Page 167 of Meet Me at the Metro

I redirect my attention back to our call. “So much.”

“Just promise me one thing, honey,” Mom pleads, and I nod for her to continue. “You’ll let me or your dad know if things start to feel too much. We aren’t mad at you for choosing to stay, and we won’t be angry if you change your mind either.”

“Okay,” I whisper, hating the conflicting emotions weighing down my thoughts. I know I want to stay here to finish out the school term, but I hate that choosing that means choosing not to have my parents near. “I promise I will.”

“We love you.”

“I love you guys more. Try and get some sleep, will you?”

She brushes back the graying strands of her dark hair, lays back against her pillow, and tells me, “I’lltry.”

“Night, Momma.”

“Night, honey.”

I end the call before the despondence in her final words can settle and tip-toe back to bed, placing my phone down against the bedside table. Theo stretches out as I reach my mattress, his arms widening to welcome me back inside them. I crawl back underneath the covers, intertwining my limbs with his as I lay down against his warm chest.

“How much of that did you hear?”

I can feel the smile lifting the corners of his lips as he presses a kiss against my forehead and answers in a deep, gruff voice, “A lot of it.”

I peer up to look at him through the breaks of shadows in the room and sigh. “I was trying not to wake you.”

His chest shakes with a quiet chuckle. “Like I’d not notice your body not being next to mine.”

I enjoy the warmth of his fingertips against my skin as his hands travel along the dip of my lower back.

“Mom’s worried about me. She,umm—said she wants me to come home.”

Theo’s body tenses, and he’s silent for a long, sustained moment that has me holding my breath in anticipation of his response. “What doyouwant?”

“I want to stay,” I murmur, and his tight, rigid muscles instantly slacken.

“Did you tell her that?”

“I did, but I feel like such an asshole for it.”

“What for?”

“Because it’s not what she wanted to hear. Because I miss her and Dad so much, but I still want to stay, and I feel so selfish about it.”

“Well, I must be onereally selfishbastard then because I want you to stay, too.” Under the moonlight pouring through the small window of my room, I watch as his expression slowly turns serious. “Like,really stay, Nora.”

“What?”

“Past the year. Past this final semester. You being here...it doesn’t have to end in a few months.”

The alternative he’s introducing has my mind whirring, and immediately, I’m mulling over every obstacle I’d have to overcome for it to be possible.

“I can’t afford to stay here. My parents have already poured out so much to cover my rent for the year.”

“I could set you up with a job atGullie’s.”

“You’ve thought about this hard, haven’t you?” I tease.

“Of course, I have.”

I bite back my smile. “My classes take up so much of my time, though. I don’t know if I could work as much as needed to keep up with rent.”

---