Page 39 of I Don't Need Your Romance

“You got most of it,” I say in an encouraging tone. “We might have to go over this again later. For now, let’s take a break from chem and move on to something else.”

It takes an hour until we finish going over everything. I normally would dismiss him, but I’m worried he’ll fall behind in chem if he doesn’t understand it crystal clear right now. So we spend another half an hour revisiting it. Damian understands it much better, but he still struggles.

“I’ll send you some notes tonight to help you understand it better,” I tell him. “Don’t worry, you’ll be a chem expert soon.”

He’s quiet for a moment as his forehead creases. “Do you already have the notes or do you have to type them up?”

I shake my head. “I have to type them up. I’ve never had to go over this material before because I usually tutor students from lower grades. But it’s no big.” I take out my notebook and write myself a reminder to do that tonight.

“Don’t bother,” he says. “I wouldn’t want you to put in all that work. I’m good.”

My eyes lift to his. “What? No, it’s totally okay. I’m your tutor and it’s my job to make sure you understand the material. Mrs. Sullivan is pretty tough. I really don’t want you to fall behind.”

“Sophie, I don’t want you to do this. I don’t care that much about school. All I need is to pass.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “I don’t care what you want, Damian. I’m your tutor and I want to do this because I know this will be beneficial to you, and it’ll make my life easier, too. So I’m doing it. End of story.”

He watches me for a moment before shaking his head with a small smile. “You’ve got fire, Reed.”

“I have to in order to deal with people like you,” I mutter.

His eyes widen in shock and then he laughs.

My eyes widen, too. I so did not mean for that to come out. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.”

He shakes his head. “No, that was good. I told you that you’re tough and can stick up for yourself. You’re much different from what I thought.”

“So you said.” I start packing up my things. “You did good today. Try to review as much of what we learned when you get back to your apartment. And don’t forget to do the homework.”

“Okay.” He stands and slings his backpack over his shoulder. “Thanks for the lesson.”

My brows rise in surprise. Is this the first time he thanked me for a lesson?

“No problem.” I smile.

He turns to leave and I grabDying to Kiss You. Time to reread my favorite parts and swoon, squeal, laugh, cry, and yell.

Damian lingers at the table before lowering his backpack to the floor. “You’re really that hooked on the book?”

I slowly lift my eyes. “Yeah. Is something wrong with that?”

“No. It’s just that I’ve never seen anyone so obsessed with a book before.” He pulls out the chair he vacated a few seconds ago and sits back down. “Not to offend you or anything, but it’s almost like you prefer to live in those fictional worlds instead of the real world.”

“Why should that offend me? You’re right.”

His brows fly up. “You’d rather live in a fake world instead of the real world?”

“Uh, duh. Why would I want to live in the real world when the fake world is so much better?”

“Because…well, you can’t experience any of that from a book. You can only experience that in real life.”

I snort. “You obviously have not read a romance book. Because almost every romance reader will tell you that in most cases, books are far better than real life.”

He stares at me like I beamed down from another planet. “There’s no way a book is better than real life.”

“Heck it is, especially in romance.”

He continues to stare at me as though he’s trying to make sense of what I just said. “So you’d be totally fine with never experiencing romance in real life as long as you can experience it fictitiously through a book?”