Page 1 of The Price of a Promise

CHAPTER ONE

AXEL

“Wait, Axel.I’m almost there.”

“Yeah?By the goth guys playing accordion or up by the vegan punks?”

Cora laughed in that way that sounded like angels sighing.Through the phone, I could hear the churn of the ocean on the West Coast.“The vegan punks.”

“Shit, girl.You are almost there.”

Cora’s wispy breaths through the phone grew more labored.I pinched my eyes shut so I could imagine her—traipsing through the sand on Venice Beach, squinting against the too-bright sunshine of a November California day, which she claimed was against nature for the born-and-bred New York native that she was.She lived in Stanford, but liked to make the trek to LA on occasion for the shopping and the beaches.

“Hurry it up, sweet cheeks,” I chided, grinning to myself as I sat on Coopers Beach in the Hamptons.This was our thing.The way we stayed connected, despite the staggering distance.Twenty-five hundred physical miles meant nothing if we were both standing on beaches facing the ocean.It was the voodoo that kept us together while we weathered grad school on opposite coasts.

Weekly beach visits and the occasional cross-country visit.But only when we could find the right alibi.

“Okay.I’m here.”She sighed exaggeratedly and this time, I imagined her slumping down into the sand.In my mind’s eye, I was there with her.Ready to catch her, to wrap my arms around her and find that perfect nook where she existed in my arms.The one that let me bury my face in the side of her lush, dark-chocolate locks and get drunk on her sweet clementine scent.Holding her like that was the only way to calm my racing heart when my anxiety stalked like a predator.When she was in my arms, I felt like I could fully grasp the roots of my future; like I could look up and watch the blossoms of my happiness unfold.

One of the many ways I knew Cora wasn’t just a good fit for me but the one and only.

I planned to tell her soon.The moment the ring arrived and I could scrape up the money to fly out there again.

“Good.”I rested my elbows on my knees, phone pressed to my right ear as I stared out at the cobalt waves churning under the gray late-afternoon haze.The salty breeze, both humid and cold, bit through me, but Cora’s low hum wrapped me in its warm embrace.“I can almost see you.”

“Yep.I think I can see you too,” she said with a throaty laugh.She had the husky voice of a young blues singer, both ethereal and erotic at the same time.Paired with dark, glossy hair and sage green eyes that doubled as a fucking defibrillator, she was jaw-dropping.A total knockout.And one hundred percent mine.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”I lifted my index finger.This shit never got old for us.A year and some months into our grad school careers, we needed anything that minimized the crushing weight of the distance.

“Two.”

I lifted my middle finger to join the index.“Correct.”

Her soft laugh floated through me, dispelling all the stress I’d brought from the week.Seconds into our calls, everything in the world felt right.Just as if we were at the beach together.

“You’d tell me I was right even if you didn’t have any fingers.”

“Well, sweet cheeks, it’s because you’re always right,” I told her.I dropped a hand to the sand, beginning the absent-minded search for sea glass.The other important ritual of our beach visits.

“Not always.”

“Well you’re right about one thing, at least.”

The smirk on her face was evident in her voice.“And what’s that?”

“Being with me.”

This was the part where I’d wrap her into my arms again and we’d fall back onto the sand and stay there for a long time, possibly until dusk, or until the weird goth guys ran us off with the shitty accordion music (if we were in LA).But I couldn’t, and my chest throbbed with the absence of her heat there.Time wasn’t making things better or easier.In fact, each additional day away from her only proved how much I didn’t want a life without her.We’d spent our third anniversary on opposite coasts, wishing we could tonguefuck each other though FaceTime.I didn’t want our fourth to be more of the same.I gathered my jacket tighter around me as a brisk wind whipped down the beach.

“I miss you, Axel.”

I could hear the deep well of emotion in her voice.My cheeks twitched, caught between a smile and a grimace.“I miss you more.I’m gonna come out there again soon.Then we can visit that other beach you like to visit.What was it?Glass Beach?”

She sighed contentedly.“You’ll love it there.It was a gold mine for Axel-blue glass.When do you think you can come?”

“Once I get paid, I’ll buy the ticket.”My throat tightened, and I looked down at the fine-grained sand between my bent knees.My internship updating the business plan of a Manhattan-based tech company barely paid the bills.I lived mostly off stock dividends, cryptocurrency funds, and sheer ingenuity.The truth was that I had to finish paying off her ring before I could even hope to afford another plane ticket.“And if that doesn’t cover it, I’ll hit up Trace.”

Cora sighed.“Let me put it on my credit card—”

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