Cadence blushed and grinned.
“Wanna come sit on my lap?” he asked.
“You’ll get distracted, and you’re supposed to be helping me,” Cadence argued.
“Eh, you’re right.”
He flipped through a stack of papers in front of him.
“You can use the university health center. Take advantage of it as a full-time student,” he advised. “You’re paying for the damn thing.” He paused and read. “Looks like you’ll have to pay a little extra out of pocket for your annual, but 75 bucks is a hell of a lot better than paying five hundred out of pocket at a doctor’s office.”
Cadence flushed.
“Your birth control is covered, too,” he explained. “If you’re interested.”
“What?”
Mark continued reading. “Oh, wait. Nope. Looks like it’s five bucks a pack.” He scratched his five o’clock shadow. “I read wrong.”
“What?” Cadence repeated.
Mark looked up. “I’m not saying you have to go on birth control. I’m just saying that it’s an option. And it’s pretty inexpensive comparatively speaking. It’s like 45 bucks a pack without insurance.”
“How do you even know that?”
Mark tensed ever so slightly. It was getting worse—the slip-ups. Too easy when she lived with him, had become so intimately connected to his life, his world. He was becoming too relaxed, and he simply wasn’t ready to go there yet. To talk about Andy and how the hell he even knew anything about the cost of birth control packs.
“Girlfriends in college,” he mumbled.
Cadence thought for a moment. “I don’t know that I’ll be a full-time student—”
“Looks like you’re paying for the gym, too,” Mark interrupted, skimming the page. “What the hell? What happened to the days where you just paid for your classes and that’s it?”
“Mark. I said I don’t know that I’ll be going to school full time,” Cadence said.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know what I qualify for yet,” she explained.
“What do you mean?”
Cadence flipped open her laptop. It was the one possession her father bought her that he didn’t require her to give back after their parting.
“Will you check these for me?” she asked, pushing the laptop over to Mark.
“What’s this?” he asked, scanning the screen.
“My FAFSA stuff. Did I fill it out right?”
How could he be such an idiot?! In all his preparation to help her sort out these financial responsibilities, he completely forgot about her means of paying for college. He assumed her father would. He didn’t know why. Maybe he’d subconsciously hoped that Mr. Miller wasn’t a complete jerk.
“You told me your parents set up a college fund,” Mark said.
“They did.”
Mark blinked. “Well, as far as I understand it, college funds are specific to college. The interest that accrues on them . . . you can’t just take that out to use however you want.”
“It wasn’t a college fund like that. Just a separate account Dad set up. Something with stocks or something. I don’t know. He wanted to make a better return on the money. Whatever that means. I don’t freaking know. I just know that I don’t have any money to pay for college.” She pointed to the screen. “Now help me out here.”
Mark bit his tongue. There was a string of words he wanted to let loose about her father, but she managed to sum it all up in one. He leaned into the screen.
“I didn’t know your dad’s first name was ‘Asshole’.”
She cracked a smile. “Isn’t it awful how his parents did that to him?”
Mark chuckled.
“I would have legally changed it by now,” Cadence went on.
Mark smirked. “You know you’ll have to fix that before you send it in.”
Cadence giggled. “I know.”
“But you can leave it for now. ‘Asshole Miller’. Has a nice ring to it.”
“I thought so.”
Mark eyed Cadence thoughtfully. She was staring at the screen, absent-mindedly twirling a golden strand around her finger.
“Come here, Sweet Cheeks,” he said, tugging on her arm.
He pushed his chair out and pulled her onto his lap. She nestled against him, eyes still glued to the screen.
“Did I fill it out right?” she asked.
He read over the pages, changing things here and there. He asked her a few questions—some she couldn’t answer—and saw her frustration grow.
“We’ll do the best we can,” he told her, and she sighed.
“Is it ready to go?”
“Yep,” he replied.
“So I can click ‘Send’ now?”
“You have to e-sign it first,” Mark pointed out.
“How do I do that?”
“Just type your name.”
“That’s a signature?”
“Yep.” He pushed her hair over her left shoulder and leaned in to kiss the back of her neck. He felt the tiny goose bumps break out on her skin and licked them. She squirmed.
“Stop. I’m working.”
“Typing your name is work?” he asked, lips pressed against her neck. So soft. So salty sweet. He sucked her neck just to feel her squirm on him. Her little bottom made him rock hard in an instant.
“Mark . . .”
“Hmm?”
“I have to go to work in thirty minutes.”