Page 78 of True Blue

My foot bounces under our usual table while I wait for Bentley and Janette to show up. I watch the doors to the library, eyeing the random people walking by and making sure no one steals one of the empty chairs. People sit all over, cramming for finals at tables, spread out on the comfy chairs, some even sitting on the floor in the shadows of the stacks since most of the actual seating is taken.

I should have just stopped by the café to see if they were still there. I couldn’t focus at all in my eco class, just thinking about Janette and Bentley on their own with Mira and Autumn. What if they were pissed and I left them there to deal with it on their own? Or what if they were confused and me being there would have helped?

I start chewing my thumbnail, leg still bouncing away. My laptop pings with a random email, pulling my attention from the glass doors for a moment before I look up and see Janette and Bentley walk in, both smiling. Everything inside me settles, my leg going back to its normal tempo under the table.

As they walk up, Bentley picks up his pace, leaving Janette behind as she tilts her head at his back. He eats up the spacebetween us, slowly filling in my line of sight until he’s standing over me next to my chair. I stare up, completely frozen by the determination in his gaze since the moment he beelined over here. He cups the sides of my face, tilting my head back as he bends down, covering my mouth with his. The kiss starts slow, short circuiting my brain as my body reacts on its own, lips moving with his. He pulls back before I can reach up to tug him closer, but his face makes me pause, reality settling back in.

My eyes flick around the room, seeing a few people openly staring before looking back at their work when my eyes catch theirs. Ice runs down my spine before my eyes return to Bentley’s face, still hovering a few inches above my own. The smile on his face creates a heat deep in my chest, washing away any fear that this was a mistake he didn’t mean to make. He pecks my lips again quickly before releasing me and taking his seat across the table.

Janette stands a foot behind the table, hands on her mouth as she watches us with shiny eyes. She steps up to the table when our gazes meet, taking her seat and smiling at me before starting to pull her laptop from her bag.

“I take it things went well?” I say, body still turned toward the front door as if it refuses to catch up to the new study vibes.

Janette nods her head emphatically. “They were both fine. Honestly it went way better than I expected. Autumn didn’t even bat an eye.”

“And Mira?” I ask, looking to Bentley.

He smiles, laptop now open in front of him, though he looks over the top of it at me. “She’s happy for us. We had to explain pretty much everything.”

“Everything?” I raise an eyebrow, and Janette narrows her eyes at me.

“No, not about ustogether, Axe. They both wanted to hear about our break last week, but otherwise everything went well.”

I turn toward the table, nodding my head. “Good.” A lightness blooms in my chest and I smile down at my laptop keys. “Step number one out of the way.”

“Pretty sure we’re at least on like step seven at this point.” Janette murmurs, focusing in on the screen of her computer.

“So, is PDA on the table now?” I pull my foot out of my snow boot, running it lightly up the side of Janette’s leg. She jumps a little, glaring at me over the top of her screen.

Bentley chuckles. “Nothing excessive. And you might need to go slow with her,” he nods to Janette, and she frowns at him.

“I’m right here,” she grumbles.

“I know, sunshine.” He reaches over to poke her side, but she swats his hand away before he can.

“If I remember correctly, you like slow, Blue.” I smirk as she narrows her eyes at me again.

“You two need to focus.” She points between the two of us before pointing to her laptop. “We need to finalize the presentation for tomorrow.”

I chuckle, pulling up the shared presentation on my own screen. “Fine, but afterward, we’re celebrating.” I wink at Bentley, and he returns it with a wry smile.

Janette clears her throat, one eyebrow raised when we both turn toward her. “Focus.” We each sit up straight, listening to Janette roll through what we need to get done and then quietly working once she’s given her orders.

After running through our slides about five more times, I finally slump back, unable to sit still much longer. “Blue, we’ve gone through it enough. We’re ready for tomorrow.”

Janette bites her lip, scrolling through the presentation again. “I’m just worried we don’t have enough.”

“The presentation is already thirty slides long. We have more than enough, sunshine.”

Janette nods, still scrolling and reading through the slides again.

I reach out, half closing her laptop to get her attention. “We’re going to be okay. The presentation is going to go so smoothly, and Howards is going to love it.”

Janette sighs, taking her hands out from her keyboard and stretching in her seat. “You’re not going to show up in a suit of armor tomorrow, right?”

I smile, closing my own laptop. “I make no promises.”

Bentley rolls his eyes, and we all pack up, forfeiting the table to a rabid group nearby. I hold the door open as we all walk out, pelted by snow the moment we step outside. “Maybe classes will get cancelled tomorrow and we’ll have another few days before we have to present,” I yell over the wind as we start trekking toward West Tower.

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