Tuesday
After the day at the college, Rob calls Tess to tell her that he, Luis and some of the other faculty members are at Dicarlo's Bistro, a local Italian restaurant. This is an informal meet and greet and he is calling to invite Tess to join them.
Tess arrives at the restaurant to find many of the other faculty and staff are there. She sees and waves at Heather, her very good friend. As she works her way through the room toward her, she notices that Rob and Luis are on the other end of the bar.
"Tess, get your ass over here and tell me what is going on in your house this week." says Heather.
"You have a dirty mind, Heather!" she says knowing very well what she is talking about.
"Are you kidding me? You have a man that looks like that staying with you for the week and you expect me to believe there is nothing going on?"
As Heather and the ladies continue to quiz her of his stay with them, Tess grins as she looks down at the other end of bar and catches Luis's eye.
"He is pretty good looking, isn't he?" Shifting her eyes back to Heather. "But no, there is nothing. He is only staying with us because there was no place else available for the week."
"Oh you dirty, lying whore!" Heather tells her as she laughs, taking a swig of her drink.
The others in the group laugh and join in on their razzing of Tess and her lucky situation.
At the other end of the bar Rob is introducing Luis to more people from the college. During his conversation with them, Luis notices Tess looking in his direction. He watches as she appears to be leaving the conversation she is having.
Tess excuses herself to visit the lady's room. Luis waits a few moments and pretends to be receiving a phone call on his cell.
"Please excuse me," as he looks at his phone.
"It's my wife calling." he says as he moves away from the bar.
"Yes of course." says Rob.
Luis followed Tess into the bathroom. While at the sink washing her hands, he enters the bathroom and locks the door.
Putting his finger up to his lips, "Shhh!"
Tess looks around to see that there is no one else in the bathroom.
"What are you doing in here?" she asks while drying her hands with the paper towel she pulled out of the dispenser.
Without a word, he moved in to her placing one hand around to the back of her neck. He places his other hand around her waist and kisses her. Tess knows that she should pull away but doesn't. She responds by kissing him back, wrapping her arms around his waist and moving her hands down and around his backside. In her mind a quick reminder surfaces that what is happening is all wrong, she pulls herself away.
"I can't. I simply can't. This isn't right." she tells him.
Luis, confused as he believes he has not misread the looks she had been giving him responds by asking, "Are you sure?"
He continues, "You seemed to be-"
"Yes Luis. I am sure!" she interrupts him.
"I'm sorry if I've lead you to think otherwise. I have to get back out there." she says softly as she walks past him, unlocks the door and exits the bathroom.
Leaving Luis standing there, he decides to wash his hands. In comes another woman customer of the restaurant.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I must be in the wrong room." she says while turning to look at the sign on the other side of the door. As she reads the sign on the door clearly marked "Ladies", she turns her attention back to Luis with a look of confusion.
"No, I am the one who is in the wrong room." he says as he walks past her out the door and back into the bar area.
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Later that night Tess and Rob are in their bedroom talking about the day and getting ready for bed. Rob shares with Tess the events of the day with Luis at the college, while they both share their take on the evening at the meet and greet.