Friday night after their date, Aubrey stayed the night and as he'd promised Graham did not mention anything other than actually sleeping. Saturday morning, he woke up and looked at Aubrey sleeping. She was beautiful. He took out his phone and took a photo of her sleeping in his bed. He put his phone away and snuggled closer to her and fell back asleep.
A while later he woke up by her shifting. As his eyes focused, he noticed she was awake.
"Hello beautiful." He said and leaned over to kiss her. His lips only touched hers for a moment before he pulled away. No use testing his self control.
"Good morning, handsome. Did you sleep good?"
"I did, how about you?"
"I slept amazing. You are like a sleeping pill." Aubrey said.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"Good, because that's the way I meant it!"
Graham smiled. "So what does your morning usually look like?"
"Well I usually sleep longer because I don't always sleep so well and I need to catch up. Then I eat, shower, laze around and then go study or meet up with you to study. You?"
"I usually work out, shower, eat, and then do schoolwork. When my housemates and I were in our Sophomore year we'd always play video games on Saturdays, but as we've gotten busier with school, that's not happened very much."
"If I can get some coffee, I'll come watch you work out."
"What, you don't want to work out with me?"
"Maybe a little, but I'm not a morning person."
"Alright, lets go get you some coffee." Graham threw on his gym shorts and a tee shirt. He offered one of his shirts to her as well, which she took. He loved how she looked in it.
As they were ready to head to campus a few hours later, Aubrey got a message. She looked up and said, "Gina wanted me to remind you that we're getting together to review our results from the fan test in a week, hopefully if they've come in by then. And wanted to know if you were still planning on coming."
"I get to spend time with you so why not?"
"She also wanted me to let you know that none of us are going to look into it until we meet that day, and wondered if you would be okay with that too."
"Sure, why not?" Graham replied.
"I'll let her know. She is super anxious about this, I'd almost forgotten about it." Aubrey said.
"Me too, but I've had such a good reason to be distracted." Graham said as he lowered his head to hers. After a brief kiss, he took her hand as they walked to campus.
Aubrey stayed with him on Saturday night as well and even though all they did was cuddle and sleep, Graham couldn't help but feel a measure of contentment. He really couldn't wait until Wednesday to see what the therapist said about what he could do to help Aubrey.
And before he knew it, Wednesday was here and after lunch he went with her to her therapy appointment. They went in together and talked with the therapist. Graham listened as she told him that he needed to listen to Aubrey, even if the timing wasn't convenient. That he needed to make sure that he doesn't belittle Aubrey's suffering or let her do that to herself. And mostly, he needed to be patient and celebrate the baby steps. He shouldn't force or even encourage her to do things that she didn't feel comfortable with. And that even though it will take time and work, she will adjust to being in a relationship. The therapist also expressed that he'd done well so far and just wanted to help them both. She also gave them some ideas on things that they could that were steps in between abstinence and intercourse that may help Aubrey become more comfortable. After she was finished talking to them both, she excused Graham saying that she would like him to come again the next week if he could. Graham waited in the waiting area until Aubrey finished her therapy session. They scheduled the appointment so Graham would be able to make it also. Wednesday afternoons seemed to be a good time so they kept it then.
Graham walked Aubrey home and then met his roommates at Memorial Union for dinner. As always Noah was the last one there.
"Noah, fashionably late as usual." John said
"You know me, I can never keep track of time after classes and just get lost in my studies."
"You were with Emma again, weren't you?" Lucas teased.
"Of course. And it's not fair you and Elijah get to have your SO here, the rest of us should be able to as well." Noah said.
"I guess we could include anyone else's SO to join us if they are living at the house, since this is a housemates dinner. So Emma almost qualifies."
"She refuses to actually move in until she can sublet or her lease expires." Noah grumbled.
"Well there will be more room after graduation when I move out, so she may appreciate that more." Graham said.
"So you're for sure not staying in Madison?" Elijah asked.
"My best prospect is in Chicago. I think that is where I'll end up." Graham said. "I should know in a week or two, which is good since I'd like to start right after graduation."
"You don't want to take a break and relax?" Oliver asked.
"Relax? who me?" Graham joked.
"Right, I forgot, you wouldn't even know how." Lucas said.
"Oh, I don't know that massage I had a week and a half ago was really relaxing. Maybe I'll have to make that a regular occurrence." Graham mused.
"A week and a half ago, wait, didn't you go visit your aunt?" Elijah asked.
"No, I just went to see her for Spring Break, why would I go visit her again?" Graham asked.
"Then where were you?" Elijah asked.
"On a wonderfully relaxing trip." Graham smiled.
"OMG. You totally took Aubrey on a weekend getaway." Lucas laughed. "I'm impressed you managed to not have any of us suspect."
"Any of us? I pretty much knew." Noah said.
"Inside information from Emma, no doubt." Lucas grumbled.
"She may have mentioned that Aubrey was gone that weekend too and it's not too hard to put two and two together." Noah replied.
"No offense, I just didn't want you to make things awkward for Aubrey." Graham said.
"Like we'd ever do that." John interjected.
Graham just looked at him and then said, "Brittany."
John flushed, "We've matured a LOT since then, bro."
"Yeah but she wouldn't ever come to our house after the teasing you gave us back then."
"Like I said we've matured a lot since then, we'd never chase away another girl again, especially since it has taken you so long to find another one!"
"I've been focused on school. I'm glad you're not pestering Aubrey as much."
"Aubrey is awesome, Brittany was not the best for you."
"I know Aubrey is way better, and am glad things ended with Brittany. I was just reminding you of why I would keep my trip a secret."
The conversation moved on to other topics and while Graham was grateful that he wasn't still with Brittany. He thought he'd loved her, but his housemate was right, she hadn't been the best for him.