“Okay,” I rasp.
“I got accepted into medical school.”
As much as my heart feels like it plummets into the depths of my stomach at her words, I hold the tiny smile on my face for as long as I can without it twitching. This is it. This is the part where she tells me that she’s moving across the country away from me. This is the hard part. My jaw clenches as I swallow, the smile growing tighter as I struggle to find the words to say.
I have at least two years left at Cedar Grove to get my master’s. I’m stuck in Pennsylvania for that much longer, whereas she could possibly be going anywhere. She’s that smart and incredible; any medical school would be lucky to have her.
“That’s…” I trail off, struggling to find the right thing to say so I don’t seem as flustered as I feel, “That’s amazing, Maeve. I’m so proud of you.”
She pulls my hand from her face, cocking her head slightly as her gaze narrows just a bit. “Aren’t you going to ask me which one?”
I don’t want to.
“Yes, of course, I was just…processing,” I tell her, squeezing my fingers around her hand that clasps mine. “Which one?”
“Johns Hopkins.”
“Johns Hopkins,” I repeat. “JohnsHopkins?”
She nods, her pink cheeks darkening as she bites back a smile.
“T-that’s in Baltimore,” I say, thinking out loud as I put the pieces together. “That’s only four hours away from Pittsburgh.”
Her head bobs along with her hum of agreement, and she’s practically buzzing with excitement as her hands slide further up my arm to grip onto my bicep.
“Exactly,” she continues, “which means we’ll only be four hours away from each other. We can make the commute on weekends, right? We can make this work.”
A breathless laugh escapes my mouth as I tug her toward me, wrapping my arms around her and crushing her head to my chest, where she lets out muffled giggles. She can probably hear how fast my heart is racing right now, but I don’t care.
“Of course we can make this work,” I tell her, burying my face into her neck as I speak. “Four hours is nothing. That’s nothing to me. This is… This is perfect.You’reperfect.”
“It’s just obstacles, right?” she mumbles into my chest.
“It’s just obstacles.”
There was a tiny part of me that had been worried about this news for months now. I knew it was coming eventually, and the unknown was nearly debilitating. The question hung in theair for so long about where she would possibly have to move. I hadn’t realized how tense my body was feeling before this point. Like my nervous system was constantly on edge, just waiting.
Now I feel like I can actually take a deep breath.
“Johns Hopkins is amazing, Mae.” I free myself from her neck as I speak, kissing the top of her head. “You should be so proud of yourself. That’s a huge deal. I mean, one of the top-ranked medical schools? That’s incredible.”
“Yeah? You’re proud of me?” she asks in a small voice, peeking up at me through her lashes.
“I am proud of you, yes,” I say, “but you should be proud of yourself.”
She purses her lips. “Hmm, I guess I am pretty proud of myself.”
“You guess?”
Maeve laughs, throwing her head back as the smile overtakes her features. “I am. I am proud of myself, okay?”
My chest feels full, myheart, as I look down at her. Her cheeks are lifted into the happiest smile I’ve ever seen on her, and it almost looks…relieved. She looks free and maybe like she can finally breathe again, too. God, I love her so much like this.
“It’s only for two years,” I murmur, taking her hand in my clammy one, “I’ll finish my master’s and then come to Baltimore. Find a job somewhere, and then when we know where you’ll get placed for a residency program, I can work toward my doctorate.”
Her smile falters as she blinks weakly up at me. “You’d just…follow me around? Tate, I don’t want you to limit yourself because of me. You shouldn’t do that.”
“I don’t see it like that at all.”
