CAMBRIA

SEVEN

Cambria's history with love had been a brief but complicated one. At the age of twenty-four, she questioned whether she'd ever experienced real love. She had seen it in the movies. She knew what it was supposed to look like. But she didn't know what it was supposed to feel like.

The first time she had said I love you to a boy was when she was fifteen. He was her first high school boyfriend. They'd only dated for five months, but Cambria felt in her heart that she was truly, madly, deeply in love. Her parents told her otherwise, and she swore they were wrong.

It took years for her to realize they had been right.

The second was a boy she'd met in homeroom when she was seventeen. He was muscly and well-liked and all the girls swooned over him. Cambria could not for the life of her figure out how a guy like Chase Cooper could be interested in her. She felt inadequate compared to him, but at the same time, loved how being with him made her feel. Like she was on top of the world.

Their relationship lasted almost a year. It came to a head the night of the prom, when he slept with her best friend.

Cambria never spoke to either of them again.

Her third relationship was in university. She had dated around casually for the first two years, never finding anything serious. Then she met Donovan McDonald, and all of that changed. He made her happy, for the most part. And they had fun together.

After a year, she realized they didn't have as much in common as she once thought and questioned why they were even together in the first place. But she didn't want to be alone. And she liked how being with him made her feel. So, she found herself staying out of pure necessity.

He broke up with her shortly after that.

Cambria had never been sure what she wanted in life, in terms of a partner. When she was younger, everything seemed so straightforward. Marriage, wedding, children. But the older she got, the more she realized how unrealistic the whole thing was.

Sometimes she felt that she was destined to be alone forever.

But for the first time in a long time, Cambria felt herself opening up to the idea of love again. She had become so accustomed to being alone, had memorized the sound of silence. She had forgotten what it was like to be so infatuated by someone that your stomach fluttered at the thought of them. When you couldn't sleep at night, kept awake with thoughts of only them.

Cambria had never been one to fall fast, but she could feel herself falling for Theo. He was intoxicating. But with all these new and exciting emotions came the feeling of fear and trepidation. As much as she wanted to let go and fall completely, she was hesitant, fearing the worst: that his feelings weren't reciprocated in the same way hers were. That he would get bored and leave her. It had been a long time since she'd let anyone in, and she was scared of getting hurt.

But she was tired of being alone. She longed for the company of someone else. A smile to look forward to, a hand to hold. And Theo was all those things. He was hope and anticipation and relief, all at once.

After Grayson's party, they started seeing each other regularly. Coffee dates and dinner dates. Nights spent at his place.

She'd wake up in the mornings, bed still warm from where his body was. She'd roll onto her back and stare at the ceiling, smiling to herself.

He was so careful with her, as though she were glass. Tentative hands eventually turned eager. A familiarity developed between them. She anticipated his mouth on hers, spending her days daydreaming of only him. And then by night, she'd be back at his place, back in his bed.