Page 40 of Love, Academically
Lila took a sip of her tea. Kerry nudged Ada with her elbow and raised her eyebrows.
“Oh yeah,” Ada said, exchanging a sly smile with DeVon and Kerry. “Is there something going on between you and Mr Aubrey?”
The tea was suddenly too hot in her mouth, too milky, too sugary, too much.
“What?” she coughed. “Me and Rhys?”
Kerry cracked a smile and Ada giggled. DeVon was distinctly uninterested, and shoved another cookie into his mouth.
“Yeah, you and Mr Aubrey. He kept staring at you, and,” Ada shrugged one shoulder, “we just wondered if it was you who had made him a bit lesshim.”
Lila blinked rapidly at them, swallowing down her surprise. She’d thought the seminar had gone surprisingly well and if he carried on like that, there was no reason for them to hold it in her office. He had measured his words and considered his responses. There were no put-downs, no scathing comments, no pregnant silences. It had been a good, constructive seminar, even if his voice had tensed just a little now and again.
“There is nothing going on with me and Rhys. He wants to be the best lecturer he can. But even if there was,” she said gently,with a wry smile, “I’m not sure that it would be any of your business.”
Kerry’s face dropped and her already pale cheeks lost even more colour. Ada looked at the floor and DeVon stopped chewing.
“I’m sorry, guys. I don’t mean to be horrible and I really appreciate your,” Lila cast around for the right word, “interest. But perhaps we’ll leave the personal lives of staff to those staff members, yeah?”
“Told you we should have just said thank you and left,” DeVon murmured.
“Have another cookie. My door is always open for whatever help you need. But we won’t talk about my private life, okay?”
Lila gave them what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Boundaries were needed, and she was absolutely right in setting them. They weren’t friends, they weren’t even colleagues. She was there to support them in their further education.
But she did worry about hurting their feelings. They were only trying to look out for her. Or were they really just looking for gossip? Perhaps she shouldn’t have said anything, just bumbled something about ‘don’t be so silly’ and waved them off. She thought of Jasmeet, she thought of her therapy. Standing up for herself and not getting drawn into a discussion about her and Rhys (not that there was even a ‘her and Rhys’) was the right thing to do, no matter if it hurt their feelings a little bit.
Lila shook her head and turned back to sorting the intranet system for Professor Freeman’s masters students. She’d only checked through two students before she had to stop.
What did they mean, Rhys had been staring at her? Surely they’d got it wrong. Just because she’d imagined Rhys’s eyes on her, it didn’t make it true. The feeling of a dragonfly wing over her collarbone was the slight breeze coming through the openwindow. The urge to smooth her hair behind her ears and make sure her make-up was perfect, that was just her being vain.
Hers wasn’t exactly the biggest of offices, so it would be highly likely that Rhys’s eyes would land her once or twice in the course of the hour-long seminar. ‘Staring’ was a particularly strong word for what was more than likely a fleeting glance.
Yes. That was it.
Thinking of Rhys (not that she had been thinking of Rhys), she would have to check when his family dinner was. She didn’t want to have to cancel and rebook Susie Dent when she could easily go to a different show.
Lila hobbled down the corridor to Rhys’s office. Yes, she could walk without the crutches now, but she was a smidge nervous about driving. Besides, Anika (her Uber driver’s sister) was about to give birth in South Africa and she really wanted to know the sex of the baby.
Lila knocked and opened the door without waiting for an answer.
Rhys was standing at the window with his back to her, hands in his pockets, pulling his trousers tight around that conker-like little bottom of his. Not that she was looking.
“Rhys?”
He jumped, snapped out of his reverie.
“Sorry.” Rhys turned to her and sat down, face blank. “I was lost in thought.”
“Henry II being the poster boy for bad parenting?” she asked, giving him a smile.
“Something like that.” He lined up some papers on his desk. “What can I do for you?”
Okay, straight down to business.
“When is your family dinner? I need to put it in my diary.”
“Oh, yes,” he said, tapping on his phone. “Two weeks on Saturday and I think we should get together soon. I’d like to tellyou about my family, if you are going to be my girlfriend.” He huffed slightly. “Well, my pretend girlfriend.”
