“You just need to go and talk to him,” Bella finally said after several minutes of silence. “You both need to know where you’re going and what you’re doing. Because, hey… He isn’t your teacher anymore, is he?
She did have a point there.
“But what if the university finds out we’re still seeing each other?”
Jenna grabbed one of my throw pillows and hit me with it. “They can’t say a thing, Darce. You’re no longer his student. He’s no longer your teacher. How you started screwing be damned!”
“Nicely put, Jen.”
“Thank you, Bella.”
I was in an alternate universe. That was the only explanation. They were never this nice to one another.
“So, you’re proposing I march down to his house and demand to know where our relationship is going?”
“Well, yeah.”
I glanced at Bella. “You agree with her?”
“You could maybe try and cook…” she hedged. “But I’m kind of afraid you might poison him.”
I winced. “Seriously, one time almost two years ago and you’re still butthurt?”#p#分页标题#e#
“I was in bed, throwing up, for three days, Darcy! Three days!”
“I told you not to give me the chicken, but you didn’t listen.” I sighed and sat up. “I can’t cook for him. I will probably kill him.”
“True. What if I baked you cookies?” Jenna asked. “Cookies are the cure for everything.”
I’d have argued if I’d believed she were wrong. “That would be great.”
She slid off my bed then paused. “You have to take some to him. You know that, right?”
I smiled innocently. Yeah…I knew. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t eat them once I’d given them to him.
My car smelled like a kitchen that had just had freshly baked cookies removed from the oven. My stomach was growling, something that was a nice switch from the nerves of the past several days. I didn’t know how this was going to go, but I had told him that I was stopping by to talk.
I was terrified.
It’d always amazed me how quickly feelings could change. My feelings toward Jordan were no different. I’d gone from being desperate to get away from him to being terrified that I might not get to be around him in what seemed like no time at all.
The dark clouds rolling across the house matched my despondent mood. I sighed heavily as I grabbed the plate full of cookies from my passenger’s seat and locked my car.
He was already standing at the door when I got there. “Are those cookies?”
“Yep.” I shoved the plate at him.
“Did you…bake them?”
“Nope.” I half smiled. “I told you—I can’t cook anything. Not even soup.”
He smiled warmly. “You’ve gotta work on that.”
“Ah, it’s all right. A girl can’t have everything.”
His smile became a grin, and he stepped to the side so I could go in. It was much warmer inside than out, so I took my jacket off and hung it up. Jordan walked past me and set the cookies on the kitchen side.
“Coffee?” he asked.
“Sure.” I clasped my hands in front of my stomach and followed him into the room.
Awkwardness hung in the air, and it didn’t matter that we were two adults and should have been able to steamroll into a conversation about our relationship. We weren’t exempt from the awkward nervousness that accompanied the uncertainly of the unknown. In fact, we were more than prone to it, especially us.
We both knew what it was to hurt.
“Here.” He held a steaming mug out to me.
I took it gratefully, wrapping my hands around it. It warmed me right through my body, and the rich scent of the coffee alone woke me up a little.
“What happens now?” I asked.
Jordan leaned against the kitchen counter. “I look for a new job and you, hopefully, carry on as normal.”
“Not that. Us.” I met his eyes, prepared to drown in their blueness. “What happens with us?”
“Nothing needs to change, Darcy. If anything, this is a better situation.”
“How can this possibly be better? You lost your job!”
“Come here.” His T-shirt stretched over his arms as he held them out to me.
I set the coffee mug down and rushed to him. I wrapped my arms around his waist tightly, my face pressing into his chest.
I needed to feel him. Remind myself what he smelled like. What it was like to be enveloped in his arms and have his breath fluttering through my hair.
“We don’t have to hide anymore,” he whispered into my hair. “This is the best thing that could have happened. I don’t want you to worry about me. Worry about yourself, sweet thing. Worry about me when you know if Harvard is still an option, okay?”#p#分页标题#e#