Let Me Be the One by Lily Foster Page B

introduced her as a co-worker.  She was pretty I guess , but because of Liz I now had a strong aversion to redheads.  Also, she didn’t seem like the real deal and I wanted Caleb happy and in love the way Luke was. 
     
    The next morning we slept in a little late, ate brunch with my parents, and then made our way back to school.  It was good to get back because I missed having Tom sleep over.   Sunday nights we usually didn’t stay together but we had been living like we were in a convent for the past few days and I think we both needed it.  I know I needed to feel his arms around me.
     
    Tom
     
    Finals were coming up.  I felt like I was writing paper after paper and studying non-stop the past two weeks.  Darcy was really busy too.  I looked forward to eating dinner with her at night.  We were staying with each other on the weekends but weeknights lately were crazy so dinnertime was the time when I got to relax and just talk to her.  I never got tired of just talking to her.
    In addition to getting ready for finals, I was preparing my resume for the on-site interviews that the big firms conducted on campus.  It was a weird time because all of this was making it clear that our time here was coming to a close and we were all about to face our futures.
    Darcy had been wavering a bit on going straight to medical school in the fall.  She was considering doing an interning stint with a medical mission and deferring school until the following year.  I didn’t weigh in on that because, for one, she knew better than I did on that topic and also because I didn’t want to push her into anything based on what I wanted.  That wouldn’t be fair.  If I did, I would tell her that I didn’t want her on any mission where she was away from me or, even worse, in some poverty-stricken far-off country where she couldn’t even contact me and I’d be worried twenty-four-seven.  I think that would do me in. 
    If I had my way, Darcy would be back in New York and I would b e working on Wall Street.  I knew she wouldn’t move in with me but we would be able to play some version of house when I got my own apartment in the city.  But like I said, I was keeping my opinions to myself.
     
    There weren’t many big parties the last two weeks before winter break but there were a few low-key get-togethers.  People needed to let off some steam in between all the studying.  We had one at our place.  Darcy and all of her roommates were there, Chris, Mac, Nick and their housemates, as well as the rest of the rugby guys and few other females.  Low key by our standards but it was pretty crowded. 
    Nick and I were no longer friends.  Since that night at the Sox game we mostly kept our distance from one another but we didn’t totally avoid being in the same place at the same time; we had too many friends in common for that to be possible.  After a little time had passed, if we were in the same room we didn’t totally ignore one another; a head nod might pass between us.  Tonight, Nick was well behaved and chatting up Mo rgan’s roommates, Liz and Carrie.  He was currently off with his on-and-off again girlfriend.  Even I hoped that he would find someone that would make him happy; I wanted his thoughts on someone else other than Darcy. 
    Darcy headed home earlier than everyone else.  After I walked her back to her place and spent a few quality minutes groping and kissing, I walked back into my house to see a considerably wilder scene.  The music was louder and Carrie was on the kitchen counter as Nick was licking the leftovers from the s hot he just took off her belly—so much for him finding true love.  When Liz saw me come back in, she made a bee-line for me.  “Hey Tom, there you are.  Where’s your beautiful girlfriend?”
    “She hit the hay.”
    She shrugged and smiled.  “Too bad.  So what’s new with you?” Without waiting for an answer she went on, plaintively, “I feel like since she’s been in the