The Space Between Us(34)
“What's your problem?” I asked him as I moved across the room to grab my purse and jacket. “Reeve is right. You've been particularly grouchy the last couple of days.” I saw something flash across his eyes and immediately knew he was keeping something from me. I moved back across the room to stand in front of him. “Ash, if there is something wrong you need to tell me.” He exhaled and when his breath left his body, I saw his shoulders slouch.
“Things are just a little crazy right now.” His hands came up and rubbed over his face, as if he were trying to wipe away his frustration. I closed the space between us and wrapped my arms around his waist.
“What can I do to help?”
“Just be you, Bit. And keep calling me out on my shit. I don't want to be an *. There's just a lot going on right now.”
“You'd tell me if it was something more than that, right?”
“Of course,” he said as he bent down to kiss me. He pulled away too soon for my liking, but we had places to be. “Let's go.” He swatted my butt as I slid past him through the door. Once outside he laced his fingers with mine and gave my hand a squeeze. I smiled up at him but noticed his smile didn't make the lines around his eyes form. His eyes weren't sparkling like they usually were. My mind immediately began to search for things that could be wrong. Had something happened with his parents? Were classes getting him down? Pre-law was a lot to take on and his father had really high expectations for him. Had I been doing enough to make him feel like a priority? Of all the possible problems I could come up with, that was the only one I could directly affect. Sometimes it was very easy to take our relationship for granted. There was a finality and sense of being settled when it came to Asher. I knew he was it for me, that we were it for each other. The real deal. The forever kind of love.
We crossed over the pedestrian bridge that led through a small wooded area. I stopped walking and Asher noticed when my hand tugged on his. He turned around and gave me a concerned look.
“Something wrong?” He asked, his eyebrows furrowing in the middle. I grabbed his other hand and pulled them both behind my back, forcing his chest to come into mine. My neck strained as I looked up at him towering over me.
“Do you remember the first time you told me you loved me?” I asked him. He gave me a sexy half smile, but still looked confused.
“Yeah. It was under our bridge at the park. Why?”
“I've loved you, in one way or another, since the day you stopped Ryan from throwing rocks at me in fifth grade. There's never been anyone else for me, Asher. And there never will be.” I saw as his smile grow and I saw the light come back into his eyes. “Who we are right now – college students, boyfriend and girlfriend – this isn't who we are meant to be; this is simply one of the bridges we have to cross to get to the rest of our lives together.” I saw his head begin to dip towards me and I raised up on my toes to kiss him. Our hands were still linked behind my back but he pressed them against me, pulling me further into him. I sensed people walking past us, a few people grumbled that we were blocking the path, but none of it mattered. He matters. We do. His mouth moved against mine and my mind went hazy as his tongue slid against the seam of my lips. Slowly, we used our mouths to affirm our love to one another. Nothing was as perfect as the way Asher kissed me. His teeth pulled gently on my bottom lip as he ended the kiss, sending shockwaves down to my belly.
“I love you, Bit.”
“I love you, Ash. One hundred percent.” He chuckled and then turned to ease back into the stream of people heading towards the stadium.
Not only did we win the game, but our house won the float competition. Who knew that getting cute co-eds to recreate scenes from Magic Mike would garner such an enthusiastic response from the crowd? Luck was in our favor that so many women came to the game and they screamed louder than their male counterparts when the time for voting came. No one out screamed college girls when faced with shirtless male strippers – no one.
Reeve and I were at the frat that night for the after party and things, as I was growing accustomed to, were getting a little crazy. The frat had what they called an “Around the World” party. All the doors in the house were shut and locked aside from a few sprinkled throughout. Each unlocked room was assigned a different country and liquor accordingly. The idea was to visit each room and get a drink from each country, completing your trip around the world. Each room had a brother assigned to it who gladly took part in getting girls drunk.
I attended a few parties at the house since school started, but this one seemed to be a little wilder than the rest. Every once in a while I caught a glimpse of Reeve bouncing around the dance floor or getting a drink from one of the guys. I caught sight of Tracy, the girl who’d not-so-subtly checked out my boyfriend as I stood right next to him. She was at the frat a lot and seemed to be making her way through a lot of the brothers. I rolled my eyes as her long blonde hair swished around at her animated flirting. She irritated me more than I liked to admit.
Asher did his duties as a brother and made sure everyone was having a good time. Periodically he stopped as he passed by me and asked if I was enjoying myself, kissed my temple, and then left me to tend to all the partygoers. I walked through one of the main rooms of the bottom floor when one of the brothers came up to me with a bottle of peppermint schnapps in one hand and a bottle of Hershey's syrup in the other.