Tessa laughed. “Absolutely. I just wish I had a dozen more hands right now. But enough about your favorite New Yorker. How’s my Chicagoan?”
“Cold. Got an early snow today, which made me think about warm beaches…and…” David’s voice got quiet. “And you. This might be presumptuous. Or stupid. But, I was wondering…”
Without worrying she might make a fool of herself—was that Carmen’s insistence that she ask for what she needed with no apologies?—Tessa said, “If you’re wondering whether I’d like to meet up with you, the answer is yes. Once I’ve got my work obligations squared away.”
David exhaled hard enough to blow Chicago’s storm all the way to New York. “I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.” The relief in his voice made Tessa’s toes tingle.
After wistful discussions about the Caribbean, Hawaii, and the Mexican Riviera, the consensus was late December. Somewhere warm.
“I’ll start searching,” David said. “That’s less than two months away. I know you’re working hard now, so I’ll email links to the best deals I’ve found. When you have time, you can peek at them.”
Tessa had trouble sleeping after talking with David. Between visions of a warm, sandy beach and a warm, sweet David, even an exhausted body was no match for her active mind. With a silly grin on her face, she pulled open her nightstand drawer. “Come to Mama,” she whispered to Lelo. Maybe tonight would be the night.
***
“It’s time, Tessa. I believe you’re ready,” Carmen said. Her eyes sparkled as she handed Tessa a thick packet of papers.
“I hope this isn’t my bill,” Tessa said, joking.
“It’s your field therapy. All the arrangements have been made; I used the cost containment parameters and time frame you gave us back in September. Go ahead, open the packet.”
Tessa’s heart was wedged where her Adam’s apple should have been, and it was beating wildly as she flipped through the stack of papers.
She was going to Australia.
She was staying at one of Sydney’s nicest hotels, a stone’s throw from the harbor and the opera house.
She was assigned to work with Jason Tate, Ben Larsen, and Russell Thompson. Their pictures were included. Not one of them was even a little hard to look at.
She had a flight from JFK to Sydney, via LAX. Business class.
She was leaving on December 20 and returning January 4.
She was…supposed to be on a beach with David at Christmas and New Year’s.
Carmen saw Tessa’s face go from anxious excitement to disappointment. “Is there a problem?” she asked.
Tessa told her about David’s recent invitation. “We set this up, just a couple nights ago. I’d totally forgotten I’d given you those dates for field therapy. I was so happy David wanted to get together, I wasn’t thinking about anything else.” Tessa frowned. “Every time we’ve made a date, something has come up. He’ll think I’ve gotten cold feet and don’t want to see him. And that’s so not what I want!”
“I’m sorry, Tessa. You had specified that time period for field availability and never indicated a change in plans. I booked based on the time you gave me. I’m afraid it would be quite expensive to change those dates now, but I’ll see what I can do if that’s what you’d like.”