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But with him, she got lost. Nothing else mattered bar his throaty little whispers and the heat between her legs.

At their interaction, Tilly’s brows danced. Since she’d yet to find an eligible woman on campus, she claimed to be living vicariously through Juni.

Finally, Chris left them to explore the oxides and paints left out at the front of the classroom. Juniper already knew exactly what she wanted. Each branch would represent a different Norse realm with patterns and colours to signify the landscape, and the trunk would be a rough, textured bark in browns and coppers. The plate, sectioned by the tree’s roots, would be painted in celestial blues and golds to form the cosmos.

So, collecting her colours, Juniper got comfortable on her stool and began working – very, very carefully. Her chronic clumsiness was always a worry,so she didn’t dare lose concentration on her paintbrush.

Or, at least not all of it. Tilly soon began chatting, seeming well-practised in this part of the process. She had chosen a pomegranate-coloured powdered glaze that she was currently sieving into a bowl. ‘So. How are you two getting on with the project? When you think about it, it isn’t long until the research paper has to be submitted, and then it’s exhibition time!’

Juniper remained quiet, letting Aiden reply.

He scratched his head with the end of his pencil. ‘It’s going surprisingly well. We’ve got our research planned out, and some of our pieces are coming together.’

‘Hmm, not the only things coming together, I’ve heard.’ Tilly gave a suggestive wink, and behind Juniper, Luc stifled a laugh.

Juniper hushed her as Aiden turned to glance at her in surprise. ‘Are we that obvious, or are you telling people?’

‘Both,’ Tilly said.

‘I’m not tellingpeople,’ Juniper corrected, planting her paintbrush on the paper towel beside her. ‘Just person. One.’ When his grin turned more shit-eating than ever, she added, ‘And don’t think it means something, because it doesn’t. Friends tell each other things. You wouldn’t know because you don’t have any.’

‘I have Luc.’

‘Well, we’re friends of convenience,’ Luc said. ‘But, yes, he did tell me, too.’

It shouldn’t have meant anything. Itdidn’tmean anything. But the rising swell in Juniper’s chest begged to differ. She didn’t know if it was gladness or panic.Both, probably. She was sure that she was one of many sexual conquests for Aiden, a fact she’d tried not to think too hard about, but clearly she was still worth talking about.

‘I just hope you cleaned the desk,’ Tilly muttered in the quiet.

Juniper blazed with embarrassment, made worse when Luc gasped. ‘You did it on thedesk? Gross. You didn’t tell me that!’

‘Shh!’ Aiden and Juniper hissed at the same time.

‘We were perfectly sanitary,’ said Juni. Another reason she preferred private sexual encounters, but those would mean either inviting Aiden to her tiny room or going to his fancy flat, and neither of those felt appealing. Too intimate, and far too contrasting to one another. ‘And we’re not talking about this anymore.’

Aiden adjusted the collar of his flannel shirt and cleared his throat. ‘Anyway, what about you, Tilly? Making progress with Owen?’

‘A little. I think we’re going to visit some museums for inspiration this weekend. Hey, you two should tag along!’

Juniper perked up. She liked the sound of a few extra people joining them this Sunday, both because it meant avoiding her chemistry with Aiden and spending more time with Tilly, who she truly was beginning to adore. She was much more understanding than Juniper’s old friends when it came to Juniper’s struggles, whether it was money or mood swings, and if Juniper was exhausted after a shift, she didn’t feel obligated to talk in her company while they curled up with Cerberus to watch rom-coms.

She’d worried so much about being alone here, but she wasn’t at all. In fact, she was less alone than she had been in a long time. Maybe even ever. It had been difficult to keep up with people back in Manchester. They’d never got her ‘weirder’ parts – her ability to always say the wrong thing and show up to plans at the wrong time. She hadn’t dared open up about having ADHD and how, sometimes, it disabled her, afraid it would only divide them more. And then, when she’d started working, she’d been too burned out to even care about maintaining friendships, with the exception of her then colleague, now ex, the relationship of which had been brief and full of red flags.

‘I’m working until two-thirty on Sunday, but we were actually going to head to the myths and legends exhibition at the British Museum afterwards. You should come! You too, Luc!’

‘As a fifth wheel? No, thank you.’ Luc slipped a chewing gum into their mouth. ‘Besides, Amir and I are focusing on our two different cultures and their geography, so we’ve already been there, done that, got the feet blisters.’

‘Well, if you change your mind, the invitation’s there.’ Truthfully, Juniper appreciated Luc’s honesty. They weren’t all that different to her, never caught appeasing someone with politeness just for the sake of it. If they didn’t want to come, why should they pretend otherwise?

‘I can’t wait.’ Tilly clapped her hands excitedly. Then, quieter, ‘Me and Owen don’t exactly have a lot in common, so I could use the buffer, honestly.’

‘Well, I’ve got you.’ Juniper smiled and headed back to her work, only then noticing that Aiden hadn’t said a word as they’d been planning.

When he headed to the glaze station, she shuffled along to follow him, feigning interest in the spray guns. Meanwhile, he grabbed some colours for his palette, though he looked a bit lost amid all the different choices.

‘Can’t bear to be without me now, Hodge?’ he quipped after a few awkward moments of silence.

‘The opposite, actually, but you’re acting all weird.’