Noah was sitting at the desk right behind mine when I arrived at our business management class later that day. He hadn’t sat there since before Halloween. As I entered the room, he gave me a hopeful smile. I didn’t return the look. I didn’t want to encourage him. But as soon as I sat down, he leaned forward to talk to me.
“We should get together and work on our project soon,” Noah said. I had planned to try to ignore him for the duration of this class, but that wasn’t exactly an option when we had an assignment to complete together.
I turned in my chair to face him. “I thought you wanted us to work on it separately?”
“Maybe I changed my mind.”
“Maybe that doesn’t matter,” I replied. “I’ve already done my part of the assignment anyway.” It was a total lie, but he didn’t need to know that. I was sticking to my plan of keeping as much distance from Noah as possible.
“You haven’t emailed it to me.”
“I’m just putting the finishing touches on it,” I lied again.
“Okay, I guess we’ll just have to get together so you can help me with my part.”
“You don’t need my help.”
“I do. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“You literally just stole your grandfather’s company out from under him,” I hissed. “I’m sure a business management class project is well within your capabilities.”
He shrugged and smiled at me. “Are you willing to take that chance? What if we fail?”
He knew me far too well, and I grunted reluctantly. “Fine. We can meet in the library on Tuesday night to work on it.”
“It’s a date,” he said.
“It’s not a—”
“Good afternoon, class,” the teacher said, interrupting me as he entered the class.
“It’s not a date,” I finished before turning to the front of the room. I could practically feel Noah grinning behind me. Lily was sitting beside me, and she shot me a confused look. I whispered to her that I’d explain after class.
But when the bell rang, I noticed Noah getting ready to annoy me again, and I made a beeline for the door. I didn’t want him repeating that our study session was a date. Especially not where other people might hear.
Lily must have been super curious about my interaction with Noah because she caught up with me as I was making my way across the courtyard back to the dorms.
“Hey,” she said, sounding slightly out of breath. “You took off after class. Are you okay?”
“Sorry.” I shook my head. “I’m fine. I just didn’t want to get cornered by Noah.”
“Right.” She nodded, clutching her books to her chest. “What was up with him today?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I thought you guys were over,” she continued. “He’s been so off with you since you broke up, but now he’s sitting near us again. And he was making eyes at you all class. And he wants a study date with you.”
“Like I said, it’s a long story.” I’d talked her ear off enough times about Noah in the past, so I knew she deserved an explanation. I did my best to summarize the wild weekend in New York as quickly as I could.
She listened intently as I told her about Noah’s move against his grandfather, how he’d hidden his feelings for me, and how he now wanted me back. Lily’s eyes slowly grew wider and wider as I spoke. It was a crazy story, but it was even harder to comprehend when you were from a humble background like the two of us.
“I’d heard about the takeover,” she murmured. “Everyone’s been talking about it. But, wow, Noah’s really had feelings for you all this time?”
“Yeah.” I glanced down at my hands. I’d come to terms with most of what had happened in New York, but that part was still proving difficult.
“What are you going to do?”
I looked up at her once more. “What do you mean?”
“About Noah? He clearly still loves you.”
“I’m not going to do anything. I’m with Wes, and I’ve made it clear to Noah that nothing is going to happen.”
She frowned slightly, and I wondered if she disagreed with my decision.
“Wes is really good for me,” I added, trying to emphasize my point. “He’s a great boyfriend.”
“You don’t have to convince me.” Lily’s expression changed as she gave me an easy smile. “I know how much you care about Wes.”
“I do,” I agreed.
We continued our walk across the courtyard, but I couldn’t shake the feeling Lily thought I was making the wrong choice. In my mind there wasn’t even a choice to make. I was with Wes, and that was all there was to it.
I SPENT the whole of the next day dreading my meeting with Noah in the library that night. I’d already been struggling to alleviate Wes’s concerns about my ex, but it wasn’t like I had much choice in the matter. Not if I wanted to do well on our business management assignment.
I was mainly worried Noah would try to flirt with me or make eyes at me. Really, anything that might convince me to dump my boyfriend and be with him. If people saw that, they might start gossiping about it. But despite my fears and Noah’s attempts to call the study session a date, when the evening came, he was surprisingly subdued.
He sat beside me at the study table and focused completely on our work. He didn’t try to talk about what happened on the weekend or ask me how I felt. He didn’t even try to flirt. It was as though he really did just want to work on our assignment.
I couldn’t decide if I was relieved or annoyed. Had he already given up on me? Was that what I wanted? It’s what I was supposed to want, but I was shocked it had happened so fast.
We actually managed to get most of the assignment done. It took a lot longer than expected because we were practically starting from scratch despite my claims I’d almost finished my part.
We stayed in the library right up until curfew when all of the other students had already packed up their things and left. We were probably only just going to make it back to our dorms in time. I couldn’t complain though. We’d done some great work on our assignment, and it only needed a few final touches now. Thankfully, that could be done separately.
The weather had turned icy this evening, and I was wearing more layers than usual to try to combat the cold. Noah chuckled when he saw me putting on two jackets, a hat, and a scarf before we left.
“Can’t handle the cold?” he asked.
“It’s not cold. It’s freezing,” I said. “And I have no problem admitting I can’t handle it.”
He smiled. “You look like you’re dressed for a night in the arctic rather than Weybridge.”
“Are you sure we’re not in the arctic?” I asked. “Because it feels like it out there.”
We started back to the dorms together. We weren’t walking all that close to each other, yet my skin still prickled at his proximity. Despite the distance between us and the thick woolen jackets I was wearing, I could still feel him at my side. I wondered if Noah sensed me in the same way.
“I’m glad we got most of the assignment done,” I said as we made our way down the darkened corridor that led from the library. I was trying to fill the silence. Talking seemed so much safer than the quiet, which left me with only the tension between us to focus on.
“See, a study date with me wasn’t so bad, was it, Crash?”
“It wasn’t a date. And that’s not my name.”
He didn’t seem phased by my response, and there was a carefree smile on his lips as he glanced at me. “Whatever you say.” Clearly, he had no intention of listening to me.
He pushed through the door that led outside, and I immediately felt like my outfit was justified when the icy air struck me. “Stop calling me that nickname. I’m with someone else, Noah.”
“For now.” He shrugged.
“Noah…”
“I told you I would respect your choice to be with Wes,” he said. “And I care about you enough that I just want you to be with the guy that makes you the happiest. But I’m sure it won’t be long before you realize that’s me.”
“You sound awfully confident.”
“Why wouldn’t I be? I know what we had. I know what we felt. Nothing else comes close.”
I stopped. “You can’t honestly be so certain of that.”
He’d taken a couple of steps past me, but he turned. “Isobel, I’ve known you’re the one for me since the moment you crashed into me in the woods. And every day since has only convinced me more. So, if I have to wait until you see that too, then I’ll wait as long as it takes.”
I shook my head at him. “Well, it’s going to take a very, very long time.”
“Perhaps,” Noah said. “But it’ll be worth it.”
As he spoke, a small white speck fluttered past him. And then another. I lifted out a hand and watched as a snowflake softly fell upon it. It was light and cold and tickled my skin.
“It’s snowing,” I whispered before glancing up at Noah, a wide smile on my face. Tiny flakes of snow were fluttering down around us, catching in our hair, and lightly settling on our clothes. All across the courtyard, the snow was silently falling through the air and coming to rest on the bushes and statues.
“Noah, it’s snowing!” I laughed. I knew I was probably acting like a small child, but it was hard to contain my excitement as I swung myself around, the tension that had been rising in my chest from our conversation suddenly gone.
He chuckled as he watched my reaction.
“Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?” I asked.
“No, I haven’t.”
Noah wasn’t looking at the snow as he spoke. He was looking at me.
I swallowed and tried my best to mask my reaction. I wanted to stay out here all night and watch it snow, but it was already past curfew, and it suddenly felt wrong to be out here with Noah.
“It’s late,” I said. “We should get back to our rooms.”
Noah released a breath and nodded. “We should.”
We didn’t move on right away though. For a moment, we simply stared at each other. Small snowflakes were caught in Noah’s hair, and his eyes were still bright from laughing at me. He was unbelievably gorgeous, and it was hard to stop my heart from beating a little quicker after all the things he’d just said.
As I looked at him, a part of me wished things were different. That our families hadn’t been enemies. That he could have told me what he was up to. That we could have fallen for each other in another place and time.
There was no changing the past though. Noah and I had our time, but it was over. No matter how much Noah might believe otherwise, I didn’t know if I could go back to that place. No matter how much this beautiful boy wanted my heart, I needed to walk away from him because I’d already given it to someone else.
