Chapter 63: Quiet Mornings and Clever Tricks

Chapter 63: Chapter 63: Quiet Mornings and Clever Tricks

I slept through the entire night and apparently decided that most of the morning could go too. By the time I finally opened my eyes, it was almost ten, which was probably the longest I’d slept in weeks.

My vision was still a little blurry, so I blinked a few times and waited for the room to come into focus. The first thing I made out was Nicole, sitting beside me on the bed with a book in her hands. She was leaning comfortably against the headboard, her legs stretched out in front of her and her attention fixed on the pages.

I stared at her for a while, not particularly bothered by the fact that she was the first thing I saw when I woke up.

Then I noticed the glasses. She was wearing a pair I’d never seen before, and they suited her perfectly well. Her white shirt had slipped off one shoulder, leaving the black strap of her bra in plain sight. Knowing Nicole, I wasn’t entirely convinced that was an accident. She also had on cream lounge pants, which somehow did nothing to make her any less attractive.

The necklace I’d given her was around her neck, too, the pendant resting against her skin. Seeing it there still made me smile a little.

She was still focused on her book and hadn’t noticed that I was awake. I stayed where I was, watching her read, with no particular plan beyond enjoying the view for a little longer.

She flipped a page, then glanced in my direction. Her eyes landed on me, and she paused, a smile slowly spreading across her face.

"You’re awake."

"Good morning," I said, stretching my arms above my head before letting them fall back onto the bed.

Nicole closed her book and set it aside on the bed beside her before turning toward me properly. "Good morning."

I smiled at that, settling back into the pillows before glancing toward the clock. 9:36 AM.

"Did I seriously sleep until almost ten?"

Nicole smiled. "Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Although, I didn’t realize you were so easy to keep in bed."

I smiled, deciding not to give her the satisfaction of a reply. Instead, I sat up a little straighter and looked at her properly. "I didn’t know you wore glasses."

She touched the frame lightly, her smile turning a little smug. "You’d be surprised by how much you still don’t know about me." She pushed her glasses up her nose. "Guess you’ll have to keep spending time with me."

"You really don’t miss an opportunity, do you?" I said, smiling at her.

"To flirt with a hot, handsome guy like yourself? Never." Nicole smiled sweetly, as if she’d said something perfectly reasonable.

I couldn’t help smiling at her. My eyes wandered briefly to the black strap resting against her bare shoulder before returning to her face, but apparently, that was all the time she needed. Her gaze dipped to my lips, then drifted a little lower before returning to my eyes. The playful look she gave me had taken on a decidedly sultry edge.

Suddenly, I was a lot more aware of myself than I’d been a few seconds ago. It was morning, I’d only just woken up, and my body hadn’t exactly consulted me before reminding me that I was, in fact, a guy.

Nicole kept looking at me, her smile growing more knowing by the second.

Yeah, no. I knew that look.

"Okay, time to get up," I announced, throwing the covers aside and swinging my legs over the edge of the bed before she could come up with another reason to keep me there.

Nicole burst out laughing behind me, and I couldn’t help grinning as I got to my feet.

"Where are you going?" Nicole asked, still laughing.

"As far away from you as possible."

She laughed again. "I didn’t even do anything."

"Sure you didn’t."

I shook my head, still grinning, and headed for the door.

There were several bathrooms in this house, and I was perfectly capable of finding one that didn’t come with Nicole attached to it. I decided one of the guest bathrooms was the safer option. Besides, I’d already given her enough material for one morning.

—

By the time I finished showering and brushing my teeth, I’d mostly recovered from the morning’s earlier attempt on my self-control, and I intended to keep it that way.

The smell of breakfast led me toward the kitchen, where I found Nicole putting the last few things away. She’d apparently been up for hours, which explained why she’d been sitting in bed reading while I was still busy sleeping through the morning.

"You’re just in time," she said when she noticed me. "I kept everything warm for you."

I looked toward the stove. "You made breakfast?"

"Of course I did." She gave me a look as though I’d asked whether she knew how to boil water. "I finished around eight, but you looked so comfortable when I checked on you that I didn’t want to wake you."

I wasn’t sure what to do with that information. On one hand, sleeping that late was slightly embarrassing. On the other, she’d made breakfast hours ago and left it waiting for me simply because she didn’t want to disturb me.

"Thanks, Nicole."

"I would’ve preferred a kiss, but I’ll manage." She gave me a smug little smile, clearly quite pleased with herself.

I huffed a laugh and shook my head as I took a seat at the table, still smiling. Nicole’s smile only grew as she settled down across from me.

We ate together, talking about nothing particularly important, and I found myself enjoying the quiet morning more than I’d expected. There was something easy about spending time with Nicole like this. No rushing between classes, no worrying about getting back to my apartment, and no reason to pretend I wasn’t perfectly happy being there.

After breakfast, I helped clear the table before settling down in the dining area with a textbook I’d borrowed from her study. My phone was beside it, displaying a PDF of some of her course materials. My first tests were tomorrow, but I was confident enough in my preparation that I could afford to spend some time reviewing Wednesday’s material.

ME 302, officially called Applied Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, was scheduled for Wednesday. Most of us just called it Thermodynamics, which my course mates seemed to think made it sound less threatening. It didn’t, of course. The course was by far the most difficult one we’d be taking this year, covering enough material to make you question your life choices if you fell behind.

Thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and the problems that came from combining the two weren’t exactly things you could bluff your way through with a decent memory and a few hours of frantic revision. And because Professor Collins apparently believed suffering built character, we were about to get a lot of character development.

I glanced between the textbook and the PDF, working through a section I’d been meaning to revisit. I wasn’t panicking about Wednesday, but there was no reason to wait until Tuesday night to start preparing for a test I already knew would be difficult.

I’d been at it for a while when I heard footsteps approaching. I looked up just as Nicole walked over, pulled out the chair opposite me, and sat down, her attention settling on the open textbook.

"Hi," Nicole said.

I stopped reading and looked up at her. She smiled at me as though she hadn’t just interrupted my studying for no apparent reason.

I stared back at her for a moment.

What are you doing?

I could ask, obviously. But that would require talking to her, and talking to Nicole was usually how these things started. I’d answer one question, she’d ask another, and before I knew it, I’d somehow agreed to something I hadn’t even realized was being negotiated.

I wasn’t making that mistake today. I knew Nicole well enough to guess what she was after. She wanted to study with me, which meant giving me a head start on a test she would later pretend was equally difficult for everyone.

I lowered my eyes to the textbook and continued reading.

Nicole went quiet. For about three seconds. Then I heard a small, distinctly unhappy sigh.

I glanced at her and noticed the small pout on her face before lowering my eyes back to the textbook.

For a while, Nicole didn’t say anything else. She simply sat across from me, watching as I worked through the material.

I managed to get through another section before reaching a problem that required a little more attention. I picked up my phone, opened the calculator app, and started working through the numbers.

"Nathan."

I looked up at her. "Hm?"

She hesitated for a moment, her fingers resting against the edge of the table.

"I just wanted to say..." She looked down briefly, then back at me. "Thank you."

I blinked. "For what?"

"For being so good to me." Her smile softened as she held my gaze. "I know I can be a little much sometimes."

I raised an eyebrow.

She laughed, looking down at the table for a moment. "Okay. Maybe a lot."

I smiled, and she looked back at me, her expression softening again.

"But you’ve never tried to take advantage of that. Of how I feel about you, I mean." She paused, running her thumb along the edge of the table. "You’ve never made me feel like... like I have to give you something just because I want to be close to you. Even when you know how much I want that."

Her voice grew quieter. "I don’t think you know how much that means to me."

For a moment, I didn’t know what to say.

I looked into her eyes, and there was no teasing smile to hide behind this time, no playful expression or clever little trick to distract me. Just Nicole, looking at me with so much love that I could almost feel it settling somewhere in my chest.

I didn’t even realize I was smiling.

I had a feeling I was supposed to say something romantic here, so I said the first thing that came to mind.

"I’m still not letting you study with me."

Nicole stared at me for a second, then burst into laughter.

I smiled at her and returned to my reading. Nicole was still smiling when she pulled out her phone, apparently content to keep me company while I studied.