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She wrapped her arms around him tightly and kissed his lips once. “Yes.”
He smiled and pulled her to him, kissing her soft and slow. When they finally broke apart, she groaned. “Whatever you have around the house is fine with me, but I better get going. My next class starts in fifteen minutes.”
“Want me to walk you?”
Her face brightened. “Yes!”
Something as simple as walking a person across campus felt like the best thing that had happened all week. For ten solid minutes, Holly talked excitedly about her classes and gave him the dirt on all her professors. Their fingers touched occasionally, sending thrills up his arms.
Once they made it to the building, he turned her away from it, still wanting to hold onto her as long as he could. “Should we do something this weekend? Maybe Saturday?”
She nodded. “I’ll have to work in the office in the morning hours, but let’s plan for late afternoon.”
“Got it. Ice skating? We can invite everyone, maybe sneak off to a movie later?”
“It’s like you read my mind.” She leaned forward and pressed her forehead to his. “I know it’s been hard, but thanks for going overboard for me. It means a lot.”
After looking around and seeing no sign of her roommates, he pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “See you tonight. I’ll bring your dinner to the testing center so you can keep studying.”
“You’re the best.”
He smiled, happy to do anything to help her. Once she was inside, he headed back to their study spot to squeeze in a little more study time. If he didn’t stay focused himself, his grades would slip, and neither one of them would benefit in the end.
Eric took a lap around the skating rink, finding Holly weaving through the crowd with her roommates. Cameron wasn’t too far away from Diane, and Justin was talking to a group of girls in the stands. If only Eric could sidle up to Holly and take her hand. He couldn’t help being jealous of Cameron and Diane who had announced they were dating soon after the Christmas Break ended. Everyone had been excited for them.
Finally, he’d found a woman he could see in his future, and in public, he had to keep it all in, except for the small windows of time she had. He sighed, puffing out a thick cloud of cold air and sped up to join the group. Since Holly was in the middle of Diane and Aimee, he skated directly behind Holly until Aimee flew off in another direction after losing her balance.
“There you are,” Holly whispered to him. “Can I have your arm? I don’t know how I haven’t fallen flat on my butt yet, but it’s gonna happen.”
“You bet.” He propped his hand on his hip, and she slipped a gloved hand through his arm and held tight. “You’re mighty strong for such a little thing.”
“Whatever. I guess pushing papers and walking across campus a dozen times a day has been paying off.”
He laughed and slipped his hand over hers just as someone snatched his other arm. “Can I hold on too? I keep slipping.” It was Aimee, smiling brightly with flushed cheeks.
“Sure.” He caught Justin’s attention across the room. All of his roommates knew about his relationship with Holly. Aimee was the only one in their group who didn’t. Before Eric had even asked, Justin had offered to entertain Aimee whenever they were together to distract her. In less than a minute, Justin skated up to Aimee and took her free arm. “Wanna skate together?”
Aimee glanced up at Eric and shrugged. “I might fall, if you don’t.”
“I guess we’ll fall together.”
She hesitated only another few seconds before letting go of Eric and skating away. Justin didn’t need her help. In fact, he was one of the better skaters in the group, and he pulled Aimee far away from them.
“Can I hold your hand now?” Eric whispered.
“Yeah.”
He took her hand, and they skated, swinging their hands softly as they laughed and sung to a popular pop song about forbidden love that suddenly had more meaning.
When they went to the counter to exchange their skates for their shoes, he was still holding her hand.
“You don’t have to hold onto each other now that her skates are off,” Aimee said, separating him and Holly at the counter. He dropped Holly’s hand, and Aimee squeezed closer to him. “It was fun out there, huh? Justin danced circles around me on the ice. I didn’t realize he was so good.”
“Yep, he’s one of a kind.”
After turning in their skates, Eric groaned as he walked on socked feet. Every muscle in his leg screamed.
“Are you okay?” Holly asked.
