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“And that threw you off course?” Sasha said.
“Actually, it didn’t. I was in a genuinely healthy place. Was I happy for him? No, but I didn’t care what he did. But …”
“But?” she prompted.
“But then I came home one night, and he was sitting on my doorstep, freaking out. He’d bought the ring to propose to her and panicked. He said he realized he didn’t want to be with her. He wanted to be with me. He said all the right things and swept me off my feet again.”
Sasha groaned.
“I know. He took me to his parents’ house in Palm Beach. We spent a week drinking Sex on the Beaches and having sex on the beach. We planned a life—talked about moving in together, getting engaged, the whole deal. And then, at the end of the week, while we were packing up to go back to the airport, he looked me dead in the eye, said, ‘I’m going back to her,’ walked out of the house, and left me there. I changed my flight so I wouldn’t have to sit next to him on the plane for hours.”
Sasha’s stomach twisted. “What a dirtbag,” she said before she could stop herself.
Tessa’s laugh was edged with hysteria and dangerously close to a sob. “But I’m the fool who fell for it.”
“You still spoke to him after that?” Leo asked, his amazement seeping through his voice.
“Not for a few years. He and the woman broke up when the company folded and he didn’t need her dad’s money anymore. After that, he called me a bunch, but I wouldn’t pick up or return his calls. He tried to send messages to me through our friends, but I told them I was done. I was done with Rex Stoddard. I even saw him camped out on my porch again one night. Different house, different neighborhood, same old Rex, lounging on my porch swing, waiting for me to come home. This time, I was smart enough to turn my car around and drive to my sister’s place for the weekend.”
She paused and passed her hand over her forehead as if she could scrub the memory away before continuing. “So, I guess you want to know how I ended up here after that.”
Leo and Sasha nodded in unison. Sasha lifted her mug and studied Tessa over the rim as the woman went on with her story.
“I pulled away from most of the group for a while. I had to, for my sanity. But when Bethany got pregnant, I reconnected with her. She’s the first friend of mine to have a baby. And Rowan is the cutest little squishy marshmallow. It felt like I was punishing myself and missing milestones in my friends’ lives. And for what? Why should I cut myself off from my friend group because Rex was a trash human in his twenties?”
Sasha bobbed her head. Tessa had a point. But then, again, in her experience, sometimes a well-honed self-preservation instinct required a person to burn a bridge or two.
Tessa tossed up her hands. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just making justifications. Anyway, about a year ago, I started hanging out with Leeza and Bethany again and texting with Annette now and then. When Leeza told me Annette was coming this weekend, I decided I wouldn’t miss it either. I wanted to be here. Not because Rex was organizing the whole thing, but despite that fact. I told myself the trade-off of dealing with him and his BS was worth celebrating the new year with my friends.”
“Was it?”
Tessa snorted. “I’d forgotten just how much of a creep Rex could be. It all came rushing back when he pulled that stunt with the bedrooms.”
“Did that make you angry?” Leo asked.
She rolled her eyes. “What do you think? At first, I was stunned. How dare he assume, after all this time, that I would fall back into bed with him and be his sex buddy for the weekend? But then I realized, why wouldn’t he think that? I’ve done it so many times. His ego is the size of a small state. He was banking on things he knew to be true.”
“That’s a pretty measured response,” he observed.
“Well, I was pissed, but I wasn’t incandescent with rage or anything. I figured the best thing to do was to stand up for myself and let him know in no uncertain terms that I would not be having sex with him this weekend or ever.”
“So you told him you needed your own room.”
“Right. I set a clear boundary and stuck to it. I didnotsmack him over the head and watch him bleed out on the floor.”
Sasha wanted to believe her. “Where were you when you heard Annette’s scream?”
“I didn’t hear her. We didn’t find out until Joy pounded on the door. Then I went with her to find out what was going on.”
“Where were you?”
“I was hanging out in Leeza and Paul’s room.”
“With both of them?”
“No, just Leeza. Paul was off somewhere sulking.”
“Sulking?” Leo echoed.
