Page 38 of I Don't Need Your Romance

He holds out his hands. “It’s okay. No one died. I’m sure you had a good reason for being late.”

“Totally.” I pull out my textbooks and notebooks and place them on the table. “I finished the mystery book during lunch and missed it so much that I found an empty classroom after school to reread my favorite parts. But I was only supposed tosqueeze in enough reading until our session. I didn’t mean to go overtime.”

His brows crease. “You missed the book?”

“Sure. Haven’t you ever missed something as soon as you finished it?”

He thinks and then gives me a “not really” face.

“Like, let’s say you’re watching a really good movie and you’re loving it so much that you don’t want it to end, right? Then itdoesend and you’re left empty. You miss the movie and want to experience it all over again. So you watch it again.”

He makes a face like he has never experienced that.

I tuck some hair behind my ear. “Fine, maybe I’m the odd girl out here.”

He shakes his head. “You’re good.”

My gaze drops to his textbook and notebook. “I don’t want to embarrass you or anything, but I’m so proud that you’re doing your homework, Damian. See, I told you that you’re smart.”

He shifts in his seat. “I’m just getting a head start so I can have free time later.”

“Yeah, right. You want to do well in school. Admit it.”

He purses his lips for a second, and it looks like he wants to say something, but he keeps quiet.

Not wanting to discourage him or chase him away, I say, “So how about you do the math problems so I can assess how well you understood what we learned today? There’s a lot we need to cover in chem, so we might have to dedicate most of our time to that, especially because we’re a little behind schedule. Sorry again about that.”

“You don’t have to keep apologizing, Sophie. You’re only a human. You can come late once in a while.”

I shake my head. “I’mneverlate to anywhere school-related.”

He smiles wryly. “Maybe that’s next on the agenda—how to get our goody-goody to come late to things that actually don’t really matter.”

I lift a brow. “First of all, no thank you. And second of all, are you saying school doesn’t matter?”

“Not in the long run. It’s pointless to drive yourself crazy trying to be the perfect student when it won’t matter in twenty years.”

I rub my pencil across my lips. “You might be right that we won’t care about these years when we’re older and are living our own lives. But it matters to me right now, and that’s all I care about.”

He’s quiet for a moment or two before saying, “Fair enough. But I’ll get you to rebel against that, too.”

“I’d sooner kiss your pet turtle.”

“I don’t have a pet turtle.”

“Well, if you had one, I’d kiss it.”

“I’m sure it would appreciate it.”

I can’t help but laugh. Then I shake my head and say, “Please do the problems.”

As he does that, I go over my chem notes and look in the textbook to figure out exactly what I need to review with Damian. Chem tends to kick my butt sometimes, too, so I want to make sure I understand it perfectly before I teach it to him.

As we work in silence, I’m reminded of Friday afternoon, when he sat in silence next to me after I was on video call with my parents as they visited the cemetery. I thought he might try to ask me about it, but it seems he has no intention of doing so. I’m really grateful for that because I really don’t want to talk about it.

Damian finishes the problems and slides his paper across the table. I quickly look them over and learn that he got mostof them right. After I tell him what to correct, we put our math work aside and focus on chemistry.

Damian doesn’t say much, but I can tell from his eyes that he’s frustrated with what I’m trying to teach him. I don’t blame him because it’s pretty difficult. I’m grateful he’s not storming away but is trying to actually understand the material.