I flipped the book page, trying to cram everything I needed to know for my exam in the next two hours but distractions were all around me. Studying in my dorm room would have been the best place to find quiet, but I had made plans with Emma to meet at this spot. For the past couple of weeks, this had been our meeting spot if the seat was available- the one where we had first met on campus.
As Emma crossed my mind, I drifted from the page I was reading, with a smile on my face. I reminisced on the day we had met and how I’d been annoyed by her. I chuckled because if I missed a day without her quirks, I had to call her and we would chat for hours. We didn’t see each other every day but close to it. Now that I drove, we were able to go out on dates, although we never called them dates. I was thinking it was time to call it what it was though.
Emma and I were in a relationship but we were both trying to play it nonchalant like we didn’t want to confirm with each other that we were really together. Being with her, had forced me to admit a few things that I suspected I knew about Marilyn all along. She wasn’t the type of girl I wanted to be with. She was too superficial and rude. I enjoyed Emma’s gentle side, her kind nature and her smile.
I felt happy, genuinely happy and at peace, not like I had anything to prove to anyone. I returned my attention to my text and delved into the text. After today we would be on break for Veteran’s Day. I wanted to meet her one last time and tell her how I felt before we went on the long weekend break. She would be visiting her parents and I would be traveling to South Carolina to meet with my dad.
Dad had no idea I was visiting yet and I intended to keep it that way to surprise him. I’d tried calling him but sometimes still forgot. I decided that I could at least make it up to him for the weekend. He had often suggested I could visit on weekends and he would pay for my ticket but I never took him up on this offer, unless it was a long holiday like Thanksgiving. I had even skipped Christmas last year to go on a cruise with Marilyn and her friends. He had been disappointed and I knew I would always try to make it home for Christmas.
I wondered what he would think of Emma. He never really expressed his thoughts about Marilyn to me and I wondered if he would approve more of Emma. I had a hunch he would. Emma was just that type of person who had the ability to make people feel at ease with her. If the sun could be personified, she would have been the perfect example.
Knowing about her past just made her that much more remarkable. She had told me once that she had made peace with what happened to her mother, although events could trigger the memories and put her in a vulnerable place without warning. She still had to live with the horror that came with being locked up in a basement or the closet in darkness. Yet, she claimed she had forgiven her birth mother for the mistreatment. Processing how she could forgive a mother for such an act had been hard for me to grasp at first, until she had me questioning my own attitude to my father’s attempt to reconcile. Yes, my childhood had been shitty too, not to her extent, but I had my share insecurities of love and family.
Hands covered my eyes, startling me at first, before I relaxed and smiled. Only one person was close to me right now, to do such a thing. Her body was warm from where she had approached me from behind.
“I hope if I fail, you’ll take full responsibility,” I remarked.
She laughed and removed her hands. She started walking to the stone bench across from me but on a whim, I pulled her onto my lap. Her eyes widened a little and a reddish tint crept up her cheeks. I wondered what she would do when I kissed her because I knew I was going to.
“Hey, how was class,” I asked her.
“Okay,” she answered, her eyes twinkling. “I almost nodded off. How’s your studying?”
“Not so good,” I confessed.
“Why not?”
“Because I was busy thinking about you,” I replied honestly.
“Oh.” She placed an arm on my shoulder. “Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“What about me?” She brushed a lock of hair that had fallen on my forehead, almost into my eyes. I needed a haircut soon.
“That I’m going to miss you over this weekend,” I told her softly, the two of us the only ones in my consciousness, although several others were around us. “Are you going to miss me?” I asked her, my eyes trained on her face.
“Hmm, let me see,” she drawled, adopting a pensive look.
“You better miss me!” I exclaimed and took her chin in my hand, directing her eyes to mine. Our face was so close, I could make out the amber flecks from my eyes mirrored in her own. “Are you going to miss me?” I asked her again, willing for her to answer in the positive. We’d beat around the bush long enough.
“Yes,” she finally answered. “I’m going to miss you so much.”
The perfect opportunity presented itself to me then. The timing just felt right and I leaned in, not all the way but giving her the opportunity to pull back. I didn’t want her to feel pressured into anything that she didn’t want. As much as I wanted to kiss her, I would respect her and her say in the matter.
Instead of using the opportunity I presented to shift away, she did the opposite. She wrapped her arms around my neck and mashed her lips against mine. I held her firmly to me, spanning her slender waist with my hands. I kissed her back, lost in her for a few minutes before I slowly pulled away.
At the end of the kiss, we stared at each other before we slowly smiled. The kiss felt right.
“That was nice,” she remarked and I wrinkled my nose at her.
“Just nice?” I teased.
“Yes, just nice,” she insisted and when I scowled at her, pecked me on the chin. She slid off my lap onto the bench beside me and took up my book from the desk. “Come on, let me help you study.”
I would have thought she would be a distraction but she wasn’t. She was very helpful as we went through the chapters together. She was bright and asked me intelligent questions just by scanning through the information.
When it was time to walk to class, she accompanied me, my arm around her shoulder and hers around my waist.
“You’ve not changed your mind about your dad, have you?” she asked me.
“No, I’m going to spend the weekend with him.”
I felt twelve feet tall when she looked on me with approval shining in her eyes. “I’m proud of you,” she stated. “It’s the right thing to do.”
“Yes, you’ve taught me a lot, Em.”
“As you’ve taught me a lot too,” she returned.
I chuckled as we came to a halt before the entrance of the lecture hall. I turned to her and wrapped both my arms around her waist.
“What exactly have I taught you?” I asked, cocking my head to one side to observe her.
“You’ve taught me patience while you figure things out,” she answered, then reached a hand out to pat my cheek affectionately. “All the best in your exam.”
“Thank you.” Someone rushed by us and jostled her into me. “Will you come over later?” I asked. “Netflix and store-bought popcorn?”
“I’ll run to the store and get you the kind you like,” she advised me.
I frowned at her. “I don’t want you taking the bus alone.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ve been taking the bus alone for a long time, Travis.”
“Take the car,” I insisted, digging into my pocket for the keys. I opened her hand and placed the keys in her palm. I already knew she could drive well and had her license because she had driven my car before.
“Really, Travis. I’ll take the bus.”
I didn’t retrieve the car from her but dropped a kiss to her forehead. “You know where the car’s parked. Wish me luck!”
Before she could argue, I was already hurrying inside the classroom where Professor Dobson was asking everyone to put away their materials.