Given Time

♡38♡

Over the next four days, I manage to split my time equally between spending time with my parents, going on dates with Tanner, and working on my assignments.

I've even been combining studying with Tanner, but there's only so much reading I can do before we end up rolling around the floor and studying each other's bodies instead.

I still haven't gone all the way with Tanner yet, but I'm ready to tell him in the next day or so.

When Zara had me on the phone for one of our catch-ups the other day, she said she was disappointed that I hadn't done the "deed" yet, her words not mine. I laughed her off and told her all in good time.

As I sit in on a FaceTime call with Ben going over our strategies for the critical appraisal of Milgram's work on obedience, I find myself drifting off, looking out of my window at the clouds in the sky as I recall my date with Tanner last night. He took me to an old skating rink that's been around for over forty years to roller blade. Though the gesture was sweet, I ended up falling on my ass for the majority of it while he took to it like a duck in water. He literally spun circles around me.

After an hour of clinging to the side of the wall and Tanner's arms, we called it a day and then went to a yogurt bar down the street. As soon as we got in the booth to eat our desserts, Tanner couldn't keep his hands off me. He was either kissing my face and neck or running his hand up and down my leg, distracting me entirely from eating.

With every day I spend with Tanner, I find myself falling even more irrevocably in love with him. And I know he feels the same way, as he tells me often ever since he said those three words in my room when we arrived back from Berkeley.

"Leah? Leah? Are you listening?"

Shit, Ben! I completely forgot about him.

"Hmm? Sorry, I was distracted."

He unmistakably rolls his eyes and chuckles. "I'm guessing your mind's more on DC and your boyfriend than Milgram."

I smile shyly. "Maybe a little bit."

"Ah, don't worry about it. I think we've got enough ideas down to start this paper. I'll get cracking on it after I've had lunch with Toby and send you my notes to look at."

Thank God for Ben.

"That sounds great, thank you. I'm gonna run to the store for some snacks and then start it when I get back."

He raises his brows. "What? No Tanner?"

I grumble. "No. We penciled today as a college day. We'll see each other tomorrow, though."

"At least you'll both manage to get some work done."

I sigh. "I know. I'll talk to you later. I'm gonna head out now."

"Okay, bye."

I press the End Call button and save my notes in a document before powering my laptop down. I then grab my purse off the floor and pull on my black sneakers and Tanner's black leather jacket that he's let me keep, then race down the stairs to the front door.

"I'm going out," I shout as I grab one of Dad's car keys off the wall hanger and slam the front door behind me.

The weather looks dismal today, and the dark clouds above look as if it's going to rain at some point today. Not wanting to get caught in a potential downpour, I run down the drive to my dad's blue Jaguar XF and find a crow perched on the hood. It's black, beady eye watches me as I move closer to the car.

I've never liked crows as they're notoriously known as a bad omen. It always gives me the creeps when I come across one. "Go on, shoo," I hiss as I wave my arms in the air, but it just squawks back at me and flaps its wings angrily.