August 24th- Book One in the May 3rd series

Chapter 71-- NOT TODAY SANTA 🎅🎄

I chuckle just thinking about it and I look at the time. "You almost ready?" I ask.

"I'm always almost ready... Or, entirely ready. I'm always entirely ready."

"You don't have shoes on. And you haven't brushed your teeth."

He at least changed into normal clothes, but that's the extent of getting ready he did.

"I am absolutely wearing shoes." He lies.

I stare at his bare feet. "Your toenails are painted purple."

"You're a ninja and you can see through things? Cool."

He finishes his cereal and I make him go brush his teeth while I gather up his backpack, coat, shoes and socks.

I take them to him and he quickly puts it all on.

As soon as he does, I lead him to the car.

"I'm going to miss sending you a dog at your break. My lunch isn't until 1:00. No more Dog Of The Day..." I say sadly.

"What...? We can still do Dog Of The Day after you come back though. Or during your lunch."

"You have class during my lunch."

"Doesn't mean you can't send me a picture of a damn dog."

"Okay! Sorry. I'll send you a picture. I'm sorry if I made you upset." I say as we buckle in a drive toward the school.

"I'm not upset... Why would I be upset?"

"You sound and look upset for starters." I point out.

"I'm sad because I miss you. Aside from that, I'm the same as I always am."

"But I'm right here." I say, taking his hand. He doesn't like it when I don't have two hands on the wheel, but he doesn't like not holding my hand even more.

"Not for long."

"But I'll be back. And when I get home at 9:00, we can cuddle and you can tell me all the things you learned today, and I can tell you about my day, and maybe we can chill, just us, okay?"

"That's not for five months."

"It'll go faster than you think. I'll send you a dog as soon as I can, okay?"

"Okay..."

The car falls silent for a moment. "Hey." I say squeezing his hand slightly.

"What now?"

"I love you. More than ten dogs. More than a million billion cookies." I smile.

And I really mean it. As scary as marriage seems to me...

I feel like I could be with him forever.

"I love you more than you love me...but not more than a million billion cookies."

"Your love for cookies is greater than mine, so I suppose that makes sense."

We pull into the parking lot. "Pierre will text you when he's here. He'll park in the same spot I always do, okay?"

I wanted to make this as easy on him as possible. He doesn't like change.

"Okay. I would almost rather walk home, but I know you're going to say I can't."

"Yeah. Not happening. It's supposed to snow again." I look up at the grey sky. No way in hell I'd let him walk back to Pierre's house alone. "You better get to class." I let go of his hand.