Land's End

31 | my only plan

I was sure we were in a relationship. He never skirted around things; we didn't need labels to know this was serious for both of us.

The thing was, I knew I would do long distance if we had to. It'd be selfish to ask Cam to move to New York with me while he was trying to plot out his own career. Yet I couldn't stay with him either, since I had responsibilities in New York and I'd just been promoted.

I didn't have a long-distance relationship before, but if it could work with anyone at all, that person was Cam. Though it seemed like we jumped into this relationship, it was actually a product of years, and he knew me better than most. We'd developed trust, and it was beyond the distance between us.

My mind flashed back to the day at the churchyard and how he frantically searched for my diamond ring. I promised to give it to him if he took me to the airport.

I pushed off the sheets and walked to my bag to take the ring from its front pocket. It was sitting there, shiny and unaffected as if it wasn't aware of anything I'd been through. Maybe I should've mailed it back to Marcus as a courtesy, but that douchebag owed me this much.

I could give this to Cameron as I promised. It was worth a lot—because Marcus cared about its carat more than he ever cared about me—so it'd fund his initial spending and be a nice base for his career.

I returned to my warm, comfortable bed and held the diamond ring firmly in my palm as if it'd go anywhere. Cam returned shortly after with one plastic cup of iced latte and a paper cup of god-knows-what. He tossed his sandals, settled on the other side of the bed, and shot me a wide grin.

"Lilith made you a mixture of herbal tea, and she claims you'll recover quickly after taking a sip from this."

I let out an impressive hum, raising my eyebrow.

"And Tues asked what's wrong. I told her you caught a cold." I smiled at the mention of Tues. "And she congratulates you for catching a cold in August. She sort of tried to learn how."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

I laughed. "She won't let this go." I was scared of checking my phone to see if she'd already sent me a message about it. She and her spider tinglings were awakened.

After handing me the paper cup, Cam sat beside me on the bed and raked a hand through his hair. He smiled at me like he believed that tea would do the trick and magically make me better.

I looked at him in doubt while I took a sip from the burning hot drink. My taste buds couldn't work properly because of the heat, but a bitter taste stuck with me in the end. I grimaced, licking my lips as if it'd take the horrible taste away. "What's in this?"

Cam shrugged, slurping his iced latte. "I think she said peppermint."

I looked between him and my now-even-less-appealing tea. "Do I have to drink this?"

The faint line between his eyebrows deepened when Cam frowned, and he caught his bottom lip to chew, a reflex he had while he was thinking of something. "I can bring you something else," he finally suggested, grinning at me like he was proud of his idea.

He looked so cute, puppy-level cute when he worried about me. I leaned in and caught his lips, my hand cupping his jaw. I grinned after pulling back and grabbing his iced latte from him. He watched me when I took a sip and handed him my hot drink. "I'll settle for your iced latte."

He set the paper cup on his nightstand. I took the opportunity to drink, vacuuming the poor iced latte like I was in a competition. When Cam turned back to me, he pulled the drink from my mouth, which was almost done now, and set it beside the other drink.