For a moment, I frowned, thinking that he was scanning the groups for anyone he thought was hot. But the subtle tinge of fear in his eyes gave him away; he was looking out for his ex.
My fingers tightened on the steering wheel, but I knew better than to ask about it.
* * *
After parking the truck in one of the concrete structures around town, we got out and walked to his dorm building.
The smell of school wafted into my face as we entered the old building.
“You already have your dorm?” I asked. “You’re only staying here for a semester.”
“Yeah, it’s this dumb rule this university has. If you’re an undergrad, you have to be in a dorm. As soon as I left last spring, I put in my reservation for a dorm for fall. I knew I’d eventually come back, and even if I didn’t it would be easier to cancel it last minute than try to reserve one.”
“Smart,” I said.
After showing me around a bit and stopping by the student center, Luke was leading me down a long hallway lined with doors.
“Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine…” he said, reading the numbers on the doors. “Three-hundred-thirty!” he said, opening the door with his key card.
We were greeted by a small room with stark white walls that was barely bigger than a closet.
“…this is where you have to live?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, I know it’s small,” he said.
“Don’t bother with this. Stay with me,” I offered.
“Stay with you… in your house?” Luke asked. “But Adam, you live like, an hour away. I need to be on campus.”
“I can drive you in early,” I offered, desperate to make his life easier. “Before I start work.”
“That’ll be such an imposition for you, I’m not going to do that,” Luke said stubbornly.
We were both staying away from the elephant in the room, and that elephant was that I wanted to keep him close by me to protect him. I didn’t want there to be any chance of his ex coming back to mess with him.
Look gave me a warning look, no doubt following my train of thought.
“Fine. But I don’t like it,” I said, crossing my arms.
“You’re so cute when you’re grumpy,” Luke said, reaching up to kiss my cheek.
I grumbled and tried to hide my smile.
* * *
When we left the room, we went out into the hallway and turned left. Luke was chattering jovially about how great it would be to finish up his classes and get his real life started.
I was already planning on having him meet my cousin at the family cookout tomorrow, and couldn’t deny that I was equally excited about that. I’d let my mind wander and linger on what a future with Luke could look like — him as a happy fashion designer, me as a happy police officer. We’d spend our days getting even more connected, spending time around friends and family, cooking for each other, and falling deeper and deeper in love.
It sounded like a perfect happily ever after to me.
Luke stopped chattering abruptly and halted in his tracks.
I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, following his gaze.
He was fixated on one guy that was emerging from a building nearby. The man was tall, gangly-looking, and had dark hair that he swept out of his eyes.
The guy was weird-looking, in my opinion. But the way Luke was looking at him was unmistakably the look of fear and anxiety and emotional tightness when one looks at their ex.
I grabbed Luke’s hand.
The weird-looking guy was only visible for a few seconds, but I could feel the effect he had on Luke: he was beginning to tremble.
“I’m here,” I offered gently.
Once the guy popped into a building, he was gone from sight.
Concerned, I led Luke to a nearby park bench and we sat down while he caught his breath.
“Was that him?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
Luke nodded, focusing on slowing his breathing.
I gritted my teeth, trying to memorize his ex’s features so I could track him down later.
Giving Luke space to breathe, I stood up and walked a few paces over to the building his ex had gone into. The sign on the door entitled the building DuPont Hall.
My eyes grew wide.
“Luke, this is one of the buildings that’s named after your mom!” I said.
There was silence.
“Luke? Luke!” I called, turning back to him.
He was slumped over on the bench, his head between his knees.
I rushed back over to him, running my hand gently up and down his back.
“Luke, are you okay?” I asked, the panic prickling at the edges of my voice.
“I’ll—I’ll be okay,” Luke said, breathing in slowly. “Just fighting off another attack…”
Looking around frantically, I spotted a weird-looking metallic art sculpture in the middle of the courtyard nearby. “Luke, see that?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.
He looked up, following where my finger was pointing.
“That’s solid. That’s going to be there. Look at it; look how it just stands there,” I said.
It wasn’t as good as the first time I asked Luke to look at solid objects in his surroundings to take him out of his head, but I was distracted. I was too busy thinking about how to get rid of his ex.
Regardless, Luke looked at the sculpture and nodded, his breathing getting more steady.
“And… and look at that lamp post over there,” I said.
Luke followed my gaze, sitting up a little more.
“Can you tell me how many lamp posts there are around us right now?” I asked, my mind only half-present. I was keeping an eye on the door his ex had gone through, wondering if he would come back out.
Luke sat up a little straighter and his breathing became more steady. His eyes flickered from lamp post to lamp post as he counted.
“Seven,” he said.
“Very good,” I said, rubbing his back. “Now how many of those lamp posts are black, and how many are green?”
Luke counted again, then
