Page 5 of Love, Academically

Not today, thank you very much. She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin.

Jason thought she was pining for him, wasting away waiting for him, and she would prove that she wasn’t. She would prove… what? Lila bit the inside of her cheek. Jason would back off with his bullshit if she had a boyfriend, wouldn’t he?

Black-and-White Lila would be sad and lonely. Technicolour Lila would have a boyfriend.

Lila took a sly glance at the handsome man across the table.

He would be ideal, because who wouldn’t want Dan as a fake boyfriend?

But that wouldn’t work. Why would he be sitting next to Jasmeet and not Lila, his girlfriend?

Besides, Jasmeet was nearly sitting on his lap and it would be easier scraping off limpets than prying her away from Dan.

She turned her eyes slowly to Rhys. He was attractive, yes.

Broad-shouldered and taut, and that scowl could intimidate anyone.

Even her douche doctor of an ex-boyfriend.

“Look Rhys, I know you don’t like me. But please, please, please, pretend be my boyfriend?” She turned what she hoped was a winning, desperate smile on him. A smile that said, PLEASE, in bold and italics.

“What? No.” Rhys shook his head with a huff.

“Rhys,” Dan interrupted, his voice cashmere-smooth. “The lady obviously needs help. Be a gentleman. Help her out.”

Jasmeet placed her hand on Dan’s forearm and gazed at him adoringly. Lila could almost hear her saying ‘What a hero! What a lovely man!’ She worked hard to keep from rolling her eyes.

“Just for tonight Rhys, just for my ex. He’s nearly here. Please?” He wasn’t looking convinced. “I’ll do anything.”

Rhys opened his mouth.

“No,” she said, before he could get any words out. “Anything other than getting you out of that course.”

Rhys gazed at her for three long seconds, eyes narrowed.

“Anything?” he asked.

“Anything.”

Rhys

Lila Cartwright was looking at him like her life depended on it, trademarked smile tucked away and her pink lips pressed together tightly.

She’d actually done something with her hair tonight, and it waved over her shoulders all glossy and shiny.

And she’d put more make up on; the mascara made her eyes soulful and deep.

Anything… except getting him out of the ridiculous course he had to go on.

He glanced at Dan, who was watching expectantly, the curve of his eyebrow saying ‘if you don’t help out her best friend, I don’t have a chance with this girl, so be a good wingman and do it’.

Rhys sighed heavily.

This was the last thing he wanted to do.

He’d just come out for a few quiet drinks and a catch-up with Dan.

So why did he feel like he couldn’t say no?

Although ‘anything’ was a good thing to have on her.

What he could ever need from her, he didn’t know, but he would think of something.

Eventually. That ‘anything’ would be there until the end of time, waiting for him to use it.

“Fine,” he said quietly, hitching his stool closer to hers and laying his arm across the back of her chair. That’s what boyfriends did, right?

“Rhys, you are an absolute lifesaver. I cannot thank you enough.” She leaned into him slightly, smelling of honeycomb and obviously full of nerves.

“Who is he? Why am I doing this?” Rhys asked.

Lila tucked her hair behind her ear and dipped her head. Was she nervous of him, the ex-boyfriend, or the awkwardness of this weird situation?

“Jason is my ex, we’ve been split up for ages and I am completely over him, but he always makes me feel,” she swallowed, “I don’t know, a bit pitiful. That’s it, he pities me, and I hate it.”

“I can understand that,” he told her. “Do you think you could put your smile on? Surely, you should be enjoying yourself with your boyfriend.”

Lila laughed, and it put Rhys at ease a little. Not a lot, but certainly a little.

This would be fine, he could pretend to be Lila’s boyfriend for a couple of hours or so. Just because he hadn’t been a boyfriend for a while, didn’t mean that he had forgotten how to do it.

She looked different outside the harsh fluorescent glow of the History Department, attractive with big blue eyes and plump pink lips.

The duck-egg-blue sleeveless dress complemented her peachy skin — even if the big cameo brooch she was wearing was hideous — and her legs were shapely and lithe.

Wasn’t she cold with bare legs? It wasn’t summer.

But yes, Lila was objectively attractive.

Dan caught his eye and grinned, before turning back to Jasmeet.

Now, Jasmeet was a gorgeous woman, but that high-maintenance, Instagram perfection was completely not Rhys’s type anymore.

However, Dan was pulling out all the stops for her.

Rhys had been here before, watching Dan give that playful smile to girls, asking them where they got their dress from; he was a masterful flirt.

“So tell me, Rhys.” Lila put on the smile like he’d said, and settled back against his arm, sipping her wine. “Why Henry II?”

Now this was a subject he felt comfortable with. He could talk about Henry II and his sons for hours, days, weeks.

“The Angevins are the medieval version of a soap opera,” he started.

“What’s the Angevins?” Lila asked, and Rhys blinked at her.

She worked in the History Department, and she didn’t know one of the most influential medieval royal families?

Actually, he would go as far as to say they were one of the most influential dynasties in the whole of history, not just the medieval period.

“The Angevins were a dynastic house, being Henry II and his children, who included Richard I and John,” Rhys explained.

“Richard the Lionheart? And evil Prince John?” Lila asked, watching him intently. Rhys eyed her warily. He wasn’t used to people taking an interest in his work, especially outside of his close-knit circle of friends. Okay, it was more like a single friend. Dan. And even Dan got bored of it.

“Are you sure you want to talk to me about this? I can go on and on.” Rhys offered her an apologetic grimace.

“Yes, of course. I wouldn’t have asked otherwise,” she said blithely, lips turned up in a little smile.

“Okay then,” he said, shifting slightly in his seat. His thumb nudged the softness of her arm and she twitched. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. Sorry.”

Lila moved slightly, and her arm came to rest against his thumb. Touching was fine, wasn’t it? Touching is what girlfriends and boyfriends did.

Rhys smiled and started at the beginning.

Lila’s smart insights and intelligent questions showed just how much she was taking an interest, and Rhys fully appreciated that.

She’d even laughed when he’d told her about Henry II’s professional farter, Roland le Fartere, going as far as making him spell his last name.

He was just getting to the Thomas Becket debacle in Henry II’s reign when he was rudely interrupted.

“Hey Lila.”

This must be the ex. What was with the way he sang her name? Rhys took an instant dislike to the tall man with the floppy blond hair stood at their table.

“Oh, Jason. Hi,” Lila said with a smile, her voice high enough to feign surprise. Rhys shifted the hand behind her to cup her upper arm. “How are you?”

“Yeah, good thanks,” Jason said, peering at Rhys, who looked straight back at him.

“This is my boyfriend, Rhys. Rhys, this is my ex, Jason.”

“Nice to meet you,” Rhys said. He reached over Lila, holding out his hand. Jason’s grip was weak and insipid, like a dead fish. If there was one thing he’d learned from working at Dallimores, it was how to shake hands properly.

“Yeah, and you,” Jason said, a frown across his forehead. “Jasmeet,” he greeted her.

“Dickhead.”

Okay, so no love lost there then.

Rhys watched Jason expectantly. He’d come over, but did he even have anything to say? Jason looked again between him and Lila.

“Where’s Leanne?” Lila asked, breaking the awkward silence.

“She’s over with our friends,” Jason said, waving a hand over his shoulder. “Li, can I speak to you,” he hesitated, “in private?” Jason jerked his head, indicating a quieter area by a corner.

Li? What kind of stupid, unimaginative nickname was that?

Rhys could see the cogs working in Lila’s mind as she glanced at Jasmeet, whose eyes were impressively hard, boring drill holes into Jason’s face.

“Sure,” she said, sliding from the stool and adjusting her dress. That colour blue really did suit her. “I won’t be long,” she said to Rhys, squeezing his forearm. Good, that was an excellent boyfriend/girlfriend interaction.

Rhys turned back to his drink as Lila wandered away with Jason.

“What?” he asked, feeling Jasmeet’s scowl turn on him.

“What type of boyfriend are you?” She leaned across the table at him, nostrils flaring.

Rhys was unimpressed. “Uh, the fake type.”

“A real boyfriend wouldn’t let Lila deal with that wanker by herself.” Rhys wondered vaguely what Jason had done so Jasmeet wouldn’t even say his name. “You should go over there. Now.”

Rhys frowned. “Lila can handle herself.” And he certainly wasn’t going to jump in the middle of whatever that was.

“She may be able to deal with twatty lecturers at work,” Jasmeet said pointedly, confirming Rhys’s suspicions that Lila Cartwright had been gossiping about him.

“But she can’t deal with Jason. He has a habit of crushing her confidence and destroying her self-esteem.

So, be a good little boyfriend and go over there.

” Jasmeet flicked her fingers at him. “Now, please.”

Rhys scowled at the woman across the table, but she just held his gaze. She was Eleanor of Aquitaine, the She-Wolf of France, and he couldn’t fault her in trying to protect her friend.

“Fine,” Rhys grumbled and stood.

Looking around, he spotted Lila and Jason. He had both hands on her shoulders and his mouth was moving quickly. Rhys could practically see him sucking the life out of Lila.