Page 62 of Love, Academically
Jasmeet scowled.
“Okay, fine.” Lila glanced down at the frayed t shirt and jogging bottoms she was currently modelling. “Rhys put it on his family’s account.”
There was a beat of silence.
“Rhys put it on his family’s account,” Jasmeet repeated.
“Yep.” Lila grabbed the shoes and reverently put them back in the box.
“Crap. I’ve got to go, the baby’s crying. Jas, get the details.” Maddy ended the call.
“Spill,” Jasmeet raised an eyebrow. “Why do you look so shifty? Oh my God, something’s going on between you two. I knew it!”
“No, Jas. Not at all,” Lila said, pushing the shoe box closed.
“What is it? Is he a drug dealer? The mafia? Because I’ve seen how Dan lives on his lecturer salary and it’s good, but it doesn’t enable him to drop—” Her phone buzzed in her hand. “Oh my god, Maddy has found the dress. Look!” She held out her phone.
It was like a bruise that you can’t help but poke, and Lila couldn’tnotlook.
“Shit,” she whispered.
“Yeah, shit,” Jasmeet agreed. “So?”
“Okay, but youcannotbring it up in front of Rhys. It’s not my place,” Lila said.
“I mean, if he’s dealing in rare animal bones or is actually a drugs lord, I am honour-bound to report it to the police,” Jasmeet said, only half joking.
Lila sighed and launched into a rather short and choppy explanation of Rhys’s family history. There was an icky, sludgy feeling in the bottom of her stomach because she was telling secrets that weren’t hers to tell. There was a reason why Rhys was an Aubrey, not an Aubrey-Dallimore. He had confided inher and she was breaking his confidence by telling Jasmeet. But she had to, there was no other way to explain it. And she had to explain it.
Chapter 10
Recogitate(intransitive verb) re·cogitate
1. To think over again
Rhys
It wasn’t really okay, but what else was he supposed to say to that? Oh, thanks for telling everyone the one thing I have tried my hardest to keep a secret. Thanks, Fake Girlfriend, for betraying me.
Realistically, he was surprised that he’d managed to keep it hidden for as long as he had. It had been years and no one had worked it out. He’d not been close enough to anyone except Dan, for them to have worked it out.
Here was Lila, who had wormed her way into his life with her messy, comfortable house and wide, unguarded smiles, blabbing his family name to anyone who would listen. How was he going to get through the Dallimore dinner with someone who had betrayed him?
These were his intrusive thoughts as he pressed the handbrake button in front of Lila’s house. He would have parked behind Petunia, but a little black car was in his spot.
Rhys tugged at his collar as he waited for Lila to answer the front door. His bow tie was suffocating.
“Rhys, hi.”
It wasn’t Lila who answered the door, but Jasmeet, looking entirely too smug. He narrowed his eyes as she blatantly perused him up and down.
“Well,” she said with a grin, opening the door wider. “You scrub up quite well.”
“Is she ready?” Rhys asked, pulling at his collar again. He should probably redo it so he stopped fiddling with it, but he’d already done it four times and this was the best one yet. Besides, was it tight, or was he just nervous about seeing his family?
