Once we were in the apartment, Tucker’s arms came around me again and held on tight. “How did you get there so fast?” I asked, wondering if I had just been trapped in a flashback long enough for him to come all the way to the campus from his office in Atlanta.

“We were already here. Wes has other plans later, so I wanted to pick up my car today,” he admitted. “The woman who you were with called me from your phone and we hauled ass over there.”

“How bad was it?”

“We owe that woman a lot. She held you in her arms, made it look like you were just upset and crying about something. Maybe she soothed you just enough. You didn’t scream or anything like you did…” he cut himself off there, not mentioning the way I’d behaved when trapped in my memory before.

“I need to thank her.”

“Do you remember what happened? Why your episode was triggered?”

I nodded and explained to both Tucker and Wes what had occurred. Wes looked up the post from the so-called reporter and told us that it looked as though it had been taken down, but there were people who had screenshotted everything and posted it in the comments under the woman’s Facebook post of the full video that she had shot earlier that day. Then the guys watched the video and listened to everything I said.

“That was pretty clever of you,” Wes admitted.

“Sounds like some good advice we should follow for the future,” Tucker told me as he pulled me closer and kissed my head. “I was so worried about you. I don’t enjoy finding you like that.”

“I don’t enjoy being trapped in that memory,” I admitted.

“When is your visit to the therapist?”

“Tomorrow is my first.”

“Good. I guess you have a lot to talk about, considering you’ve had two major episodes in such a short time span.”

“Yeah, probably,” I admitted.

“I’d like for you to pack up some things and come stay with me for a while,” Tucker requested.

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Tucker, school is here. I literally have a short walk to campus every day. If I stayed at your place, then I’d have a thirty-minute, or more, drive each way, on a good day. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Mina, I get that it might be inconvenient, but there are several reasons for doing it.”

“Yeah? And what are they?”

“Top of the list, I’m worried about you. Then, there’s this asshole reporter. There are bound to be more. Yes, you addressed his bullshit, and thankfully someone was there to post the whole story and clarify what you actually said, even if some of it wasn’t the truth. Thanks for lying for me. I wouldn’t have been mad if you had told everyone what an insensitive, unthoughtful bastard I was.”

I chuckled lightly. “Honestly, I didn’t lie for you. I did it for me.”

“Well, whatever the case, it still made me sound like a better person as a result, so thanks. And that brings me to my other points. There are bound to be other people watching.”