Chapter 13 — “Jealous Breakfast”
833 Words
The kitchen smelled faintly of toast and warm butter by the time Lily stepped out of her room. She smoothed her hair, pretending her heart wasn’t still pounding from the way Arden—Professor Hale—had looked at her before disappearing into the shower.
She expected to find him seated at the table, reading the news like a normal person.
Instead, he was standing by the counter, arms crossed, eyes fixed on the doorway as if he had been waiting for her.
“Morning,” she said carefully.
His reply came slower, deeper.
“Good morning.”
He wasn’t angry.
Just watching her too closely.
Too quietly.
She walked to the fridge, pretending she didn’t feel his gaze burning into her back, and took out some fruit. When she turned, he was already pulling out a chair for her. She sat. He sat across from her.
Then—her phone buzzed.
Louis again.
Arden’s eyes flicked to it in less than a second.
She quickly turned it face-down, but he had already seen the name.
His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.
Lily cleared her throat and forced a smile.
“You’re quiet this morning.”
He held her gaze for a moment, then said calmly:
“I’m thinking.”
“Oh?” she asked. “About what?”
“You.”
Then he blinked, corrected himself too fast:
“About class schedules. And you.”
She raised an eyebrow. “In what order?”
He didn’t answer.
She reached for her fork, but something felt… off.
He was being overly composed.
Too controlled.
Like a man hiding a storm.
“So…” Lily started slowly, “what’s your plan today?”
Arden took a sip of coffee and shrugged lightly, but his voice betrayed him.
“I’ll be on campus. Office hours. Meetings.”
His eyes lowered.
“Keeping an eye on things.”
“On what things?” she pressed.
He didn’t respond.
He just studied her again, as if memorizing every little expression, every blink, every tiny shift in her posture.
She shoveled a piece of fruit into her mouth to break the tension.
But then she noticed something.
His phone, face-up on the table, had a notification from the university’s messaging app:
Office hours canceled. No meetings today.
Lily stared at the screen.
Slowly lifted her eyes.
He wasn’t going to campus.
“You’re not going in today?” she asked carefully.
Arden didn’t even look down.
He already knew what she saw.
“Plans changed,” he said.
“Oh?” she said, studying him. “Changed how?”
He leaned back in his chair, voice soft but too controlled.
“I thought I’d stay nearby.”
“Nearby like… here?”
“Nearby like wherever you’ll be,” he said quietly.
Her breath caught.
“And why,” she whispered, “would you need to do that?”
Silence.
A long, careful silence.
Then he set his mug down and said with absolute calm:
“Because you’re getting messages from Louis at seven in the morning.”
“It was just a good-morning text.”
“With a heart.”
“So?”
“So I don’t like it.”
Lily blinked. She hadn’t expected him to admit it so plainly. She opened her mouth to speak, but then her phone buzzed again.
Another message from Louis.
Arden didn’t even hide that he was reading the preview on the screen.
Louis: Are we still studying tonight? I can come early 😉
Arden inhaled.
Exhaled.
And then said, like a man trying very, very hard to stay civil:
“You’re not meeting him alone.”
Lily’s eyebrows shot up.
“Excuse me?”
He folded his arms, eyes hardening with a quiet intensity that made her shiver.
“I’ll be there.”
“You’re going to spy on me?” she demanded.
His reply was instant.
“Yes.”
Lily choked on her own breath.
“Arden!”
“I’m not going to hide it,” he said, leaning in, voice low. “I don’t trust him.”
“You don’t even know him.”
“I know how he looks at you.”
His eyes sharpened, a dangerous softness underneath.
“And I know how I do.”
The room went silent.
Lily’s heartbeat thundered in her ears.
“So you’re jealous,” she whispered.
He didn’t deny it.
Instead, he reached out and slid her phone toward him, his fingers brushing hers—slow, possessive, deliberate.
“I’m not spying on you,” he said quietly.
“I’m protecting what matters to me.”
Her breath stopped.
“What… matters to you?”
His eyes locked on hers, raw and unguarded for the first time.
“You.”
Lily felt her throat close.
Before she could respond, someone knocked loudly on the apartment door—shattering the charged atmosphere instantly.
Arden didn’t look away from her.
“This isn’t over,” he murmured.
And she believed him.
- Writer
