Page 39 of Pretty Broken Promises

When she looks away he glares at me. Just as I thought, Bennett isn’t as perfect as Tessa believes. Good, it was going to be too inconvenient to crush a saint. Now that I know he’s a regular guy like the rest of us, I know what I’m dealing with when I move to Seattle with my Vixen. I don’t think for a second that he’s given up. Tessa is far too special to walk away from without a fight.

ChapterSeventeen

FORD

Sayingthat dinner is awkward would be like saying that the ocean is big. It would be the understatement of the year. Bennett and I glare at each other every time Tessa isn't looking. Meanwhile Tracy and Lydia are making an obvious effort to ignore me. Each time I try to get Tracy’s attention she turns her face in the other direction as if I haven't spoken. I didn't think it was going to be easy to make up with her, but I didn't realize that I wouldn't even be able to speak to her. How am I supposed to apologize if she won't even look at me, let alone talk to me?

I take the hint and stop trying. I give up on Lydia before I even begin. She is exactly the way Tessa described her, barely more than a ghost. Other than the physical resemblance, I don't recognize even a sliver of my old friend in her. Her eyes are flat and lifeless. The amount of trauma she has obviously endured has left behind an empty shell. It makes me wonder how someone recovers from what she has lived through. I know it makes me an asshole, but I am grateful that Tessa seems to be less affected than my two childhood friends.

It was easier to not think of them when they were here and I was in Playa, but I'll admit that I do need to make an effort. We have too many years of friendship behind us to throw it away over stubbornness on both sides. Whatever is going to happen it's clear to me that it will not happen tonight, but since Tessa and I are moving here, I'll have the time to figure it out.

Once dinner is over, Tessa and I slowly make our way to the elevator and push the button for the trip back down to the ground floor. It feels like years have passed rather than hours.

Tessa sighs. “Was it just me, or was that one of the most painful meals you've ever had in your entire life?”

Between the purposefully stuffy food, which I'm sure was ordered to make me feel out of place, and the stilted conversation, I've had dinners with my biological parents that were more comfortable than that one. Not what I tell her though. I'm not sure how much of the tension she picked up on between Bennett and I, but I'm certainly not going to be the one to tell her that he is not as perfect as she seems to think he is.

“It was tense,” I finally agree.

She gives me a side-eye. “Tense? Were we at the same table? Tense is when you ask your professor for an extension on a paper. That was like sitting in on diplomacy between warring nations. I'm not sure which was worse, the daggers you and Benji were shooting each other all night or the way that Tracy was trying to light you on fire with her eyeballs.”

I should've suspected she wouldn’t miss anything. She's a lot more observant than most of us give her credit for, myself included.

“You saw all that did you?” I ask noncommittally. I'm not sure there is a way I can get out from the stain of disliking her precious Bennett, but I'm certainly not going to admit to anything without an abundance of evidence.

Tessa rolls her eyes. “I know you think I see him as perfect, but I am fully aware that he is human.”

I have many faults, one of them is speaking before my mind fully vets the words coming out of my mouth, especially when I’m irritated. “Are you? All I've heard about is how amazing he is. So if you are aware that he’s not perfect, do you happen to notice that he’s trying to make me look bad on purpose to get you back?”

She looks like she’s going to argue with me for a moment, then her shoulders droop, and whatever fight she was mustering deflates. “I’m aware. I could also see that you are very nervous that I'm going to believe him over you.”

I shrug, because she's got me. “Can you blame me? I’ll admit I have a shitty track record with you. I know that I have a lot of work to do to make up for that, and it's going to take time. I don't think he's going to give me that kind of time to make things right with you. While he's trying to make me look like a moron, and make himself look like the better option how do I move here with you and try and keep building what we have knowing he's going to keep trying to cut me off at the knees?”

Tessa gives me a sad smile. “On paper, Benji is the better option.”

I can't argue with her, but that fucking hurts.

She puts her hand against the middle of my chest, her large, brown eyes look up at me imploringly. “I need you to really listen to me right now. Like I said, on paper, he's the better option. I'm not paper, Ford. Nothing about us has ever made sense, nor will it ever make sense. You're my stepbrother for fuck’s sake. When we started out, we were on opposite sides of the tracks. Our friends hated each other, and you hated me.”

“I didn't hate you,” I grumble.

Her eyebrow shoots up defiantly and she gives me a look, that says, “don't fuck with me.” I chuckle, because there is a lot of attitude in just one expression. “Okay, maybe I seriously disliked you, but I always thought you were hot.”

Again, she rolls her eyes. She doesn't really need me to tell her that I was attracted to her, because everyone thought she was hot. I think the only person who didn't think that was Tessa. “Whatever, you didn't like me, and that only got worse when I forced you to try and get your mother away from my dad.”

It's my turn to roll my eyes because that didn't work out at all. “Yeah, we did a great job at that, huh sis?”

She shudders. “I know that's a joke, but it's seriously gross. We did not grow up together. I do not in any way, shape, or form see you as any kind of sibling.”

“The family that lays together, stays together,” I tease her further.

She slaps me on the arm. “There is something seriously wrong with you.”

I start laughing, hoist her up until she wraps her legs around my waist, and I spin us around in the small confines of the elevator. It’s silly, but for the first time in ages, there’s nothing between the two of us threatening to tear us apart.

The doors open to the ground floor and an older woman walking a small dog gawks at us like we’re some kind of carnival curiosity. I refuse to let her obvious judgment bring down my good mood, and I continue to joke, much to Tessa’s horror.

“I'm going to marry my sister someday,” I exclaim to the woman.

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