"How did you even know what to do?" I asked from the bathroom while I did my makeup for the party. I was curious about how he had managed to come up with that dominant act in the shower.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that without having to crawl under your floor."

My interest was piqued.

"Cari, you know you can't say things like this and then not follow up."

"Fine. I, erm, I looked up the Internet for some videographic references."

I dropped my brush in the sink.

"Shut up! You watched porn?"

I turned around and watched him look down and scratch the nape of his neck, the human representation of embarrassment.

"What did you watch? Did you like it? Do you need recommendations? Can I see your search history? I bet you searched for keywords like 'sex' or 'make love'."

Yeah, I was slightly excited about this revelation.

"Abril, I'm . . . glad that you find the subject so interesting but I'm extremely ashamed of it and would rather not talk about it."

"Then why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you watch porn if that makes you feel so bad about yourself?"

"That's equally embarrassing."

"What did we just say about cryptic sentences?"

"Right. I . . . watched pornographic videos for two reasons. One is that I wanted to learn how to be a better lover to you. And two . . ." He paused. "Well, I have been feeling unusually . . . lustful, lately, and I find it an efficient way to clear my mind."

"Oh my God, cari! That's amazing!"

I took the few steps that separated us and gave him a big, tight hug. He barely hugged me back. His unease was palpable from miles away.

"It's not that nice, it's very distracting. And I feel like a sexually depraved pervert," he said. "Or a hormonal teenager."

I burst into loud, genuine laughter.

"Oh, honey! You're not depraved nor a teenager, those feelings are perfectly normal, even for non-depraved, adult people."

"Do you have them?"

"Well, I'm kinda depraved and some might say I have the mental age of a teenager, but yes, of course I do! All the time. And I'm so glad that you're catching up with me, we'll have so much fun with that."

His eyes grew double their size.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," he said more for him than for me. "I'm sure it's only temporary. It'll pass."

"I sure hope it doesn't. It's nice to feel desired by you."

He took a step back, holding me at arms' length.

"You think I don't desire you?"

"Not exactly. But my sexual appetite is much bigger than yours. Before our breakup, I often had the impression that you only had sex with me because you felt like you had to and not because you wanted to."

"Listen to me carefully, Abril," he commanded with a serious tone. "I have never had sex with you because I had to. I always wanted to."

"I know. I'm just happy that you finally are more in touch with your sexuality. I wish you were happy about it."

"I'm happy that it makes you happy, at the very least. I can't say I'm mad about it, but craving sex more doesn't make the act less of a challenge for me, unfortunately."

It's in those situations that I knew I needed to shut up and not make it about me. Hearing him describe sex as a challenge was hurtful, but I knew he didn't mean sex with me, but sex and intimacy in general. With that knowledge in mind, I bit my tongue and nodded.

"And if there's one person with whom I'd be happy to try and overcome this challenge, it's you," he added, confirming my thoughts. "I think we've already made some decent progress."

"Oh yeah? Do you say that because you absolutely adored the blowjob I gave you?"

From white, to light pink, to tomato red in one second. The poor man was so easily embarrassed it was adorable.

"I did not 'absolutely adore' it," he denied. "I enjoyed it all right."

"Honey, I saw your eyes. There was nothing just 'all right' with how much you enjoyed it. Maybe you need a refresher?"

He protested but I was already on my knees, my hand stroking his crotch. He was a little hard already, although nowhere near full attention. I unfastened his fly then freed his penis from his underwear.

"Abril, what are you doing? Get back u—Oh God!"

Just like before, any sign of doubt vanished as soon as my lips wrapped around his shaft.

"I need to sit down."

He dragged one of my chairs to him and let himself fall on it, slouching against the backrest like I had never seen him slouch before.

I smiled at the loss of his perfect façade and, for the second time of the day, had him come down my throat in a matter of minutes.

"I won't kiss you right now," I said while licking my lips clean, "but one day I will kiss you after giving you a blowjob, and you're going to love it."

And I left him there, dumbfounded and struggling to stuff himself back in his pants, while I strutted to the bathroom to brush my teeth and keep working on my makeup.

"You'd better not plan on making a habit of getting on your knees just to make a point or to win an argument, now," he called after me.

"Try and stop me."

"If you fight dirty, I'll fight dirtier."

"I like dirty, what do you have in mind? Getting on your knees to win arguments?"

"No, you'd like that too much. If I fight dirty, you won't like it."

Even though he probably was not talking about sexual punishment, I couldn't help my stomach from making a few somersaults of anticipation.

* * *

It's hand in hand that we entered the Sigma frat house. It was packed, as usual, and most people were drunk, as usual. Spencer was the first of our friends who spotted us. He came to us and congratulated me for getting back with 'lover boy', before handing us two cups of beer.

'Lover boy' blushed and grumbled unintelligibly. He led us towards the rest of our friends, all of whom had already arrived. Being late to an event was another challenge I had made Arthur go through, although one can hardly be late for a frat party.

"Well, well, well," Nate greeted us, "look who's being scandalous. That's a lot of PDA, Art!" He pointed at our joined hands.

As if electrocuted, Arthur's hand jerked away from mine. I glared at Nate. He raised his hands in apology.

"What are you guys even doing here?" Arthur asked his friends. "Don't you have better things to do than going to a frat party?"

"Abby invited us," Val replied. "When she said she was bringing you, I knew I wouldn't miss that for the world. It's been a long time since I've seen you in that environment."

While Val and Nate laughed at Arthur's expenses, I went to greet Sigrid. With her big girl job, she didn't have that much time for such intense partying anymore, so she was making the most of her borrowed time and was already a few drinks in. We probably were getting too old for those parties, but I refused to accept that.

As the party went on, I realized that bringing my . . . boyfriend into a house whose entire population, and some, I had had sex with was not the best idea. Everywhere I went, whatever I did, I felt scrutinized. If Arthur was next to me, the staring was more intense, tinted with incredulousness and mockery, as if nobody believed for one minute that we could be real. When he was not next to me, the looks I got had a hint of flirtation and determination in them, as if everyone had made it their life goal to show that I could not be in a committed relationship. That all it took was a sultry look and I would ditch Arthur for a random person.

I had never been ashamed of sleeping around. In fact, I held a lot of my strength in that. Being able to separate sex from feelings was one of the things that had helped me survive after Josh and make sure I would never fall in love again. And also, I loved sex, plain and simple, and I'd be damned if I'd ever be embarrassed by that. At that party, however, for the first time in three years, I sort of wished I had not taken that path. Not for my sake, but for Arthur's. Our relationship did not seem to deter anyone, especially men, from trying extra hard to get me in their bed. Some had the decency to do it when Arthur was not around, some would have the nerves to do it right in front of him.

I was fuming, and no amount of threats I threw at everyone who came close to me seemed to reduce the number of people trying. When I couldn't take it anymore, I grabbed Arthur's hand and dragged him outside. I found a dark corner against the wall and beelined for the spot.

"I'm so sorry," I said.

I put my hands on his cheeks and pulled his face to me. I kissed him like I had something to prove. And I guess I did.

"I'm so sorry, cari," I repeated when I caught my breath. "Those people are being awful to you, it's not okay."

I made to kiss him again, but instead he put his hand behind my head and pulled me against his chest.

"I won't lie and say that I'm fine with it," he whispered, "but your telling off every single one of them is extremely satisfying."

"If that entertains you, I can start punching them as well," I offered. I was only half joking.

"Let's try and not get you arrested tonight, shall we? But I appreciate the sentiment."

"Then let's get drunk."

"I'll amend that to 'let's drink responsibly' but yes, that I can do."

I took his hand again and we went back inside, determined to not let those assholes ruin our fun. As we weaved through the crowd in the living room, I suddenly stopped, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and collided my lips with his. To hell with his reluctance over PDA, that was a necessary evil. I needed to mark my territory in this sea of disgusting frat boys. Or rather, I needed to make him mark his territory. I think he understood why I did what I did because he didn't pull away. On the contrary, he intensified the kiss, and his hands touched my body in ways that had only ever happened behind closed doors. Maybe he had drunk more than I suspected.

When someone shouted at us to get a room, his eyes snapped open, and he pulled away from me.

"Sorry," he said. "I got carried away."

"Don't you ever apologize for kissing me."

He chuckled and put a hand on the small of my back to direct me towards our friends. Said friends gave Arthur hell for the obscenity of that kiss. He was mortified but I could see, beneath the thick layer of shame, that he was somewhat proud of himself. That was enough to brighten my mood. He was content, I was content.

The night went on with much fewer people daring to look at me, and the few that did were greeted by my trusty middle finger. Like we had planned, we and our group of friends drank a lot. And because it's common knowledge that drunk people have the best ideas, Spencer decided to organize a drinking game. Not beer pong, for once. No, something much deadlier. We called it 'beer contest'.

The concept is simple. Two teams of two, a table, two cups of beer per team. Each member runs from the starting line to the table twenty feet away, downs their cup, runs back to the line, and only then can the second member do the exact same thing. Whichever team finishes first wins the round. As the rounds go and teams get eliminated, the quantities of beer to drink increases, going from half-pints, to pints, to two pints.

I was good at downing drinks. Not just good, but very good. I could unlock something in my throat, and it would just go down without resistance. That's also part of what made me so good at blowjobs . . .

I locked eyes with Sigrid and she was just as ready as me to pulverize everyone. She was good at drinking too, not as good as me but my incredible speed compensated for the slight difference. Arthur paired up with Val and I couldn't wait to see how he performed. Cedric surprised everyone when he decided to team up with Leo instead of Spencer. The latter pouted.

"Sorry bro, I need to play with my girl if I want her to put out tonight," Cedric said like the stupid frat boy he was.

Leo slapped his shoulder loudly. He rubbed it to soften the pain.

"If I didn't need you to win, you bet your sweet ass I'd play with somebody else."

"Come on!" He slurred, the alcohol slowing his speech. "It's not like it's a secret that we sleep together."

While Cedric and Leo bickered, Spencer was still pouting.

"Who do I have to sleep with to get a teammate?" He asked around.

"I'll play with you," Nate offered.

Spencer raised a skeptical brow at him. Nate didn't look like an efficient drinking partner, what with his impeccably ironed shirt and his refined manners.

"What are your credentials?" Spence asked like it was an interview.

"I used to be a Kappa here, I've played many of those games."

"You? A Kappa?"

In all honesty, I was just as surprised as Spencer. Nate did not look like your typical frat boy.

"Not all fraternities are as trashy as yours, pretty boy," Nate replied with a wink. "Some of us do know how to dress and party."

I chuckled. Spencer scowled.

"Come on," Nate insisted. "I can do this special thing with my throat and swallow very fast. I'm a great partner."

I scoffed at the innuendo, wondering whether it was intentional.

"Me too!" I chimed in.

"Then Arthur is even luckier than I thought him to be," he replied, confirming that the innuendo was, indeed, intentional.

"Fine," Spencer conceded. "Welcome on board, partner!"

A smile bright as the sun appeared on Nate's face, his white teeth dazzling against the dark brown of his skin.

"You won't regret it."

When all the teams were made, we started playing. Arthur's team and mine were conveniently placed on opposite sides of the brackets, so we didn't risk running into each other in the first rounds.

Sigrid and I won our first rounds without any notable issue. When we were not playing, I was observing the competition. Nate hadn't lied, he could down beer in a matter of seconds. Val and Arthur were not too bad either. Chugging alcohol was not an activity I expected Arthur to enjoy, let alone excel at. And yet, I was wrong.

"What?" He said when I looked at him in shock after his first round. "It's not my first rodeo. I've had four years of that in college."

"You were a frat boy?" I asked, incredulous.

"No, but my friends were, and peer pressure is a thing. I've attended many more frat parties than I'm proud to admit." Then he came close to me and brought his lips to my ears. "If you thought you would win this thing, I've got bad news for you."

I took a step back and looked at him straight in the eye. "You've never been sexier than right now, challenging me to a drinking game."

"I'm going to ignore that what you just said suggests underlying alcoholism. I thought we had established that the vibrator thing was my sexiest moment?"

"It was. But you just keep outdoing yourself."

"Look at me. Give me a few more months and I'll be a professional smooth talker."

He kissed the side of my head and went back to Val, while I went back to Sigrid. After one more round, the half-pints were switched to pints, and we were up against Spencer and Nate. Sigrid was tanked and I wasn't far behind. Thankfully, our opponents looked ahead of us on the drunk scale. It would be a piece of cake to beat them.

And it was. I tied with Nate in speed, which didn't fail to impress me, but then Spencer completely screwed up and Sigrid got us the victory.

"Sorry I can't just be like you and 'unlock my throat,'" Spencer told Nate who was mad at him for making them lose. "We can't all be pro at swallowing."

"Do you need me to teach you?"

They stopped for a second and stared at each other with unprecedented intensity. Then they casually exited the living room together. Surely I wasn't the only one seeing it, right?

Arthur played right after we did, and he and Val won their round. They were also quite impacted by the amount of beer they'd drunk, but they kept their heads straight impressively well. I approached Arthur and asked the question that was burning my lips.

"Cari, is Nate into men?"

"How would I know?"

My eyeroll was loud. "You've known him since college, how would you not?"

"We don't talk about that."

"'That' being?"

"Sex. And relationships."

"You're hopeless."

I did what I should have done in the first place and went to ask Val the same question.

"Yup, one hundred percent," was his answer.

How I only realized that now was a mystery.

"A hundred bucks that he's making out with Spencer before the end of the night."

He laughed in my face. "Please. Nate's got more class than that."

"'That' is my friend." I frowned at him.

"Is that what you call the men you sleep with? Your 'friends'?"

The comment slid off me. If somebody wanted to slut-shame me, it'd have to be someone who hadn't slept around as much as I had.

"You would know," I snapped back.

"Touché. And as for your 'friend', I'm not judging him. But Nate is a thirty-year-old man with a high-paying job who lives in a penthouse in Downtown LA with his sassy white cat. It's not his style to hook up with a pretty frat boy. He likes them less easy and more . . . rugged."

I laughed. Spencer was indeed very easy and anything but rugged. He was a clean, hairless, bronzed and slightly muscular handsome boy, who was not without reminding me of a younger version of Val. And yet . . .

"And yet, Nate is totally digging Spencer."

Val shook his head, not believing me for one second.

"Just bet with me if you're so sure I'm wrong!" I insisted.

"Don't do that to yourself. You don't have enough money to lose on ludicrous bets."

"Don't worry about me. I'll just ask Arthur for the money if I'm wrong."

"I didn't peg you as a gold-digger."

"I'm more of a sugar baby," I retorted.

Val snickered and he shook my hand, making our bet official.

"Follow me," I said as soon as the bet was secured. I took the direction that Spencer and Nate had taken only a few minutes earlier.

Unsurprisingly, we found them kissing sloppily in a dark corner under the stairs, one hand in each other's pants.

I cleared my throat loudly for maximal dramatic effect. Spencer, who was leaning against the wall, met my eyes first. He seemed very unbothered, and just smiled lazily, like a player proud to be caught with yet another prey.

"Oh, come on!" Val exclaimed, disappointed with his loss.

Nate practically jerked away from Spencer.

"I can explain!" He said to Val like it was the first time he saw him making out with a boy.

"You better! Your shenanigans just made me lose a hundred bucks, you couldn't keep it in your pants, could you?"

I wore my best shit-eating grin. Nate didn't look bothered whatsoever to find out that his friend had bet on him. I imagine it was something they did a lot.

"I was just telling Abby how Spencer was not your type and there was no way you'd hook up with him," Val explained.

"Aw! Am I not your type?" Spence said with an engrossed smile on his face. He grabbed Nate's jaw in a firm grip and pulled him in for a messy, loud kiss.

"I don't usually do twinks," Nate admitted.

"Put your pants down and bend over, I'll show you how much I'm not a twink."

"Bold of you to assume that, should we sleep together, you'd be topping."

"I'm nothing if not a giving lover. Ask Abby."

Val cleared his throat.

"What's the matter, Valentine?" Spencer asked.

"I don't need to hear about your sex life."

"Feel free to walk away, my friend."

Before it could escalate, I grabbed Val by the shoulder and escorted him back to the main room, where the game was still going.

We played one more round, which Sig and I won, and then it was the final. In a fun turn of events, it was our team up against Arthur and Val's. The amount of beer to drink was two pints each. A challenge, but not an insurmountable one.

We lined up on the starting line. Sigrid would go first on our side, and Val would start on the other team. On the top! Sig and Val sprinted to the table, both stumbling over their own feet. Sig arrived first and started drinking before Val, but she struggled much more than he did. When she was done with her first pint, he slammed his second empty cup on the table and ran back to the starting line.

I shouted to Sigrid to come back, that I would drink whatever she hadn't been able to. She tried to fight it but gave in. As soon as she reached my level, I darted to the table where Arthur had already started drinking. I drank what was left of Sig's second pint and half my first by the time Arthur finished his first.

I met his eyes over the plastic of his cup. He winked at me, which almost made me choke. I slammed the empty cup on the table and grabbed the final pint, closing my eyes for maximum focus. As the last drop of beer went down my throat, I heard the crowd explode in cheers over Arthur and Val's victory.

We lost. We lost a drinking contest to sweet, innocent Arthur. I looked at Sigrid, she was sitting on the floor, her eyes unfocused, probably trying hard not to puke. Then I looked at Arthur. He was already looking at me and he shot me an apologetic smile. I glared at him. Not that I had any real reason to, but I was a sore loser. And he had hidden his secret frat-party-entertainer personality from me.

He came to meet me by the table, which I had not left yet.

"How?" I asked.

"I have a stressful job, plethora of family issues, and my friends were part of the Greek life in college. Did you really think I could not drink?" He asked with a little chuckle.

I crossed my arms and pouted. Yes, he made a valid point. No, I was not willing to admit that it was no big deal.

"If that makes you feel better, you would have beaten me if you hadn't had to drink Sigrid's leftover beer."

I frowned harder.

"You look adorable when you're being a sore loser," he said after placing a kiss on my temple. "But I did tell you you wouldn't win, you should have expected that," he added with an insolent grin.

"I'm conflicted," I said.

"How so?"

"I'm mad at you for beating me, but I'm also extremely turned on by your cockiness and your ability to chug beer like a college student."

He laughed. "Oh yeah?"

He turned me around so I faced him, and he placed his hands on my hips. He pulled me close. So close that I questioned his sanity. "Oh, darling, when I'm done with you, you will have no reason to be mad at me," he murmured in my ear in a way that made me melt. Or maybe that was the indecent amount of beer in my body.

He bent down and kissed me as if nobody was watching.

"How drunk are you?" I asked as his hand slid up my thigh and snuck under my skirt. In the living room. Of the frat house. Surrounded by tons of frat boys and other partygoers.

"Very."

"Good. Me too. So I need you to not be offended by what's about to happen."

Even though I would have loved nothing more than for Arthur to show me how risqué he was ready to get in public, all the beer I had ingested suddenly decided that it could not stay in my stomach any longer. I zoomed to Spencer's bedroom, avoiding the never-ending bathroom line, and managed to make it to his toilet in time to throw up. And after that, I don't remember anything.

* * *

"Wake up, lovebirds!" Someone screamed next to my face, jolting me awake. Arthur, from the embrace of my arms, was also startled.

I blinked several times, trying to figure out where I was while Arthur jumped to his feet. We were in the living room of the frat house and had been sleeping on the couch. He was only wearing his swimming shorts, his glasses nowhere to be found. I looked down at myself. There was a blanket that covered my lower body, my upper body was totally bare. When Arthur noticed it, his eyes doubled in size and he rushed to wrap me in the blanket. There were people coming and going in the room and it looked like it was already late morning, if not early afternoon. It was too late to worry about covering my body, everyone had had a chance to see it while I slept.

"Oh God," he said.

"You guys were on fire yesterday!" Spencer, who had woken us, said. There were a few chuckles and woos of agreement in the room.

"Oh God," Arthur repeated.

My head was being drilled into and my mouth felt dry and pasty. I tried to piece together the memories of the night before. Without success. The last thing I could remember was puking in Spencer's toilet, and I was fully clothed then.

"Your clothes should be somewhere by the pool," Spencer supplied.

"Oh God," Arthur said again.

I sat up on the couch, making sure the blanket was secure around my torso. "Cari, if you call upon God one more time, people are going to think we're having sex."

He flushed.

"Why don't you go get our clothes?"

He nodded and did what I had suggested.

"Cari, huh? That's cute," Spencer teased once Arthur was out of earshot.

"Shut up. Where's Nate?" I had forgotten a lot of things, but not the two of them playing handsies under the stairs.

"He left already. But he did stay the night."

"You dog!"

He chuckled. "You'll be surprised to find out that we did not have sex. Well, not technically."

I raised a brow. That was unusual. "How come?"

"Neither of us could get it up," he admitted and I burst out laughing. "We jerked each other off for a while until we gave up and just went to sleep."

"Aw, such a shame. Will you see him again?"

"Potentially. We exchanged numbers but we didn't really talk. I'd be game, I'm not sure if he is. Like Val said, I'm not his usual type."

I was about to offer to talk to Nate about that when he cut me off.

"You look happy, Abs."

I scoffed. "Right, I'm massively hungover, I'm sure I have make-up smeared all over my face, and I was just passed out on your couch. I must look many things, right now, but happy is not one of them."

"But you do. Maybe not, like, right now. But overall, you look happier than I've ever seen you. This dude's making you happy." He pointed at the door through which Arthur had gone outside. "He's good for you."

He truly was. I was finally sure of that. "But the question is whether I'm good for him."

"Of course you are! You're beautiful, smart, funny, kind—yes you are, honey," he added when he noticed my surprised face, "you may have a heart of stone but deep down you're the biggest softie. Any man would be lucky to have you."

I didn't have the opportunity to reply to that because Arthur was back with our clothes and seemed to have found his glasses as well. Out of the pile, he fished out my swimsuit top and walked up to the couch I was sitting on to help me put it on.

"Do you mind giving us some privacy?" Arthur asked Spencer rather coldly.

A wolfish smirk appeared on his lips. "Absolutely not. I'd much rather enjoy the free show."

"And I'd rather you didn't see my girlfriend's breasts."

"Too late for that, buddy. There's not a single inch of what's under this blanket that I have not seen already."

He wasn't talking about the time we'd slept together, but about the multiple frat parties I had attended and at which I had ended up in various states of nakedness. Spencer would not purposely be such an ass. He was, however, clueless about how what he'd said sounded.

"Spence," I intervened. "Please leave us for a minute."

"You're being modest now, but just so you know, yesterday you were parading around the pool with your tits out." He winked.

Arthur tensed behind me. He had as much recollection of the end of the night as I did, apparently. I glared at Spencer.

"What, you don't believe me? I have a video of you chicken fighting in the pool against Leo and Cedric."

He took out his phone from his pocket and started playing the video. It was loud, the image was blurry and so unsteady it made me sick, but there was no mistaking the situation. There I was, sitting on Arthur's shoulders, top off, trying to push Leo off Cedric's shoulders. The fight lasted less than a minute. We lost miserably, drunk as we were. It seemed that we didn't care, though. We just kept laughing hysterically, until the laughs turned into heated kisses and the video stopped there.

"Why am I not wearing a top?" I inquired.

Spencer shrugged. "I think you did it after an argument with Val. He told you that you shouldn't walk around almost naked now that you have a boyfriend, and I'm pretty sure you threw your bikini top at him."

I snickered. "Sounds like something I would do."

"Where is he?" Arthur snapped, his jaw rigid and his face closed off.

"He's gone home. Most people have, it's almost two."

Arthur made a strangled noise that sounded surprisingly close to another 'Oh God.' "I'm calling him." He fished out his phone from the pile of clothes he had left on the floor. "You," he pointed at Spence while the call went through, "who saw that video? Delete it immediately."

"Relax, dude. I just recorded it to show Abby what she was up to, I'm not keeping it."

"Delete it. Now," Arthur ordered in his business voice that tended to irritate me so much.

Spencer did not argue and deleted it, which satisfied Arthur. "I didn't show it to anybody, but pretty much everyone saw it happen in real time, just so you know."

Arthur groaned, but then Val picked up and his attention switched back to his phone.

Spence and I sat there for a good five minutes, listening to Arthur tear a new one to Val about his inappropriate comment on my outfit, or lack thereof. If it was slightly too overprotective-alpha-male-y for my taste, I felt good to have my honor defended.

"I don't want you to fight with your friend on my behalf," I told him when he hung up, "but thank you."

"Abril, of course. I love you, I'll always defend you."

"Love?" Spencer wiggled his eyebrows at us. "That sounds serious."

"Shut up, Spence."

"Not a chance. I didn't know you when you were with Josh, that's my only chance at seeing you in looooove," he singsonged. "Arthur and Abby, sitting in a tree—"

"What did you just say?" Arthur interrupted, his voice sharp as a knife.

Oh no.

"Yo, dude. Chill. That's just a kids song, surely you've heard of it."

"No, not that!" He snapped, impatient. "Who's Josh?"

Oh no.

Spencer's smile disappeared from his face. "Erm . . ." His eyes shot at me, apologetic and hoping that I would provide an acceptable answer. Except I didn't have an acceptable answer. "I'm going to leave you two alone."

"Yes, you do that," Arthur spat while Spencer dashed out of the room.

When the door clicked shut, Arthur helped me put my bikini top back on and he handed me my skirt and the frilly top I had worn with it. I put them on while he slid into his trousers and shirt. He crossed his arms and looked down at me, while I was still sitting on the couch, hoping for the floor to open and swallow me whole.

"Is he—"

"Don't ask," I cut him off.

"Abril . . . Please."

"We had a great day and a great night yesterday, didn't we?"

"Of course! Some moments were more challenging than others but it was nice spending time with you doing what you like."

"Great. Then let's not taint the memory with an argument," I said with finality.

"Can I have just one question? And I'm not going to ask for the story."

I sighed. This man was stubborn. "Go ahead."

"Why does Spencer get to know and I don't?"

The struggle to keep his disappointment from showing on his face was admirable, yet ineffective.

"Spencer doesn't know," I corrected. "He pieced together what I imagine is a partial version of the story, but I have never told him anything."

"Who knows, then?"

"That's two questions, cari."

He apologized and stopped the conversation there. He sat down so he could put on his socks and shoes. From his end of the couch, he handed me my boots, white vinyl things with a chunky heel, très seventies.

"Do you want to stay a bit longer or should I call a taxi?"

I preferred to leave. While he ordered the taxi, I met Spencer in the kitchen and said goodbye to him. Sigrid and Cedric were also there, I left them with a promise to catch them up about my relationship with Arthur.

When we arrived at my place, I went straight to the shower, getting undressed on the way, leaving my clothes behind. Arthur picked them up after me, gently placed them on the back of a chair and, after I offered, he joined me.

"Arthur?" I said tentatively as I was lathering soap on his freckle-peppered back.

"Yes?"

"Only my parents, Sigrid, and Cedric know. And Ced doesn't even know the full story."

Indeed, Cedric didn't know about my ba—miscarriage.

"Oh. Thank you for telling me."

He said nothing more, but his silence spoke volumes. He was dying to know. Not in a curious way, but in a concerned way. In a caring way. Like he didn't just want to satisfy his curiosity, but he genuinely wanted to share my burden, to make me feel better, to heal me.

"One day," I said, "I swear to you on all that I care about, I will tell you all about it."

He turned around, my hands skating across his body as he moved between them. He placed the teensiest of kisses on my lips.

"Then I'll patiently look forward to that day."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A/N: I would like to apologize for the impromptu break/late update. Life has been hectic lately and I just couldn't find the time to post my chapters. I'll try to stick to my usual schedule for the remainder of this book, thank you for understanding.

Next chapter on Wednesday, please vote and comment.

Love,
Charlie.