Sometimes, most of the time, in fact, Tullisa genuinely calls her mental acuity into question for her decision to remain here in Fresh Water. She’s really been given very little incentive to stay. The excuse that she uses to soothe her conscience and weather that constant ache she’s been carrying in her heart all these years is her employment with Dr. Schumacher. Rather than calling it what it actually is, ‘gaining experience’ is the preferred terminology she chooses to word how long she’s spent marking time in this small town. Whether someone else would want to refer to it as pining or waiting or hoping or wiling away or the height of stupidity is a matter for them to decide. However, she believes that one day soon, she will work up the nerve to finally leave it all behind; including him.

She’s already making strides in that direction, although, strides might be a bit of a magnification of the facts. It’s really more like baby steps and in light of recent events, she might have fallen back a few paces. But whenever it does happen, and it will because she is determined that it will, at least, there will be something other than ‘hopelessly in love with Jesse Caine’ under the skills section on her resume..

The day that she’d given that man power over her heart had been a mistake. There’s no reason to hold out hope that he will ever love her back. That pivotal afternoon when she’d found him lying in the sun was what had changed everything and sealed her fate. Before then, she’d thought of Jesse as annoying with the way he always tried tell her what to do like he was her self-appointed guardian; and just because he was a few years older than her.

Tullisa you can’t do this. Tullisa you can’t go there. Tullisa you’re a little girl. Tullisa, I’m telling you’re mother.

There was a time when it made her sick.

But then, she’d held his hand while he was recovering from his hangover. She’d sang to him while day light faded and recited those little poems she was always writing. It wasn’t until he’d sighed, held on to her fingers stroking his cheek, and his long, dark lashes fluttered before he opened his bluish-green eyes to look at her that she realized that she’d been penning those silly little words of love with him in mind all this time.

She’d gifted him more than just her heart that day. With it, she’d also ceded to him the power to shape all her greatest life decisions and the man is still oblivious to that fact. It has to stop somewhere. She can’t keep putting off her future and progress for something that will never come to be; as was evident last night.

As a matter of fact, she’s already given herself permission to wean herself off of him.

With that in mind, she pauses in front of the mirror hanging on the wall beside the front door to the house that she still shares with her mother and gives her appearance a final glance.

Imagine that!

At their age, most of the friends she’d made while studying in the city have their own apartments by now. Yet, here she is living at home just to torture herself for glimpses of Jesse. Her excuse for that one is small town living. In Fresh Water, it’s the custom. No one finds it unusual that at twenty-three, she still lives at home because it’s the norm. Most unmarried women in particular live with their parents and those enablers are happy to delay their little birds leaving the nest for as long a possible.

Already assuming who the soft knocks on the door are from, Tullisa pastes a smile on her face and grabs the door knob to let her guest inside.

“Hey Reed,” she greets through the outer screen door.

He gives her that charming smile and like she’s done ever since Reed expressed his interest in her when they were children, she tries to feel that thing she feels whenever she just thinks of Jesse.

He presents a bouquet of flowers from behind his back -- lovely little daisies -- and hands it to her.

Tulips have been her favorite since she was fifteen. Of course, Reed wouldn’t know. He’s never bothered to ask. However, she’ll excuse him and treasure them for the effort since they only see each other a few times a year when he graces the town with his presence.

“You look lovely,” he tells her as she accepts his small offering.

“In this old thing?” she jokes

Still, she looks down at her off shoulder floral dress and plain white tennis shoes while wondering what Jesse would think of the ensemble; since it does fit so well. Now, if he was the one who had complimented her looks, she'd be blushing all the way to her roots.

But it's Reed.

Her humble look must be a far cry from what he's is used to in the great metropolitan area but he gives her an appreciative and innocent once over anyway. Tullisa feels guilty about it.

“You look good no matter what you wear,” he admits. “Are you ready?”

“Just let me put these in water,” she answers.

“You don’t need to do that,” Reed states with a dismissive flick of his wrist. “I thought we could grab something to eat before the show.”

Tullisa looks down at the poor flowers in her hand with a frown. Why had he even bothered to bring them if he didn’t care? She sets them on the end table close to the front door and calls, “mom, can you put these flowers in water for me? And I’ll save you a seat. See you there.”

She doesn’t wait for a response as she steps out into the cool evening and shuts the door behind her.

Her mother hates Reed for undisclosed reasons. One day he had been a friend and the next she had been giving him these scathing looks that used to make him wilt. For this reason, she decided against telling her that he’d asked her to be his date and intends to keep it that way until the last possible second. Otherwise, her mother will make a whole to do about it and have her canceling on the poor guy.

Honing on his small town upbringing, he takes her light sweater from her hand to help her slip it onto her shoulders.

Tullisa deliberately gazes into his amber eyes to say, “thank you,” and is disappointed, yet again, that her stomach stubbornly remains solid as a rock. Nothing inside her flips far less flops for Reed even if he is a strikingly handsome, tall and lean, fair-headed man.

He inclines his head in acknowledgement.

It’s impossible to avoid looking across to the Caine plantation since it’s right there in front of her as they move down from the porch.

Now, Tullisa’s heart and every other muscle in her body choose to not only flip and flop when Jesse steps out through the back door of the sprawling mansion. They actually heat up and subsequently turn to mush for him. In that second or so when their eyes connect, her feet literally freeze in position and it seems his do the same as well.

He remains there frozen in time for a moment longer with the door knob still in his hand and his drink held up close to his lips but not drinking it. Reed inclining his head in Jesse’s direction is what breaks him out of suspension and he tips his can to the two of them.

Tullisa feels her hackles rise at the casual acknowledgement but then, no one is to blame for this new dynamic between them but herself.

Considering that it’s already evening, it’s hard to make out what he’s drinking but she sincerely hopes that for his sake and especially for hers, that it’s nothing alcoholic. Even if she’s told herself that she won’t be responding to anymore of his late night, drunk dials where he sounds miserable and lonely and still in so much pain, she’ll find herself at his side in a heartbeat.

He plants himself down in one of the chairs and leans his head back against it to stare up at the ceiling rather than properly address her.

An unquantifiable amount pain lances through her heart basically carving it into two as a result of his callous dismissal. Tullisa breathes through it. Maybe one day, she’ll be able to give one of those halves to, if not Reed, somebody else when she moves to make a new life somewhere far, far away. There’s every likelihood that Jesse will forever hold the other in an unyielding choke hold.

She must be a glutton for punishment because though her brain keeps warning her away from him, that same heart that’s been bruised and broken by him numerous times over still wishes that she could walk across the bridge and join him instead of going ahead with her plans with Reed.

The Ms. Homemaker’s show might be ridiculous but it should provide enough entertainment to snicker at and take her mind off her woes for a while. Defiantly, she pulls her eyes away from Jesse and hooks her fingers over Reed’s bicep when he offers her the crook of his arm.