breathe

chapter 23 | benjamin

Chapter Twenty-Three

Benjamin

"Yale, Yale, Yale," I whispered in Charlotte's ear. She was sitting at my desk, staring intently at her laptop. It was May first, so she had to put her college deposit down somewhere.

"Can you stop taunting me already?" Charlotte said firmly.

"No can do, Charmander," I grinned. "Yale's gonna be lucky to have my amazingly wonderful and beautiful girlfriend."

She rolled her eyes but smiled slightly. "Flattery will get you nowhere, you know."

"Come on, Char," I said, moving behind her chair. As I began gently massaging her tense shoulders, I felt her relax slightly under my touch. "Yale will be so good for you for several reasons. One, it's been your dream since forever. Two, Lena will be there. Three, it consistently ranks higher than Harvard with legal programs. Four, you could always apply to Harvard and live your Elle Woods dreams for law school. And those are in no particular order."

"Why weren't you on the debate team again?" she asked, raising her ginger eyebrows at me. "Those are very compelling arguments."

"And they're all true," I kissed the top of her head. "It's only two hours from Berklee. And I have my car again, and you–"

"Have a shitty car that'll probably overheat and die this summer?" she interrupted.

"Don't talk bad about Smurfie!" I exclaimed with a grin. "Smurfie will last you through law school, and when you have a lot of money as an attorney and or award winning novelist, you can get a new and improved Smurfie."

"You're right," she said with a sigh. "Smurfie will live forever. Long live Smurfie the Subaru."

"So, Yale."

"But–"

"Charlotte."

"Okay," she sighed deeply. "Who am I fucking kidding? It was always Yale." She paused, biting her lip in deep contemplation. "I just wanna be there for you, especially with your mom... I wanna be close to you. I don't want us to grow apart."

"We won't," I promised, sitting down on my piano bench I had pulled up earlier. I tucked a curl behind her ear, and her brown eyes met mine. "We love each other too much to let two hours get in the way of our relationship. And we'll visit each other and FaceTime every night."

"Yeah, that's true," she agreed softly. She took a deep breath, steeling herself. "Okay. Yale." I watched as she filled out the information for the deposit.

"I'm really proud of you, Char," I said as the screen showed her payment was submitted.

"I feel really good about my decision," she smiled at me. "And Harvard Law sounds like a good plan. I'll be the redheaded version of Elle Woods who doesn't wear that much pink because it clashes with her hair."

"I don't think it clashes," I told her. "I always think of Valentine's Day when you wear pink, and then I want to kiss you."

"Do you want to kiss me right now?" she asked, a mischievous glint in her chocolate brown eyes.

"I always want to kiss you," I whispered, leaning in so my lips were just brushing hers. As our lips met, her eyes fluttered shut and I gently brushed her cheek, savoring the warmth and softness of her mouth.

When we finally parted to breathe, she lingered close, our foreheads touching. "I love you," she whispered against my lips before sitting in my lap, her curls spilling over my shoulders as she buried her hands in my hair.