jem carstairs will be the light at your side (mizpah) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-06-15 01:05:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, jem carstairs, tessa gray |
Who: Jem Carstairs and Tessa Grey
What: Tessa finds out Jem is moving
When: Backdated: Thursday, June 12th. Late Afternoon
Where: Jem's Apartment
Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly
Status: Complete!
Tessa was feeling happy today. She all but skipped up the corridor to Jem’s apartment with a book in her hand she thought Jem might like. It had come into the shop yesterday and as soon as she saw it, she knew she should give it to Jem. Grinning at the thought, she stopped in front of his door and knocked on the wood.
Jem had started packing and making preparations for the move from his little one bedroom apartment to his cousin’s former condo, which would soon be his and Will’s condo. While he was looking forward to living with his Parabatai like in Institute in the dreams, he was also worried about his feelings for the other man as well as his feelings for Tessa. It was all very confusing and he wasn’t entirely sure what to do about it all.
When he heard the knock at the door, he’d been in the kitchen, wrapping and packing dishes and glasses. Setting down the glass he’d been wrapping at the time, he headed towards the door, a smile spreading across his face as he saw Tessa, “Hello, Tessa. What brings you over here?”
“Good afternoon Jem, how are you today?” Tessa asked, a happy smile on her face at the sight of him. “I come bearing gifts. Well, one gift really I’m afraid,” she shrugged, holding out the perfectly wrapped present to him. Beneath the clean cut lines of the wrapping paper and ribbon tied around it lay the book she had bought for him.
“A gift? You didn’t have to do that.” He took the package from Tessa and moved aside to give her space to come in, “Thank you though. You’ll come in, won’t you?” Currently the apartment was in a state of organized chaos; most of Jem’s books had been packed away in a box in the living room, which also held the few items he’d had around the living room and in the kitchen, the plates, cups and dishes were all currently on the kitchen table instead of in the cabinets as usual.
"Thank you, I couldn't help mys..." Tessa stopped as she stepped into the apartment and saw the boxes. "Are you...are you going somewhere?" She asked quietly, confused as he hadn't mentioned anything before.
As Tessa spoke, Jem realized that he had completely forgotten to tell her about his and Will's upcoming move and it was safe to say that Will hadn't told her either, "Oh. Will and I are moving. Not far." He added quickly so that Tessa wouldn't think that they were leaving, "My cousin owns a condo and her friends who live there now are moving and they asked me if I'd like to move into the condo since it's all paid off."
"Oh," Tessa's eyebrows raised at that. "You and Will are moving in...together," she repeated. "Of course you are," she smiled, perhaps a little sadly. She didn't know what else was to happen in their dreams, but she knew that they loved each other more than themselves. That's what parabatai meant to each other. But she had to admit that there was a part of her that had been hopeful of...something... Spending time with each of them over the last few weeks had led her to stronger feelings about both of them. She just wasn't sure what it all meant.
Jem nodded, “We are. It’ll make it easier for us to train together and his renters lease is almost up, so now we can both save some money.” He noticed that Tessa appeared to be sad and he moved to place a hand on her arm, “Are you alright, Tessa?” The last thing he wanted was for her to be sad in any way over anything.
“Of course I’m alright,” Tessa turned to smile at him. “Where is this new place then? Not too far I hope. I’d hate to lose touch with you, James,” she told him sincerely, covering the hand on her arm with her own.
“Of course not. It’s in Newport Beach. We wouldn’t dream of losing contact with you.” Jem smiled and squeezed Tessa’s arm reassuringly, “As long as it’s alright with Will, which I’m sure it will be, we’ll give you a key to the condo.” He figured it was only right since he’d already given her a key to his current apartment, “That reminds me, I’ll need the key you have back.”
“Oh,” Tessa shook her head to pull her out of the daze she seemed to have become lost in as she looked at him. “Of course,” she murmured and looked down to search through her handbag. Pulling out her keys, she singled out the one for his apartment and handed them to him to pull the key off the ring. She felt shocked by the news, like she was watching the scene unfolded with some other Tessa playing the part of herself.
Jem took the keys from her and removed the apartment key then handed the rest of the keys back to Tessa, “ Once we’re moved in and unpacked, you’ll have to come over for dinner. We’ll expect it actually.”
"Dinner parties?" Tessa grinned as she took back the keys. "If that means seeing you dressed up to the nines then I'm all for it," she smiled at him.
“Well, we will have an actual dining room, so we will need a reason to use it.” Jem smiled at the thought of Tessa in a fancy dress, “Perhaps you’ll even teach me to cook so that Will and I won’t have to order out so often.” It wasn’t that Jem couldn’t cook, but he wasn’t as good as Tessa.
“Cooking lessons? I’m not sure about that...I normally charge extra for those,” Tessa teased, pretending to be serious before smiling at him with a little blush. “But for you...I could maybe waive my usual fee in place of something else,” she flirted and smiled brightly at him.
Jem’s brows rose slightly, a small smile upon his lips as he watched Tessa, “And what sort of compensation would you require?” Was he flirting? Jem had never really flirted with anyone before, nor had anyone ever really flirted with him. Well, if they had, he hadn’t realized it.
“It depends on what you have to offer,” Tessa replied back with a small smile, thoughts of Jem and Will moving in together still in the back of her mind. Was there more to it than just friends moving in? Were they together? Was Jem interested in her at all? Was Will? They all got on so well together and these questions were confusing. “Dinner and dancing maybe?”
“Dinner and dancing?” As far as Jem was concerned him and Will were just friends. Sure, he may have had feelings for him, but he wasn’t sure if they were real or if it had anything to do with the whole Parabatai thing. Not only that, but he doubted Will felt the same way about him and he didn’t want to ruin what they did have. His feelings for Tessa further complicated things and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do about either of them, “I think we can do that.”
“Really?” Tessa asked, almost surprised that he had agreed to it. “In which case, why don’t you choose the time and place,” she suggested, a grin spreading over her face and she felt herself sway a little on the spot like a teenager standing before her crush.
Jem nodded, “Alright. Give me a little time to do some research and move and once that’s all out of the way, we’ll have dinner and go dancing.” Jem wasn’t sure what sort of dancing she had in mind, but something told him that she wasn’t looking to go to any crazy clubs.
“Great,” Tessa smiled at him. “In the meantime, let’s get some more of these boxes packed,” she hooked her arm in his and turned him towards the boxes.