Always Be My Baby

One Week

Miranda Bailey finished cleaning her room and looked around, satisfied. Finally, in her second year of college, there was a place for everything and everything was in its place. Opening her door, she saw her roommates scrambling around and leaving their common areas a mess. Her satisfaction went right on out of the window. It was Spring Break after all and everyone was getting ready to leave. Miranda was going to be the only one staying in their Wellesley College on-campus dorm. The other ones, Evie, Pat and Darian, were all either going home or to beach houses in hot places. Each of them asked if Miranda wanted to come with, assuming she'd be alone or worse, lonely. And that had been very nice of them, but she'd politely declined. The nineteen-year-old had made plans to have a proper wild and crazy Spring Break, but father had shut it all down. The shenanigans would have to wait.

Truth be told, that didn't bother Miranda. She did want to spend time with her friend, but there was something that she wanted even more. To spend time with her boyfriend. Ben Warren was a sophomore at the Rutgers University and they'd been dating for two years. Just before they'd graduated high school and gone off to different colleges, the two kind of friends became more. What started off as something innocent and fun became serious and intense. They were in love. He wasn't the first boyfriend that Miranda had ever had, but he was the only one who mattered. Ben sent roses and candy and wrote her letters, called when he said he would and apologized when he didn't. He was perfect.

Since she couldn't enjoy her break like her peers, Miranda was resigned to going home for the week, hoping to catch Ben at the beginning or at the end of his own break. Instead, she'd received a call from him saying that their Spring Break dates matched up and that he was no longer going home. He was coming to see her. Can you get out of going home? He'd asked. Miranda had thought about it for a long time. Her roommates were all leaving so, the place would be empty and clean, for the week anyway. Maybe...

Her parents hadn't been happy about that. Especially her mother. Miranda knew Elena wanted her to come home so that she could drag her around the neighborhood, bragging to her friends about her grades and career options. Miranda was supposed to go to church for Easter and all that, but she'd convinced her mom that she would be studying for finals and working. And she would be, just not as much or as in depth. There was no need. Her grades were the highest in every class like they'd been since she started taking college-level courses. Plus, she'd have plenty of time to study later. Miranda didn't know if her mother believed her or not, but she wouldn't dare tell her that Ben was coming to visit and would be staying for the week.

The thought made Miranda's temperature rise. During her relationship with Ben, they'd hooked up quite a few times. She'd given her virginity to him during winter break of freshmen year and her body hadn't stopped wanting him since. So, they saw each other as often as they could, the drive from New Jersey to Massachusetts being less than four hours. But never had they experienced complete quiet and uninterrupted alone time. It had also been a few months since they'd seen one another. And she missed Ben severely. Thank God, her parents didn't mind her putting her academics first or they wouldn't have let her stay on campus. Laughing to herself, she almost didn't hear the rapping on the door. "Uh, come in," she said. She expected that the knocker would be Evie because Pat just wandered in her room and Darian tried not to make contact at all. But no one entered. "I said come in." She stood up and walked to the door. Miranda opened the door and saw Ben standing there smiling. "What the hell?"

"Is that the way you greet your guests?" Tears filled her eyes and she jumped into his arms as he kissed the side of her head. "Hi, baby."

"What are you doing here so early?" She asked hitting his arm. Ben laughed and dropped his bag. "I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow."

"I finished my last test and got on the road. We get an extra half a day," he told her, slipping his hand into hers, jig-sawing their fingers.

"God, I've missed you," she admitted. Though she'd kept busy the last couple of months, nothing stopped her from missing her man. He kissed the back of her hand and she blushed. "Wait, who let you in?"