WANTED A FLING BUT IT'S A NIGHT

CHAPTER 7 (THE RHETT EFFECT)

CHAPTER SEVEN

By Monday morning, the weather turned. The skies, once bright and forgiving, now hung low and grey, like they were brooding over something.

Asher stood in front of the hostel’s mirror, brushing out his curls with one hand and texting Zayn with the other.

**ASHER**: Don’t forget to save me a seat in 102. I’m coming late.

Zayn replied almost instantly.

**ZAYN**: You’re always late, stop acting like it’s new. I got you. Come with something sweet for me or I unfriend you.

Asher smiled to himself. The routine with Zayn was familiar. Grounding. But his mind was somewhere else entirely.

It wasn’t until he stepped into the lecture hall twenty-five minutes later that the tension in his chest returned.

He wasn’t looking for Rhett. He didn’t expect to see him here—Rhett’s lectures were across campus. But somehow, his eyes still scanned the room.

Zayn waved him over. “You look like a kid about to sit for WAEC,” he said.

“Feels like it.” Asher slid into the seat. “Only difference is, the distraction’s not math. It’s a man with killer cheekbones.”

Zayn choked on his coffee. “You’re gone.”

Asher leaned back, sighing. “I think I am.”

---

The day dragged. Lectures melted into each other like watercolors. Names of theorists blurred. Presentations passed. Asher scribbled notes, nodded when he needed to, but his mind kept slipping into the space between mango tea and library silences.

By 3 p.m., he was emotionally exhausted.

Zayn wasn’t.

“Let’s go get your recently turned favorite mango juice” he said as they walked across campus. “My treat. But you tell me everything again, from the party night to now. Word for word.”

Asher groaned. “You already know the story.”

“Yeah, but I want to hear it again, this time with feelings.”

They sat under one of the metal-roofed benches by the law faculty cafeteria—the same place Asher had noticed Rhett disappear into weeks ago.

Zayn listened with one ear while scarfing down fries. “So let me get this straight. He stayed the night. Left without a word. Then gave you mango tea. Then ghosted. Then popped up in the library like a casual hurricane. And now you’re here... melting.”

“Yeah.”

“Damn,” Zayn said, sipping

slowly. “I thought I had drama.”

Asher looked up, hopeful. “Is it too much? Am I reading into it?”

Zayn shook his head. “Nah. You’re just experiencing what we call... a classic case of the Rhett Effect. The boy’s a phantom. He shows up, wrecks your breathing pattern, and disappears again.”

Asher pushed his fries around in the foil. “I want to see him again.”

And as if summoned by the universe, a voice spoke behind them.

“I could say the same.”

Asher turned.

Rhett stood there, hands in his pockets, eyes darker than the clouds overhead.

Zayn blinked. “Okay... so now I believe in fate.”

Rhett ignored the comment, eyes locked on Asher. “Can we talk?”

Zayn stood up like he’d been trained for this moment. “I’ll go. My fries are finished anyway.”

He tossed the wrapper, winked at Asher, and vanished into the crowd.

Rhett slid into the seat Zayn left behind. "You said you wanted to see me."

Asher swallowed. “I didn’t mean to say it out loud.”

“But you did.”

Asher met his gaze. “So? Why are you here?”

Rhett looked down at his hands. “I didn’t come for class. I was... hoping I’d find you. Again.”

Something inside Asher shifted.

Not shattered. Not exploded.

Just... clicked.