Page 26 of Mixing Drinks For Tipsy Weasels

I hit send without thinking. Maybe it's not a good idea to remind him of the way our friendship broke down, but it's too late now.

I stare at the screen, not entirely sure what I'm supposed to reply to him. We've not been messaging much, mostly because we haven't really needed to with the ball prep meetings. But if we want to continue whatever our friendship is once the summer holidays start, we're going to have to work on our messaging skills.

I set my phone down. I don't have anything particularly interesting to say back to him, so I'm going to leave it until I do. There's no point in just saying nothing.

Instead, I focus on getting ready, while trying not to thinktoomuch about the fact I'll get to see him at the ball soon, or that he'll probably look great in a suit.

Chapter 13

Erica

Robin wavesto me from the other side of the room and I suppress a groan. I should have known that being on the ball committee would mean that I had to do jobsonthe day of the ball.

I head over, weaving between several members of the rugby team doing some kind of drinking game where they down pints one after the other. It's definitely a case of being able to put the students in a classy event, but that not being enough to stop them messing around.

"I need you to take over the cupcake stand for ten minutes or so," Robin says when I reach them.

"Okay, is anything wrong with it?"

They sigh. "It was Yas who was meant to be tending it, but she's sick, so I need someone else to do it."

"All right, I'll head right over." I turn around to head over to the table, stopping when I notice who is already behind it.Maybe if Robin had started with the fact I'd be working with Rupert, then I might not have resisted so much internally.

He looks up and flashes me a charming smile. "Hey."

"Hi. You look good. Bouncy ball bow tie and all." I cringe a little as I say it, realising that I definitely could have been smoother in my word choice. I set my clutch bag on the table so I have my hands free.

"It looks good, doesn't it?" he responds, reaching up to straighten it. "You look great, by the way."

"Thanks." I reach up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. "So, what are we doing?"

"Just handing out cupcakes. People have tokens. They give us one, they get a cupcake. Turns out it isn't just you who thinks that cupcakes are good drunk food."

I laugh. "I never said they were good drunk food, just that I didn't want to have nothing in my stomach when I was drinking lots of liquid. And it's not as if the cupcakes didn't prove useful in the end."

"Mmm, fair point, you did have a bit too much to drink in the end."

"I did. Though I stayed hangover-free thanks to my impromptu shift."

"Ill-advised more like," he responds, but I can tell from his expression that he's saying it in a teasing way and not because he thinks I actually did anything wrong. Though technically, I did. It's illegal to shift in a public space not assigned for it, though I doubt the academy will do anything about it. I certainly hope not because we've been shifting back and forth in this room constantly. It just probably wasn't sensible for either of us to do it.

"Erica!"

I turn to find Mandy in front of me, with Darius by her side. "Hey, you two. How did the exam go?" It's been weird not to seethem for the last couple of weeks after meeting as regularly as we have been doing.

Mandy grimaces. "Not bad."

"Better than she thinks," Darius says.

Mandy smiles at him, her face softening as she does.

"Sorry, can I get past," Rupert says, putting a hand on my back as he moves behind me. It's an intimate gesture, and one that we haven't shared in a long time. And not like this either. We were kids the last time we touched properly.

I watch him as he heads over to where Robin is, presumably to report back to them about something.

"Who was that?" Mandy asks.

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