He grazed his lips across hers, feeling a tenderness inside him that almost scared him. He held her face in his hand. He could hardly believe soon she would be his, completely.

His hands were all over her. He wasn’t sure what would’ve been better, to hear her say she was staying or this?

How was she able to keep something this big from him for so long, that must’ve been three or four weeks ago. “How long have you been on the pill?”

“Almost three weeks.” He remembered the day she told him about her uncle’s birthday dinner. She’d looked him right in the face and he hadn’t caught even an ounce of insincerity. Even when he’d talked to her that evening and asked how the dinner had gone she’d told him all about it without a flinch. He smirked.

“What?” she asked.

“You’re good. I had no clue.”

Sarah laughed, “I could tell. Even after I told you, you looked lost.”

He kissed her again then met her eyes, raising an eyebrow. “Since when did you get so good at keeping things from me?”

She stiffened and he thought he saw her expression change. Then she smiled “I just wanted to surprise you.”

“Well, you did a hell of job. So, why now?”

Her coy expression made him hotter. “I thought maybe we could take advantage of the long weekend.”

He stared at her soft pink lips, his own mouth slightly parted. The words still danced in his head. She wanted it all weekend? Not just any weekend, a four day weekend. His mind spun into overdrive. The things he’d do to her. All the ways he’d take her. Then his thoughts came to a screeching halt. The restaurant. Although he loved the way she was thinking, Sarah’s timing couldn’t have been worse.

He tightened his lips and thought.

“What’s wrong?

“This weekend is gonna be a busy one for us at the restaurant.”

“That’s okay. We can wait until next week then.”

Was she insane? “No way. Trust me, I’ll think of something.”

With the wheels spinning out of control in his head, he was already getting an idea.

*

It was only seven in the evening, a little early for Sarah to be home already. But it was a school night and she had a paper she absolutely had to turn in before the end of the week. Since this was Thanksgiving week, the end of the week would be sneaking up real fast.

She thought she heard Valerie get home and stopped to listen. She hadn’t expected her home until much later. She was out with Alex and usually got home pretty late, even if it was a school night.

It turned out Sarah had been right about Alex. He had been pissed about Valerie having hung out with Romero. Very pissed actually. At first telling her off, then calling her back when he’d calmed down saying he’d never been jealous in his life and hadn’t known how to handle it.

With that said, Valerie had allowed herself to continue to go out with him even at the risk of getting hurt. They’d been going out at least twice a week since. From what Valerie had told her, Alex was a lot like Angel when it came to being possessive. Only there was one big difference. There had been absolutely no mention of being exclusive.

Angel hadn’t been able to believe that Alex was so mad at first. But had no choice to believe it when Alex had let Romero know under no uncertain terms that Valerie was off limits.

Sarah got up to see if it was Valerie she’d heard; partly out of curiosity, and partly because she was sick of working on her paper.

When she walked in the room she saw Valerie sitting on her bed going through her phone. She looked up and Sarah could see she’d been crying. Her eyes were all puffy and her nose was bright red. One side of her mouth went up in a sad attempt to smile, then she shook her head and wiped a tear that rolled down her cheek.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Sarah walked over and sat next to her.

Valerie leaned over and put her head on Sarah’s shoulder. “I’m done with Alex.”

“Why? What happened?” Sarah rubbed Valerie’s back.

Valerie wiped her face with the tissue she had in her hand.

“I just can’t deal with it anymore. I was stupid to think that just ‘cause he’d admitted to being jealous and that he’d never been so before, it might mean something. Here I’m the one always preaching about guys being territorial. Well, hello! That’s all it was. He doesn’t give a shit about me.”

Sarah padded Valerie’s knee, not knowing what to say. “Did something happen tonight?”

Valerie nodded. “Well, not anything that hasn’t happened before though. I hadn’t told you, because I feel stupid. But every time I’m with him his phone is constantly ringing, and he always sends it to voicemail. I never really say anything except maybe give him the look, ‘cause I know it’s all girls. He always just laughs and says ‘What? I have lots of friends.’ Oh, but God forbid my phone ring, and I not answer it. He always wants to know why? And if it’s a guy.” She stopped to blow her nose.

“Anyway,” she continued, “his phone rang tonight like five freakin times in less than fifteen minutes. So, I told him to just answer it already. At first, he didn’t want to, but he knew I was getting pissed, so, he did, and sure enough, it was a girl. You should’ve seen the big smile on his face and the way he talked to her. It just made me sick. He hung up when he saw the look on my face, and I told him to bring me home. You know what he says?"