Five
LISA
BEFORE
The gentle tap on the door to my dorm room is featherlight, but I’m packing in peaceful silence so it easily catches my attention.
After peeking through the peep-hole and seeing an empty hall, I open the door.
My jacket and scarf are on a hanger beside my door frame and on the floor there’s a medium-sized red box with a gold bow.
I can’t see any movement as I search up and down the hall for a glimpse of him, but nothing.
Picking up the gift box, I notice a short note written on a delicate cream-colored card. It’s handwritten in a beautiful scrawl.
I searched for days for the right gift for you, but nothing felt right.
So for the first time in my life, I went with my gut.
Confused, and a little excited, I pull on the ribbon and lift the lid of the box.
There’s another note inside along with a cassette tape.
The cassette is plain black with no markings or stickers, and the butterflies that run rampant through me are beginning to flutter around at the thought of David making me a mix-tape.
The note on the inside is a little longer, and I stay in the open doorway to read it.
This was my last semester here, and I wish I had more time to know you.
But you are too precious for my world, and this is probably for the best. I couldn’t leave without letting you know how you’ve made me feel these last few days.
With just a couple of conversations you’ve shown me a lightness I never thought existed.
The songs on this mix-tape all remind me of you and what could have been.
Maybe in our next life?
D x
What in the holy mother of all things is this note? No. This isn’t the end of our story. Absolutely not. This feeling of dread that I might never see him again beginning to ball in my stomach isn’t something I can live with.
Grabbing my coat and scarf, I pull them on, shoving my feet into my black boots before practically running from my dorm.
I need to find him. The halls are almost empty with everyone traveling home for the holidays, which is kind of annoying because I can’t ask anyone if they’ve seen him or where he went.
The brisk mid-morning chill hits my bare shins, but my entire focus is on the man sitting underneath the large tree close to my building, his head in his hands.
The butterflies erupt in my stomach again and I can’t stop my legs from running over to him.
I kneel beside him and he jumps, quickly regaining his senses as he lays those green eyes on me.
They glisten in the harsh brightness of the winter’s day, making me want to take this man in my arms and protect him from whatever horrors he’s had to face in his past.
“Did you really think you could leave me a note like that, and a freaking mix-tape, then walk out of my life?” I’m choosing to lighten the heaviness of the mood I can sense he’s in rather than enable the darkness to consume us both whole.
His crooked smile grows, tipping the corners of his beautiful lips upward. My secret smile. He’s a little sheepish too, like he knows he’s been caught trying to cut and run, but that’s not my style, which he’s quickly beginning to learn.
“I kind of did, yeah. Sorry.” He’s being honest and the guilt is clearly why he was sitting out here with his head in his hands.
Trying to control the pain I’m feeling at his easy dismissal is difficult, but anger is an emotion that reminds me too much of my parents.
They’re mad at the world because they actually have to work for a living, and if I didn’t believe that the universe always had a plan, then I could very well be just like them.
I’m grateful though, because if they hadn’t encouraged me to come to college, I never would have met David.
And now, I’m also grateful that I found him before he left me behind.
The universe really does have a plan.
“Well, what are you gonna do about it?” Mirroring his light smile, I take my scarf and wrap it around his neck, because of course the sweater he’s wearing is barely thick enough to keep him warm in this weather.
Light snowflakes are falling all around us and it’s beginning to accumulate on the grass.
“What would you suggest, Precious?” He pulls me onto his lap, my legs straddling his, and wraps his arms around my waist. There’s some doubt in his eyes, worry, confusion, but the brightness of his aura as he holds me tells me all I need to know.
“You’re not leaving me now that we’ve found each other.
You know that, right? I mean, I know it sounds like I’m a crazy bunny-boiler type, like Fatal Attraction, but I also know what I want.
” David tries to interrupt me but I shake my head and hold a finger over his lips.
“Uh uh, not yet. I really like you, and I think you really like me—” My finger disappears into David’s mouth as he sucks it in, gripping the tip between his teeth, and Goddess, the feeling of his tongue flicking against my flesh makes me crave him like nothing before.
“Have I got your attention?” He smirks after popping my finger from his mouth, gripping my wrist and placing my hand back around his neck.
I nod, smirking right back at him and raising a brow.
“Good girl.” I think my ovaries just burst. “I do like you, a lot, but we don’t know anything about each other, and I can’t offer you the life you deserve. ”
“Oh, pssh. Our souls know everything there is to know, and why can’t you? What possible reason could there be that means you can’t be you?” My lips gently brush against his, our warm breath mingling and causing steam to mist around us.
David licks the seam of my mouth, slowly, like he’s torturing me, but I don’t move, allowing the small touch to be the everything it is.
“You’re relentless.” His words are spoken so close to me, I can feel every syllable against my skin.
“I am. So, when are we leaving? As much as I love sitting by this beautiful tree with you, it’s getting cold and we’re going to be buried in snow if it starts getting any heavier.”
“We?” The confusion is back in his eyes.
“Yeah, we. You’re on your way home, I’m on my way home. You can take me to meet your parents, then you can come and meet mine.” I’m aware I’m being a little pushy and super forward, but I get the impression he needs the little push.
“Incorrigible.” David shakes his head, but that beautifully crooked smile reaches all the way to his eyes as he makes the decision to take this huge leap with me. “Okay, let’s go get our things.”
“You know this is crazy, right? My family are, well, not like most people. They can be intense.” Worry is seeping through David’s tone as we near his family home and, after speaking non-stop for the last two hours, I can understand why.
His parents have his life all planned out for him.
He has been trained to take over the family business but it’s not something he’s ever wanted to be a part of.
It’s easy to see the toll it’s taken on him when he talks about them, the way his aura darkens at the mere thought of them, and some of the things he’s told me are shocking to say the least. But I’m ready for whatever obstacles the universe needs to throw our way.
In every way, this whole thing feels right, like we’re destined for this rocky road to earn our true peace with each other.
“My family isn’t like most people either. We’ve talked about this.” I laugh, because that statement couldn’t be more true. “But we aren’t our families. We can be whoever we want to be.”
With a glance in my direction, David grins, squeezing my fingers resting against his thigh as he drives one-handed. Even though this vehicle is killing the ozone, I can appreciate its beauty, and these moments together that it’s giving us are worth the world.
“Wow. This place is a freaking mansion!” As we pull up to large, imposing gates surrounding an even larger uninviting home, I can’t contain the surprise at the sheer size of it. I thought my parents’ house was big, but this is something else.
“Are you ready to go and be whoever we want to be, Precious?”
“With you by my side? Always and forever, Bauble Boy.”