After I take a drink, I grab the cup of rice and add some to her soup before dumping the rest in my own. “You need the calories,” I remind her. “You haven’t eaten anything all day.”
After she’s eaten as much as she can, I make her tea and load up the dishwasher while she picks us out a movie to watch. With mug in hand, I join her on the couch, and then quickly decide I want her in my lap. She drinks her tea while I pull a blanket over us.
Resting my hand on her bare thigh, I say, “I really like this outfit, by the way.”
She grins over the rim of her mug. “Me too. You should prepare yourself because I’m not so sure you’re ever going to get this hoodie back.”
“Consider it yours,” I say. “It looks better on you anyway.”
“Agree to disagree.”
I huff out a laugh at how absurd that is, but it dies in my throat when I slide my hand up and hit her bare hip. “God, I was really hoping I was right about you being naked under here.”
“We did agree to go without clothes as much as possible this weekend.” She rests her head on my shoulder while cupping the mug close to her chest. “I just got a little chilly and needed the hoodie. I thought this was a good compromise.”
“This is the perfect compromise,” I tell her while lightly grazing my fingers along her smooth skin. I’m sure the movie she picked out is great, but I don’t hear a single word of it. All my focus is on the woman in my lap. I can’t stop touching her, and it’s not in the crazed,I need to be inside you right this fucking secondway that I’d been feeling the other night. Although, there is a good bit of that mixed in, but it’s more than that now. I want to touch her because feeling her body beneath my fingersmakes me feel whole in the kind of way that I hadn’t known was possible. It’s as simple as that. It’s not a want. It’s a need, the same way my lungs scream for air and my heart for the constant push and pull of blood. Ineedher in every way that counts.
After the movie, I keep holding her while we make plans for her to move in. She’s no longer a freshman, so she’s not required to live at the sorority house, and there’s actually a waitlist for rooms, which will work to our advantage. There’s more than enough space in the apartment for both of us, and she’ll end up being a few minutes closer to her parents. We decide to invite them over for supper next week and then surprise them with the news. I think her parents genuinely like me, but we’ll know for sure after that conversation.
This weekend is easily the best I’ve ever had. I experience the kind of life I never once thought was possible. The nightmares don’t stop, but when I wake from one and feel the warmth of her body pressed against mine, it makes them fade far quicker than they ever have before. She’s a constant reminder that there’s good in life. It’s so easy to forget that, but I remember it every time I look at her.
On Sunday we make a trip to her sorority to pack up her stuff and then spend most of Monday unpacking and getting her settled in. I put together a bookshelf I ordered for her while she unpacks her classwork and starts organizing it how she wants. She’s using one of the spare rooms as an office space. I’ll need to move my stuff into another room at some point because having my work so close to the bed is no longer appealing to me.
I’m moving her bookshelf against the wall when I hear the horrified gasp she gives. Turning to her, my first thought is that she saw a bug, but then she looks at me and points to her laptop screen. “Dr. Ellison found a huge error in my paper. He said that one of my sources is wrong. I based my whole argument on that.”
Her head is already in her hands by the time I cross the room. I wrap my arm around her while I lean over and read the email.
“He said it can be fixed,” I tell her, trying to make her feel better, “and he wants to meet and go over your options. I’m sure it’ll be okay, Van.” I kiss her head when she lets out another groan. I know how much work she put into this paper and how much of her grade is based on it. “Maybe he made a mistake,” I say.
“Dr. Ellison doesn’t make mistakes.” She leans back against me and closes her eyes. “I fucked up. I was working hard to try and get it done, and I must’ve gotten it wrong somehow.”
Guilt hits me. I know why she was working so hard, pushing herself when she was tired and probably staying up way too late so she could be done with it before this weekend.
“I’m sorry, Van,” I tell her. “This is my fault.”
“It is absolutely not your fault,” she says. Opening her eyes, she leans forward and starts to type a reply, asking when he can meet. His response is almost immediate. His message says he’s in his office getting caught up on paperwork and he can meet her today, right now if she can make it over there.
She turns her head to look at me. I can tell by the worry in her eyes what she’s about to ask, so I kiss the tip of her nose and say, “Of course you need to meet him now. I’ll drive you over there, okay? I can bring my laptop and work in the car.”
“I don’t want you to be miserable.”
“I won’t be. My car is very comfortable,” I tell her while she types her reply.
When she’s sent it, she asks, “But don’t you need the internet to work?”
I laugh before I can stop it because she’s just too goddamn cute sometimes. “I have something that lets me connect to the internet no matter where I am.”
The soft blush that hits her cheeks has me pulling her in for a much deeper kiss. Even though she’s worried about her paper and I know she’s in a rush to get over there, she relaxes fully against me and opens her mouth for more. Savanna always kisses me with everything she has. She puts her heart and soul into it, and even before she ever mentioned the word love to me, I felt it in her kiss. Her heart is too big for her to hide. One of the many things I love about her.
When she pulls back, I squeeze her ass and say, “Get your stuff, baby, and try not to worry. This will all be fine. I promise.”
She nods and starts to pack up her laptop before slinging the messenger bag over her shoulder. It’s a move that’s completely nonsexual, but it always makes my cock stir. I hurry up and grab my own bag, stuffing it full of everything I’ll need. We quickly leave, and by the time I pull up in front of the education building, she’s so nervous she’s fidgeting.
“It’s going to be fine, Van. I know you can fix it and still get an A. I know nothing about writing academic papers, but I’ll help in any way I can.”
She leans over and kisses me. “You don’t need to write academic papers. You came out of the womb a genius.”
“I almost hate to correct you on that because I like that you think so highly of me, but I’m not a genius, Van. I’m just pretty decent with a computer.”
