Page 18 of Love, Academically
“Are you calling Sue? Or am I?”
Lila tapped her phone quickly, and Sue answered on the second ring.
“Sue, it’s Lila. I’ve got to go to the hospital. I’ve hurt my ankle,” she said, trying to keep her voice light, but feeling rather brittle after the dressing-down from Rhys.
“Oh gosh, Lila. Is it broken?” Sue asked.
“No. It’s not that bad, but Rhys is making me go. He’s taking me, but I’m sure he won’t be long.”
Rhys scooped her up again, bouncing her against his chest.
“Oop,” she huffed. “Sue, it’s likeAn Officer and a Gentlemanout here!”
Rhys made a rough, disparaging noise in the back of his throat.
“Oh my God, is Rhys carrying you?” Sue gasped, and she could hear the squeak of the wheelie chair scuttling along the floor, probably to the window. “I can see you! Look up!”
Lila waved at Sue’s silhouette in the first-floor window.
“I hope there’s not going to be a sexual harassment complaint. I don’t have time for that,” Sue said.
“Gosh, no. I think I’m annoying him more than anything.” Lila smiled sweetly at Rhys’s profile. His mouth was pressed into a firm line.
“Tell Sue I don’t have any lectures this afternoon, but could she email my students and move my office hours.” Rhys was breathless as they entered the car park. Good. A breathless Rhys couldn’t tell her off again.
“I heard. Let me know how it goes at the hospital, Lila. Hopefully you’ll be back tomorrow,” Sue said, before ending the call.
Thanks for the sympathy, Sue.
“Rhys, you know you don’t have to do this, but thank you. I appreciate it,” she said, resisting patting his shoulder again. He did have nice shoulders, and probably sleeping on them would be incredibly comfortable. Uh, why was she thinking about sleeping on Rhys Aubrey’s shoulder? No.
He gave her a glare out of the corner of his eye, but the tips of his ears coloured pink.
“Petunia is that one over there.” Lila pointed to a sky-blue, teeny-tiny Fiat 500 that Jason would have never agreed to let her buy. But it was one of the first things she did when they split up, get this pretty little car on finance at the cheapest deal she could. Petunia was beautiful and freeing.
Rhys looked at her quizzically.
“My car, the little blue one, with the rainbow sticker in the back window,” Lila said happily.
“Uh, no.” Rhys stopped in his tracks. “I’m not driving that.”
“Don’t say that, she’ll hear you,” Lila whispered dramatically. “She’ll be offended!”
“Lila, it’s a car. It doesn’thearme,” Rhys rolled his eyes so hardshe was unsure they’d ever come back round. “I cannot fit in that car. Neither can you with your leg out. It’s too small, and—” he snapped his mouth shut.
“And what?” Lila pushed.
Rhys let out a long-suffering sigh. “It’s got a pink steering wheel.”
She let out a cackle of a laugh; the idea of posh, double-barrelled Rhys Aubrey-Dallimore squeezed in behind the pink wheel of her teeny-tiny car was utterly ridiculous.
He took her in the wrong direction.
“We’ll take my car.”
Like Rhys, his car was stoic and black, shiny and new, parked next to rust-bucket student cars and staff family saloons with Peppa Pig sunshades in the rear windows. It was sleek and nearly triple the size of tiny Petunia. He let her down gently onto her good foot and fished the keys from his pocket, keeping his arm around her waist for support.
“This is a posh car, Rhys. I feel like I’ll get it dirty just by sitting in it,” she said, because she probably did have wet leaves stuck to her arse where she’d fallen.
