New Beginnings: A Hessa Story (2)

Chapter 13: Landon (BONUS)

I have been sitting outside of Hardin's house for twenty minutes now, and he hasn't come back yet. I know for a fact that the subway station that Hardin could be picking his mum and stepfather up from isn't that far from his house. No matter how much I want to go home and see my daughter that my mom is watching, I have to do this for Hardin and Tessa. Tessa wants him to have a nice night out, and I know it's going to be extremely difficult to convince him in any way.

"You really think I can do it?" I asked Nora as I made breakfast this morning.

"Honestly, I don't know, but I feel like you can at least give it a try. I'm taking Tessa out tonight with Kim, so I think Hardin should get out of the house too."

"I agree, where are you guys going?" I passed Nora a plate of eggs as she breastfed Addy.

"I have no idea, Kim planned the whole thing. All I know is I got reservations at Lookout for us, but after that I have no clue."

"Well, we'll see what happens."

"You'll do great, babe. If anyone can convince him to do something fun, it's you. Just use Tessa as leverage or something." Nora teased me. I walked over and kissed her forehead.

Nora's right. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one, besides Tessa, who can convince him to do anything. I'm his best bet for tonight.

Ten minutes quickly turns into forty-five minutes, and I think that Hardin and his mum might have gone out for dinner or something. I have called him at least six times, and he hasn't answered once. Typical. I try Tessa to see if she has heard from him, but she doesn't answer either. I try to call my wife too, but it just goes straight to voicemail.

"Great, no one has their phone." I say out loud to myself. I wish I knew Kim's number or Trish's, but I don't have them. I wish Nora knew where they were going tonight. She said Lookout, so maybe they're still there? I don't know what to do... Do I stay here and wait for Hardin to potentially come back, or do I go look for Tessa, Kim and Nora?

I am never doing anything like this again.

I pull out of the driveway and head towards Lookout. I keep trying to call Nora and Tessa, both still aren't answering their phones. I'm not surprised Nora isn't answering, but I expected more from Tessa.

It takes me twenty minutes to arrive at the restaurant, and to my luck there is a parking spot right in the front, but I'd have to parallel park. This is where I need Nora. It takes me another twenty minutes to park in this spot. I'm getting dirty looks from every single pedestrian passing me as I attempt to park on the street. I hate parallel parking so much, and I usually avoid it at all costs, but this was too good of a spot to not try it. I hope Tessa, Nora and Kim are all still here.

I walk into the busy restaurant, and see a waitress I recognize.

"Hey, Jess!" I wave at her, and she walks over.

"Landon, hi! What a coincidence, Tessa and Nora were both here just a few minutes ago."

"Were?" Damn it. "So they aren't here anymore?" I sigh.

"They left about twenty minutes ago."

I am smacking myself in the face right now. If I didn't take twenty minutes to park, then maybe I would have caught them before they left.

"By any chance do you have any idea where they're going?"

"I remember Kim mentioning something about a club, I don't know which one."

"A club in New York City... Great! That narrows it down." I sarcastically say.

"I'm sorry..." Jess apologizes.