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He begrudgingly shrugged and then sighed. “I’m making up last week’s work. With football, it can-”
“Relax, Vaughn. I’m not going to judge you. Not in here, anyway. This is a safe space.” I looked up at him and we both laughed. “You know what I mean. You don’t need to explain yourself to me. Let’s just get it done. Okay?”
He studied my face until I felt it go warm. Leaning towards the book, I looked away from him and dismissed his lingering stare.
“Okay.” Vaughn cracked his knuckles and grabbed his pencil. “The sooner this is over, the sooner I can get out of here. Libraries are for nerds.”
Rolling my eyes at him, I had him pull up his syllabus and then I dove into working through what he did and didn’t understand. It was tricky because I could feel him grow defensive with each thing he didn’t understand. I’d worked as a tutor through high school, though, and I did my best to work around his discomfort like I was still getting paid for it. We worked together, heads down, until finally he sat back with a laugh.
I grinned at him. “You got it?”
He nodded and grinned back at me. “You made it make sense. Are you going to be a teacher when you grow up?”
“Nope. When I grow up, I’m going to be a lawyer.” I looked down at his notebook and shrugged. “I had it all planned out. Graduate from Penn, get into law school, and go on to save the world. And then I lost my mind and followed Billy here.”
Vaughn was quiet for a few seconds and then cleared his throat. “You’re smart, Ella. You’ll get what you want.”
I lifted my head and met his warm gaze. He was being nice and we were having a normal interaction. It was so unexpected that I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. We’d moved closer together while working and neither of us had moved back into our own space. I watched as his eyes flicked down to my lips and rabid butterflies erupted in my stomach. My eyes dropped to his mouth and I stopped breathing. He was so close. If I tilted my head back, he could-
A knock on the door scared me and broke whatever kind of moment we’d been having. I sucked in oxygen and stood up just as a guy opened the door to our little room.
“Sorry. I was just-”
I hurried around to my side of the table and gathered my things. “I was just leaving, actually.”
“Same. Take the room, man.” Vaughn grabbed his stuff and shoved it roughly into his backpack before following me out. He was silent until we were standing in front of the library with several feet of space between us. “Thanks for helping, Cinderella.”
Acting like nothing had happened, because nothing had, I rolled my eyes. “Don’t call me Cinderella.”
“Sure thing, Cinderella.” He backed away and lifted a hand in a wave.
I gasped as an idea came to me, though. “Wait! I have an idea.”
He looked cautious as he moved closer again. “I’m not sure I want to know.”
“Shut up, Vaughn.” Just like that, we were back to normal. “I’m sick of cleaning your beard hair out of your sink. I want to change the deal. You let Fisher bring back his maids and I’ll shift my services to making sure you pass statistics.”
He glanced up at the library and I hoped he wasn’t thinking about what I wasn’t thinking about. “I’m going to need concrete plans before I agree to it. I’m not going to let you out of our deal just for you to flake on me.”
“Get a life, Vaughn. I’m not going to flake on you. We live in the same house. I wouldn’t get very far if you wanted to find me.” I added a sweet smile at the end. “What I meant to say is I’ll tutor you once a week. We can meet wherever you want.”
“Two times a week.” He saw my surprise and shrugged. “You saw how much I struggled, Ella. We meet here, two times a week. Third floor. I’m free on Wednesday nights and some Saturdays. Sundays work on the weeks Saturdays don’t..”
I bit my lip and considered my options. It had been my idea. Anything would be better than doing their dishes, surely. “Fine. Two times a week. And you agree that I’m no longer cleaning up after you?”
He sighed. “Cinderella can retire for now.”
Scowling at him, I slowly backed away. “I’m leaving now. I feel like I sold my soul to the devil and I need to go enjoy my last few days as a free woman.”
“Grow up, Ella. I’m a joy.”
12
***Ella***
That Wednesday's study session was perfectly normal. I made sure to keep a good amount of space between me and Vaughn. It was almost like our tense moment hadn’t happened. He was the same pain in the ass at home, though. With my chore list cut down to just cleaning up after myself, I had a lot more free time to hang out in the common spaces of the house. A few times Vaughn had come home and spotted me sitting on the couch with Fisher or Booth. Somehow, he saw us talking as a gateway connection. He made a big fuss about his friends keeping their hands to themselves because apparently, talking led to screwing. It was just as embarrassing each time he did it.
He didn’t seem to understand that his friends were just being nice to me and that his over the top reactions just encouraged them to continue teasing him. How he didn’t see that they didn’t want me was a mystery. Fisher was a shameless flirt, but it was obvious that it was just how he acted. Booth never even got close enough to touch me. Vaughn was just an idiot.
