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Carter chuckles and rises from his seat. He drags his chair to mine and sits down next to me. He leans back and grabs my assignment brief, reading through it patiently. Then he laughs again and shakes his head.
“Minx, this is basic stats,” he says. My heart skips a beat. I’m no longer used to him calling me Minx, and what used to be a regular nickname now feels like something intimate. I blush and shake my head.
“It’s not,” I argue petulantly. “Basic stats is about marbles and shit. This is torture. I don’t understand why I need to know this.”
Carter grins and puts his arm around my shoulder. I peek at Lisa, but she hasn’t so much as looked up at us. I want to know what’s going on between them. They’re acting like they’re just friends, but some of the photos I’ve seen of the two of them made it look like they were definitely more than that. At least he hasn’t introduced her as his girlfriend. What would I have done if he did?
“Come on. I’ll explain it to you,” he murmurs, and I snap out of my thoughts.
Carter leans in and proceeds to break down every single step of the calculations. He’s far more patient than I ever would’ve expected. He’s serious and he doesn’t joke around at all. He’s explained things to me before back in high school, but it’s different this time. I always knew he was ridiculously smart, but I’m impressed nonetheless.
Carter makes up a few examples and hands me his tablet. “Now you try,” he tells me. I nod and get to work. Carter returns to his own stuff and occasionally checks in with me to point me in the right direction.
“Shit. I think I get it,” I whisper.
Carter chuckles. “If you’re struggling with this, then you should probably know it’s only going to get harder, Emilia.”
I nod and bite down on my lip. I really am going to need a tutor to get through this. There’s no way I’ll be able to do it otherwise.
“I’ll do it,” Carter says. I frown at him and tilt my head in question. “I’ll be your tutor.”
I blink at him in disbelief. “I do need a tutor, but I think I’ll try learning by myself first. I don’t think I can afford one anyway,” I murmur. I’ll never get over all these feelings that have resurfaced if he tutors me. We’ll be too close too often.
Carter grins and grabs my chin. He turns my face toward his and I scowl at him. His eyes drop to my lips, where they linger, until he pulls away.
“Hmm, Minx. You don’t have to pay me in cash. You can pay me with your body.”
I look at him with wide eyes, and he bursts out laughing. “You can cook for me, Emilia. Cook for me in return for tutoring. I’m happy to get you the ingredients too. Asher and I built some apps that are bringing in a decent amount of cash, but you know I can’t cook for shit. I miss the food Mom and you used to make. It’d be nice to have that as a treat every once in a while.”
I’m not used to this flirty version of Carter. When we were younger, he was often sweet rather than flirty, and I’m a little thrown off. I hesitate and end up nodding against my better judgement. I know he and I shouldn’t spend more time together. The more I find myself alone with him, the harder it gets to resist him. We’ve finally found ourselves at a stage where we can actually be friends again. I can’t mess that up by falling for him all over again.
“Okay,” I whisper, unable to resist. “Yeah, I guess that might work.”
Chapter 4
Carter
The doorbell rings and I walk up to it nervously. I’ve been antsy waiting for Emilia today. I don’t know what I was thinking offering to tutor her. It’s obvious there’s still something between us. If I want to be friends with her, I shouldn’t be finding opportunities to be alone with her. Why the hell do I keep thinking with my dick instead of my head?
“Hey,” she says, her voice soft. Emilia looks cute as fuck today. She’s got her hair in a messy bun and she’s wearing leggings with an oversized tee. She looks comfy and stunning. My heart warms when she starts to fidget with the hem of her tee and bites down on her lip — classic giveaways of her nerves. I grin, relieved that she’s just as affected as I am.
“Hey,” I murmur. Emilia follows me into the apartment, and I lead her to the living room. “I usually study at the coffee table. We can move to the dining table if you want, though.”
She shakes her head and drops to the floor. She’s quiet as she unpacks her books. She’s been avoiding me lately, and she hasn’t responded to any of the little pranks I pulled whenever we ran into each other. I’ve stuck random dumb stickers on her back, and one time I stuck a fake spider on her backpack, but she hasn’t retaliated at all.
I’m low key glad that I’ve finally found a way to get her to spend time with me. I told myself I’d stay away from her, but now that she’s here, I find that I’ve missed her too much. I miss the bond we used to have. We were good friends before we fucked it all up.
I grab a pillow and sit down next to her, my thigh grazing hers. I’m no longer a teenager, but being near Emilia is still enough to make me hard. I grab another pillow and place it over my lap. Emilia glances at me and stares at the pillow in confusion before it finally clicks. She looks at me in disbelief and blushes. She seems flustered where she used to look smug, and I suddenly feel awkward. It irritates me that I can’t control my body’s response around her. I want to be friends with her, but my body has other ideas.
“So how do you wanna do this?” she asks. I grab her book and start flicking through it.
“How about we both just study, and once you run into a problem, I’ll break it down for you.”
Emilia nods and starts working. I try to concentrate on my own assignments, but all I can focus on is Emilia. She’s still using the same perfume I gave her. Did the bottle last that long or did she buy herself another one? I didn’t go home for her birthdays. The last two years were the first birthdays we didn’t spend together ever since she walked into my life. Every year I stupidly bought her a new bottle of perfume, though. Just in case I decided to go. I’m pretty sure I have two bottles stuffed somewhere in my sock drawer.
Emilia sighs and I glance over at her. She’s got her brows scrunched up in such a cutesy way that I’m instantly filled with tenderness. “What’s wrong?” I murmur. She points at a math problem and I glance at it over her shoulder.
“That one is actually quite complicated,” I admit. I grab her pen and write out every step to take as I walk her through it. Instead of paying attention, she just looks at me in awe.
