Page 71 of Love Hate

“Exactly how you said it would,” I admitted. “Did you get your Lit grade?”

“I got an A on my Hamlet paper,” he said, grinning at me. “And I’m up to a B in the class.”

“That’s great,” I said. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Yeah, I’m kind of proud of me, too.” He released his hold on me and started walking backward in front of me. “What do you want to do tonight?”

“Whatever you want,” I answered with a shrug, reaching to grab him before he walked into someone.

“Well, I was thinking that we could move your stuff to my place,” he said. “Mark’s gone and maybe Caitlyn would like to have that apartment to herself.”

“You…” I let out a shaky breath, my head suddenly very dizzy. “You want me to move in with you?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been living together for a couple weeks now,” he reminded me. “And if we did that at my place, we could walk around with hard-ons without worrying about anyone seeing.”

“Well,” I said, rolling my eyes. “How can I resist an offer like that?”

“I’m serious,” he said firmly.

“Trevor, we’ve been…faffing around together for like a month,“ I reminded him. “This is still so new. For both of us.”

“Exactly,” he agreed. “So let’s prove to ourselves that this is real. Let’s just go all in, right now. No excuses. No regrets.”

“And if we don’t work out?”

“Then we’ll have a hell of a lot of fun in the meantime,” he said. “But I’m not worried about that. I love you. And with everything it took to get me to the point that I can look at Andy fucking Simpson and say those words…we’re a lock, Princess. It’s you and me from here on out.”

He wasn’t wrong. It did feel as if we’d lived an entirely different lifetime in the past few weeks. And the fact that we went from hate to love, despite every obstacle between us, was nothing short of an actual miracle.

God works in mysterious ways. And sometimes he puts people in your path not as a test. But as a gift.

“Okay,” I said, grinning at him. “I’m in.”

He grabbed me around the waist and picked me up, spinning me around before setting me down again and kissing me hard and fast.

“Don’t forget the priest costume,” he said as he took my hand and started pulling me down the sidewalk.

Jesus fuck.

Epilogue

~Trevor~

Graduation day…Three Years Later –

“We’re so proud of you,” Mom said, beaming across the table at Andy and me. “Summa cum laude and a professional football player.” She sniffed softly as she reached out to pat both of our hands. “Our boys are all grown up.”

“Mom,” I complained, rolling my eyes, though I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. “No one is surprised Andy made Summa.”

“And no one is surprised Trevor was drafted to Indiana,” Andy added.

“I’m going to be riding the pine for a few years at least,” I reminded them. “So let’s not get overly excited.”

The truth was though, I was ecstatic to have been drafted at all, even as a backup. Very few quarterbacks get drafted as starters, and when they did it was usually to shit teams, so I didn’t mind in the least. In fact, it was going to be an honor to learn from one of the best starting quarterbacks in the entire league.

Plus, getting drafted to Indiana meant that I could still live with Andy when he started his PhD program at Notre Dame in the fall.

It was crazy how things had a way of working out. Especially when it came to us. Andy was convinced it was all divine intervention. And who was I to argue with a religious scholar?