Southern Complications

Tess

Tess“Lind, I can’t believe you convinced me to come to this thing. You know how I am about crowds, ugh.”

“Yea, yea. I know, but I want some gourmet mac and some poutine. Plus, it’s great people watching.”

“You and your people-watching, poutine-eating self.”

“Girl, hush. I spoke to Fawne this morning and said she was going to try to make it out, but I haven’t heard from her since.”

“You know parking out here is going to be murder.”

“I got a pass, it was only five dollars and it saves us from walking. I plan to eat way too much, and I know my lazy butt will not feel like walking after.”

“I could go for a Ted’s dog, you know, since we are here already.”

“Since we are here! Ha! Right, mmhm.”

“Shut it heifer.”

“Might as well walk your skinny ass on over to that one taco truck you like too. Acting like you don’t like Food Truck Tuesdays, you probably already have your route mapped out.”

“Don’t act like you know me Lind.”

“I do!”

The lines were long at the food trucks that I wanted to visit so we decided to walk around and try some that we never had before.

“I can’t really see the menu from back here, but I think I overheard someone say they had tacos too,” Lind strained to see the menu posted on the truck.

“Well the line here isn’t as long as it is anywhere else and I’m starving, verging on hangry. Let’s just wait.”

“Okay, works for me. I’m gonna get a beer next.”

Fortunately for my growling stomach the line moved quickly.

“These tacos are delicious.”

“And to think you didn’t want to come. You want a beer?” Lindi asked me as we walked to the beer stand.

“No, I’m good. I’ll wait over here and watch the band.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back.”

I stood at a gate, finishing my tacos and watching the band while Lindi stood in line to get herself a beer. While listening to the band, I got lost in thought about my upcoming wedding to Grier.

Grier and I have been together for just over ten years. We met while we were both attending Hampton University. He was a Junior and I was a Freshman when we met at an off-campus house party.

He was tall, with a slender build, light-skinned with beautiful gray eyes. When I first saw him, he was surrounded by girls wanting his attention. I thought he was attractive, but I could tell that he was the type of guy that knew he was good-looking and flaunted it.

At some point during the party I went into the kitchen to get something to drink and he was in there with a few of his buddies. He threw some pick-up line at me and I just laughed and walked away. This was completely unacceptable to him, not only because no one walked away from him, but I also because I was a freshman. He became determined to win me over just to prove he could. In the end, it seemed more like a business arrangement. He had a beautiful and successful woman on his arm and I, well, I had “Grier Gregory.” It started as what I thought was crazy, passionate love, but somewhere along the way, things shifted. Things were still crazy but minus the passion. Now, we were more like roommates with occasional “benefits,” if you could call them that, than actual lovers.

We had a “dream life.” Nice house, cars, great jobs. Like Lindi said, we were quite the couple and in six months we were planning a wedding that would make Martha Stewart proud.

“Well, you will never guess who I ran into,” Lindi interrupted my thoughts.

“Who?” I turned to see what she was talking about and stopped in my tracks.

“Tucker. Tucker this is my friend Tess, this is Tucker. I ran into him over at the beer stand,” she gave a strained smile.

“Hello… Tucker. Nice to meet you.”

“Hello Tess,” he tipped his baseball cap. “Like Lindi said ran into her at the beer stand and just wanted to say ‘hello’. Are you ladies having a good time?”

“As a matter of fact, we are!” Lind said.

“I’m not generally a fan of crowds, but it’s okay. How are you enjoying it?” I said.

Lindi looked at me and I shrugged.

“It’s not bad, a few of the guys from work dragged me out. I’m glad they did,” he smiled at me.

“And on that note, I think I’m going to head on over to the ice cream truck, what about you Tess?”

“I could go for some ice cream. Well, Tucker it was nice meeting you. Hope you enjoy yourself.”

“You too, Tess,” he tipped his hat to me again. “Lindi, it was a pleasure,” he grabbed her hand and kissed it.

Lindi and I walked off to find the ice cream truck, I glanced behind me and Tucker was still standing there smiling in our direction, talking to a couple of guys.

Must be his work buddies.

“What was that?”

“What? I was just being nice and making conversation. You brought him over there.”

“I didn’t bring him. He saw me at the beer stand and asked who I was with. I should have lied and said Fawne or Kallie.”

“Speaking of, where is she?”

“She texted a little bit ago and said next time.”

Chapter 7