Page 9 of Love, Academically
“Thanks Mads, I’ll be okay. Make sure you text when you get home.” Lila hung up the phone.
“What is it? Is she okay?” Jasmeet asked.
“She’s fine. Jason and Leanne are here,” Lila said, shrinking on her stool.
“For fuck’s sake,” Jasmeet said under her breath, pushing her long hair over her shoulder.
First, having to make small talk with Rhys, and now her ex and the girl he had an affair with? Great. She couldn’t let Jason see her like this, tired and despondent. She didn’t want his pity.
She needed to be Fun Lila, Exciting Lila, Moved-On Lila – which she had, completely. But Jason always had that knack of making her feel small, worthless, a bit pathetic. Somehow, he managed to unwind those balls of wool and wrap them round her like a weighted blanket, and it was sosoeasy to slip back into Doormat Lila, Downtrodden Lila. Black-and-White Lila. She could feel gloom pushing up like a cool wave from her stomach, turning her from colour into black and white, and she didn’t want it. She liked being Technicolour Lila.
Not today, thank you very much. She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin.
Jason thought she was pining for him, wasting away waiting for him, and she would prove that she wasn’t. She would prove… what? Lila bit the inside of her cheek. Jason would back off with his bullshit if she had a boyfriend, wouldn’t he?
Black-and-White Lila would be sad and lonely. Technicolour Lila would have a boyfriend.
Lila took a sly glance at the handsome man across the table. He would be ideal, because who wouldn’t want Dan as a fake boyfriend? But that wouldn’t work. Why would he be sitting next to Jasmeet and not Lila, his girlfriend? Besides, Jasmeet was nearly sitting on his lap and it would be easier scraping off limpets than prying her away from Dan. She turned her eyes slowly to Rhys. He was attractive, yes. Broad-shouldered and taut, and that scowl could intimidate anyone. Even her douche doctor of an ex-boyfriend.
“Look Rhys, I know you don’t like me. But please, please, please, pretend be my boyfriend?” She turned what she hoped was a winning, desperate smile on him. A smile that said,PLEASE, in bold and italics.
“What? No.” Rhys shook his head with a huff.
“Rhys,” Dan interrupted, his voice cashmere-smooth. “The lady obviously needs help. Be a gentleman. Help her out.”
Jasmeet placed her hand on Dan’s forearm and gazed at him adoringly. Lila could almost hear her saying ‘What a hero! What a lovely man!’ She worked hard to keep from rolling her eyes.
“Just for tonight Rhys, just for my ex. He’s nearly here. Please?” He wasn’t looking convinced. “I’ll do anything.”
Rhys opened his mouth.
“No,” she said, before he could get any words out. “Anything other than getting you out of that course.”
Rhys gazed at her for three long seconds, eyes narrowed.
“Anything?” he asked.
“Anything.”
Rhys
Lila Cartwright was looking at him like her life depended on it, trademarked smile tucked away and her pink lips pressed together tightly. She’d actually done something with her hair tonight, and it waved over her shoulders all glossy and shiny. And she’d put more make up on; the mascara made her eyes soulful and deep.
Anything… except getting him out of the ridiculous course he had to go on.
He glanced at Dan, who was watching expectantly, the curve of his eyebrow saying ‘if you don’t help out her best friend, I don’t have a chance with this girl, so be a good wingman and do it’.
Rhys sighed heavily.
This was the last thing he wanted to do. He’d just come out for a few quiet drinks and a catch-up with Dan. So why did he feel like he couldn’t say no? Although ‘anything’ was a good thing to have on her. What he could ever need from her, he didn’t know, but he would think of something. Eventually. That ‘anything’ would be there until the end of time, waiting for him to use it.
“Fine,” he said quietly, hitching his stool closer to hers and laying his arm across the back of her chair. That’s what boyfriends did, right?
“Rhys, you are an absolute lifesaver. I cannot thank you enough.” She leaned into him slightly, smelling of honeycomb and obviously full of nerves.
“Who is he? Why am I doing this?” Rhys asked.
Lila tucked her hair behind her ear and dipped her head. Was she nervous of him, the ex-boyfriend, or the awkwardness of this weird situation?
