Better (Too Good series) by S. Walden Page A

movies together. I love all of it. I love my life with you, so stop shitting all over it!”
    Mark watched as she struggled with the need to argue. She chewed her lower lip. He waited. Her mouth parted, and it was all over.
    “But you need to go to college! You need to be a professor!”
    “There’s a big difference between needing something and wanting it. I need to make love to you all the time. That’s a need.”
    She blushed.
    “I want to get my Ph.D. That’s a want. And it’ll happen. I can’t start this semester. Okay. That’s cool. I’ll start next semester. No big deal.”
    “Do you really need to make love to me?” she asked.
    Mark burst out laughing. “You didn’t hear anything I said after that, did you?”
    She shook her head. Well, at least she was honest.
    “I need your body all the time,” Mark said. “You wanna talk about being a leech? I feed off your love. I can’t get enough of it.”
    “So we’re just a couple of leeches, huh?”
    “Yep.”
    “Will you promise me you’ll start school next semester?”
    “If I can,” Mark replied.
    “What does that mean?”
    “It means that Ph.D. programs start during specific semesters. I’m not sure if I can go next semester. I may need to wait the following year. And it’s all right,” he said quickly when he saw her mouth open to object.
    Cadence growled.
    “Really? Did you just do that?” Mark asked, chuckling.
    She laughed too, and then she growled again.
    “That’s weird, right? To growl?” she asked.
    “Completely. But I kinda like it. Growl for me again.”
    “You just wanna turn it sexual,” Cadence said.
    “You’re damn right.”
    “And I still need to pray.”
    “Aww shucks. I forgot about that,” Mark said. “ All right. Go be absolved. I’ll meet you in the dining room for dinner.”
    Right before he closed the door, he caught a glimpse of her sitting on the bed with her head bowed. He wondered what kinds of conversations she had with God. He wondered if she had conversations li ke the ones she shared with him. Well, aside from the sexual banter. He imagined it was an interesting relationship—hers and God’s—and he wouldn’t ignore the tiniest bit of jealousy over it. Mostly because he wanted her all to himself. Mostly. But there was a little part of him that missed his own conversations, his own meditations with a God he used to love.
    ***
    North Atlanta University. So it wasn’t a Division I school. It was still huge, and it had a reputation for one really aggressive business program. Cadence decided over the summer that she would major in business. She became obsessed with the idea of owning her own flower shop, and she planned to study to become the savviest businesswoman on the planet.
    The university was t he exact opposite of high school. Cadence relished in walking the campus in relative anonymity, just one of thousands of ordinary students. No one knew her story, and if they did, they didn’t care. Nobody cared about anybody, she observed, as she was nearly run over by a skateboarder on her way to composition class.
    “Move,” he spat. She blew him a kiss.
    She made sure to look as inconspicuous as possible for her first day of classes: jean shorts, tank top, flip flops. She kept her hair down but pulled it off her face with a headband. She wore a tad bit of makeup. Nothing showy, but she thought first day classes warranted mascara and lip gloss, at the least.
    She slid into a seat in the row closest to the windows. She didn’t bother to look for Michael. Or save him a seat. She still wasn’t sure about that guy. She felt guilty for not telling Mark about Michael’s kissing comment. She wanted a friend, but she was unsure if he was a good one . She scanned the room for somebody better. She needed a girlfriend. And there was one sitting directly behind her.
    “Hi,” Cadence said tentatively.
    “Hi,” the girl replied.
    Cadence wasn’t sure what else to say. Neither was the girl. That was