Chapter 170 - 0170: The Memory

Chapter 170: Chapter 0170: The Memory

Elena’s Point Of View

I couldn’t believe he had actually smiled at me, let alone spoken to me. From that single moment, I was completely lost. Even back then, when I had nothing to offer, I gave him my absolute all. When graduation came and he left for university, I bent my entire world to follow his orbit.

I spent late nights studying until my eyes burned, coffee cups piling up on my desk, applying exclusively to the exact same university just to be near him, just to breathe the same air. My sister was worried I was choosing a school for the wrong reasons, but I brushed off her concerns, certain that fate had already written this story for us.

And the day he finally asked me out on campus...

It was mid-semester during my freshman year, a crisp autumn afternoon where the air smelled of fallen leaves and fresh coffee. I was sitting at a stone picnic table under the towering oak trees in the campus garden, right near the grand steps of the library.

My books were spread out everywhere... a heavy multivariable calculus textbook, a spiral notebook covered in frantic scribbles, and three different colored highlighters. I had been stuck on a brutal integration problem for nearly an hour, tapping my pencil against my lips, my jaw tight with absolute frustration.

I remember thinking that if I failed this course, at least no one back home would ever know how badly I’d embarrassed myself. College had felt like a fresh start, a place where nobody knew me as the quiet girl who never raised her hand, and I refused to let one bad grade unravel that fragile new identity.

"If you stare at that equation any harder, El, it might actually start burning a hole straight through your paper," a deep, smooth voice said, breaking through my concentration.

I snapped my head up, my heart doing an immediate, familiar flip against my ribs.

Graham was standing right beside the stone bench, bathed in the golden afternoon sun filtering through the oak leaves. He looked unreal... wearing a dark gray wool sweater with the sleeves pulled up to his forearms, dark jeans, and his dark hair slightly ruffled by the autumn breeze. In his hands, he held two white paper cups from the library café, steam rising lazily from the lids.

For a moment I simply stared, half-convinced I had conjured him out of sheer longing. Three years of quietly watching him from across hallways and cafeteria tables had not prepared me for the reality of him standing this close, close enough to touch.

"Graham," I gasped, my cheeks instantly heating up as I hastily tried to clear a spot on the cluttered stone table. "I... I didn’t hear you come up."

"I know. You were completely locked in," he murmured, a low, warm chuckle rumbling in his chest. He slid onto the bench right beside me, his long frame settling close enough that his arm brushed against mine, sending an electric jolt straight down my spine. "You looked like you were ready to fight the entire mathematics department."

"I might," I grumbled, pointing a highlighter at the page. "Look at this. I’ve worked through this step four times, and every single time I end up with an impossible negative variable under the radical. It makes zero sense."

Graham set the two paper cups down carefully between my notebooks. "Well, lucky for you, I happened to be passing by. Mind if I take a look?"

"Please," I sighed, sliding the notebook toward him. "Save me from losing my last remaining brain cells."

Graham leaned closer, his shoulder pressing firmly against mine. He picked up my pencil, his fingers brushing over my knuckles... a brief, deliberate touch that made my breath catch in my throat. He hovered over the notebook, his sharp amber eyes scanning my messy handwriting.

The clean, intoxicating scent of cedarwood, cold rain, and sweet vanilla clung to him, completely washing over my senses and making it impossible to focus on anything else.

I remember thinking, absurdly, that I would have happily failed the entire course just to keep sitting there beside him.

"Ah, right here," Graham murmured after a moment, the tip of the pencil hovering over a line near the middle of the page. "See this step? You distributed the coefficient, but you forgot to swap the sign inside the parenthesis when you expanded the second bracket."

I blinked, leaning down to look where he was pointing. Our faces were suddenly barely inches apart, his strong jawline framed right beside my cheek. "Wait... are you serious? An algebraic sign error?"

"A tiny sign error," he confirmed, turning his head to look at me, his amber eyes crinkling at the corners as a soft, breathtaking smile spread across his lips. "You do this every time you get flustered, El. You rush through the middle steps because you’re already thinking three moves ahead."

"I don’t get flustered," I mumbled, though my voice lacked conviction as I felt the heat rising up my neck to the tips of my ears.

"You do," he countered softly, setting the pencil down. He reached over and slid one of the warm paper cups into my cold hands, his long fingers wrapping entirely over mine, holding them steady. "I brought you this. Hot vanilla latte with an extra shot of espresso. Just the way you like it."

I looked down at our joined hands, his large, warm fingers completely enveloping mine. "You remembered how I take it?"

"I remember everything about you, Elena," Graham said, his voice dropping an octave, becoming deep, quiet, and intensely focused on me.

The casual, teasing aura between us evaporated, replaced by a sudden, heavy stillness that made the background noise of the campus... students chatting, leaves rustling, distant laughter, fade away completely. My pulse thundered so loudly in my ears I wondered if he could hear it too.

"I didn’t just stumble upon you here by accident," he admitted, his thumb beginning to stroke slow, soothing circles over the back of my hand. "I saw you sitting here from the library steps an hour ago. I went inside, bought these drinks, and waited until you were finished with your study group before I walked over."

My heart hammered wildly against my ribs, a sudden lump forming in my throat. "You... you were waiting for me?"

"I’ve been waiting for you to get here for a really long time, Elena," Graham whispered, his eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made my knees feel weak even while sitting down. "Ever since that day in high school near the gym lockers when you almost dropped your peach tea on your books... I haven’t been able to get you out of my head."

"Graham..." My voice trembled, betraying every year of quiet hope I had never dared to speak aloud.

"I watched you work so hard to get into this university," he continued softly, reaching out his free hand to gently tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear, his knuckles lightly skimming over my warm cheek. "And ever since you arrived on campus, I’ve tried to give you space to adjust. I tried to just be the friendly senior, the guy who checks in on you, the guy who buys you coffee. But I can’t keep doing it. I don’t want to just be your friend, El."

He leaned in closer, his breath warm against my skin, his expression raw and completely vulnerable.

"I want to be the guy who picks you up from your late classes. I want to be the one holding your hand when we walk through the quad. I want to be the person you call when you have a bad day, and the first person you want to see when you have a good one." He swallowed, his thumb stroking my jawline. "Be my girl, Elena. Please. Be mine."

My eyes stung with sudden, hot tears... tears born from years of silent longing, late nights of studying until my eyes burned, and a young heart that had belonged to him from the very first second he had smiled at me. I couldn’t even formulate words. All I could do was nod my head frantically.

"Yes," I choked out, a soft gasp escaping my lips. "Yes, Graham... yes."

His eyes flared with a sudden, overwhelming relief. I threw my arms around his neck, letting my notebook drop to the stone table as I threw myself into his arms, burying my face against the crook of his neck.

Graham gathered me close, his strong arms wrapping around my waist, pulling me flush against his chest so tightly I could feel the heavy, erratic thudding of his heart matching mine. He buried his face in my hair, inhaling deeply, as though he wanted to memorize the moment forever.

"God, Elena," he breathed out, pulling back just enough to frame my face in his hands. His thumbs gently wiped away the tears spilling over my eyelashes. "You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to hear you say that."

He leaned down and captured my lips with his.

The kiss began with a tender, reverent press of lips that tasted like sweet vanilla and warm coffee, but as I gasped softly against his mouth, his touch deepened. Graham let out a low, gravelly groan from the back of his throat, his hands sliding down to grip my waist, pulling me completely into his lap. His lips moved over mine with a deep, possessive passion that made my head spin, making me feel like I was floating right off the stone bench.

When he finally pulled back just a fraction of an inch, his forehead resting against mine, we were both breathing heavily, our breaths mingling in the cool autumn air.

"I love you, princess," he murmured against my lips, his voice thick with unadulterated devotion.

A soft, tearful giggle bubbled up from my chest. "I love you more, Graham."

Graham let out a rich, breathless laugh against my skin, his amber eyes dancing as he tilted his head. "Call me something else than Graham, princess."

Shyly, my entire face burning with a furious blush, I buried my face straight into his chest, hiding against the soft wool of his sweater. I pressed a tiny, embarrassed kiss against his collarbone through his clothes. "No... it’s too embarrassing."

"Come on, El," he chuckled, his large hands rubbing comforting circles over my back as his chest vibrated against my cheek. "We’re official now. Let me hear it. Just once."

"Babe," I mumbled, my voice completely muffled by his sweater, my heart beating so fast I felt dizzy.

Graham let out another low rumble of laughter, sheer delight radiating from him. "Much better."

Before I could process what he was doing, Graham slid his hands under my thighs and behind my back, effortlessly lifting me up from the bench straight into his arms. I gasped, wildly wrapping my arms around his broad shoulders for support as he stood up, carrying me as if I weighed nothing at all.

"Graham! What are you doing? Put me down, people are looking!" I squeaked, glancing nervously around the garden as a few passing students turned to smile and whisper.

Graham didn’t care in the slightest. He held me securely against his chest, bending his head down until his lips rested right against the shell of my ear, his warm breath sending shivers racing across my skin.

"How about finishing this in my dorm?" he whispered softly, his voice full of a low, magnetic promise.

I looked into his eyes, completely intoxicated by the fierce tenderness burning within them. I nodded softly against his shoulder, hiding my burning face in his neck as he carried me across the campus lawn, laughing quietly at the sheer audacity of him, at the sheer disbelief that this beautiful, impossible boy had chosen me.

He might not have been my first kiss, nor was he the very first boy my young heart had ever noticed, but Graham was my first in every true sense of the word. My first real love, my first intimacy, my first dream, my first vision of forever. Every sacred part of who I was, I had handed over to him with open, trusting palms.