Page 36 of Love, Academically

Goodness. Jason had never done anything like that. Minimal foreplay and then he was all about getting his kicks. He’d flop back and say ‘shit, that was great, wasn’t it?’. Then she’d say ‘yeah, it was’, and snuggle on his chest whilst planning her next evening in by herself.

Rhys actually seemed to want her to… well, come. A lot. With him. On him. On his face, his fingers, his dick. Well.

She was home for about ten minutes before Jasmeet arrived, had chopped everything and put the pasta on to boil.

“Babe, have you got any wine in the fridge?” Jasmeet called, using her key and slamming the door behind her.

“Yep, pouring now,” Lila called from the kitchen.

Jasmeet threw her bag on the sofa and grabbed the large glass Lila had poured from the side.

“Babe, I’m sorry. I’ve been so preoccupied,” Jasmeet said, sipping her wine. “God, I needed that.”

Lila balanced the wooden spoon on the edge of the saucepan and hugged her friend.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“What are you sorry for? You haven’t done anything!” Jasmeet said, hugging her back.

The hug was tinged with guilt because she had done something wrong. She’d doubted Jasmeet. She’d been so selfish when frankly, there were other, more important things going on.

“Tell me what’s going on,” she said to Jasmeet, her arms still tight around her.

“Oh god, it’s just a horrid kid and a horrid parent,” Jasmeet said, extricating herself. “I want to hear about Rhys.”

Rhys. How was she supposed to tell her best friend about the filthy things Rhys had said to her. Answer: she wasn’t going to. No way.

“The evening went well, really well,” she said, turning back to the pan.

“And…?” Jasmeet pressed. “Why was he miserable? What happened?”

“Oh,” Lila said. “Well, we came back here, and we were, you know…”

This was so awkward. Lila was not used to talking about this stuff.

Jasmeet, however, did not have any such issues with talking about sex.

“You were getting down to it, you dog,” she said, clapping her hands gleefully. “I’m so proud of you! Well done! Was he good? I bet he was good, that tight little ass—”

“Uh, you’ve got a boyfriend.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t look!” she said. “Was he?”

“Didn’t get that far. He stopped it before we could.”

Jasmeet raised her eyebrows.

“Is that Comfort Carbonara ready? I feel this is a story we need it for.”

Lila smiled and dished up.

Over a bottle of wine and the creamiest, most garlicky pasta ever, Lila told her everything. Well, not everything everything. Certainly not repeating Rhys’s words from earlier in the day. She couldn’t even think them without blushing hot-rod red.

“Lila’s got a boyfriend,” Jasmeet sang, her eyes slightly wobbly after two large glasses of wine.

“You’re silly,” Lila said with a tipsy laugh. She most certainly did not. It was just a shag she was after, wasn’t it? Someone to fill the coldness of her bed now and again, because Rhys’s touch would be infinitely better than her own.

Obviously, Rhys wanted to sleep with her, he’d said as much. Taking her out on a date was a courtesy. He hadn’t said anything about a relationship, he’d said ‘fuck’. He’d said it a lot.

“Dessert?” she asked, changing the subject.

“I usually have Dan for dessert,” Jasmeet said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Oh God, I do not need to know that.”

Lila cleared the table and served vanilla cheesecake, with the remnants of the cream. Calorie counting was not on the agenda tonight. They decanted themselves to the sofa and curled up under blankets.

“Can I stay tonight? I don’t want to get a taxi and then come back for my car tomorrow,” Jasmeet said.

“’Course you can,” Lila said. She’d anticipated as much. “Tell me what’s happening at work.”

“Well,” Jasmeet said, launching into a story about a tantrumming child disrupting the entire class for hours on end, and a parent who – after having an equal tantrum – felt that Jasmeet, as Miss Patel, should effectively parent this child to the exclusion of all other students.

“Stupid parent went to the Head. Had to have a meeting with her.”

“What happened?”

Jasmeet rolled her eyes. “I have to ensure that all students are treated equally. There may be additional learning factors for this child and I need to assess him. Which is damned hard to do with a class of thirty-two already, and only one teaching assistant for two children with Special Educational Needs.”

“That’s shit. What did your Head say?”

“Nothing. There’s no more funding for any extra help. I just have to do my best. But if my best isn’t good enough, I leave the school open to ‘further complaints’ and there will ‘therefore be consequences’,” Jasmeet said.

“Oh Jas, that’s awful,” Lila said, patting her friend’s leg.

“It is what it is, and that’s why I’ve been a bit distracted,” Jasmeet grimaced. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” she said, gifting her friend her most sincere smile. Jasmeet nodded.

“Can we watch something easy?” Jasmeet asked, pouring more wine into her glass. “I don’t want to think.”

“Sure.” Lila automatically handed the remote controller over to Jasmeet, who flicked Love Island on.

“I love this,” she said. “It’s utter trash, but so addictive.”

Lila grinned. She actually didn’t like it and had only watched it when Jasmeet was here, but if that’s what her friend needed, that’s what she would do.

“Who is more important than Love Island?” Jasmeet, curled up on one end of the sofa, nudged her with her foot. “It’s Rhys isn’t it? You’re texting Rhys!”

“Look, I’m just trying to find out what we’re doing on Saturday so I can dress correctly.”

“It seems like all you need is a pair of edible underwear.”

“Jas! Shut up!” If she hadn’t already turned fuchsia pink, then she was now. “Edible underwear? Is that even a thing?”

“Lila, you haven’t lived!” she crowed. “I’ll get you some!”

“Don’t you dare, Jas.” She slapped her on the leg. “Don’t you dare!”

Rhys

He shouldn’t keep teasing her, he shouldn’t, but the way she wet her lips when she asked him if he wanted to have sex with her was his undoing.

He liked her flushed and wide-eyed. More than liked it.

The floodgates had opened, quite literally, and he couldn’t keep his cock down.

The unsatisfactory tugs in the cold showers that he had started taking every morning and every evening since seeing Lila in that dress, were becoming less and less effective.

Especially when she texted him asking what she should wear to their date, because it had him envisioning all sorts of lingerie, like silken tops that clung to hard nipples.

Fuck.

Thing was, it didn’t matter what she wore (yes, even that awful fucking dress that hurt his eyes), because she was so unabashedly her in all her clothes.

And that’s what Rhys wanted. Her. Not just for a shag, not just to relieve his blue balls.

He wanted her vanilla smell wrapped around him like a goddamned snuggly blanket.

But mostly, he wanted to collect each and every one of her smiles and to be the reason for them.

She gave him the courage to be the man he wanted to be. She believed in him, and that was something that had been sorely lacking in his life.

God-fearing Llewellyn Dallimore believed in the best steel girders, the strength of your concrete, and the Welsh rugby team. He and, come to think of it, literally every person in his father’s orbit, were just pawns to be moved around his Welsh Monopoly board.

Whereas Lila offered so much belief and trust and, well, happiness, that he nearly couldn’t bear the thought that she might not want to offer it to him.

Why would she? Lila had given all of that away to Dickhead Jason and look where that had got her – a load of debt, a diminished sense of self-worth and serious trust issues with men (which was absolutely fair, given the way that wanker had treated her).

He was just going to have to prove to her that he wasn’t like Jason, that he wanted all of her, just how she was.

Because she was perfect. Yes, she was too glittery by far, too saccharine, too smiley but that, apparently, was exactly what he needed.

No, what he wanted in his life. The realisation expanded in his chest and he placed a hand to his ribs to keep it all in.

There was something he could do for her.

Rhys sat at his kitchen table with his laptop and googled the hospital and ‘Dr Jason Douchebag’. On second thoughts, ‘Douchebag’ probably wasn’t his second name and most likely wouldn’t show up on the hospital staff list. Fine. Delete.

Rhys sat in his car behind the friendly sky-blue Petunia at twenty past five on Saturday, ten minutes before he was due to pick Lila up.

She wouldn’t be ready, but he couldn’t sit in his dull flat anymore.

Restless cleaning only took an hour because he’d been doing it for the past two fucking weeks to try to keep his mind from tracking back to the softness of her lips, the eagerness of her kiss.

It wouldn’t be tonight. No, he was going to take his time. Lila deserved savouring, she deserved dating. Showing that he was there for more, not just taking what he wanted and fucking off.

It was one of those October afternoons that was nearly summer warm, but with a biting wind that promised if you forgot your coat for any time after six, it would rob you of all feeling in your fingers.

Right. He couldn’t wait anymore. Knocking on her door, he shuffled the flowers in his arms. Flowers were definitely too much – he should just put them in the boot of the car and forget he’d bought them.

Lila would like them though, wouldn’t she?

Rhys had spent way too long in three different florists before he settled on a bouquet, so he couldn’t very well put them in the boot and write off the afternoon as a waste.

“It’s open, Rhys!” she called from behind the door. “Come in!”

He pushed the door open and was hit with honey-sweet warm air.