Bryce ended up stroking Tessa's damp hair and smiling to himself. She had told him she loved exotic animals so it made perfect sense that she had a giant tiger blanket.
She might not be able to rely on him emotionally yet but this would have to do for now. Trusting someone enough to take a nap on them was a pretty big deal. And she had allowed him to come over to her apartment twice trusting that he wouldn't do anything so…
He wouldn't break that trust. He was still having a hard time believing she agreed to date him at all. Going at her pace would be best, even if it drove him crazy in the process. His heart was certainly going wild having a beautiful woman in his lap.
Tessa was still peacefully asleep on him by the time the show ended. It had been very intense and super dark but at least he thought it ended well. That was what really mattered for shows like this.
Bryce glanced at the clock. It was nearly 11 PM. He needed to get going since he had an early day tomorrow and he was sure Tessa had homework to do tomorrow before class.
"Tessa," he said as he gently shook her shoulder. "You need to get up."
"Idonwanna," she mumbled sleepily.
"I have to go home though."
Tessa rubbed her face against his legs functioning as her pillow as if to rebel against the idea of getting up and slurred, "Five more minutes, JoJo."
Bryce frowned. Who was JoJo? Her brothers were named Tim, Paul, and Donny if he remembered correctly. Was JoJo the best friend she mentioned she hadn't been able to go drinking with? But why would she think her best friend was waking her up right now?
"Who's JoJo?" he asked.
That snapped her fully awake and she jerked upward. "Oh! I'm so sorry; I was half asleep. JoJo is my best friend and has a history of waking me up by shaking me since I'm not much of a morning person."
So he had been right. She said they hadn't been able to go drinking together because of geographical differences. Had they ended up at different colleges or something?
"Where does JoJo live? You never talk about your friends from back home," Bryce noted.
Tessa fiddled with a strand of her hair and wouldn't look at him. "I didn't stay in touch with most of them after high school. But JoJo and I grew up together; we're practically twins. We ended up at colleges in different states but we still call each other and stuff."
"Is she not in Colorado then?"
"…no. JoJo ended up in Virginia, of all places. Seeing each other is basically impossible now."
Yikes. No wonder they couldn't go drinking together. Plane tickets from California to Virginia were expensive. It must be hard being so far apart from your best friend. He wouldn't know since he had never had one.
Bryce was curious about something though. "What is JoJo short for?"
"Jon—" Tessa coughed. "Joanna. She's gone by JoJo since she was a baby though. Despite claiming to hate it, she still lets me and her mom call her that."
"She sounds like a real character."
"Yeah. Anyway, sorry for keeping you so long. How did you like the show?'
"It was really good! It's been a while since a show drew me in that quickly," Bryce told her honestly. "We can talk more about it tomorrow though because I need to get home. Do you want to watch something else after work tomorrow?"
Tessa cracked a smile. "You weren't kidding about keeping me too busy to think, were you?"
"Nope and this is only the beginning. Once you're a little freer I have plans outside as well. We're going to be kept plenty busy."
"I look forward to it. Thanks for letting me use you as a pillow."
His heart skipped a beat at the reminder. "No problem. Sweet dreams, Tessa."
===
The next two days went much the same. Bryce somehow forced himself to get through work, made dinner and saved Tessa a plate, then headed to her house to watch that other short mystery anime she recommended.
Saturday was Halloween so they bought a bowl of candy to pass out to kids that lived in her complex after she got off work but that was the only real difference. Things didn't progress beyond watching TV like friends, albeit snuggly ones, until her schedule changed.
Her manager allowed her to take Saturdays and Sundays off since she had someone willing to take on extra hours that normally worked the morning shift and she cut down on her volunteering so she was completely free the following Sunday. That was when he put the next part of his plan into place.
Tessa seemed like the active sort so Bryce hoped she would like what he planned. It would keep them busy most of the day but still left time for her to work on her homework and take a TV break in between.
He told her to dress casually and wear sturdy shoes so hopefully she would do it. She seemed to be the dressy type, although she did practically live in his hoodie whenever they watched TV. He had a feeling he wouldn't be getting that back any time soon but he didn't mind; he liked seeing her in it.
When he picked her up her hair was in two braids and she was wearing a purple windbreaker with jeans and a pair of black running shoes. Her makeup was more understated than usual too, lacking the winged eyeliner that was practically her trademark.
She had taken his direction to be casual seriously. He had never seen her in jeans before and she looked good. So much so that his heart flipped in his chest at the sight of her.
"Are you ready for something you've never tried before?" Bryce asked casually once she got into the car.
Tessa raised an eyebrow. "How are you sure I haven't tried it before?"
"Because it's pretty random."
"How random are we talking?"
"You'll see!"
Bryce spent hours scouring the internet looking for something she had never done before and came up with a rather extensive list. This simply happened to be the first thing he wanted to try before it got any colder outside.
"Well, now I'm curious," Tessa said teasingly. "You better not disappoint me after hyping it up like that."
He drove them to the nearest beach and once they arrived he handed her a piece of paper and a Sharpie. She squinted at it curiously for a moment before laughing.
"We're going to play Beach Bingo?"
"Yep. It's kind of a combination of bingo and a scavenger hunt since what we're looking for isn't noticeable at first glance. I figured the winner could buy lunch and if we have extra time we could have a sandcastle building contest or something," Bryce said with a shrug.
Tessa's eyes sparkled. "I have definitely never played Beach Bingo before. You were right."
"To make things more difficult, another rule is that we can't use the same object for our squares. If you find a shell, I have to find a different one to make it count on my bingo board."
She rubbed her hands together eagerly. He figured she would enjoy the challenge. "Ready, set, go!"
Tessa raced off in search of items on the list and Bryce found himself laughing at her enthusiasm. She was so cute. He didn't want to lose to her so easily though so he had to get cracking on his bingo board too.
Every so often he would hear her yell "found one!" as she approached to hold whatever it was out to him as proof with a big smile on her face. She was getting into this even more than he had expected she would. This had been a good idea; he would have to remember she liked things like this.
The bingo boards consisted of items rather than things you would see. He had done a bit of tweaking to the ones he originally found on the internet and used a blank template. Instead of things like "water cooler" and "person wearing full body swimsuit" there were items such as "seashell" and "broken glass" that could be found without having other people around.
Bryce changed it because of the time of year. There weren't that many people on the beach and those that were there weren't wearing swimsuits. Besides, this way required more effort.
Tessa said she hated having time to think so he couldn't do mindless activities that didn't require any focus. That wouldn't help her.
They might only be together right now because she was desperate for a distraction but he was going to be the best distraction ever. Then maybe later on she would decide she liked him enough to stay with him once she didn't need to be distracted anymore.