Not Second Best by Christa Maurice

me.”
    “I will. I’ll pick you up at noon.”
    “You’re gonna get up early for me? I’m honored. You know where the house is?”
    “Sure. Wear something pretty for me,” he told her.
    “Always. See ya tomorrow.” Laughing, she hung up.
    Good. Tomorrow he’d have some answers.
     
     

Chapter 6
     
    “Geez Brett, I don’t know what to tell you.” Suzi twisted her water glass on the table. “I don’t really know Tessa that well.”
    It had taken since he’d picked her up to after their salads were delivered to tell her the whole shitty story—leaving off the detail of why he and Tessa had ended up together in the first place—and that was her answer? Most of last night he’d been up pouring all his misery into a song, certain that Suzi would be able to give him a three-point action plan before their drinks were delivered. Damn.
    “Tessa’s a very private person. Brian said you were ‘not dating.’” She made quotation marks with her fingers. “But I didn’t realize it was that complicated.”
    The restaurant had deep booths with high screens. Nobody would see them here. Not that he wanted privacy with her, but he didn’t want the whole world to know what a sap he was. She did look nice. Her face was full and tan. She wore a loose pink blouse, navy pants, and leopard print Crocs. The maitre d’ had wrinkled his nose when he’d seen her shoes, but that guy didn’t know how lucky he was that she had shoes on at all. For the first time since he’d known Suzi, Brett didn’t get that sick coulda-shoulda feeling in his gut from being with her. “Just be honest with me. I’m a pussy, right?”
    “No, I don’t think that. I have been crazy in love twice in my life, and both times it was like being skinned alive.”
    “Does Brian know this?”
    Suzi rolled her eyes. “He’d agree. It sounds to me like you’re in love, really in love, for the first time in your life.”
    “And I’m a pussy.”
    “No, you’re in love, and we can’t be sure Tessa doesn’t return the feeling.”
    “What do you mean?” Brett leaned forward.
    She shrugged. “This isn’t the first time Tessa has snubbed a pretty heavy relationship.”
    “Like with Brian.”
    “Yeah. Brian told me he was crazy about her. He even asked her to marry him once.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah, she told him to grow up and started sleeping with Marc.”
    “Ow.”
    “Tell me about it. If Brian was a different kind of guy, she could have broken up the band with that stunt.”
    “And that’s not the only time?”
    “According to Brian, she’s been in a couple of very serious relationships that she ended for no good reason that anybody could see.”
    “You two spend all night talking about Tessa and me?”
    Suzi smirked. “Yes, Brett, Brian and I sat up all night talking about you.”
    “Well, you know a lot for someone who doesn’t know anything.”
    “The Brian-Tessa-Marc triangle is mildly legendary. Maureen, Cassie, and I speculate about what happened when we’re together, but none of us has the guts to ask any of the players what did happen, and we can’t ask Alex in case she doesn’t know. I wouldn’t want to let that cat out of the bag to Marc’s wife, would you? I mean, it’s one thing to know they have history without knowing they have history .”
    “What happened?”
    Suzi leaned across the table. “Brian had a crush on Tessa forever. Dating all the way back to elementary school. After Touchstone’s first album, Brian turned up the heat so Tessa jumped into bed with Marc who didn’t realize there was tension there. Brian may or may not have responded by sleeping with Candy who was in an on-again, off-again relationship with Ty.”
    “How do you know all this?”
    “Before I got together with Brian, I was just the innocent bystander girlfriend of one of the guys in another band.” She took a sip from her water glass.
    “Are you sure you don’t want a Coke? You always have Coke.”
    “I’m on a