Page 15 of Her Athlete's Wedding Secret
Chapter 4
Tessa said goodbye to Benson at the coffee shop and headed into work. She had to admit, the longer she talked to him, the more she’d been considering accepting his offer. Especially after her frustrating day with her mom the other night. Her mom’s house had grown increasingly worse since she’d been a kid. It was like she felt like holding onto things would somehow bring her father back. It didn’t make any sense to Tessa, but then again not much her mother did made sense. She was a strange woman.
Tessa pushed open the door to the office. Joan was standing at the door to her office, talking to Debbi, the editor-in-chief. Debbi had short reddish spiky hair. She was a great boss, and Tessa loved working with her. She would be sorry to see her retire, despite the fact that it was creating a promotion opportunity for Tessa.
“Oh, Tessa, you’re here,” Debbie said. “We have some news.”
“News? Isn’t that what we do here?” Tessa joked. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
Debbie didn’t seem to get the joke. “Joan is going to be taking my place.”
“Oh.” Disappointment lanced through Tessa. “Congratulations, Joan. I’m sure you’ll do a great job.” She shouldn’t be so surprised. She knew Joan was more qualified for the position. She was older and had known Debbie better. The two of them were like peas in a pod. Tessa had never quite fit in. “I hope you both don’t mind, but I have a deadline to hit.” She scooted into her office and shut the door. She hoped they didn’t think she was being rude, but she could feel the tears starting to fall, and she didn’t want them to see how upset she was.
She wiped at the tears with her hand and dug through her purse for a pack of tissues. Then she remembered she kept a box of them on the corner of her desk. She was such a mess today. She pulled out a tissue and dried her face. She stared at her ancient computer and more tears fell. She’d worked so hard for that promotion. She’d wanted to get ahead in life, prove to Debbie that she could earn the position. But she’d failed. That was the part that hurt. The failure. It seemed that whatever she did, she failed at. She couldn’t even help her mom.
Tessa always wanted control of her life, but it always seemed to evade her at every turn. This ridiculous arrangement that Benson wanted her to enter with him would put her even more out of control. She would have to give up her job and deal with the fact that it may take her a long time to find another one. She’d have to rely on Benson, someone she’d never thought of as particularly trustworthy. How could she rely on him? Accepting his proposal was completely nuts. She didn’t understand why her life never went the way she had planned. How long would she have to wait to get her next promotion? Was she doomed to be a small-town reporter working under Joan’s rule for the next ten to twenty years? That was what she faced if she didn’t take Benson’s offer of marriage.
Maybe she should do the craziest, most unpredictable thing of all. Maybe she should tell him yes. Then she could get out of Maple Creek and let her mom figure out her own life for a while? Was that selfish of her? Perhaps, but she was at her wit’s end with her mom. She could apply for jobs in New York and have a fresh start.
She just wasn’t sure about getting married when she knew it would end in divorce. She saw what that did to her mom. It destroyed her life. She was a shell of a person now that she’d been through her divorce. Tessa hadn’t wanted that for herself. It was why she’d never been in a relationship. Because if she stayed single, she stayed safe.
Marriage was dangerous. That was why she was surprised she was considering the idea of marrying Benson. It was purely ludicrous. But she was beginning to think it was her best option, as crazy as that sounded. But sometimes life was crazy. Wasn’t that the fun part of life? Living the unexpected? Letting yourself get vulnerable? Tessa turned to her computer and began typing.
* * *
Tessa came homefrom work and changed into a pair of jeans and a tank top. She put on a pair of long, dangly earrings and bright red lipstick. She stood back and inspected her reflection. She didn’t look like she was trying too hard, did she?
She decided she didn’t care. She wanted to look good for herself. Who cared what Benson thought? She wasn’t trying to impress him, anyway. She was beginning to think that her time in Maple Creek was coming to an end, and the idea excited her. As much as she’d wanted to avoid marriage, she was starting to think that maybe it was the next big step for her life. She’d been finally letting herself get the idea of romance into her head, but it looked like that wasn’t going to be a player in this game. Benson seemed determined to keep their relationship strictly business.
If she agreed to marry Benson, she’d have to put on a show for everyone around her, and she wasn’t sure she liked the idea of lying to all her friends and family like that. To the world, even. Her new boss, new coworkers, when she finally got them. She’d have to pretend to be this happy newlywed, but it would all be a lie.
She couldn’t let herself worry about that right now. She had to decide soon if she wanted to go through with this wedding, and she needed to spend some time sizing up Benson. She knew her friends spoke well of him, but she needed to see for herself if she could allow herself to share her life with this person. Even if they weren’t going to be romantically involved, as sad as that made her, they would still be roommates. This process was almost like a job interview. Only she was the interviewer, and Benson was the candidate.
She came up with a list of questions to ask him that night at the diner. She jotted them into her phone in her notes app. Then she headed over to Jet’s.
Benson was already there when she arrived. She sat across from him in the booth he’d picked out. “Hey.”
“How was work?” he asked.
She noticed that his eyes roamed over her body before he averted his eyes, like he’d been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to do. She figured it wasn’t the biggest deal if he was attracted to her. She was close to saying yes to becoming his wife. She would have to look like she was madly in love with him to the public eye.
“Work wasn’t the greatest,” she admitted.
“Oh, no. What happened?”
Did he really care, or was he just acting concerned so she’d say yes to his scheme? “I didn’t get the promotion I was hoping for.”
“I bet that stunk.”
“It did. I’d had my heart set on it.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“I’m seriously thinking about accepting your offer.”
Benson looked surprised. “You are?”
“I don’t have this promotion to keep me here anymore.”
