ONE
Rae
“I can’t believethat you’re leaving me,” I say dramatically as Palmer sets the last of her boxes down.
“I’m right next door,” she says with a laugh and I sigh.
“I know, but things are going to be so different now.”
“We’ll still see each other all the time. We can ride together on the days that we have the same classes,” she assures me, and I sigh again.
“I know, but now you’re living with a guy. It’s going to change things. You’ll be too busy with Banks to spend time with me.”
“We’ll still have girl’s nights. Don’t forget, you’re living with a guy now too.”
I look over to the wall, knowing that Brooks is moving into Palmer’s old room as we speak.
“It’s weird.” I pout and she laughs.
“It won’t be. Brooks is really nice and he seems to keep to himself. It will be like you have the whole place to yourself.”
I want to tell Palmer that that’s not the reason why I’m kind of freaking out. Sure, I’m going to miss living with her, but she’s right next door and we’ll see each other all the time.
The problem is that I don’t know if I can live with Brooks and keep my hands to myself.
An image of his perfect face fills my head and I bite my bottom lip as I lean against the bedroom wall. He’s got dark brown hair that’s still cropped close to his head from his military days. Even though it’s still pretty short, I still want to run my fingers through it.
That’s not what gets me though. It’s his eyes. He’s got these piercing blue eyes and every time he looks at me, I swear that he can see right through me.
The first time that I met him, I tried to convince myself that I was just unnerved by him and that’s why shivers ran down my spine whenever I was close to him.
Then the dreams started happening, and I couldn’t lie to myself anymore.
I have a crush on the guy.
And now he’s going to be my roommate.
“Are you working tonight?” Palmer asks and I shake my head.
“No, I have it off. I’m not on again until tomorrow.”
“Bummer. I have tomorrow off.”
“We both work Saturday,” I point out and she smiles.
“Look at us making plans to see each other already.”
I roll my eyes at her and she grins.
“I’ll let you guys get settled,” I say as Palmer’s boyfriend comes into the bedroom.
“See you later!” Palmer calls and I don’t look back because I’m sure that they’re already kissing.
I’m happy for my friend. She deserves to be happy and Banks definitely makes her that. He’d walk through fire for her if it made her smile.
I just wish that I could have that too.
I flinch at that thought. I know that my mother would lose her mind if she knew that I was thinking about settling down with the enemy.
I love my mom, but she’s a difficult woman to care for. She has such high morals and if you mess up once, you’re done. She doesn’t give second chances and she expects me to be the same. I have a feeling that she’s going to want me to move back in with her after I graduate and I’m not looking to our version of Grey Gardens.
My parents divorced when I was fourteen. My dad had drunkenly kissed another woman, or rather she kissed him and according to my mom, he didn’t react fast enough to push her away. That was the beginning of the end for them. He apologized and begged for forgiveness, but my mom never accepted. She said that she couldn’t trust him.
Sometimes I think that she was looking for a way out where she wouldn’t be the bad guy, and she jumped when the kissing thing happened.
She tried to get me to hate my dad after that, but I never could. Everyone makes mistakes and while I don’t know how I would feel if my spouse did something similar, I feel like I would have tried couples counseling or something before I jumped to divorce. I mean, he didn’t even kiss her back and it wasn’t like he went after her.
My dad died a few years ago. He never remarried or even dated after the divorce and I know that he still loved my mom and me, even if she didn’t let me see him as much as I would have liked once they split.
Now she’s all the family that I have left.
“How’s it going?” I ask Gray as I head into my apartment.