Page 84 of Love, Academically
Extravagantly chivalrous or romantic
Lila
The need to keep Rhys at arm’s length was tiring. Fighting the urge to pop into his office to ensure he had his mid-afternoon sugar pick-me-up,tell him about her day and ask about his, was hard. But he had brought this on himself by making it extremely clear that he didn’t wantthatkind of relationship with her. The kind of relationship where they had sex. Hot, needy, desperate sex. Because that’s what she wanted, and it was difficult pretending that she didn’t. Her lips remembered the taste of his, and thinking about his hand squeezing her thigh, his length pressing against her core made herhot. Wet. For him.
But she wasn’t about to go crawling to him. She did enough of that with Jason and Technicolour Lila did not crawl for anyone, unless she chose to crawl towards Rhys Aubrey’s unclothed dick.
God, where had that thought come from? That wasn’t like her, she was normally so, well,nice.
In the post-Jason stage of her life, she was starting to look at whatshewanted, and take that very same thing. It was time to embrace herself, her needs. Not put other people ahead of her so much.
Eventually, when Jasmeet called on her lunch break that crisp, autumnal Tuesday, she didn’t answer. Neither her nor Maddyhad texted her back at the weekend. She knew that they both had lives et cetera, et cetera, but going out with Rhys on Saturday had been important to her.
When Maddy had desperately wanted to go and see that strange art exhibition in Bristol, who had hot footed it down there and paid the extortionate fee to get in? When Jasmeet had said she’d bake a hundred cupcakes for the summer fete, who was it that had stayed up all night doing it because Jasmeet didn’t actually know how to bake cupcakes?
That’s right. Lila.
So, was it too much to ask for a little bit of interest in her own life? In something that was important to her? Maddy hadn’t even replied about Susie Dent and Jasmeet had dismissed it out of hand.
As soon as Jasmeet’s name stopped flashing on her phone, she felt guilty. No one should do something they didn’t want to, she fully got that, and Jasmeet had been the best person on the planet when she was with Jason, and when they’d broken up. Maddy had talked (whispered) with her every night when she had been up with Ellie and Lila couldn’t sleep.
Snatching up her phone from the desk, she called Jasmeet back quickly.
“Sorry I missed you, I was on a call,” she lied.
“That’s okay, babe,” Jasmeet said. “I wanted to catch you whilst you were at work because it’s about Rhys.”
Lila was silent for a beat. “Rhys? Why are you calling about Rhys?”
“Because Dan told me he’s miserable because you’re ignoring him,” Jasmeet said, hurriedly. “And if Dan is telling me he’s miserable, it’s because he wants me to do something about it.”
Lila’s mouth dried up. Had Rhys been shouting his mouth off about how she practically forced her hands down his pants and was wholly unwelcome?
“What else did he tell you?” she asked, trying for indifference but fully aware that she sounded a little desperate.
“Nothing, and that’s not for me not trying to find out,” Jasmeet said, pointedly. “Why are you ignoring him?”
Lila sighed.
“Okay, scratch that. I’ll come over tonight and you can tell me then,” she said.
Lila was tempted to say that she was busy tonight, because Jasmeet had demanded rather than asked, but that would have been petty. Besides, she did want to see her friend.
“Babe, also I realised I never asked you about how Saturday night went. I’m such a bad friend,” Jasmeet said with a hitch in her voice. “There’s this thing at work, and I…” she trailed off.
“You can tell me about it tonight when you come round,” Lila said gently. “Shall I cook?”
“Yes, please. Can you make Comfort Carbonara?”
“Oh shit, it’s a carbonara kind of night, is it?”
The buttery, creamy, mushroom and bacon-filled pasta wasn’treallya carbonara, but it was the best comfort food in the entire world, saved only for the direst of occasions.
“But only after I hear all about you and Rhys.”
