Page 79 of Tell Me I'm Enough

She looks exhausted. Pale. Like she hasn’t slept in days. I really need to check in on her.

I feel like I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to get everything ready for tomorrow’s Greeksgiving, running every errand Madison and Joy have given me, and still trying to talk to Tyler and catch up with him.

I’m trying to connect with him and hear how everything’s been in California, but he just seems so distracted on his phone. He hasn’t tried to start any conversation or has even asked me a single question, like he normally does when we get to catch up.

“Okay,” I say, juggling bags of decorations in one hand and my iced coffee in the other, “so tell me everything. How’s California treating you? How are your classes going?”

“Mm?” he murmurs without looking up, typing on his screen. “Sorry—what’d you say?”

I force a smile. “Just…how’s school going?”

“Oh. Yeah. It’s fine.” He scrolls a little more, eyes flickering back to me. “Busy.”

Okay?

I try something else. “We should take some cute pictures while you’re here so I can hang them in my dorm.”

“Sure,” he says absently.

What the hell?

“So, your midterms went okay?” I ask after it’s silent for a while.

“Mmhm.”

I let out a small huff. “You’re not going to ask me how mine were?”

He finally looks up from his phone. “I’m sorry, babe. How were your midterms? How’s school been?”

He kisses me on the side of my head before finally offering to grab some of the stuff from my arms.

I can’t help but get a little irritated. We get so little time together. I just want his attention.

“It’s fine if you don’t care; you don’t have to pretend just because I asked you to.”

“Idocare, Simone,” he says, likehe’sthe one annoyed now.

I pop my trunk and throw the bags in, then stand there waiting for him to put the ones he has in.

“I’m just trying to talk to you, Tyler. Catch up, connect. You don’t even seem present.”

He puts the bags down in the trunk and pulls me into a hug, kissing me—shutting me up. When he pulls back, he smiles down at me, and I try to smile back through the sadness, feeling disappointed already with this visit.

He lets me go and kisses my forehead. “I’m sorry, babe. I’m here…I’m all yours for the weekend.”

I nod, trying to believe that.

It’s okay, we’re okay.

When we get back to the dorm, Lydia and Lani aren’t there. I instantly pull him to me once the door is closed, kissing him—the kind that hopefully tells him how much I’veactuallybeenmissing him. I push him onto the bed, throwing my legs over the sides of his hips, smiling down at him.

“I’ve missed you,” I tell him, trying to be seductive.

He places his hands on my hips and smiles back at me. “I’ve missed you more.”

I lean down, kissing his neck, and his hands tighten on my waist, making me smile, feeling like I’ve finally got his attention now.

Sex is always the easy part. It’s the way you make each other feel like everything’s okay. Even if they aren’t, you can create this illusion that they are.