Love You Better (Better Love 1)

Reaching my hand out to pat his shoulder, I speak clearly.

“If I have a son as kind and smart as you someday, I’ll be very proud.”

I stay silent for a minute to allow him to fully absorb my words, and then I give his shoulder one last squeeze.

“Now on with it, man! Read it!” I nudge his bag toward him.

“Okay okay,” Matthew relents, and pulls a napkin out of his lunch sack and begins to read from it.

“Almonds are good food.

Eat the granola bar, Matt

Growing strong, Love Mom”

I laugh at his mother’s haiku as Matthew glares at the granola bar.

“I happen to like almonds,” I say. “Do you think your mom would be okay if I trade you half my turkey sandwich and some grapes for the almond granola bar and some fruit snacks?”

Matthew’s eyes light up. “I don’t think she’ll mind!”

“And...” I grin as I reach into my bag, “I have some cookies that my friend’s roommate baked. I brought some for you, too.” Ivy is always giving me little snacks to bring to Matthew. She knows all about the student I share my lunch with. He reminds her of her younger brother Jacob, I think.

“Thank you!” Matthew smiles big and organizes his new lunch in front of him.

“My pleasure.” I slide Matthew the “extra” bottle of juice I got from the vending machine, we cheers, and then we dig in.

“You want to grab something to eat?” Cassie asks as we drive the thirty minutes back to campus. The school where we intern is about halfway between Butler University and my hometown, and only about fifteen minutes from my parents’ firm. Cassie is another education major in my program, and we were placed at the same middle school for student teaching, so we ride together.

“Yeah,” I say, checking the clock on the dash. “Jerry’s?”

“Mmm, yes. Jerry’s would be heavenly.” Cassie rubs her stomach enthusiastically and closes her eyes. “I’m starved. I didn’t get a chance to eat my lunch because we had hall duty.”

“Hall duty fucking sucks. I gave half of my sandwich to one of my kids, so I could definitely eat.”

“Same kid you always share your lunch with?” she asks me playfully.

“Same one,” I say with a laugh, as we pull into the Jerry’s parking lot. It’s a popular sub, salad, and soup shop just off campus, frequented by upperclassmen, and even sometimes grad students and professors.

“How’s your Ed Psych project coming?” I ask after we order, sliding onto two stools on the wall counter.

“Good. I’m about halfway there. You?”

“Good. I’ve only got the annotated bibliography left.”

“No kidding?” Cassie asks, her eyes wide. “How? It’s not due for weeks yet!”

I shrug, not really wanting to get into the fact that my social life is almost non-existent, consisting mainly of Saturday nights with Ivy, soccer, and the occasional random gym session with Jesse.

“You need to get out more,” Cassie declares. “Come out with me this weekend. The Sig house is doing a series of theme parties. We can dress up. It’ll be fun!”

I take a sip of my Coke before I answer. “Nah, I’m not feeling it.”

“Why not? It’s not like you’ve got work. I’m in the same courses as you,” Cassie presses. “Ed Psych is the only big thing assigned right now. Anything else doesn’t need a whole weekend’s worth of focus.” She fixes her eyes on me and smiles, and I’m certain she’s flirting. “Come out with me.”

Cassie is stunning. She’s smart. She’s fucking funny as hell. We have a ton in common. On Tinder, her bio would definitely be worthy of a right swipe, and I should be jumping at this offer. But I see Cassie almost every day. We’re in all the same classes, and we’re currently placed in the same school. It would be awkward as hell when it didn’t work out, and I’m just not interested in trying for any type of relationship right now. Not even a casual one.

“I’ll have to pass this time, Cass.” I avert my eyes and focus on the sub in front of me.