Chapter 39: Portia

Neither of us took into consideration how hard the separation would be, much less how difficult keeping our relationship a secret would be. When I got back to school, Jet honed in on the difference in my attitude before I'd left compared to when I returned, and I couldn't give her anything other than Jude and I had worked through our differences. I had to sneak phone calls to him and change my tone when she walked in the room. But it was the physical loss of not having him near that was the hardest to deal with.

She'd gone to class, leaving me in our room alone. I was biding my time until I could call Jude. As soon as I was certain he wasn't at school, I unlocked my phone and touched his name on my favorites list.

"Hey, babe." Those two words uttered from his mouth in a deep, rich baritone released my frustration and warmed my heart.

I never thought I'd crave hearing a common term of endearment, but something in his inflection, the casual way he said it, and how the words hit