“It will be our first official event as a couple.” Eric slides his phone across the table to me, before waggling his eyebrows.

“It will be my first chance to show off my arm candy.  For real this time.”

“Arm candy?” I cannot even contain my eyeroll. “That is the most chauvinistic thing that you have ever said to me. And really, that’s saying a lot.”

“Oh, baby. Come on. You would totally be my arm candy. Every guy in that whole damn ballroom will be jealous of me. I so want to show you off.”

“This?” I pull my arm out of my shirt and put my arm in front of his face. “You really want to show off all of this? I look like you beat me.”

His mouth flattens in a thin line as he stares at my very purple bruises.

“Nobody would think that.”

“Nobody? Eric, a lot of people would think that. Hell, it was blasted the other day on the news!”

“That was not the news. That was some garbage entertainment television. Only airheads and dumb jocks watch stuff like that...”

I burst out laughing, as his mouth flattens again.

“Ok. So there probably would be some people like that there.”

“A lot of people like that.” I correct before he reaches across the table and grabs me, pulling me tightly against him.

“You think you’re so funny, don’t you?” He nuzzles his face into my neck before biting softly.

“I do.” I try to pull away but his grip is too tight. I giggle as he pulls me closer and begins to tickle me.

“Stop! Ok! Ok! I give up!”

“You gonna be done saying stupid stuff like that?”

“No promises.” I giggle again before pulling fully away and jumping to my feet.

“But the answer is yes. If you really want me to go, then I will.”

“You will?” His whole face lights up, and dammit all, it melts my freaking heart.

“Yes. I will. I will just make sure to wear something long sleeved so that the press doesn’t have any more of a field day than they already are.”

Which, in fact, they are having hella fun talking about us.

Somehow, they have managed to dig up all kinds of stuff about us. My car accident has been blasted on the news, and all kinds of speculation around it has surfaced. Was I drinking? Do I have a drug problem?

Or my personal favorite, someone zoomed in a picture of my stomach and has since speculated that Eric slummed it with the help (which of course is me), knocked me up and now is trapped.

Good freaking Lord.

“Fuck them. Wear whatever you want. You’ve got all week to shop for a dress. Buy whatever you want, baby. Sky’s the limit for you.”

I wrinkle up my nose, making him chuckle.

“Too much?”

“You are always too much.”

“Is that what makes you love me the most?”

“Nah. I only love you for your penis.”

His mouth drops open, and he reaches for me again, but I’m already standing so I’m able to escape.

I dart out of the room, laughing as I head towards the door.

He grabs me at the last second, before spinning me around and smacking a kiss to my lips.

“I really wish that you didn’t have to go.”

“I could say the same thing about you,” I tell him honestly, as he pulls back slightly and stares into my eyes.

“God, I love hearing that.” He pulls me close, resting his chin on the top of my head.

“I really am going to miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too.”

“Liar. You’re only going to miss my dick.”

“Also true.” I sigh, before pulling back from him and standing up on my tiptoes. I grab his face in between my hands before pulling his face down to mine.

I only mean to press a quick kiss to his lips, but, instead, I end up opening wide, and well.

A full make-out session ensues...

“Fuck.” He mutters when I finally pull back.

“I’m about ready to beg you to drop out of school and permanently travel with me. How am I gonna last four whole days without you in my bed every night?”

I have no idea why his words make my stomach drop, but they do.

Eric has been nothing but doting on me over the last week or so since we’ve decided to make whatever this is official.

I told him that I loved him and that I was going to try to trust him.

Except if I’m being fully honest here?

I’m not sure that I can.

I mean, of course, I love him. It’s just the trust that’s an issue...

As if reading my mind, he sighs hard before pulling back.

“Baby, please don’t.”

“Don’t what? I’m just going to miss you, that’s all.”

“Promise that’s all that’s going through your mind right now? Because I really feel like you’re thinking about...other things.”

“Promise. Are you sure you’re ok with waiting for the sitter to get here? I totally can wait. I don’t want you to miss your flight.”

“Missing my flight would not be the worst thing ever. I don’t want you waiting around and then having to rush off at the last minute. I want you to take your time getting to school and drive slow.”

“I will,” I assure him, but his face remains skeptical.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather just have me bring you? I really don’t mind...”

“I’m going to have to drive myself again at some point. I’ll be fine.”

In all honesty, I haven’t gotten back behind the wheel since the accident. Even though it wasn’t my fault, I’ve still been a little bit nervous.

But today is the very first day of classes, and, well. If I let Eric know that I was nervous he would probably freak out.

He would end up hiring some kind of chauffeur to drive me around, and that is the last thing that I need.

It’s bad enough that I’m finally breaking down enough to drive that stupid Land Rover.

“Ok.” He presses one more kiss to my lips. “Love you, babes. I’ll call you every night. Maybe we can even work out some phone sex.”

He winks at me, and I just roll my eyes.

“Don’t get your hopes up. I’m not the phone sex kind of girl.”

“Oh, I think you could be. You’re my little sex fiend. I could totally talk you into some of that.”

“You’re probably right.” His grin widens as my face flushes.

But let’s be honest here. I’ve always been a fool for this man, and I’m pretty sure he knows that the second he uses his body against me?

I’m a goner.

He takes my hand, as I glance up the stairs.

“Don’t wake him, baby. Let him sleep in.”

“Fine. But promise you’ll wake him up before you leave? He’ll be crushed if he wakes up and you’re gone.”

“Promise. I would never leave without telling my son goodbye.”

My heart swells at his words, although, if I’m being honest, they still make me slightly uneasy.

But only because I’m still just not so sure that my trust is really in this.

He leads me out to the car, kissing me hard again before making sure I buckle up my seatbelt. He stands in the driveway waving to me until I can no longer see him in the rearview mirror.

And that stupid uneasy feeling in my stomach?

It will not go away.

**

“ALRIGHT. SO AS MOST of you know, the main portion of your grade will be based off your clinical studies. You will all be required to complete one hundred and twenty hours of clinical time in order to complete this semester. This semester will focus on the child, and then next semester will focus on the adult mentally ill. You will be dealing with mental illness in children as well, so some of the tools that you learn now will help you out next semester.”

I’m trying hard to focus in class, really, I am. But my mind is having a hard time staying on task.

Despite trying to stay focused, my mind keeps wandering back to Eric, and the fact that he isn’t going to be there when I get home tonight.

This isn’t supposed to bother me.

Good lord, had I just been able to stick to my original plan, this wouldn’t even be an issue, to begin with. But stupidly, I allowed him back into my heart. And now that familiar feeling is completely taking over my brain.

Even though he called me last night from his hotel room, I still couldn’t let my mind stop imagining all the possibilities that could have been occurring after we hung up the phone.

I know that women hound these guys. I know that Eric probably has a slew of women throwing themselves at him at every stop.

And I know his track record...

I can’t help but feel foolish for even allowing myself to be in this position again. To be in a place where literally, one wrong move by him could crack my heart wide open.

All over again.

“You’re in my group.” A hand taps me on the shoulder, and I jump, before swinging my head to the side.

“I’m sorry?” I blink up at the man standing above me, who flashes me a wide grin at my obvious look of surprise.

“We’re in a group together. We’re both two’s.”

“We’re both two’s,” I repeat, still totally confused. “Right. Two’s.” I nod my head as he laughs out loud.

“It’s easy to drift off in this class. It’s a touch on the boring side, right?”

“Right.” I agree, even though, I’ve barely been paying attention all day, so I really have no idea just how boring it is.

“I’m Wyatt.” He extends his hand, engulfing mine. “Looks like we’re going to be partners for this project.”

“Alright.” I nod, before gathering my things.

“Wyatt, I’m Avery. And I promise I’m not usually such a space cadet. I’m actually a pretty good student, I just seem to have a lot of my mind today. So, I apologize, but do you think that you could fill me in on what I’ve missed?”

“Sure thing, Avery.” He leads me across the auditorium to a set of chairs over in the corner.

I take a seat, before pulling out my notes.

“Just tell me the last thing you’ve got there.”

I glance down at my very blank sheet of paper, before sighing loudly.

“Ah, I wrote down the date. That’s as far as I got.”

Thank the good lord that I have been partnered up with a guy like Wyatt. Because instead of getting irritated with me, his grin only widens.

He pulls his chair up next to mine and fills me in on all that I’ve missed. By the time I’m caught up, almost an hour has gone by, and we’ve barely gotten into what we need to do for our project.

Our professor dismisses the class, and Wyatt glances over at me.

“I wish that I could stay later so that we could get working on this, but I can’t today. I volunteer at the Big Brothers organization on Wednesday nights. Maybe we should exchange phone numbers so that we could figure out a time outside of class to work on this?”

“Definitely. My time is kind of limited, but I’m sure we can figure out something.”

“Sounds good.”

I hand him my phone and he pauses, staring at the picture of Jackson and I on the screen.

“Cute kid. He yours?”

I smile widely before nodding.

“Yep. Meet the number one reason for my limited amount of time.”

He smiles again, before typing in his contact information.

“Bet he’s worth it.”

“Most definitely.” I agree, before doing the same with his phone, entering my own information.

“Well, Avery, it was nice to meet you. I’ll be in touch, ok?”

I agree before gathering up my things.

“Actually, you parked in the south lot?”

I nod my head, and he tilts his head towards the door.

“C’mon then. It’s starting to get dark out. I’ll walk out with you.”

We make small talk on our way out to the parking lot.

I learn that Wyatt is from right here, in South Carolina. He has never been married and does not have any children. He has lots of siblings though and seems to be pretty fond of them and his parents.

He asks me a little bit about Jackson and seems surprised when I tell him that I’m not from here.

He says at least twice how I look so familiar to him.

The words make me cringe, and I hope to God that he doesn’t recognize me from some of the pictures that have circled the internet.

We finally reach my car and he whistles.

“Wow. Nice ride.”

I glance over to the Land Rover, before pausing.

“Um. Thank you.”

“Seriously. I love these things. I’ve always wanted one. Never going to be able to afford one.” He grins. “But a guy can dream, right?”

“I can’t really...” My words die before I just shrug. “Thanks.”

No need in explaining that I most definitely could not afford it either. That would entail explaining that my ex-boyfriend, who is now my new boyfriend bought it for me.

He may then ask who my boyfriend is, and well...

I’m not trying to get into all of that.

So instead I wave goodnight before climbing into the ridiculously expensive vehicle and driving myself home.

**

“I THINK THAT WE SHOULD focus on the aspect of foster care regarding children with depressive mood disorder. It will really bring attention to a subject that needs it, and, I think that it would be an interesting case study.”

“That’s funny. It’s like you totally read my mind.” I flip my laptop towards Wyatt, showing him the research that I had already started on the exact same subject.

“Great minds.” He leans in, nudging me with his shoulder. “I think we make a pretty good team.”

“Totally agree.” I nod my head, before bookmarking my sites and quickly emailing them to him.

“This should be a pretty easy subject to research.”

“Perfect. How do you want to break this up? Do you want to look up some case studies, or would you rather research the disorder itself?”

“I’d rather do the case studies. I’m not a big fact researching person.”

We spend another thirty minutes or so discussing how we want this presentation to look. By the time we’re done, we’re both laughing and have gotten totally off the subject, and onto discussing other things.

By the time I look around, I notice that the entire library has emptied out, leaving just the two of us left inside.

“Oh, wow.” I glance up at the clock on the wall. “Crap. Time totally got away from me.”

I quickly rise before gathering up my things.

“I’ve really got to get going. I told my sitter I would be home about fifteen minutes ago.”

I toss my bag over my shoulder.

“Oh, shit. I hope you won’t be in any trouble.” He gathers his things quickly before pressing his hand to the small of my back and leading me towards the door.

His touch doesn’t exactly make me uncomfortable, but at the same time, it isn’t warranted either. I take a step to the side, forcing his hand to drop.

“I’m sorry, Avery. I wasn’t trying to make you uncomfortable...” He shakes his head before falling into step alongside of me. “Just a habit I guess.”

“No worries.” We reach the doors and head towards the parking lot. “It’s just that, well, Wyatt, I hope that you aren’t getting the wrong idea. I kind of have a boyfriend.”

“Of course, you do.” He flashes me another grin as we walk towards my car.

“The beautiful ones are always taken.”

I hear him say it, but I don’t really process it. Because as we near my car, I see a figure standing in front of it, leaning against the hood.

“Avery.” He grabs onto my elbow, pulling me to a stop. “Stay right here.”

My heart begins to pound, as I nod, before taking a safety step backward and fumbling for my phone.

“I’ve got 9-1-1 programmed. Ready to hit send.” I hiss at him, as he continues to hold a finger at me to stay still while he approaches my car.

I swear to god, my heart has never beat so fast in my life. But I feel obligated to follow him slightly, but still keeping enough distance behind him so that I can run for help if needed.

But then, the figure pushes off my car and takes a few long strides towards us.

I see the way that the figure moves, and, well.

I would know those movements anywhere.

“Eric?”

The light from the lamppost hits his face, and I stand there, still somewhat frozen as he glances between Wyatt and I and continues to come towards me.

“You know this guy?” Wyatt asks, turning his head to face me as Eric steps between us and wraps a protective arm around me.

“Of course, she knows me.” He mutters, before wrapping his arms around me. “She’s mine.” His gruff words are through clenched teeth before his mouth mashes down on mine.

I wrap my arms around him, before pulling back, suddenly not even caring about the fact that Wyatt is getting a show right now.

“Oh my God...Eric. What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Baltimore!”

“I needed to see you.” His arms wrap tightly around me before his eyes flash angrily over to Wyatt.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“Eric, relax. This is Wyatt.” I take a step out of his embrace before motioning towards Wyatt, who is standing with his mouth wide open, glancing between the two of us.

“He’s my partner for my presentation project. Remember? I was telling you about it?”

“You failed to mention that your partner was a guy.” His mouth sets in a firm line.

“Really? Are you serious right now?”

He exhales long and slow before finally shaking his head.

“Sorry baby.” He mutters, before taking a step back and extending his hand to Wyatt.

“Sorry, brother. I temporarily lost my manners. I’m Eric.”

I watch as the two of them do an awkward handshake. It’s really only awkward because I’m pretty sure that Wyatt recognizes Eric, and I’m even more sure that Eric is barely holding it together right now.

“Wyatt is kind enough to walk me to my car after classes,” I tell Eric, who still looks about ready to snap. “Since it’s dark out here, I don’t really like to walk alone.”

He nods slowly, before doing some kind of a chin lift towards him.

“Thanks for watching over my girl.” The possessive tone is completely evident as he claims ownership over me.

“I can take it from here, though. Have a nice night. Wyatt.”