Chapter 4
He froze, like he hadn't quite processed what I'd said.
"I don't do uncertainty. Three months—trial period. You keep up with me, don't slow me down, then we're together."
Corbin was silent for two seconds. Instead of getting angry, he leaned down and gently took my hands in his calloused ones.
"Deal." An indulgent smile tugged at his lips. "So what are the benchmarks?"
I met his eyes. "First, complete transparency—no hiding anything. Second, we test each other's worlds—see if we can actually fit into each other's lives. And third, the deal-breaker—absolute loyalty. Any violation, we're done."
He didn't find these rigid terms boring. He simply brought my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles softly.
"Done." His voice was low. "These three months, I'll prove I'm your best option. Since we're testing each other's worlds... how about coming to my place first after you're discharged?"
Three days after discharge, I made the most out-of-character decision of my life.
Leaving behind the sterile hospital room and cold data cables, I forced myself to endure the ear-splitting bass and the sour stench of cheap beer, standing in the center of the hockey team's frat house living room.
"Sloane, knew you'd come!" Corbin cut through the crowd with long strides, wrapped an arm around my waist, and pulled me close. His voice carried undisguised pride. "Boys, this is Sloane."
My muscles tensed instantly, but under the warmth of his palm, I managed to relax slightly.
Jaxon sauntered over with a red Solo cup, eyebrows raised as he sized us up. "Captain, you actually got our Ice Queen to come down here? I thought she only hung out with servers."
"Shut it, Jaxon. Don't scare her off." Corbin casually handed me a drink. "Light stuff, don't worry."
We were surrounded by his hockey teammates and the usual crowd of puck bunnies who always circled him.
Harper was wearing an extremely short, skin-tight tank top today. When she saw Corbin's arm around me, her eyes looked ready to kill.
"Captain, that game-winner last week was insane!" Harper deliberately squeezed closer, her chest brushing against Corbin's arm as she offered him an unopened beer with a coy smile. "Saved this just for you."
In the past, faced with this kind of obvious move, I would've turned and left immediately.
But Corbin just took it and tossed it to Jaxon without a second glance, then leaned down to whisper in my ear. "Too loud? Want to hang out in my room upstairs?"
He hadn't even acknowledged the flirtation. His attention was entirely on me.
That realization steadied me. He was changing for me. He was trying to adapt to my way of doing relationships.
Corbin's room was at the end of the second floor, away from most of the noise. Surprisingly clean, except for hockey gear piled in the corner. He locked the door and picked up the iPad from his desk.
"Come here." He beckoned.
I walked over, and he wrapped his arms around me from behind, chin resting on my shoulder, breath carrying faint notes of beer and mint. The screen lit up.
Against a black background, a stream of electric blue code suddenly cascaded down.
The code was elegantly rendered, lines of text slowly converging in the center of the screen, finally forming a red heart that pulsed like a real heartbeat.
Each time the heart beat, a line of text scrolled below:
if (Sloane == true) {
System.out.println("My heart beats only for you");
}
I went completely still.
To someone like me, this was just basic Java animation. But for a jock who probably couldn't even explain what an IP address was, writing clean code with gradient effects and timing control meant pulling multiple all-nighters through boring tutorials.
"When did you do this?"
"Those days you were in the hospital." Corbin's profile pressed against my neck, voice rough. "I know you trust code more than words. I wanted to tell you in your language—even if I don't get drafted, even if I have to give everything up, I don't regret this."
His arms tightened. "Sloane, I mean it. As long as you'll have me, you get full access. Forever."
My eyes suddenly burned.
No cheap roses or empty promises could touch me the way this clumsy code did. Maybe I'd been too rigid all along. Love was never meant to be quantified.
"Gonna grab a quick shower." Corbin kissed my neck, let me go, and grabbed his phone from the bed. "Give me five minutes?"
I nodded.
The bathroom door closed. Water rushed, mixed with his cheerful humming.
I stared at the beating heart on the screen, reaching over to put the iPad to sleep.
Just then—
The iPad buzzed violently on the desk.
Same iCloud account—his phone and iPad synced automatically. A green iMessage bubble popped up, covering the code interface.
My mind went blank for a split second, then the sender's name and message hit me like ice water.
From: Harper (Cheer)
[Captain, left my black lace under your bed the other night. Wanna ditch the boring geek girl and let me give you another proper cooldown? 😉]
My finger froze. The other night? After he supposedly spent twenty hours at my bedside?
Before I could process it, the iPad exploded with notifications. A group chat labeled "Varsity VIP" lit up.
Jaxon: [Yo Cap, close the deal yet? Don't tell me you're actually falling for that stuck-up IT chick. That custom Submariner I won is collecting dust!]
Mike: [For real bro, you've been at this for weeks. Tomorrow's frat party, remember the bet—dump her in front of everyone. Watching the ice queen shatter is how you win!]
Two seconds later, Corbin's navy avatar appeared—a message he'd just sent from the bathroom.
Corbin: [Relax. Just having fun with the stuck-up geek. Breaking down the ice queen is the whole point. Tomorrow night at the party, I'll dump her in front of the team. Who'd actually give up everything for one line of boring code?]
Jaxon: [LMAO! She cry when she saw that cheesy code confession?]
Corbin: [Like a baby. Paid some guy 50 bucks on Fiverr to write that shit. So fucking easy.]
The shower kept running. His humming drifted through the door.
On screen, that cheap red heart kept beating its lie.
"My heart beats only for you"
I stared at those bug-ridden words, my legs turning to water.
