Chapter 3: Comfort in his Hands

"Baby you're all that I want

When you're lyin' here in my arms

I'm findin' it hard to believe

We're in heaven

And love is all that I need

And I found it there in your heart

It isn't too hard to see

We're in heaven."

- Bryan Adams, "Heaven"

I still could barely keep myself from shaking when I got back to my apartment. The way his blue-green eyes bore into mine; the way fingers gently caressed my sides while we danced; the way his dirty blonde hair was perfectly soft and touchable. It sent a shiver up my spine just thinking about it.

I parked my car, but stayed inside for a minute. I flexed my fingers, which were still on the steering wheel. Stay calm, I told myself. Don't lose it when you go in.

"NAT!" I screeched, bursting through the creaking apartment door. "NAT! I SAW SEAN!"

"What?" Nat said, looking at me as if I were psycho. "You saw who? Huh?" Her perfectly tweezed eyebrows were furrowed together, creating a small crease in the middle of them.

"Sean!" I said breathlessly, slamming the door behind me. "I saw him! Remember, I told you about him," I insisted, "He went to my high school. We went out for a while!"

Nat's face lit up instantly. "Oh, yeah! That hot guy you were talking about a while ago, right?"

I rolled my eyes and sat down on my bed. Natalie, Nat for short, was my roommate. We had been friends ever since we had both started at Toronto's School for Veterinarian Studies last year. We are now sophomores at VSTS, and loving it. I'm studying to be a zoo vet, and she's being an avian vet… That's the reason for the bird in our room.

"Rawwh!" squealed Polly, greeting me. "Welcome home!" He preened his bright red chest and looked at me.

I smiled at Nat's macaw and looked back at Nat. "We kissed."

"Oooh, you kissed," she mocked. "Wow."

I glared at her. "He's so much cuter now," I said, looking up at the ceiling and seeing heaven instead.

"Please tell me you got his number," she said and paused in putting on mascara. She turned her head to me, an almost pleading expression on her face.

"Of course I did," I said, raising an eyebrow. "And where are you going? Out on a hot date with Ryan?"

"Of course," she replied, smirking and putting the cap of her ruby-red lipstick tube back on. "Am I ever not with him?"

"No." I shook my head fervently as I said this. Ryan was her rock-and-roll boyfriend that she had been with for three years.

"Ryan's hot," Polly said, bobbing his head up and down.

I doubled over, laughing. "When did you teach him to say that?"

"Oh, a little while ago," she said with a giggle. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to meet my lover."

"Have fun," I said and laid down on my bed, my hands resting on my stomach. My fingers were laced, like they were when Sean and I were slow dancing. Except that they were laced with Sean's instead of themselves. Sean's hands were a sort of comfort – Strong and warm. I sighed and smiled, quietly drifting off to sleep.