Hazed (Palm South University)

I welcome the kiss he presses to my lips with the sentiment, and then my cheeks heat as I finally admit out loud what I’ve been considering for months now. “Or… surgeon.”

Adam’s eyebrows shoot up into his hairline. “Surgeon, huh?”

I nod. “Am I crazy to think I can do that?”

“Are you kidding?” Adam pulls me into his lap then, covering me in kisses. “I’d let you perform surgery on me right now, no training or anything. That’s how great I think you’ll be.”

“You’re crazy,” I say with a laugh, squirming under his kisses.

“Crazy in love with you.”

As corny as the line is, it makes me swoon all the same, and Adam pulls me back into the mountain of pillows on my bed as we stare at each other all googly-eyed.

For once, it feels like Adam and I are on stable ground.

After the hellish semester we endured in the fall — well, really, the hellish semesters, plural, that we’ve endured ever since we’ve known each other — it feels amazing to finally just be together.

We spent the holiday break with each other’s families, going to stay with his aunt first, and then with my parents and sister. I knew I loved Adam before, but there was a whole new level of love uncovered when I walked into the house he grew up in, when I met his aunt who took over after his grandfather passed away, when I saw pictures of Adam growing up, when I made cookies with his aunt and got to know the woman who raised the boy I was so in love with.

And if that wasn’t heartwarming enough, watching him play video games with my sister and listening to him talk golf with my dad and watching him load the dishwasher for Mom while she nearly cried at the sight?

Well, that was the icing on the cake.

And now, we’re back at PSU, Adam in his last semester before graduation and me going into my last full year, now that I’ve decided to graduate early.

It feels like a new era.

It feels like everything I could ever want.

“Are you sure you don’t need to be at the A Sig house?” I ask, but I’m already wrapping myself up more in him, knowing full well I don’t want him to leave. “Fraternity Rush is still under way, and I know you have a lot to do.”

“Oh, I have plenty to do,” he agrees, but wraps himself up in me just as tight. “Fortunately, I did a lot of it when we first got back, and I’ve become rather good at delegating. Jeremy is handling everything tonight, and the other brothers are stepping up, too.”

“Are you sure?” I ask again.

“Yes, I’m sure, my little parrot,” he says, kissing my nose. “Hey, I’ve got to step back a little this semester and let the other guys get their chance to shine. I’ve already been the first to ever be president two years in a row.” He shrugs. “I’m graduating in just five months. These guys gotta figure out what comes next, and I have to step out of the way in order for that to happen.”

I arch a brow. “You’re surprisingly… calm about all this. You’re not going to miss it?”

“Of course, I will. I mean, I feel like I’m largely responsible for turning our entire chapter around, for giving us a new reputation, for getting A Sig back in the game.” Adam pauses, his eyes focused somewhere in the distance. “But I think I’m ready for the next chapter in my life, and I have faith in my brothers. They’re going to be just fine without me.”

“And what’s next for you?”

Adam watches me for a long time, his eyes flicking back and forth between my own, like there are a million things running through his head and he can’t tell me a single one of them.

“I’m not sure,” he finally says. “I mean, I majored in Business. Pretty versatile. But… you know… I’ve been thinking… and I really loved turning our chapter around here, and I know there are a lot of other Alpha Sigma chapters struggling across the nation.”

“Oh my God,” I say, jolting upright so I can face him. “Are you thinking about being a Field Executive?!”

Adam laughs. “You stole my thunder.”

“Babe!” I smack his chest, my smile so big I think it might split my face. “You would be amazing at that.”

Field Executives are college graduates who go on to work for their fraternity at the national level. They’re usually assigned to a chapter for a semester or a year, and their tasks range from everything from recruitment and expansion to best practices for the chapter and spreading historical fraternity knowledge.

Adam wouldn’t just be amazing at the job — he was practically made for it.

“Don’t get so excited,” he says, holding up his hands. “They don’t hire many guys, and I’m sure I’ll be one in a sea of hundreds applying.”