He laughs. “On what?”
“RDU already has a sex-positive course. Two years ago, a group of students opened up a BDSM club. The course and the club work in tandem. There’s talk about setting up a sex safety course, which I think is where you’d be really great because safety is all about consent.”
Oscar smiles. “I didn’t realize there was a BDSM club on campus.”
“I don’t have anything to do with it, so I guess I never thought to mention it, but since you’re talking about workshops and education, there’s a campus really close by that I think might like to talk to you.”
“I love you,” he says, and my smile climbs. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
I rest my forehead against his. “Same, husband.”
“And now we have another best thing,” he says. “We should talk to him about this stuff. All of it. I want him to feel included and that his opinion is important.”
“I wasjustthinking that a minute ago.”
As if our referencing Roux summoned him, my phone rings. I grab for it, hitting the green button then the speaker. “Hey, sweetheart.”
“He’s dead,” he says, panic in his voice.
My first thought is his brother, and my stomach drops.
“Who?” Oscar asks.
“Trevor. My abusive ex. The cops were here to ask me questions about him. He’s dead. They found a picture of my Marley Coast student ID and pictures of me sleeping on his phone. He was murdered in the Arizona desert. When the police left, I looked it up, and the clips and articles say that it was a murder of passion. Someone brutally murdered him. It says that he had a whole lot of aliases, and… He abused a lot of guys.”
He talks so quickly that I’m not sure I fully understand what he’s saying.
“Where are you, darling?” Oscar asks.
“School. In my room.”
“How about you meet me outside? I’ll pick you up and bring you here. Stay on the phone with Alka until I get there. Okay?”
“Yeah. They thought I did it. They wanted to know if I had any witnesses who could corroborate where I’ve been in the last forty-eight hours.”
Oscar’s already on his way out of the room.
“Did you give them my name?” I ask. “You’ve had practice both nights for the past two days.”
“I know. I did. But they’re going to think you’re faking my alibi because you’re my boyfriend.”
“You also have a team of thirty who can verify that you’ve been there. There are cameras all over campus that can prove you’ve been there.”
“But I’ve left to see Oscar,” he says, and I can hear the panic in his voice.
“You’ve been off campus formaybean hour at a time, Ruby. That’s not enough time to get to the desert and back.”
He takes a breath.
“Go downstairs to wait for Oscar. He’ll be there any minute.”
“Alright.”
“It’s going to be okay. You know that, right?”
“Yeah. I just…” He takes another deep breath. “I shouldn’t feel good that he’s dead, that he was murdered, but after the initial shock, my first thought wasthank godbecause I can stop worrying that he’s going to show up again.”
“That’s not an unreasonable way to feel,” I assure him. “He hurt you for a long time. You no longer have to worry that he’s going to show up in your life anymore.”
