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*WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS EXPLICIT SEXUAL CONTENT. PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.*

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𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐄

"Hi, welcome to Darwin State. How may I assist you?" I greeted the middle-aged woman as she walked up to the counter.

I was working my part-time shift at the visitor's center, since it was Tuesday. After classes yesterday, I called out sick for my Monday night shift at Rocky Bones. I had texted my manager, Peggy, and let her know my current situation.

Since I never called out of work, and she felt bad for me, she let me off the hook. She knew I was swamped with school and the emotional mess of everything with Morgan, whom I hadn't seen since our blowup. No texts or calls, and her, Blake, and Hudson really did drop the class. So, I spent yesterday evening, with Roman's help, moving all my stuff over to his place on the other side of town.

He'd picked up some cardboard boxes at the store on his way over, so I could put all my random knick-knacks in there, like my books, school supplies, etc. I packed my bedding, but left the bed and all the furniture there because Roman had all of that in his guest room.

I still felt like I was intruding, especially when he told me he wasn't going to be charging me rent. I felt horrible about it, but he reassured me. We watched movies together on his couch last night, and I slept in the guest room because I told him I wanted to be like real roommates.

I knew that would probably only last about a week, but I wanted to set some healthy boundaries between us. He understood completely, and it gave me hope that we could really do this; we could actually live together as a dating couple, not married.

Yesterday morning, I woke up and he wasn't there. He really did leave before school started, driving back to his place to get ready for the day. I still couldn't believe we had raw period sex in my shower; that was insane, but it still felt incredible.

Roman was an enigma, and I still liked that there were many more facets of him that I still didn't know about. Particularly, his relationship with his parents. This weekend, Roman and I were heading down to Hilton Head Island to spend spring break with them at their vacation home, where I would meet them for the first time.

Ro knew about my relationship with my dad; he saw all of it first hand when we visited his house the other day. I was glad my dad finally accepted him, and I was always glad Roman understood I still had some things to work through mentally with losing my mom so young.