Page 65 of Love, Academically
Lila stopped and turned to face him.
“Look, I know this isn’t easy for you. I know you’re out of your comfort zone,” she said, doing her best ‘kind counsellor’ voice. “But if you keep being so tense and robot-y, people are going to smell a rat.”
Smell a rat. What an interesting phrase. Lila shook her head slightly.Think about that one later.
“Robot-y? From the woman who loves words?” he asked with a wry smile.
Lila’s own smile grew.
“Yes, Rhys. Robot-y,” she said. “Come on, let’s get a drink, shall we?”
Rhys nodded. Instead of woodenly guiding her through the crowds, he grabbed her hand and gave her a light tug.
“Better?” he said over his shoulder.
“Better,” she said, trying hard to keep her blush down. Because not only was she holding hands with a very attractive Rhys Aubrey, who looked a little like James Bond in his tux, but he had probably caught her having a good look at his arse.
The mail order tux did wonders and must have been altered and fitted within an inch of its life, because it was practically moulded to his little conker bum. Which was delightful. His dark, wavy hair was more slicked back than usual, giving him a more formal (but no less attractive) look. Rhys certainly lookedthe part, but Lila was under no illusions as to the strain on him, only noticeable in his tight jaw and the dart of his eyes around the room.
Rhys let her hand go to smoothly lift two champagne glasses from a passing waiter and pressed one into her hand. She took a long, fortifying draw.
“Well, that’s not five-quid prosecco, is it?” she said.
Rhys laughed deeply and throatily, and he was beautiful when he laughed.
“You should laugh more,” she said with a smile.
“I laugh,” he defended.
“Not as much as you should.”
Rhys swallowed and looked over her shoulder.
“My mother is making a beeline for us,” he said. “So is my sister and her husband, James.”
“Okay, okay. How do I look?” Lila asked, running her fingers over her hair to make sure it was still pinned back as Jasmeet had done it. Of course, with enough hairspray to make even the 80s do a double take, it wasn’t going anywhere.
“You look—”
“Rhys!” a soft female voice called. Perfume swirled around her as Rhys’s mother hugged her son tightly, with a stream of Welsh. She was tall and slender, but the curve of Rhys’s lip, and the strong line of his nose were exactly the same as hers. Rhys hugged his mother back, his eyes squeezed shut like a little boy. He obviously loved her very much and they probably didn’t see each other as much as he wanted, especially with the fraught relationship he had with his father.
“Saesneg os gwelwch yn dda, Mam,” Rhys said, letting her go.
“Of course, English,” Rhys’s mother turned to her with shining eyes. “You must be Lila, it’s so nice to meet you.”
“Hello Mrs Aubrey-Dallimore. It’s lovely to meet you,” Lila said, mentally giving herself a fist pump because all thepracticing of ‘Dall-i-more’ not ‘Dall-more’ in the mirror had paid off.
Rhys’s hand snaked its way to the bottom of her back and it was thoroughly reassuring.
“Oh, call me Cerys. Don’t you look stunning?” she said, gripping Lila’s hands in both of hers. “Oh, don’t you make the perfect couple?”
Lila batted her eyes up at Rhys adoringly and his lips twitched, trying to keep his grin in.
“Hi,” Lila said, locking eyes with a younger, female version of Rhys. “I’m Lila.”
“Elin,” she grinned, barely able to conceal her delight, just like her mother.
The only words to describe Elin were ‘stonkingly glamorous’. With her high cheekbones, long neck and impossibly sharp bob cut, she could have walked off a catwalk. Well, if she was a good foot taller. The black floor-length dress that she wore was accentuated with a red fold over collar – definitely, one hundred percent designer – and Lila wondered what Jasmeet and Maddy would think.
