Broken Horse

Chapter 17 - Sergei

Being away for Thanksgiving was hard. Way too much, but we had to just hang on and I knew that we would. Her parents left for their cruise and finals were wrapping up. At least Christmas break was coming up and we would have some time together.

I watched her work on the exam hoping like hell that she had passed. She needed a good grade on it and with the stress that her dad had brought on hadn't helped. When I had offered to go through the study guide with her, she had rejected the offer. It wouldn't be fair to the others as she had said over and over.

This weekend, she had to go to a sale three hours from here and had to come back with something. I knew she would. There were a lot of horses and I urged her to find a few that she would like to work with this spring. When she came over last night, we had gone through a few of the prospects and she had her eye on a couple of really good ones.

Tomorrow night, I had planned on going to her place and help her get everything together. And I couldn't wait to see if she had kept her office in order. I knew that it would be a disaster when I had gotten there, but the argument would lead to making love again, something that I just wasn't getting enough of.

Her eyes had drifted up and I could see the tears filling in. She wasn't getting it. She wasn't doing as well as I needed her to. Damn, how I just wanted to get up and wrap her into my arms, comfort her. If I had graded her easily, red flags would be thrown up instantly. Not to count, if she had known, she would be mad. That was something that I had really loved about her. Even though she was mine and I was hers, she said that I needed to be fair and grade her as I would if we weren't together.

The phone vibrated in my pocket. Pulling it out, I looked at the message with my heart slamming hard.

Not worth a damn. Your money. Poor decision.

I wanted to jump up and scream. It had taken a long time, but before Thanksgiving, I had run into a dead end. Now, I would make her dreams come true as she had mine already. Even if I couldn't get that place that she wanted, I had found the one thing that still haunted her and I would give her that.

Sergei: I will take him. No matter what.

Hitting send, I glanced up seeing her biting her lip and the tears trickling down her cheeks. My poor love. Tomorrow night, I would just have to hold her instead. Who cared about her office. When we were able to be together, I would just have to take care of that part of the business while she had maintained the rest. I could still teach and she could continue to do what she loved the most, take care of broken hearts.

Available after the first. Come get the worthless thing then.

Sergei: Will do.

Nodding, I slipped my phone back in my pocket and rested my arms on the table as some of the students were bringing up their tests. Come on. The study guide was everything that was on the test. As long as they had studied everything on there, they would pass and do well.

When she finally finished, she brought her test up as the pain crossed her face. Taking it, I felt my chest clench hard wanting to ask her how she was doing, but with a few students still in the room, I couldn't. Nodding, her eyes drifted around before she walked out leaving her bag.

Grabbing her test, I started to look over the answers that she had given. She had done well so far, a few would only get half the points, but with the extra points on the back, it wouldn't hurt. My phone vibrated. Taking it out, my chest clenched harder.