"Do you ever take vacations though? What about your family?" Bryce asked.
Tessa went quiet for a moment before responding. "I save my days off for my school breaks so I can go home. I only see them a couple of times a year though since plane fare is expensive. I'm trying to save for a car too."
"Been there. You can get pretty decent ones used though and have cheap car payments. This one was bought used."
"Really? I never would have guessed. It's in good condition. What is it, a 2008?"
Bryce was impressed. "Yeah, how did you know?"
"Ah, my brother is an amateur mechanic and he taught me a few things. He sort of had to become one because my mom knows nothing about cars and he didn't want her to get cheated for minor car repairs," Tessa said with a shrug.
"Your dad couldn't have helped her?"
"…my dad is even worse with cars than my mom. He's hopeless."
Her tone sounded strange there. He might be imagining things but it also might be better to change the subject. "Anyway, used car shopping isn't that bad if you know what you're doing. As long as someone experienced goes with you and you do your research beforehand, you'll be fine."
That didn't seem to help. Her expression remained brooding. Maybe he should get off the subject of cars completely. "So…why don't you tell me about your zoology classes? I don't know much about the subject and I'm curious what you're learning."
It was the right thing to say. Tessa lit up like a Christmas tree, all traces of whatever she had been brooding about gone from her face. She talked his ear off the rest of the way to the restaurant and he was relieved.
She had a lot of interesting things to say too. He had no idea there were so many different taxonomic ranks, let alone all of the subcategories in each.
That sort of talk continued even after they were seated at a table. Bryce interrupted her reluctantly. "Hey, I know you've never had wine before but do you want to try some with dinner? I need to know so I can order when the waiter comes back."
Tessa smiled at him. "Okay. You didn't lead me astray last time so go ahead and pick whatever."
He ended up choosing a white wine that he knew went well with a bunch of different types of food and then turned to her as she browsed the menu. "Do you want an appetizer?"
"Why don't we split one?"
"Sure. You pick."
Tessa ended up picking an artichoke dip with crackers and it was surprisingly good. He had never had any sort of artichoke before today. She dug into it happily and he couldn't help but smile at the satisfied expression on her face.
Bryce had it bad. Why was everything she did adorable when they hadn't even interacted all that much? He found himself orbiting around her like she was a planet and he was a moon. Like anything would be fine as long as she was happy with it. What on earth was wrong with him?!
They chatted on and off between consuming the dip until the real food arrived. This wasn't giving them much of a chance to talk. He found himself internally cursing an appetizer of all things and then felt pathetic.
He wanted to talk to her more but going out to eat hadn't given them much of a chance and he was pretty sure she would want to go straight home after this since it was late and she had volunteering to do in the morning. He had made a bad call. With her schedule, dinner wasn't exactly going to work in the future.
"Hey, Bryce?" Tessa asked.
"Yeah?" he replied, trying not to sound as miserable as he felt.
"Want to walk around for a bit after this? I think I need to work some of the food off before I try to go to bed."
Bryce immediately perked up. "I would love to."
After he paid the check they headed out and walked around downtown before heading back to his car. He saw her hand resting by her side and wasn't sure whether or not to go for it. He had held her hand before and she didn't mind…
He decided to do it anyway and she looked up at him and smiled. Even with her heels on she was several inches shorter than him. How tall was she, anyway? She couldn't be more than 5'5".
"What's the dumbest thing you ever did?" Tessa asked out of the blue after they had walked in silence for a while.
"Why do you ask?"
"Curiosity."
"Um…probably pulling an all-nighter to try and finish a video game during finals week my freshman year of college. I was so out of it that I failed everything after attempting to compensate for my lack of sleep by pouring an energy drink into my coffee. I'm pretty sure I ascended into the astral realm for a bit there," Bryce admitted.
Tessa burst out laughing. "That's terrible! Were you okay?"
"After a few days, yes. My grandma wasn't happy though. I had to retake all of those classes and my scholarship was temporarily in jeopardy. I would have been in a lot more trouble if I lost it."
"I can only imagine…I never did anything that dumb. Don't get me wrong, I pulled all-nighters for stupid reasons too, but not during finals week. Shame on you," she teased.
"Yeah, yeah. I've already heard the lecture. What about you? What's the dumbest thing you ever did?"
"Stop working at my brother's bakery."
How odd. What sort of answer was that? Bryce was about to ask when Tessa continued. "Although, jumping on the trampoline with balled up newspapers was a close second. I slipped on one and got a nasty ankle sprain so I was on crutches for Christmas."
"…why would you jump on the trampoline with balled up newspapers on it?"
"It was a snowball fight! My mom wanted to contain the mess in one place and figured the trampoline would work since it had a net. Filmed the whole thing and didn't believe me at first when I started screaming because I was a dramatic child. Then she saw the swelling, shut it off, and got one of my brothers to carry me to the car so we could go to the emergency room."
Why on earth would she need to have a fake snowball fight a few days before Christmas in Colorado? Wasn't it fairly snowy there?
"Couldn't you have used real snow?" Bryce asked.
Tessa shook her head. "No. It didn't snow that year. Super lame, right? What's the point of living somewhere cold without having a white Christmas?"
"No kidding. I've never lived anywhere cold enough to snow but I was within driving distance of the mountains as a kid so my grandma would take me sledding at least once a year with some of my school friends."
"That must have been fun."
"It was but I bet getting to experience snow for real would be fun too," Bryce said with a shrug.
"Yeah," Tessa replied lamely before changing the subject. "So you've mentioned your grandma a few times. Did she raise you?"
"She did. My parents weren't exactly what you would call functional but, before you feel sorry for me, know that I had the best childhood ever. My grandma was amazing. She passed three years ago and I still miss her."
That was the light version of it. Bryce got over his anger toward his parents a long time ago. He hadn't been lying when he said he had the best childhood ever. Honestly, it was better when his mom didn't come around but at least she didn't do it terribly often.
She was a drug addict who only cared about getting her next fix and finding a new man to leech off of. She only came home when she was between boyfriends and needed somewhere to crash before finding a new one. She wasn't the faithful type either so she didn't even know who Bryce's father was.
Definitely not someone worth being upset over. She died of an overdose when Bryce was in middle school and he hadn't cared much beyond his grandma being upset about it and not knowing how to comfort her.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Tessa murmured. "It's good that you had her as long as you did though. When you lose someone early you hardly remember them."
That sounded like it was spoken from experience but he wasn't about to ask who died. This topic was depressing enough. Besides, he knew her parents were still alive. Maybe she had lost a sibling young.
"Yeah, I'm glad I had so much time with her too. She had a lot of energy for someone her age and spent most of my life dragging me around trying new things. It was a lot of fun," Bryce told her.
Tessa cracked a smile. "Sounds like it. My family is the energetic sort too."
"I kind of guessed. I mean, you are, so it makes sense that your family would be too."
"I am but I've also been…less energetic lately. Maybe I am overworking myself but I hate having time to think." She immediately realized what she said and backtracked. Had she been talking to herself? "I'm sorry! You don't want to hear about my problems. I'm being a terrible date."
Bryce shook his head. "No you aren't. I don't mind hearing about your problems if it means I can help."
"…I'm afraid there isn't anyone who can help with my problems but it's nice of you to offer."