Given Time

♡47♡

The weekend passes by way too fast, and I'm soon back in my dorm room with Zara, preparing for our exams later in the week.

Though the time Tanner and I were able to spend together alone was incredible. We didn't actually spend much time on the beach itself as we hardly left the bedroom. Okay, that's a half lie. We did venture through the rest of the house. Tanner made it his mission to take me in as many rooms of the place as possible. And I was only too happy to oblige.

I never thought it was possible to have so much sex and not get bored with it either. But every time with Tanner feels like it's the first. Minus the pain, thankfully.

We agreed once he dropped me off at mine that we would take a break from seeing each other until after his game on Friday, as neither of us want to distract the other from our upcoming exams. And it turns out to be a wise choice as I'm able to focus on studying, and by Wednesday afternoon, Ben and I walk out of the exam hall feeling a million times lighter as we finally finish for the term.

Like Tanner, Zara doesn't finish her nursing exams until Friday, so I move into Ben's childhood home and stay in the guest room for the next two days.

His parents turn out to be two of the kindest people I've ever met, and Ben's mom dotes on me the entire time I'm there, as she says she never had a daughter of her own to do this too.

By Friday morning, Toby arrives back home from Michigan and joins us at the house after he finishes unpacking at his parent's place. We end up playing Monopoly for four hours straight to pass the time before we head back for Tanner's last hockey game before the season ends. And then when that's over with, we all agree to head back to the fraternity house for one final party before we all head home for the holidays.

When 3 p.m. rolls around, I say my goodbyes to Ben's parents and jump in his car, and he drives us the hour's drive back to the arena. Toby sure makes the drive fun as he belts out the songs on the radio and plays the classic game of twenty questions. The time seems to fly by, and we soon pull into one of the few empty parking spaces left outside the arena. I note that it's never been this full before for any of the other games. And it's clear that everyone wants to come out and celebrate this game before things shut down for Christmas.

It looks like we're one of the last few people to arrive for the game, as there are only a few groups of people waiting to get into the venue. While Ben walks ahead, Toby hooks his arm around mine and talks about his excitement of seeing his first hockey game. When he asks who Tanner's team is playing against, I come up blank. Wondering if Ben will know, I call ahead and ask him. He looks over his shoulder at us. "Sorry. I have no idea. Though hopefully whatever team it is, they'll be worse than the last one."

I agree with him and pray that we win this match. Otherwise, it will be a horrible start to the vacation for Tanner.

Toby gasps and lightly pulls on my arm he's holding on too. "Ooh. Why? What happened?"

I sigh. "We got annihilated."

"Well, that sucks. I'll cross my fingers for them to do better this time," he says, showing me this.

I grin. "Thanks."

When we walk up to the guest entrance, we show our tickets and then head inside in search of our seats. As soon as we make it into the room itself, I can see that it's going to be a lively game because nearly every seat in the venue is filled. It takes us a bit of time to get to our seats as people are standing in the aisles chatting and walking up and down the different levels. Jake shouts my name out, making it easier to find where we're sitting for the game, and we all slide along the aisle and sit next to him and Zara.