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‘No, honestly, this is more than enough. Good luck with it! And see if you can steal some chicken.’ She tried to force enthusiasm. She just wanted to cuddle Cerberus and crawl back into bed, but she didn’t even have time to do that. ‘I think I’ll see if the workshop is still open after my shift. Get some more practice in.’

‘Good idea. How did it go with Aiden this morning?’

Juniper rolled her eyes. She didn’t want to think about him anymore, and yet she couldn’t stop. She could still feel the graze of his stubble on her cheeks, the gentle exploration of his fingers between her legs, and it made her want to scream – in more than one type of frustration. He’d been so cold this morning, enough to make her wonder if she’d deserved it. He had, after all, left her on the brink of a rather wonderful orgasm. Men usually expected something in return.

Well, tough. She wasn’t the giving type. Not with him. Besides, he’d taken far more than he’d given if they were to tally up their history. It would take more than his tongue, skilled as it was, to settle their debts. ‘I’m pretending he doesn’t exist.’

‘Even though he—’

‘Yes.’

‘And even though you—’

‘Yes,’ Juni emphasised. ‘It was a mistake. I don’t know why or how it happened, but it won’t ever again. From now on, things will be strictly professional between us.’

Tilly’s smirk was filled with doubt. ‘Aye, because one thing I’ve noticed about you, my dear friend, is that you are always very professional.Especiallyaround him.’

Juniper glared, leaving Tilly to shrug innocently. She gave Juniper a placating pat on the shoulder as she stood up. ‘Got to go, but movie night tonight?’

‘I’ll let you know. I’m already shattered.’ Juniper yawned. As much as she loved having a friend to spend time with, and as wonderfully romantic as Tilly’s taste in movies was, she needed time to shake off the day, recharge her batteries.

‘Fifteen minutes are almost up,’ Gianna warned somewhere behind her.

Tilly scuttled off, her figure a blurred blot of colour that soon disappeared into the bustle of the city.

Juniper didn’t blame her. She looked at the clock on the wall and tried not to dread the next several hours of coffee disasters. She just hoped that she could lose herself in some creativity tonight.

13

‘You must have had somewhere rather exciting to be yesterday, Jupiter,’ Chris said as she walked into the workshop the following day. To Aiden’s surprise, she wasn’t late this morning. Just dishevelled, her hair piled up in a lopsided… something. It didn’t qualify as a bun, since half of it had fallen out, but the intention was there.

After his first glance – accidental, of course, because he absolutely had not been watching the door to see if she’d make it to class – Aiden kept his head in his sketchbook, his fingers smudged grey from the graphite. He heard Jupiter falter on the threshold, then stutter out the same excuse that she’d given him in the library: an unexpected work shift. He wondered how on earth she planned to get through the year if she was dividing her time with working, and then decided it wasn’t his problem. That little twinge of worry in his chest disagreed, but he played it off as his new normal anxiety. It came and went in waves, so much a part of his everyday rhythm now that it no longer surprised him, only made him uncomfortable, but his anti-depressants and daily jogs took the edge off that.

If only his doctor could prescribe something similar when it came to Juniper.

‘Well, you can tell your boss that my classes are far more important, next time,’ Chris said as he peered into his laptop. ‘Your schedule is there for a reason. Keep to it or don’t bother studying here at all.’

Juniper said nothing, only brushed past Aiden’s desk to the seat behind him. He shivered against the cool air she carried with her, scented by a deep cherry perfume that had driven him mad, both at the party and before it. It was worse, now that he knew how it tasted: like almonds and bitterness. He was too aware of it, too aware of every fibre of her.

He decided that, before the lesson started, it was time to bite the bullet and swivelled around on his stool. From his pocket he produced a crumpled leaflet he’d seen in the library yesterday, plucked from the front desk on his way to class. He placed it on her desk, sliding it between her hands so that her lowered gaze would see it.

‘What’s this?’

‘What does it look like, Hodge?’ He couldn’t keep the light teasing from his tone. ‘An exhibition on myths and legends at the British Museum. It’s only on this weekend.’

He might not have held her interest, but this certainly did. Immediately, her dull eyes brightened as she scanned the front page, then flicked through the images of exhibitions that detailed some of the displays. He felt a little bit proud to have cheered her up, but he convinced himself it was only because that was usually impossible. Anybody would have felt good about it. It was like getting ayesfrom Simon Cowell.

‘It’s free entry?’ she asked.

‘Yep. Figured it would help with our research paper – if you can stand to walk around a museum with me for an hour or two, that is.’

She hummed, an edge of weariness flattening her tone. The tip of her thumbnail flicked across the chipped purple nail polish on her index finger. ‘I’m supposed to work, but I can try to leave early.IfI can stand it.’

He rubbed his jaw if only to hide his smirk. ‘It closes at eight, so let me know. If you can’t make it, I’ll send you a postcard from the gift shop.’

She slid the pamphlet away and muttered, ‘Wonderful.’

The rest of their classmates filed in, a hungover Tom soon vying for Aiden’s attention with a story about last night’s antics. He’d been asked to go with them to a local club, but having made the mistake of partying too much once before, he’d politely declined in favour of venting to Luc about Juniper’s bullshit behaviour. Since Luc had already walked in on them mid-sex, he figured he could tell them the rest, even if Luc pulled faces and complained it wasTMIquite often. Other than that, they were pretty chill, and never made Aiden feel like a burden. They’d even opened up about their family in Paris, how they didn’t know they were non-binary yet and London was their chance to truly be themself.