Chapter Seventeen
Sunbeams peeked through the closed blinds, but I wasn’t ready to move. I had never felt more content in my life than at this exact moment. For the first time, everything just made sense, and a part of me knew that I’d never be the same. Tobias had changed me down to my core.
“Good morning,” he murmured into my hair.
“Good morning.” I sighed, suddenly aware that because of my moment of spontaneity, I didn’t have a toothbrush.
We lay there, tangled up in bed sheets and each other”s arms for most of the morning, but eventually we emerged from our blissful piece of heaven. After all, Atticus needed to eat, which he forcefully let us know with his incessant meowing when ten o’clock rolled around and he hadn’t been fed yet. I never knew that such a small creature could be so loud.
While Tobias got Atticus’s breakfast, I excused myself to freshen up in his bathroom. Luckily, he had mouthwash, which was second best to actually being able to brush my teeth. When I came downstairs, he had already started the coffee and was making some toast.
“What’s the plan for today?” Tobias asked, pouring me a cup of coffee.
“I have a paper to write,” I reminded him. “You know, it’s a good thing I like to read because otherwise this class would be kicking my ass.”
He chuckled. “Yeah it’s intense, but nothing compared to the graduate-level courses, I promise.”
He led me into the living room where we enjoyed our coffee while lounging on his leather couch. It was quiet, but in that peaceful, contented way you only have with someone you are truly comfortable with. This felt like a real relationship now, which meant we needed to talk about what we were going to do.
“We should talk about us and what we are going to tell people,” I said, setting my mug down.
“Okay,” he said following suit. “What do you want to say?”
“Absolutely nothing,” I stated.
He looked taken aback. “Okay…”
“I just think we should keep it private…until the semester is over. That way no one questions anything or has any reason to talk about us.”
“I understand, but I think maybe I should tell Dr. Kiuchi.”
“No. I don’t want to risk it. It’s only a few more weeks, right?”
“Yes, but—”
“Please, Tobias?”
He sighed before finally saying, “Okay, we’ll keep it quiet.”
“Thank you,” I said, settling back down beneath his arm. He kissed the top of my head, and I turned toward him, meeting his lips with my own.Like last night, it didn’t take long for the kiss to deepen. I ran my hand up his shirt, across his stomach. He shifted his weight, pulling me on top of him, yet never pulling his lips from mine.
We didn’t come up for air until late afternoon.
Alex had texted me at least twenty times, so as much as I wanted to stay, I knew it was time to go. Plus my paper wasn’t going to write itself.
“It’s not that far,” I tried telling Tobias, but he refused to let me walk back to campus. Who says chivalry is dead?
“It’s far enough,” he insisted.
“Fine,” I conceded.
He pulled into the parking lot in front of my dorm, and I recognized Julie’s shiny, black hair just getting into her car a few rows down.
“Shit,” I exclaimed, ducking down below the window.
“What’s wrong?” Tobias asked.
“It’s Julie,” I whispered, as though if I didn’t she would be able to hear me. It was ridiculous, but I couldn’t help it. He turned to look. “Don’t look!”
He laughed at that. “She can’t see me from there.”
“Do you think she saw us pull in?” My heart fluttered wildly in my chest.
“I doubt it,” he said. “I’m sure she’s gone now.”
I slowly peeked out of the window toward the direction I saw her, and sure enough, her car was gone now. I let out a sigh of relief.
“Maybe you should drop me off around back? Fewer possible witnesses?”
“If it’ll make you feel better.” He backed out of the parking spot and drove around to the other side of the building. I stayed low in my seat.
As much as I hated the sneaking around part, I still felt very strongly that no one should find out about us. At least for now.
“I promise it won’t always be like this,” I told him before giving him a quick peck on the cheek and darting out of his car.
I raced inside the building, but once I was in my hallway, I slowed down so I wasn’t flushed and out of breath when I walked into my room.
I can’t believe Julie almost saw us! Something about that girl just rubbed me wrong…Like she was just waiting for me to make one wrong move. I have no idea what I ever did to her, but it felt like she had definitely had it out for me since that very first day of class. She was the last person I needed to discover the truth about Tobias and me. I didn’t even want to think about what she would do if she ever caught wind of it.
Just as I expected, Alex was waiting to pounce as soon as I walked in.
“Where have you been?” Alex demanded before I had a chance to close the door behind me.
“Not here,” I said sheepishly.
“Well, no shit, Sherlock,” Alex grumbled. Then she gasped and asked, “Wait, were you…with a guy?”
“Maybe…”
“Oh-em-gee,” she said, jumping up and down. She pulled me over to her bed and forced me to sit down. She was way stronger than she looked. “Tell me allll about it.”
“Um, well, there’s nothing to really say. I’ve been kind of seeing a guy, but we’re keeping it private.”
“A secret lover?” she asked excitedly.
“No, a private, maybe-kind-of-sort-of-the-start-of-a-relationship,” I clarified.
“You’re seriously not going to give me any details?” She pouted.
“Sorry. I love you, but no.”
“Wait—is that where you disappeared to the other night? Were you with him?”
“Maybe,” I admitted sheepishly.
“Tamsin! I cannot believe you aren’t giving me anything.”
“Sorry,” I said simply, then shrugged.
Whatever was going on between Tobias and me was special, and I wanted to keep it just to myself for now. I sat down at my desk, put my headphones on, and pretended to start working on my paper so that she would stop interrogating me, but it was hard to focus on anything as I relived the memories from lying in his arms last night.