Page 33 of Beauty and the Nerd
“This doesn’t look like a hotel Dad,” she said when he pulled into a parking garage.
“It’s not,” he said confusing her further when he parked in a reserved spot. “Let’s get your bags and head upstairs,” he stated, as he and her mom both gave her smiles.
“Do you know what’s going on?” she whispered to Ben as they waited for the elevator.
“Not a clue,” he replied, pressing a kiss to her temple.
She watched her parents as they went up to the twentieth floor, getting off before heading down a long hallway. It looked like they were passing apartments, and she figured her dadpicked out an Airbnb for them for the weekend instead of a hotel with Ben with them.
“Okay, this is us,” her dad said unlocking a door about a third of the way down. “Welcome home, honey.”
“Huh?” she said, seeing boxes and new furniture set around the space, all the way from the living room to the terrace beyond the dining area.
“We discussed it and since your scholarship pays for all of your tuition, books, and a meal plan, the only thing left was to cover the extra of the dorm that it wouldn’t. There’s more than enough in your college fund for it, but then we thought that you might enjoy having your own space a little more than living in a dorm, especially with Ben in town,” her mom said making her smile.
“Not that it means he can spend the night with you, understood?” her dad added.
“Understood,” she stated, her smile growing further. “Are you serious though? This place looks really expensive, and I don’t want you all…”
“We can well afford it, you’ll just have to put up with having a roommate for part of the month,” her dad replied making her brow lift again. “The company agreed that instead of paying for a hotel for when I’m in town each month, they would give me a monthly stipend to go towards the cost of the apartment. There are two bedrooms here so when I’m in town, I’ll be staying here. Think you can deal with that?”
“Are you kidding? Of course, I can,” she said, hugging both her parents tightly. “This is amazing.”
“It’s two miles to school but there’s always the bus and subway during the winter if you don’t feel like walking or biking that far,” her mom said and she nodded, eager to get back to figuring out the subway as they had the previous summer. She and Ben had enjoyed going sightseeing on their time off fromtheir classes together and now, they’d get to do it as more than just friends.
“We’ll bring your car up so if you need to get somewhere you can, but we figured you’d likely prefer to get a metro pass than drive daily. And since you’ll be here full-time, you get the master bedroom with the walk-in closet, while I will use the guest bedroom,” her dad added, and she grinned further, completely in shock this was actually happening.
With tuition, room and board, and everything else, she was looking at just under a hundred grand a year for costs. The school gave her a fifteen-thousand-dollar scholarship so that on top of the seventy-five-thousand-dollar one she won had meant minimal costs out of pocket for them, which was amazing. With not taking the room and board costs on, that was nearly forty thousand she wouldn’t need to pay to the school, could go towards the rent and food. Add in the stipend her dad was going to get and the costs likely evened out while giving her a ton more space—and privacy.
“We had furniture delivered as you can tell, but you can choose your own décor, arrange it however it will work best for you. We haven’t bought a desk yet, thought we’d let you see the space and decide if you needed or wanted one after that,” her mom said as she hugged her to her side. “Ben, I hope you don’t mind sleeping on the couch tonight. It is a sleeper sofa.”
“Perfectly fine with me,” Ben stated, and she gave him a huge grin when her parents weren’t looking. They moved into the second bedroom, dropping off their bags and she slid into Ben’s arms, biting her lower lip as she gazed up at him. “I can definitely get behind this, baby. Knowing you’re here, safe, and secure while I’m at the dorm will be a relief.”
“Not to mention we can hang out here, do our work, study as we want, then just enjoy ourselves. It sounds so much better than dealing with dorm rules,” she agreed, snuggling in his armsuntil she had to go see the bedroom. It was on the opposite side of the apartment from the one her parents went into, and she was amazed at its size considering it was New York.
The view out the window was incredible, made her feel giddy, and she realized that she was actually here. In New York. Getting ready to attend the college of her dreams with the most amazing guy beside her.
This alone made up for all of the uncertainties she’d dealt with the last few months. The looks she’d gotten the last few weeks since Carter was arrested.
“Starting to feel real, isn’t it?” Ben asked softly, his arms sliding around her waist, pulling her back against his chest as she stared out the window.
“So real. I can’t believe graduation is next month. Then we’ll be back here for the fall full-time.”
“About that…I got invited to a summer program with Columbia that starts in June,” Ben said, turning her around his way. “I don’t have to attend it.”
“Are you kidding? No way, you’re doing it. It will give you an advantage for the fall semester. I can handle a few weeks apart. Even if I don’t want to be away from you at all, I won’t freak out. Plus, I’ll likely be up here some during the summer anyway to get this place set up the rest of the way as it is,” she added, not about to let fears bring her down any. A few weeks was definitely better than a few months or a few years. She’d manage it.
“Yeah?” he said, and she nodded, putting a smile on his face. “We can have dinner at that little Thai place we found, see if it’s just as good as we remember.”
“If we can find it back you mean?” she teased, laughing fully when he showed her his phone with the spot saved under his contacts—address and all. “You saved their info? Why?” she added when he nodded.
“Because I told myself that night that if I got into Columbia, I wanted to be able to go back there, even if it was alone because I knew it’d remind me of you and that summer,” he stated, brushing the hair from her face, his fingers soft against her skin making her shiver slightly at the incredibleness of not only the feel of his skin against hers, but also his sweet words. “I’d already fallen for you by then baby. Hell, I fell entirely the night we ran into each other here. The fact that you were talking to me, really talking to me like I was a regular human and not just some nerd-boy just made me want you more. Add in the fact that we were talking about things that actually mattered, plus literature and stuff the rest of the idiots in our school never would, and I was almost on my knees that first night. I just never thought you’d feel the same for me, figured I had no chance of being anything more than just your friend.”
“I love you,” she sighed, snuggling into his hold further.
“I love you too, baby, and I can’t wait for school to be finished so we can really start to move forward with our lives.”
Emma glanced up at him, smiling when she saw the rest of his meaning in his gaze. Graduating would mean getting away from the people that shot strange looks at them whenever she kissed him or snuggled up with him. It would mean getting away from people that laughed at her for liking him to begin with and from hearing the shit they attempted to spout about them. She didn’t care that the girls on the cheer squad didn’t understand her need to be with Ben. She simply didn’t want to hear their badmouthing anymore.
