The Tuition Fee

Chapter 30: August, Year 4, pt. 3

Alina

Nathan finds me immediately after the ceremony, linking his arm with mine as we make our way over to the tent where the reception is being held. 

"You looked very handsome up there," I tell him. I poke the button of his suit, charcoal grey and fitting his body like a glove. 

"You look quite beautiful yourself," he says. He's got a glow to his cheeks I haven't seen in a long time, and it lifts my spirits a little. 

My dad has... Not been doing well since his coughing fit. The medicine isn't working as well and he's been in two more surgeries. I mostly use Derek's schedule to avoid him, and I haven't been back in his office since we had sex. We're friendly, but anytime he tries to ask me what's going on between us I chalk it up to my dad's condition or work and he doesn't push. He does know though that I'm at a wedding this weekend, and who I'm with. But I only told him in case something happens to my dad while I'm gone. He had to know this, whatever we were, wasn't going to go past the hospital. And the sex might have been one step too far past that line. 

Especially with Nathan. Nathan driving ten hours to be by my side. Nathan making me eat and dropping food off at my work when I'm working double shifts. Nathan forcing me to relax by watching bad movies, or holding me when I start to randomly cry thinking about my parents. Nathan now choosing to never wear a shirt around the house because he knows how much it flusters me. Nathan right now, holding onto my arm because he can feel the anxiety building up in my chest about having to be around so many people. 

"I have to go take pictures while they hand out the appetizers, will you be okay with Ree and Mar?" He asks, smiling at a passing family member, I think a cousin named Garret. 

I nod, my eyes landing on my two friends on the other side of the tent. Julian got them seats at our table, along with James, the maid of honor, and her boyfriend. "Yeah, I'll be okay. Will you?" I raise an eyebrow, knowing his affinity for not wanting to take staged pictures. 

He shrugs and slips his arm from my grip, squeezing my hand. "I'll suck it up for Jules. See you in a bit." He kisses my forehead again, sending shivers racing down my body. I watch him walk away before turning to join Marissa and Reese at our table, champagne already waiting. 

"You're really going to sit here and tell me you two aren't together?" Marissa asks, leaning her chin in her hand. She and Reese have been pestering me about it all day since Nathan kissed my head earlier that morning and it was obvious we'd slept in the same bed together. I'd spent forty five minutes convincing them nothing had gone past sleeping, not after how much we'd drank last night. If I was going to sleep with Nathan, I was going to be sure to remember every second of it. 

I sigh and sip the champagne despite the massive headache it gave me this morning. "I don't know Mar. Maybe..." I take another drink, steeling my nerves, "maybe I'll ask him tonight." 

"Ask him what?" Reese presses, sitting on the other side of me. 

I look down at my left hand, the ring shining there. "To date me for real." 

Marissa squeals and grabs my arm, shaking me lightly. "Finally! Ahh, I'm so happy for you!" 

I blush and give her a shy smile. I'd been thinking about it, I realized, for a while. Nathan and I weren't friends. We were so much more than that. We were two people in a relationship with all the benefits besides the physical aspect. And looking at him in that custom-fit suit, I really wanted the physical aspect among so many other things. And I wanted us to be more than a dare, or a scam, or pressure from someone else. I wanted to kiss him, just us, because we wanted to. I wanted to lay with him in our hammock and makes real plans about our future, not just hypotheticals. I wanted everything with him I'd pretended I didn't.