Chapter Thirty
Steven
Ichecked my phone after practice. No texts from Kai since that photo of her breakfast.
Because of how late we got in last night, practice hadn't been early, but we still went over every mistake, then got on the ice and practiced hard. After all, we had one more shot.
“Can I talk to the two of you?” Marilyn approached us on our way out.
“What do you need, Marilyn?” I tried to be polite, because being cranky with her would do us no favors.
Even if I wanted to be cranky with her.
“I know what happened. Claire told me everything,” Marilyn explained.
“We're not going out on another date. We did exactly what you said. It’s not our fault. Claire switched omegas and if you would’ve actually told us a name and given us a picture, this never would’ve happened,” I blurted as my frustrations leaked through.
“I know. I did that because I thought it would be a good idea, considering Claire’s career. I didn’t want you to go in with any preconceived notions, especially because her public social media isn’t who she is as a person at all. I’m sorry for the mix-up,” Marilyn explained.
“It really hurt us,” Ashton said softly.
I pulled him to me. He’d been taking this hard.
“I had no idea Claire had swapped. There’s been a lot for me to handle. I just figured since I heard no complaints and saw a picture or two that everything was fine. No, you don’t have to date anyone else.” Marilyn looked a little defeated.
“Thank you,” I replied.
“But what about this person you did spend all week with? Those pictures look like a lot of fun. I didn’t know you climbed trees.” Marilyn’s voice went hopeful.
“Kai went back to Hawai’i. Spring break’s over.” I sighed.
“Well, I’m glad you had a good time. That was the main point of this. I know your focus is on the final game, but if at some point you do want to be introduced to some nice omegas, just let me know. I’m sorry for how all this turned out. I thought it would be fun,” Marilyn apologized.
“It’s fine. You tried,” I replied.
It had been fun. Too much fun. I wanted more of Kai.
Marilyn hustled off.
I looked at Ashton. “Do you want to grab a beer or do you just want to go home?”
My mind kept flashing back to last night and Ashton wrapped in those blankets that still smelled of Kai. How sad he was. I was sad too, but I wasn’t used to seeing him like this, not even after Charlotte.
“Let’s just go home and order Thai food,” Ashton said quietly.
We drove back to our place, the car quiet except for some particularly angsty music. As he drove, I placed the order for dinner, getting our usual.
Ashton went straight to the kitchen and got down that bottle of expensive scotch. We hadn’t finished off the whole thing during drunken puzzles, which had actually been more fun than I expected. I’d do puzzles more often that way.
He drank directly from the bottle, then leaned against the counter, eyes closed.
Shit, he had it bad, and I didn’t know what to do about it.
We ate our Thai food and got caught up on a show that we’d missed a few episodes of.
Kai still hadn’t texted, but she was probably in class. I snapped a picture of the two of us on the couch, wrapped in blankets, and sent it to her.
Me
Wish you were here.
I wasn’t even sure what time it was there. Time zones confused me.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I finally said to Ashton, putting my arms around him, and burying my head in his shoulder.
“What is there to talk about?” Ashton sighed.
“Everything will be fine. I miss her, too. We’ll see her soon. Maybe we can go out for her graduation if she’d like that?” I suggested.
He perked. “That would be nice if we wouldn’t be imposing. We could go out a little after or see if there’s any holiday weekends.”
“That sounds great. Why don’t we take a shower and get ready for bed?” It was kind of early, but we did have a big day tomorrow. A little extra rest would probably do us good.
“That's a good idea.” Taking my hand, he led me to the shower.
I held him tight under the water spray, reassuring him that he had me. How did I even fix this? Why did this seem so much more awful than with Charlotte?
Kai didn’t break up with us. She just went home.
After we got out. I saw that Kai had texted.
Kai
It’s been a shitty day.
I looked over to Ashton, heart sinking. “Kai had a bad day."
Me
What happened, do you want to call us? We’re still awake. Also, if you call right this second Ashton’s naked.
I got a laughing emoji. The phone immediately rang with a video call
“Kai’s video calling and I’m taking it.” I lounged on the bed.
“You're naked.” Ashton pulled on shorts.
“I don’t care.” I answered it. “What’s wrong, Starshine?” It looked like Kai was sitting in a car.
“Wait, were you sleeping?” Kai frowned.
“Just got out of the shower. Ash put pants on though.” I rolled my eyes and showed her Ashton. “Did your ex try to steal your car back?” Worry shot through me.
“No, Campus Affairs is talking about kicking him out. He wanted me to smooth everything over, so he didn’t get in trouble, and when I refused, he tried to grab me. I kicked him in the balls.” Kai looked proud of herself.
“Good job, Starshine, as you should,” I praised. “Wait, he tried to grab you?”
“Yeah, he’s never really done that before. He shouted a bunch too. My lab partner caught it on her phone. We sent it to Campus Affairs and after the quiz we went to the legal center and filed a restraining order.” Kai’s voice broke. “This is a lot.”
“I know, Starshine.” Ashton crowded onto the bed with me. “Will it take a while?”
“I’m an omega and we had a video. They were serving him tonight. He’ll probably be kicked out tomorrow. I’m sort of… relieved that I won’t have to deal with him?” Kai looked a little guilty.
“You shouldn’t have to. Hey, if he gets kicked out, will you get your place back?” I asked.
“My room here at Auntie’s is nice. I think I’ll stay until graduation. I’ll probably move back on campus in the fall. Wait, Steven, are you naked?” Her eyebrows rose.
I grinned. “Yeah, want to see?”
“Steven.” She laughed. “Good luck at your game tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
For a moment there was silence.
“I should let you go. I have classwork to do, but…” Her chest shuddered.
“We’re here. What do you need?” Ashton took my phone.
It was actually kind of cute. Wow, he had it bad.
“Tell me a story?” Kai asked, putting the seat back.
“Okay.” Ashton launched into some sort of story about the origins of Bigfoot. He was animated and lively in a way I hadn’t seen since she left.
Maybe he needed to be honest with her about how much he liked her. Perhaps sooner rather than later.
I checked her school schedule online. It looked like due to the semester being pushed graduation wasn’t until Mid-June, which meant there was an end of May long weekend a couple weeks before finals. While he told his story I looked into hotels and rentals in Hilo.
Kai laughed as Ashton’s story took a ridiculous turn. There was such a huge change between now and just a bit ago.
Huh. Were those two scent matches? I watched the two of them as he finished his story and told another one. This one wasn’t about Bigfoot, but the fairies that lived in the Oregon vortex. Whatever that was.
I didn’t know much about scent matches, but they did have an incredible connection–which I was here for. I was secure enough in my relationship with Ashton that I knew that him being scent matches with Kai didn’t lessen anything he had with me.
Not to mention, I loved Kai too. I think I really did. Not just like or lust. Not just that I could see us spending a life together.
I think I genuinely loved her, even though it had only been a week. As Ashton’s mom would say, If you know, you know.
After last night, I’d been thinking. There wasn’t an easy way to be together. But there was a hard way.
If Kai still wanted to be with us, maybe we could make the long-distance work.
This summer Kai had all sorts of things planned, but maybe she could stay with us when she didn’t?
It’s not like we couldn’t afford the plane fare.
Next summer if she needed to stay in Hawai’i, we’d get a place and be with her.
The season and her school year, it would take a lot of work for us to make a long distance relationship, where everybody was happy and fulfilled and pursuing their careers and had their needs met.
We’d all be really busy. We’d just have to video chat a lot. It would be rough, especially on her and Ashton, if the past few days were any indicator.
I didn’t think it was impossible. Especially if Kai’s university had any special omega rules.
Of course, the big question was, did Kai love us the way we loved her?
And would she be willing to work for it too?