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Me: You’re the architect. You tell me.
Teddy: I think we need to meet and discuss this over a copious number of cocktails.
Me: Sounds great! I should warn you, though, I have an overprotective fiancé who isn’t afraid to make sacrifices to the sea in the form of men who might hurt me.
Teddy: *Snicker. Did he ask you to write that?
“Oh my God. He totally just called you out.” I laughed, looking at Aslan as he finished cleaning the kitchen after we’d made a taco bowl for dinner. We were due to head to the airport in ten minutes to collect my parents from their research trip in New Zealand.
To be honest, I was looking forward to the change of scenery.
I was sick of being inside.
I was sick of Aslan dictating how I spent my holidays, even if it was a necessary chore.
The past few days had been hellish: spent indoors (bleh), on a laptop (double bleh), scrolling through rental listings for somewhere to live in Townsville. I should’ve sorted accommodations weeks ago. I should’ve done it the moment I earned my enrolment for my Bachelor in Marine Science...yet something had been holding me back.
Something named Aslan because it went without saying he would come with me. He’d already given me every dollar my parents had paid him over the past six years, telling me to put it toward our new home.
The amount he’d saved would keep us sheltered for a while.
It was enough to buy his own place (something small and modest with a mortgage), but just like we couldn’t go to many places, he couldn’t do most things others could.
We’d had to come face-to-face with that awful conclusion more times than I wanted to admit as we applied for studios and one-bedroom apartments, knowing we’d have to head to Townsville earlier than I wanted to go house-hunting.
I don’t want to go.
I didn’t want to leave this home where we’d been safe.
I didn’t want to be responsible for Aslan living in a bigger city where the locals weren’t used to him being part of the community, so familiar and protected by a well-spun lie, keeping him invisible right beneath their noses.
Here, he was mostly safe to drive, shop, and exist.
But there?
God, it’s so risky.
Just because he had enough money to keep us housed while I studied, didn’t mean he’d stay sane not doing anything with his days while I was off at school.
What would he do while I studied?
Where would he go? How would he fill his days?
He wasn’t safe doing anything.
Which meant he had to do nothing.
And I couldn’t ask that of him.
I couldn’t trap him in a stuffy apartment and deny him the minuscule amount of freedom he had.
A terrified part of me whispered that it would be kinder to let him stay here. So what if it was almost a six-hour drive? So what if the separation would kill me? At least he could continue working for Mum and Dad and not risk his life.
“Let me see that.” Aslan held out his hand, his fingers strong and tanned.
My cheeks flushed, remembering where those fingers had been an hour ago as I placed my phone into his grip.
His eyes skimmed the message thread, a smile quirking his lips. “I actually rather like this guy.”
