Chapter 08
1200 Words
~ HAILEY ~
The thing about pride was that it didn't survive prolonged exposure to an empty bank account and the desperate need to survive.
I spent the better part of my afternoon telling myself that I had options and I didn't need Brayden Brayden's ridiculous offer to.
I was also currently sitting in the third cafe I had visited today, not as a customer but as someone who had just been told very politely that they weren't hiring. I pulled out my phone and stared at the ceiling for a long moment.
The job at the campus bookstore paid barely enough to cover groceries.
Two or three hours a day of tutoring with my nemesis. How bad can it really be?
I unlocked my phone before I could talk myself out of it again.
~Hey. Is the offer still open?”
I hit send and immediately turned my phone face down on the table like I could unsee what I had just done. My coffee was lukewarm and my mind was calculating a thousand reasons why this was probably the worst mistake ever,
I wrapped both hands around it anyway and stared out the window.
My phone buzzed I flipped it over so fast that I nearly knocked over my cup,
“Brayden: Yeah. Still open.”
Three seconds later, another text came in,
Brayden: Where are you right now?”
I blinked at the screen, then typed back,
~Why~
Brayden: Just tell me.
I hesitated for exactly one second before I sent him the name of the cafe. I expected him to say he would meet me tomorrow, or later tonight, or some buffer of time that would let me mentally prepare, maybe rehearse what I was going to say, maybe talk myself into being normal about this.
Twenty-three minutes later, the door swung open and Brayden walked in. He scanned the room with an unhurried ease until his eyes landed on me.
Seconds later, he was in the seat across from mine,
“Hey…”
“You came fast,” I said and something instantly shifted at the corner of his mouth,
“You sound surprised.”
“I am. I figure you'd— I don't know, make me wait.”
“Why would I do that?”
I opened my mouth, and closed it realizing it was actually a fair question and I didn't have a good answer for it so I let it go and wrapped both hands around my coffee cup again.
“If I'm going to tutor you, I have conditions.”
He leaned back in his chair,. completely calm, “okay.”
“I'm serious Brayden.”
“I can see that. What are the conditions?”
I sat up a little straighter, “First, you stop calling little pumpkin.”
There was silence for about ten seconds before he responded,
“That's your first condition?”
“Yes.”
He tilted his head slightly, “You've been thinking about that?”
“Don't make it weird. Do you agree or not?”
The corner of his mouth curved before he said, “Yeah. No little pumpkin anymore.”
“Thank you.” I cleared my throat, “second.” I paused as this was taking more effort to say out loud. It wasn't because it was complicated, but because the reason behind it was something I wasn't ready to hand to anyone, least of all him.
“I want to keep this between us. Nobody else needs to know.”
Something in his expression shifted. “You mean like… don't tell people you're tutoring me?”
“I mean exactly that.” I met his eyes steadily, “You're Brayden. You're the hockey team captain, people notice things about you, talk about things and I don't…” I stopped for a moment, “I don't want to be talked about. I like being invisible here. I need that.”
He was quiet for a moment and I could tell her wanted to ask why. The question was right there on his face, but something stopped him and I was more grateful for it than I wanted to admit
The truth was simpler and uglier than anything I'd say out loud. The truth was that I had spent the last year of my life attached to someone whose name everyone knew and when he betrayed me, it hadn't just broken me privately. It had broken me in front of everyone.
I wasn't doing that again. Not when I had finally found somewhere I could be nobody.
“Okay,” Brayden said, and I blinked,
“Okay?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged, “We keep it quiet. It's not anyone else's business anyway.”
I studied him for a second, waiting for the catch but there wasn't one,. apparently.
“The sessions would have to be somewhere private then,” I said,. pushing forward before I could overthink.The relief settling in my chest
“Not the library, not the campus cafe. Somewhere people aren't going to see us together and start asking questions.”
He nodded slowly, thinking for a moment before responding as if it were the most natural answer,
“My apartment works.”
I stared at him,
“Sorry?” I murmured, “Your apartment.”
“Yeah.” He blinked, unbothered, "Nobody is going to bother us there.”
“Your apartment,” I repeated because apparently my brain had gotten stuck on the word and couldn't move past it. “As in the place where you live.”
“That's generally what an apartment is.”
“I know what an apartment is, Brayden.”
“Then why do you keep saying the word like it personally offended you?”
I opened my mouth and closed it seconds later as the thought finally settled. The problem was that he wasn't wrong. It was a logical solution. Private, off-campus, no risk of running into anyone who might start asking questions. It made complete, irritating sense.
But it also meant being alone with Brayden in his living space regularly, which was an agreement I had not mentally prepared for today.
"Fine," I said, with as much dignity as I could scrape together.
The corner of his mouth twitched. Just barely. He had the audacity to almost smile about it.
"So we have a deal?" he asked.
I looked at him across the table and finally heaved a sigh before responding, “We have a deal.”
Something relaxed in his expression as he pushed back his chair and rose to his feet, “First session is tomorrow, four-thirty.”
“Four-thirty?”
He nodded, pausing, “Just text me when you're done with your last class, and I'll pick you up.”
Before I could say a word or even protest, he was gone. I groaned deeply, looking down at my phone,
Brayden: See you tomorrow Hailey.
Not little pumpkin. A small smile escaped my lips before I could even take note of it. I told myself the small stupid warmth in my chest was just relief that the arrangement was sorted out,
And damn, I almost believed it.
- Writer
