The Replacement Boyfriend

Chapter 10

Zayne

I was waiting outside Tace's apartment by 8:40 p.m., pacing the length of the hall and wondering how to hell I was going to tell her about Dane. In the haze of settling into the dorm and into our classes, I had completely forgotten to tell Tace about Dane leaving for the military which was happening next week. I didn't have any more time to delay it. I had to tell her...but how? What was I going to say?

"Hey," I heard Tace's soft voice. I turned in time to watch her shut the door. "Let's go."

"Red," I murmured, giving her a once over. She looked really pretty. I mean, she always did but somehow, she looked even prettier tonight. "You look beautiful."

She looked at the ground, her cheeks turning red and camouflaging the freckles on her face.

"Thank you," she slowly walked toward me as I called the elevator. "You look nice, too."

I looked down at my ripped jeans and black t-shirt with my black and red jacket and almost laughed. I hadn't even bothered dressing up the way she had and I hadn't even straightened out my hair. It was messed up and all over the place. We got into the elevator and exited the building.

"It's less than a five minute walk," I told her when she turned to go toward the parking lot.

"Oh," she mumbled, looking embarrassed. "Lead the way."

The walk to Leona's, which was an Italian eatery, was short but felt horribly long thanks to the awkward silence between us. I could feel the knots in my stomach forming as I thought about how to tell her about Dane but from the look on her face, she felt the uneasiness, too. She rubbed her hands together and I took her hands in mine immediately, assuming she felt cold. She looked up at me, her cheeks still flushed pink which I wasn't sure was because of the cold or because she was still embarrassed.

"Are you cold?" I asked her and she shrugged, her ginger hair bouncing on her bare shoulders.

"I'm okay," she told me but I held onto her hand anyway. They fit perfectly in mine.

When we reached, I held the door open for her, letting her hand against my will against it. We let a waiter show us to a table for two and settled in, browsing through the menu. I knew Tace loved thin curst pizza's so I ordered a chipotle chicken thin crust pizza for her and a blue moon burger for me. Her eyes lit up when I made the order and she didn't object so I assumed she was fine with it. The waiter took a note of our orders, took the menus away and left us alone.

"So, what was so important?" she asked without beating around the bush.

As much as I appreciated the change in her since she had become close to her roommates and Asher and a number of other classmates, it sometimes put me at a disadvantage. She had started hanging out with everyone, which left me very little time to have her to myself. I wasn't going to complain about it because we were mostly friends with the same people – being her roommates, my roommates and occasionally Cassidy's brother Jax. But she had changed a lot in three weeks. She hadn't seemed bothered by much since she started calling Amara every night before bed and she got close to Cassidy. I was happy that she had her anxiety in check but I also felt like she was drifting away a little.

"I'll tell you after we eat," I told her, knowing that she would lose her appetite once she heard what I was about to tell her. "We haven't been alone in a while. Anything you want to talk about?"

She smiled and shook her head. "There's nothing much to tell," she shrugged and I could help but notice the freckles at the curve where he shoulder met her neck. "So I picked cognitive, social and developmental psychology and sensation and perception-"