Page 12 of Tempting Tessa

Caroline and I take that as our cue to head out. She has quite the smirk on her face, so I can only imagine what she has up her sleeve for today.

“Have a great day, ladies, and happy birthday, Tessa,” Luke says to us as we are getting ready to walk out the door. “See you both later, don’t do anything that requires bail money,” he tells Caroline. Oh, how well he knows his wife!

The spa that Caroline has booked us at is pretty fancy, the package she booked includes door to door service, so as I step outside her house a limo pulls up to pick us up. I didn’t expect all this, so to say I’m shocked is an understatement. We get into the limo and there is a bottle of champagne waiting for us on ice. She pops the top and hands me a glass of the bubbly.

“To turning 30!” she toasts and we clink glasses.

As we pull out of her driveway, she reaches up and turns up the radio. We are both huge country music fans andSomething Badby Miranda and Carrie comes on. We both bust out laughing as they are both some of our favorite artists. It’s funny, I feel the song is a little fitting for today. I have a feeling she could find something bad for us to get into.

We arrive at the spa and are ushered into a private dressing room area separate from the normal women’s locker room. We are greeted by our host for the day and given a list of the treatments we are booked for. We are getting massages, facials, manicures and pedicures, and then hair and makeup.

After a 90-minute massage to start out my afternoon, I’m feeling very relaxed and this is just the start! I’m then whisked into the next room for my facial. Once that is completed, I’m taken to the shower room. Holy shit, the shower they have is heaven. I don’t even know how many shower heads this thing has, but they are everywhere and they are awesome. I might have to get an estimate to redo my master bathroom.

After the shower, I meet back up with Caroline for our manicures and pedicures. We are both so relaxed. I will forever be grateful to her for this amazing birthday.

“Enjoying all this pampering so far?” she asks me as we relax in the pedicure chairs sipping on more champagne.

“Um, yes! You are the best, Caroline. That shower was amazing, I need one of those in my house.”

“I know, I could have spent hours in that thing. So after we are finished getting pampered, we can then dress for our evening festivities. Our dinner reservations are for 6 o’clock.”

“Sounds like a great plan. Thanks again for everything you’ve done for me today,” I say to her with a huge smile on my face.

“No sweat, Tessa. That’s what best friends are for.”

We both relax in the big massage chairs that we’re in for our pedicures and manicures as the staff continues to pamper us. Once we are done with that, we are taken to the hair and makeup area.

“Do you have any requests on how you want your hair styled tonight?” my stylist asks me.

“Not really, I’ll let you work your magic,” I tell her.

She ends up giving me beautiful curls and pulling half of it up and leaving the rest down. It’s beautiful and makes me feel fantastic. My next stop is the makeup chair. I don’t usually wear a lot of makeup, so I don’t want them to go crazy. I still need to feel like myself.

“Hi, Tessa, I’m Paige and I will be your makeup artist today. Is there anything you want in particular?”

“I don’t usually wear much, just some mascara and lip gloss. I was thinking maybe a smoky eye, but nothing super dramatic.”

“I can work with that. Do you have a lip color preference or do you want me to pick?”

“I’ll let you work your magic and pick what you think will look best.”

Thirty minutes later my makeup is complete and I can’t believe how great a job Paige did. She pulled off the perfect eye, it’s not too much and not too little. I really feel beautiful.

Now that all the pampering is done, we head to the dressing room to get dressed. I know Caroline invited a few of our other friends, but I’m not sure who is coming for sure. The dress she picked out for me is beautiful. It shows off a little more cleavage than I have in a long time and is shorter than anything I’ve worn in the same amount of time, but it fits me perfect and makes me feel confident and beautiful.

When we are ready to leave the spa, we are once again led out to the waiting limo. The restaurant is only a few minutes away so we get there quickly. Once we arrive, Caroline checks us in at the hostess stand. We are about 5 minutes early for our reservation and I don’t see anyone else that I know, so I’m sure they must wait to seat us until everyone else arrives. To my surprise, a couple of minutes later they say they can seat us now, but instead of leading us toward the normal dining area they lead us to a private room they use for private parties. Now I’m curious what she has up her sleeve.

“Surprise!!!!!!” The full room of people yells out to me as Caroline and I enter the room. I stand there in shock! The room is filled with friends and family. My parents and siblings and their wives, Matt’s siblings and parents, Luke, some of my fellow nurses, friends that Caroline and I went to high school with that we both kept in contact with over the years, and Jake. They are all here.

“By the look on your face, I’ll assume I actually pulled off the surprise?”

“Um ya,” I stammer, still stunned. “I thought it was just going to be a few of us girls tonight.”

“Oh no, Tessa, everyone wanted to celebrate you, so we just made it one big party.”

“Who has the boys?” I ask, noticing that none of our children are here.

“I hired a teenager to come watch them all. Don’t worry about anything! I have it covered. I called and talked to your mom a few weeks ago, and we came up with the perfect plan. They will still keep Ty tonight, but this allowed them to come and celebrate with you at dinner.”

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