All in on You

Chapter Twenty-One

Jules is living up to her name, because she's being an absolute gem this evening.

I mean, she usually is, but tonight she's especially doing me a solid. Standing in our front entrance with her bag slung over her shoulder and a large coffee in her hand, Jules looks ready for a night of studying at the library.

Emphasis on 'night'. And 'library.' And also 'coffee.' Because the clock is only a few minutes away from hitting 7:00 pm and yet she is heading out for the next few hours to do schoolwork. Working in the evenings—and outside of my home, to boot—has never been my style, but it works for Jules and I'm so damn glad it does, considering what I'm doing at our apartment tonight.

"I'm just about ready to go," Jules says as she tucks some loose strands of hair into her wool hat.

"Great, what do you plan to work on tonight?"

Jules's mouth flattens. "Just some writing of my thesis."

I'm right there with her on that.

"I know thesis stuff can be a slog, but I hope it's a productive time."

"Well, while my activities this evening may involve a slog, I hope yours involves a snog."

I shoot Jules dagger eyes as heat flushes my cheeks. Jules laughs and says she's kidding, but she's definitely not.

"But seriously, what time is he supposed to be here?"

I glance at my watch because yeah, I like this accessory. It was a graduation gift from my parents when I finished undergrad.

"About seven minutes, actually."

Being a single-digit number of minutes away from seeing Angelo Bradford makes my stomach flip.

"Exciting! Well, I won't take another moment of your time then, in case he's early."

I nod as she takes a quick glance into her bag to make sure she has the essentials.

"Say hi to Rebecca and Elise for me."

At least Jules has some fellow night studiers with those two.

She looks up and smiles. "I will, thanks."

Her handle is on the door, but Jules is nothing if not socially aware, so she hesitates and looks at me expectantly.

My voice is low when I speak.

"I know we talked about this yesterday at Scar's, but I did just want to— I don't mean to suggest you'll—"

"Harlow, we're good. I won't tell them who you're with tonight. That's for you to share, when and if you want to."

That earns Jules a hug. I throw my arm around her shoulder and wish her good luck with her work. Because grad school does require some luck, as well as hard work, obviously. But man, sometimes we sit down at our laptop and it's just blank thoughts and we have no idea why we just don't seem to have it in that moment.

I'm starting to realize that the Saints can relate to that.

"Have a good night, too. You look super cute, by the way."

I appreciate the reassurance, because this is a date, but it's also just hanging out in my apartment, so I wasn't sure if my black jeans and black blouse pairing worked.

As soon as Jules is on the other side of the door, I check my watch again. Three minutes until seven. I didn't expect Angelo to be super early. The team flew in early this morning from Edmonton—apparently it's common for NHL teams to travel back to the home city late in the evening after the game rather than the next day—so he had lots of sleep to catch up on. I was also doing work during the day, but if I said I wasn't distracted by the anticipation of seeing him so soon, my pants would have combusted into flames.