Lover (Court University 4)

He lifted it up, a frown on his lips. “Honey, we’re basically about to go to a bro event and everyone in attendance, December included, will drink like it is.” Chuckling, he put the wine back. “Come on. We can do better than that.”

He laced our hands together, a platter of cheesecake bites in his hand. My first thought was if he could see what had just happened all over my face, but the second was what he’d said. He called me honey.

He must have seen the second thought.

Because he smiled, so big when he guided me away. He wrapped his long wingspan around me, and I almost forgot what had just happened. Ramses Mallick was a hell of a drug.

But that didn’t mean he could numb me.

*

Forever the optimist, Ramses chalked up my abrupt change in comfort as nerves on the way to December’s. He said everything would be okay.

He had no reason to think otherwise.

How exactly did one tell their twenty-two-year-old… youthful, vibrant boyfriend they’d lost a child? How did she break something down he’d never had to deal with?

How could she explain?

How could she describe that feeling to him? Something he’d never experienced. Ramses was perfect, untouched in so many ways. He’d had his own traumas, but he’d been fortunate not to bear the weight of this.

And hopefully, never would.

He stole my hand in his car, more assurances on his lips. He told me it’d be okay again.

I hoped it would.

“Arizona!”

Okay started with meeting his friends, December when she opened the door. She had a perfect flush to her cheeks, a video game controller in her hand. Apparently, she’d been playing.

Completely youthful.

She greeted Ramses and me at the door, enough beer in Ramses’s hands to provide for a frat house kegger. In fact, I’d believed it overkill. But I suppose younger people liked to drink.

Ramses held up one of the six packs to her, a smile gracing his lips. His other hand fisted the rest of the booze, but that didn’t stop him from hooking an arm around me. “‘Zona!”

I didn’t understand the reference, or why she’d called him Arizona. I assumed it was something between friends, and when she shifted to hug him, the same.

“Took you long enough,” she teased, squeezing his shoulder.

The gorgeous level of this girl exceeded the charts, her wispy dark strands cinched high in a messy bun. It complemented her pale skin, flushed with rose tint. She still looked like Snow White, still stunning. She propped the controller on her hip. “I was about to send out a squad car. You get lost coming all the way over from next door?”

But she wasn’t afraid to stick it to Ramses, the man jokes and sarcasm for days. I could definitely see why the two were friends.

“Nice,” he gritted, his eyes lifted, but he hugged me close with a warm grin. He hadn’t let me go, but he didn’t need to do that. I understood where these two were in regard to their friendship.

I trusted him.

Even still, there was hesitance there that hadn’t been, a nervousness at least on December’s end. Her smile slipped a bit in my direction, her hand working over that control, and perhaps, Ramses noticed that as well.

“December,” he said before placing a kiss down on the crown of my head. He was so tall, always did that. He smiled at me. “You know my Bri. My girlfriend.”

His Bri.

Like him calling me honey before, the sentiment warmed inside me, but a dull ache was there, too.

It hadn’t left.