picked up her handbag and walked towards the door.

"That's it?" Jon asked her when she was beside him.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked Jon exasperatedly. "Get down on my knees and beg you not to tell anyone when you've already said you wouldn't?"

"I just can't believe you'd do this again. I thought you were trying to kick the reputation."

Tessa shrugged somewhat carelessly. She slipped on her shoes and pulled the door open, leaving the two men to discuss the newly revealed secret. Entirely aware of the clothes she was wearing – the same thing she had left the arena in last night – the trip to her hotel room was made as quickly as possible.

As she fiddled with the key card, Tessa heard a door open down the hall and she panicked. She fumbled even more with the card, fearing that if she looked over her shoulder she would only draw attention to herself.

"Looking really shifty there, Jacobs."

Tessa squealed and the card dropped to the floor, but she knew who it was.

"What do you want, Jon?" Tessa asked, bending down to pick up the card. "I don't need a lecture on how badly I've screwed up, on how it's not just my life but his and Leighla's... I know all of that and I won't try to justify it, I can't justify it."

"I just wanted to tell you that you're gonna need to find a new ride."

"Oh," she breathed. "I suppose so."

"Is there anyone you can ride with?"

"I'll find someone."

Jon nodded, "I'll see you in Illinois."

Tessa nodded slowly, moving to open her door as soon as he walked away. She was in desperate need of a shower and to find someone who could drive her to the night's house show, the former was given priority.

Total Divas had totally slipped Tessa's mind, but the second Eva mentioned it Tessa had to close her eyes and remind herself to breath.

"Of course you can ride with us," Eva had said happily. "The cameras aren't around today."
Today was the most important word in that sentence. There was no way Tessa would be able to travel with Eva when they were filming. Not because there was a problem with her being in the show but because she had a problem with it.

Ideally Tessa would have called Brie but The Bella Twins were on a different set of house shows so she was going to get to Bloomington with Eva and Summer and she was extremely lucky that they hadn't already left yet.

"What happened to your boys?" Summer asked when Tessa met them outside the hotel.

"My boys?" Tessa asked with slight amusement.

"Yeah," Summer said, taking some of her friend's bags. "We call them your boys, now. You spend so much time with them."

Tessa rolled her eyes, "Of course you do."

The three women all climbed into the car – Eva driving, Summer riding shot gun and Tessa sitting behind her – as quickly as they could to get out of the far below freezing temperature. They would be entering slightly warmer weather in Bloomington but they had managed to escape snow in Cedar Rapids.

"Why aren't you with them, though? Everything okay?" Eva eventually asked, startling Tessa.

"Yeah, everything's fine." The lie was easy, all lies were for Tessa. "They just had to leave before I was ready. But if you guys are fun enough, I might have to change travel buddies."

If it was the only way to get around then she would have to deal with the cameras that might start hanging around.

"Did you see the photo your brother posted the other day?" Summer asked, leaning around in her seat to show Tessa the photo.

Tessa was ready to say that they'd shown it to her at NXT when she noticed that it was a different photo.

"He didn't."

She snatched at the phone, apologising immediately after, and glared at the photo.

Halloween 2005. 19 years old. Dressed up as Mary Poppins.

"I'm actually going to kill him," Tessa seethed causing Eva and Summer to share a look – Tessa rarely showed her anger.

"Why?" Summer asked, reaching for her phone before Tessa could throw it out the car window. "You look great."

"I still have baby fat," Tessa whined, sitting back in her seat and folding her arms over her chest.

Summer laughed but assured her that it was nothing to be embarrassed by. Tessa wasn't buying it.

-Bloomington, Illinois-

After sitting alone in a secluded corner of the arena for almost the entirety of the house show, Tessa had come to the conclusion that she was going to see Colby. Whether it was just to talk about how they'd been caught or if she wanted something more was undecided she just knew that she was going to go see him.

T: Are you rooming by yourself?

C: Not 2nite

Well, there were ways around that.

T: Can we talk? I'm in room 340.

He didn't respond to the text and Tessa just stared down at her screen. When there was a knock at her door, she smiled.

She let Colby in with a smile and light peck on the lips. Colby didn't appear to be confused by the action; he smiled at her and followed her into the room.

"This isn't what I wanted to talk to you about but while we're here... Can you tell Jimmy to stop with the pictures?"

"Why would I do that?" he asked innocently, sitting down beside her on the bed. "Those are some great photos. I've never seen the one with Shelley before."

Tessa huffed as the picture flashed up in her mind. She was maybe 17, sitting on a couch beside Alex Shelley blushing profusely and avoiding looking at the camera. It was no secret amongst the wider independent community that during the last two years of high school Tessa had an unwavering crush on Alex Shelley. 'The Alex Shelley Story' was always a crowd pleaser.

"I'll talk to him," Colby said, realising that she was less than impressed. "It is Jimmy, though, so you know I can't make any promises."

She smiled at him and leant forward to hug him as a thank you. It was seemingly innocent, or it would have been had she not kissed him when he walked in, but as her body touched his she felt herself melting into his touch. It was a natural movement to just relax and hold on.

"We're gonna do this again, aren't we?" She pulled her head back and looked at Colby's face, watching him smile softly at her.

"We don't have to do anything," he said, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"I want to."

a/n One thing's for sure... Tessa seems to love trouble.

Many thanks to deanambooty, nmoxracha, CarolReigns, MJ, UntilNeverDawns, ajroleplays, Livin on the Edge, Straight Edge Queen.

Are there any songs that remind you of Tessa and the situations she gets herself into?