Take Me Away: A College Romance Story Read online

  Take Me Away

  J.R. Simmons

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

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  Chapter One

  I could only grin as my roommate Alex, rolled over and pulled a pillow over her head. “Again?” she groaned.

  I shrugged to myself and finished lacing my running shoes, putting in my headphones and selecting my running playlist. Yeah, it was early in the morning, but I had a class at 8:30. Of course, most people would probably just take the day off or maybe go running a little later in the day, but running had been the start of my morning routine for years now, and I wasn't about to change it just because I had an early class.

  Especially not since the weather was so nice that morning. The sun was just starting to come up, but it was already warm outside. Even though we were well into fall—the leaves on the trees were bright gold and everything—it felt more like a summer day. Probably one of the last nice days that we'd have for the year.

  I smiled again and started running.

  I had a few different routes that I ran along, just to change things up every once in a while—but my favorite route was to run the length of campus and then turn off into the arboretum. At this time of year, it was particularly lovely, and at this hour, it was nearly deserted out there.

  Nearly deserted, except for the asshole that ran pell-mell around the corner on the wrong side of the path and slammed into me.

  We both bounced back from the impact. I slid on some damp leaves and ended up falling down hard, all the breath going out of me. I grimaced—but at least I knew how to fall in a way that shouldn't leave any serious bruises. I had a sharp rebuke on my lips when I looked up at him...but it died in my mouth.

  Holy shit was the guy handsome. I mean, granted he was also sweaty and dressed in plain athletic wear, but he had these incredible, piercing blue eyes and dark hair, with a sharp, angular face. And his muscular physique was like something out of Greek mythology. I watched as he slicked his hair back away from his face, looking genuinely bashful about having knocked me on my ass. He held out a hand to help me up.

  “So sorry about that,” he said, and oh god, not only was he tall, dark, and handsome, but he was also English.

  “It's okay,” I mumbled, taking his warm hand in mine and allowing him to pull me to my feet.

  “I have to get used to running on the right side of the path,” the guy continued, looking sheepish. “I'm used to doing everything on the left—driving, running, biking, etc.”

  “Yeah—no problem,” I said, even though I was mentally kicking myself. Seriously, I couldn't come up with anything better to say than that? There had to be something very obvious and witty that I could say…

  The guy was still smiling down at me. “So I see that we're going in different directions, but would you maybe let me take you to breakfast?” he asked. “As I figure it, I owe you one.”

  I blinked dumbly at him for a moment, wondering if he was actually using that flirtatious tone with me. But he was staring directly at me, and he seemed sincere. I glanced down at my watch and grimaced; it was already getting close to when I had to start getting ready for class. By the time I showered and got dressed and made myself up into some semblance of a human being, it would be time to grab my books and head over to the campus.

  “Sorry, if you're not interested, that's fine,” the man said, looking embarrassed.

  “What's your name, anyway?” I asked.

  “Ben.”

  “Ben,” I said, smiling a little. “I'm Rachael.” I shook his hand. “Look, it's good to meet you, but I actually have this...” I trailed off suddenly, frowning. Was anyone really going to miss me if I didn't show up for my class? I mean, it was one of those huge classes that you clicked into anyway; it wasn't like my professor would notice if I was there or not. I could just text my friend and ask her to pick up my clicker on her way to class; she lived in the same dorm as me…

  “What are you thinking?” Ben asked, looking amused.

  I shook my head. “Sorry, it's still early, and I haven't had my coffee.” I grinned sheepishly at him. “I'm just thinking that maybe I could blow off my 8:30 class and take you up on that offer for breakfast.”

  “Well, now,” Ben said, shaking his head at me, his grin still firmly there on his face. “I wouldn't want to make you do anything naughty...” I wondered if there really was that emphasis on the word or if I was just imagining it. For all I knew, it could just be a product of his accent.

  But there were so many naughty things I'd like to do with him, to be honest.

  This whole thing was honestly a bit strange to me. I wasn't the type of girl to blow off classes just for a guy. I mean, I had figured out once that each college class cost about $268 per lesson once you factored in tuition and dorm costs and everything else. That was a lot of money to just be throwing out the window each time I didn't show up. And yet…

  “You don't look too sure,” Ben observed. “Here, I have a better idea. Why don't you give me your phone number, and sometime when you don't have class, we'll go out for a run and get that breakfast that I owe you.” He held out his phone to me, and I shyly accepted it, punching in my number.

  To be honest, I didn't really expect him to call; this was probably just one of those lines like guys threw out in bars or things like that. Or if he did call, it was probably just that he wanted to fuck me. I was sure that he had a whole string of girls lined up. Probably he slept with a different girl every night; I knew his type. He probably was part of a frat and… Well, once he realized I wasn't going to spread my legs that easily for him, he'd want nothing else to do with me.

  So I gave him one last smile and then jammed my headphones back in, hurrying off to continue my run so that I could get to class. Then, I promptly forgot about the sexy British runner.

  Chapter Two

  It wasn't my alarm that was going off, so it took me a moment to figure out why Alex had thrown the pillow at me. “Either pick it up or ignore it,” she groaned, and I realized that it was my phone ringing which had apparently woken both of us up. Usually, I tried to keep the thing on silent during the night, but I must have forgotten to do that the night before after a late study session in the library.

  I frowned at the caller ID; it displayed an unknown number, calling me at—I squinted at the screen—5:30 in the morning. The frustrating thing was, I had actually decided to take the day off from running so that I could get a little extra sleep before this major history test that I had. Apparently that wasn't going to happen, though.

  As Alex made another, angrier-sounding noise, I quickly picked up the call. “Hello?” I asked. I didn't always answer calls from unknown numbers, but I always worried that I was going to miss something important if I didn't answer calls at weird hours like this. Hopefully it wasn't just a telemarketer on the other end of the line, though, or I was going to really lay into them…

  “Hey, is this R
achael?” a voice on the other end of the line asked. There was a little laughter and background noise, but I could easily tell who was calling me, with that heavy British accent. I blinked, pulling away the phone to stare at it for a moment.

  “Ben?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Good morning. Where are you?”

  “I'm...in bed,” I said groggily, even though I actually was getting up out of bed so I could move out into the hall, pausing to toss Alex her pillow back as I went. “Why are you calling so early?”

  “Is it early? Shit, sorry. Time zones always fuck with me...”

  “Where are you?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me. And if he wasn't in the same time zone, what was he doing calling me? It wasn't like he was going to show up and take me for breakfast…

  “I'm in Thailand with some mates,” Ben said.

  “Oh,” I said, frowning. “Don't you have classes or something?”

  There was a pause. “I'm not a student,” Ben said, sounding perplexed.

  “Oh! Sorry, I just assumed...” I mean, he looked college-aged, and he'd been near the university when we'd run into one another. In retrospect, I guessed that was a pretty stupid conclusion to draw. But I'd expected he was doing a study abroad program or something like that. Evidently not. I scrambled for something else to say. “Why are you calling me?” I finally asked outright.

  There was another pause. “To be honest, I'm not 100% sure,” Ben admitted. “Like I said, I'm here with some mates, and we spent the day drinking on the beach, and maybe I've had one too many or got heatstroke or something like that...” He trailed off and coughed lightly, sounding embarrassed. “Sorry I woke you up.”

  I shook my head, feeling miffed. “It's all right,” I said.

  “So what are your plans for today?” Ben asked right when I was about to say goodbye and hang up the phone.

  “Maybe get a little more sleep,” I said, even though I knew there was no way that was going to happen now. “And then I have this huge history test at 10 that I'm pretty sure I'm going to bomb...”

  Ben snorted. “I'm sure you'll do fine.”

  “You don't know me,” I retorted. “How would you know if I'm going to do fine?”

  “Gut instinct,” he said. “Anyway, I'm going to be back home on Friday, and I was wondering if maybe you'd like to get brunch Saturday morning. You know, since I still owe you and all.” He laughed a little sheepishly. “I didn't want you to think I had forgotten about you or that I wasn't going to call or anything like that. This trip was...kind of a spontaneous venture.”

  “How spontaneous?” I asked curiously.

  “Got drunk with my mates, woke up in a foreign country,” Ben said. “Had a bunch of work meetings that needed to be...rescheduled. My dad was less than pleased.”

  I laughed incredulously. I couldn't even imagine having the kind of money to throw around that I could just blow off work and disappear to Thailand for a while with some friends. Hell, I was still trying to figure out how I was going to pay for the next semester of school.

  “Yeah, bit of a lack of foresight there,” Ben said. “But...Saturday brunch?”

  “I'm sure you're going to be jet-lagged and-”

  “And then it'll be good to have your company to distract me from that fact,” Ben interrupted smoothly, a smirk in his voice.

  I shook my head, still not sure what was happening here. “Sure, okay,” I finally agreed, feeling a bit dazed.

  “Great, I'll pick you up at ten,” Ben said. “You live on campus?”

  “Yeah, in the Rosewood dorm,” I told him.

  “See you out front at ten,” Ben said. “Now, I guess I have to get back to my friends, but...” He trailed off like there was something else he wanted to say, but whatever it may have been, he didn't voice it.

  “Yeah, see you Saturday,” I said. “Safe trip.”

  I hung up the phone feeling confused. Finally, I shrugged to myself and went back into the room to change out of my pajamas and into my running gear. At this point, I was up early enough for a run anyway, and maybe it would help clear my head a little.

  Chapter Three

  I couldn't help whistling quietly as Ben pulled up in front of my dorm in a slick sports car on Saturday morning. “Jesus, whose car did you steal?” I asked as I slipped gingerly into the passenger's seat—moving carefully because the thing was pristine, without any sign that it had ever been driven before.

  Ben snorted. “Good morning to you too,” he said, putting the car in drive and peeling out of the parking lot going a little faster than was strictly necessary.

  “No, but seriously,” I said. “I don't know much about cars, but this is a nice car.”

  “Yeah,” Ben said, looking momentarily uncomfortable. “My own car is a bit more...sedate, but it's in the shop at the moment so I had to borrow this from my da.”

  “What exactly does your dad do?” I asked.

  Ben rolled his eyes. “Honestly? Don't really know at this point. Some sort of managerial stuff.”

  “Didn't you say you worked in the family business, though?” I pressed.

  “It's a big business,” Ben said, a bit reluctantly. “Look, it's a Saturday morning; do we really have to talk about work now, or can we talk about how cute you look in those glasses?”

  I self-consciously reached up to touch the edge of the black frames, blushing a little. I had fallen asleep with contacts in a couple times that week since nearly all of my teachers seemed to be giving major exams at the moment and I'd been up late studying. That morning, my eyes had been dry and itchy, and I'd decided that unfortunately, it was probably best to forego the contacts and just wear glasses instead. It wasn't a normal look for me, but… Well, Ben seemed to like them, at least.

  “You're also cute when you blush,” Ben told me, grinning over at me.

  I could feel my face heat even more at that. “Uh, so is this a date?” I asked lamely. We had never really clarified that point…

  Ben shrugged. “Up to you,” he said carefully. “For all I know, you have a boyfriend or something. You're too pretty to be single.”

  I snorted. “Do you use that line on everyone?”

  “It's not a line!” Ben said defensively. He flicked on his turn signal and quickly changed lanes, leaving me gripping the handle in the door.

  “Are you trying to kill us?” I griped.

  Ben grimaced and drummed his fingers against the edge of the steering wheel. “Sorry,” he said, slowing down to a more reasonable speed. “My driving kind of goes to shit when I'm nervous.”

  “You're nervous?” I asked, surprised that he was being so open about his feelings like that. Most of the guys that I knew would try to act macho and hide whatever they were really feeling. It was refreshing to hear that maybe I wasn't the only person in the car who was nervous about this whole thing.

  “Maybe I'd kind of like for it to be a date,” Ben said, glancing sidelong at me and clearly trying to gauge my reaction.

  “Good,” I said, smiling over at him. “Because I'd kind of like for it to be a date as well.”

  With that, some of the tension between us dissipated, in an almost palpable way.

  “So where are we going, anyway?” I asked.

  “I'd say it's a secret, but you probably don't know the place anyway,” Ben said.

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “Well that's a pretty pretentious thing to say when you don't even know me. I've lived in this city my entire life; I'd like to think that I-”

  Ben laughed, holding up a hand to halt my defensive words. “Sorry, it's just, it's this little hole-in-the-wall place that my buddy owns. It's called Pretty as Pie—but even though it was started as a bakery, they've got a really great, really extensive breakfast menu. And Davey does the most perfect poached eggs that I've ever seen—gets them right every single time, too. God, the first time I had their eggs Benedict, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven...”

  “Sounds really good,” I sai
d.

  “So you haven't heard of it, have you?”

  “No,” I admitted a bit sheepishly.

  “That's the thing, I don't know why more people haven't heard of it. But I guess it's only a matter of time before someone posts something on the internet and the word gets out and there's a queue down the block on the weekends and we never get a table… So I shouldn't say anything.”

  “Well, I'm honored that you're choosing to show this secret place to me,” I said, grinning at him.