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This is for her, as much as it is for me.
I leave the cabin when the sun starts to sink below the horizon. Alize’s last exam ended a few minutes ago, so she should already be on her way back to our room. Her texts have been sporadic throughout the day, which I didn’t mind since it’s the eve of one of the biggest days of my life.
Now, I’m excited to see her, to find out how her day went.
It will give me something else to think about.
AD: Where are you?
AM: Walking back now. You?
AD: Send me your location.
When she drops the pin, I notice that I’m closer to her than Kingmaker House, so I change course a little bit. I find Alize sitting on one of the benches close to the Humanities buildings. The sight of her eases the pressure in my chest.
Despite the stress I’m under, I haven’t felt the urge to smoke—and I know it’s entirely because of her presence in my life again. I tossed all the cigarettes I had last night.
I lift her into my arms, capturing her in a hug. Nuzzling my nose in the crook of her neck, I reach down to grab a handful of her ass. A delicious giggle falls from her lips, and she wraps her legs around my torso. We stand like that for a long time.
I don’t want to let her go.
When I finally set her down, there’s a small smile on her face.
“If I didn’t know better, I would think that you missed me,” she quips, holding on to my forearm. I take her backpack from her, hiking it up on my shoulder. It’s so small it barely fits over my bulging forearm.
“Maybe just a little,” I say. “Okay, I’ve been thinking about you all day.”
Alize looks up at me, her hazel eyes twinkling like stars. “Who are you and what have you done with Alexander Duke?”
“You wound me.” I put a hand to my chest. “I’m not allowed to miss my fiancée?”
“Oh, you are,” she says. “But you’ve never been this forthcoming about it.”
I shrug. "Haven’t things changed?”
She’s pensive for a few moments. “They have,” she finally says. “I only hate you half as much as I used to.”
It isn’t much, but I’ll take it.
Silence settles around us as we walk, punctuated by the sound of our footsteps on the paved walkway. Every now and then we pass a pocket of students loitering on campus. Their stares aren’t as harsh as before, but I hold Alize closer to me nonetheless.
The students haven’t been as vile, and it makes me wonder how much influence Keller and Cassidy actually had over how they reacted to my relationship with Alize.
We’re standing at the door to our room when the silence finally gets to me. It’s not that I expected things to go back to normal as soon as she realized she was wrong, but things still feel a little stiff between us. I can’t figure out why. I’m fumbling with the keys to open the door. “The elections are tomorrow.”
“I know. Do you want to talk about it?
We get inside, and I set her bag down on the couch. She perches herself on the armrest of one of the chairs while I move through the apartment flicking on the lights. I don’t think about her question for long. I know my answer.
“No,” I say quickly. “I’ve thought about it enough for the day.”
There really isn’t much to talk about.
A member of the Kingmaker Society assured me a win in this election. Most of my anxiety stems from wondering if Lev will hold up his end of the bargain. It’s the first of many things I won’t be able to talk to her about. The Kingmaker Society is asecretbrotherhood after all. Hopefully, it won’t even matter because her father isn’tLe Bourreau.
Which reminds me. “You know, I was thinking that it was weird the Executive Body couldn’t find anything about your father.” I fish. “He’s hated enough that people tried to kill you just to get to him, but the school doesn’t know about it? It’s…strange.”
Hopefully, I don’t sound too interested in him.
