Adam
There’s something rather unsettling about being in your last semester of college.
It reminds me of high school a little bit, how excited you are at the end of your junior year. You think to yourself I’m finally a senior! It’s my year to rule! And everything is full of possibility and promise.
But then, you transition into that last semester of your senior year, and something changes.
Something shifts.
Suddenly, you realize that it’s the end of an era, a door closing that you can never open again. This time in your life — whether you’ve loved or hated it — is about to end. Which, of course, means a new chapter is beginning.
It’s both exciting and terrifying.
Those emotions on their own are strong, but when you mix them together, it’s like having a permanent stomachache. You slow down a little more, look around a little more, appreciate things that maybe you never took the time to throughout the last four years of your life.
I’ve been to hundreds of Alpha Sigma events by now — dozens of which I’ve coordinated myself. And sure, I’ve enjoyed myself. I’ve thrown myself into event planning, stayed up all night long with my brothers celebrating, lost weeks on end where there was so much going on it was like a blur.
But tonight, at our first annual Valentine’s Day Soirée, I’m soaking it all in.
The event was actually Kade’s idea, which threw me for a loop because I’d always taken Kade as more of a party brother than one interested in leadership. But something’s happened since he’s been with Jess. It seems that he’s transformed, that he’s been moved by the urge to do more, to be more.
He came to me with the idea a month ago: a Valentine’s Day, all-inclusive event that every girl on campus would be dying to go to.
There’d be an elegant catered dinner at the house, a quartet band playing old jazz favorites, and an excuse to dress up — which, if I’m being honest, is probably the main allure.
College girls love an excuse to dress up.
Now, sitting at my rose-petal-covered table with Cassie as we drink champagne and listen to the band, I can’t help but look around at what Kade created in awe.
The Alpha Sigma house has been completely transformed, inside and out, with intimate, candle-lit tables lining our hallways, filling our common rooms, and spilling out onto the covered dance floor in the back yard.
The tent is strung with fairy lights, too, and there’s just something about the jazz band that elevates the whole experience.
It doesn’t feel like a college party, like a typical frat event.
It feels sophisticated and grown.
It feels magical.
“You’ve really outdone yourself tonight, Adam,” Cassie says, her green eyes sparkling in the candlelight from our table.
I chose one that was outside for us, under the tent, and not too far from the band, and it just so happens to be the most pleasant evening we’ve had all month — cool, but not cold, with a gentle breeze wafting over the yard.
Cassie always looks radiant, but seeing her in a blush silk gown tapered in all the right places with pearls on her neck and in her ears, her red hair pulled back in an elegant twist of braids and curls, her lips painted a soft pink that makes me want to kiss her senseless…
it’s enough to make me dizzy just looking at her.
“I wish I could take the credit,” I admit honestly, taking a sip of my champagne. “But this is all Kade.”
“Kade?” She shakes her head, finding him and Jess on the dance floor. He’s got one hand holding hers upright, and the other snaked around the small of her back as they sway softly to the music. “I had no idea he had this in him.”
“Neither did I.”
“Does Jess know?”
I shrug. “He’s been pretty humble about it all.
Even with the planning, he wasn’t trying to really boss anyone around.
He took everything on himself that he could, delegated when he needed to, and named it a team effort from the start.
” My stomach pinches a little. “He’s a better man than I am.
I would want all the credit for an event like this. ”
Cassie smiles, placing her hand over mine. “I seem to remember you sharing credit for the amazing Alpha Sigma concert you threw that very first year I knew you. And it’s become an annual hit.”
“With a karaoke twist now.”
“Lord, help us all.”
I chuckle, smoothing my thumb over her wrist. Cassie locks her gaze on mine for a long while before she’s watching the band again, sipping her champagne, and I can see it without her saying a word.
She wants to dance.
Folding my napkin and setting it beside our half-eaten, red velvet cake, I extend my hand for hers, taking her out to the floor to sway alongside Jess and Kade. It’s like we start a trend, because before we know it, the entire dance floor is full.
And a bunch of college kids are dancing to a Billie Holiday song.
Who would have thought?
As I hold Cassie in my arms, I can’t help but feel that same sentimental bug crawling under my skin.
I’ll miss being here with her, miss going to frat parties and formals and spring breaks with her.
I have no doubt the next chapter in my life holds Cassie in it, but I’d also be stupid to think it wouldn’t be different.
Even with all we’ve been through, college is nothing compared to what waits for us in the real world.
And that fact is thrown in my face every time I go to apply for the Alpha Sigma Field Executive position.
Being a part of the national organization as a college graduate makes my heart race any time I think about it. Some nights, I can’t sleep because I get so excited thinking about what campuses I’d be sent to, the young men I’d get to meet and shape, the organizations I could turn around.
But in the same breath, I lose sleep when I remember the sobering facts.
Not only would I be away from Cassie in her last semester as a college student, but none of the schools she wants to apply to for med school have an Alpha Sigma chapter. In fact, most of them don’t even have a chapter within a hundred miles.
Which means if I do land my dream job, I’d be far away from my dream girl.
And while I know our love is strong and we have already made it through so many trials, I feel sick at the thought of losing her in exchange for having a career.
“I think I smell smoke.”
I arch a brow, snapping back to the present moment when Cassie taps my temple.
She chuckles. “What are you thinking so hard about over there?”
I smile, letting out a long release of a breath. “Lots of things. But most of all, how gorgeous you look tonight.”
She blushes, that familiar shade of crimson coloring her cheeks just like it did the first day I met her. “You just want to get me out of this dress.”
“Oh, I definitely do. And I intend to as soon as possible. But first,” I say when the song ends, doing a dramatic bow as I kiss her hand. “I have some business to attend to.”
She giggles, turning to the side to let me kiss her cheek when I’m upright again.
Then, I make my way over to Kade, tearing him away from Jess — which is no easy feat — and taking him off to the side of the dance floor.
Jess makes her way over to Cassie, taking my seat at our table, and once they’re settled, I focus on Kade.
“You did a phenomenal job putting this all together,” I say.
He shrugs. “Ah, it was a team effort. I couldn’t have done it alone.”
“No,” I agree. “But it wouldn’t be happening at all if not for you.
This isn’t just some frat party, or just another cheesy costume event that anyone could slap together.
It has finesse. And I’m being honest when I say no one has impressed me this much since I impressed my own damn self coming up with the A Sig concert idea. ”
Kade laughs.
“I’m serious, man,” I say, shoving my hands in my pockets. I look around at the event, taking it all in. “Have you thought about going for president?”
When I look back at Kade, his jaw is practically on the floor, his eyes wide as he blinks at me repeatedly. “Is that a joke?”
“No,” I say with a chuckle of my own. “Come on, man. I mean, you threw this together in less than a month. You have raw leadership skills and the ability to get the guys fired up and excited about something. That alone is enough to make a good president, but on top of that, you’re smart and motivated and creative. You’ve got the chops.”
Kade frowns, then laughs, shaking his head as he looks around at our brothers and their dates. “I… I don’t know, man.”
“Well, I do.” I clap him on the shoulder. “You don’t have to make a decision tonight, okay? Just think about it.”
His frown is still in place, but he nods, offering me what smile he can manage. “Thanks, Adam.”
I return his nod with a grin, and then make my way back over to Cassie.
If it’s our last Valentine’s Day together on campus, I’m going to make the most of it.