New Beginnings: A Hessa Story (2)

Chapter 6: Hardin

Tessa fusses beside me, but doesn't wake. The pain in my stomach still hasn't gone away, and I am trying so hard to stay still. Why am I still fucking nervous? I have never had a knot in my stomach for this long. I wasn't even feeling this way before I took Tessa on our first date, and the stakes were a lot higher on that day than now. I am wincing, and the more pain I feel, the more I start to wonder if this isn't just nerves. I felt fine before, so it must be. My constant shifting wakes Tessa up.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's fine. I shouldn't be sleeping anyway. What time is it?" She asks, still little groggy.

"It's a quarter to 4."

"What! Already! Nora's gonna be here in an hour!"

"Do you have to go to that concert thing? Can't you just call Nora and cancel?" I really don't want her to go, to leave me.

"I can't cancel my bachelorette party, Nora and Kim put a lot of effort into it, and it would be rude for me to cancel."

I pull her closer to me. "Wouldn't you rather spend your time with me?"

"Of course, but we got the rest of our lives to do that."

I roll my eyes.

"This is the last couple of hours we are spending as an engaged couple, don't be so pouty."

"I just wanna spend the day with you... you know, doing fun things." I move her hair out of her face. Her skin feels so smooth to my touch, and her cheeks blush at the things we could do the night before our wedding.

"Well what do you wanna do while I'm still here?" She smiles at me. No matter how much I would love to have sex with her, the knot in my stomach is not subsiding.

"I want to just be with you."

"Let's play a game." She sits up fully, and turns her body towards me.

"No, I don't want to play a game." I attempt to pull her back against me, but she resists.

"Let's sit down, eat some ice cream, and tell funny stories that we remember about one another. Wouldn't that be fun?"

"I guess."

"Come on!" She tugs at my arm. "I used to do it all the time when..." Her eyes widen, and she slams her mouth shut.

"When what?"

"Nevermind... but it's fun!" She tries to change the subject.

"No, Tessa. When what?" I ask her the question again, expecting an answer this time.

"I don't think..."

"Tessa, just tell me."

She covers her eyes as she tells me. "When Noah and I were together."

My heart sinks. "Why would you bring up a game you used to play with your ex-boyfriend?"

"I didn't only play it with Noah! I played it with Landon all the time! It only started with Noah. I'm sorry for bringing him up, I wasn't thinking."

I shake my head, and Tessa signs loudly.

"We don't have to do it if you don't want to, I just thought it would be nice for us to laugh and go through some nice memories." She frowns, and now I feel like a douche.

"No, no. I want to do it. I'll get the ice cream." I push the fucking annoyance of her doing anything romantic with Noah and kiss her on the cheek before getting up and rushing to the kitchen. When I get there I lean my head against the fridge, clutching my stomach. I hope I'm not getting sick, but I am just getting sudden floods of pain in my abdomen. I don't feel sick though, it's just pain. It's probably just a stupid cramp or something. I used to get stomach cramps all the time as a kid.