“What did that bastard do?” His voice was quiet and seething. “How do you know him anyway?”
“Tye, please look at me-”
“Ivy, did he do anything?” He still wouldn’t raise his head, just gestured a hand at my body.
“Not like you’re thinking, no,” I buried my hands into the black t-shirt, bundling the fingers in the material, relieved when the action lifted his eyes to mine. “Just now he had his hand on my back. Before he’s grabbed hold of my waist, but I stomped on his foot with a pretty good heel for that one. He’s just creepy and says stuff.”
“Just at the party? You mentioned a supermarket?”
“No,” I swallowed, suddenly wondering if Tye would be angry that I hadn’t mentioned any of these incidents before. “Yesterday when I got bagels, he kind of cornered me at the checkout. He’s been in the coffee shop once or twice too, but I can handle him.”
Tye was stressed out, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Ivy, why didn’t you tell me?”
“You had enough to deal with yesterday.”
“And before? What about when he came into the coffee shop?”
“I can handle it. I wasn’t going to go whining to you that some weird guy was creeping me out,” I spoke softly, trying to draw him closer with my grip on his t-shirt. I breathed a sigh of relief when he complied, wrapping his arms around my waist.
We had never been so close, except from when we had sat on the bench. Don’t let me go, I prayed over and over again.
“Ivy. Always tell me if someone is frightening you, please? I get you’re an independent woman and you can take care of yourself, but a little help doesn’t harm anything. You shouldn’t have to put up with a creep.” His anger was softening to something else. He rested his forehead against mine, bringing our eyes close to each other. “I’ll always want to know.”
“I promise,” I smiled gently, even if I didn’t fully mean it. The disturbance of Kyle was difficult to shake off. “I didn’t realise the guy was your friend.”
“I wouldn’t say he’s a friend.” He pulled his head away, his cocoa eyes following where Kyle had disappeared. “Benji’s a friend, Kyle’s… an acquaintance. After tonight – I hate that guy.”
“Tye?” I pulled on his shirt again, reclaiming his gaze with my own. “Can we forget about this and return to the fun evening we were having? The escape? I promise to still flirt with you.” I ran my fingers up his arm, dipping just under the t-shirt sleeve.
“You better,” he smiled. “I need double escape now.”
Chapter 11
Tye was driving us all back when Sam announced he would be staying the night at Savannah’s flat, so Tye detoured to her building first and Luke elected to walk from there to his own place as it was only a couple minutes’ walk away. This left Tye and me alone in the car heading back to my halls.
I looked over at him, watching his face appear in the orange lampposts every few seconds as we wound our way through the streets. I was experiencing the same pain I had felt earlier that evening when he said nothing to me pointing out that maybe I didn’t want him to resist. I had pushed it to the back of my mind, choosing to ignore what that meant. Pretty soon, I was to be dropped at my halls and would spend a miserable night thinking about that and ladybugs. I didn’t want to go.
I smiled more when I was with him. Like he said he saw me as a distraction, it was undoubtedly true he was mine too. I didn’t think about Rosie and ladybugs, or my parents’ divorce when he was around. He made me happy. The only thing that could make me happier is if he looked at me the way I did him.
That was now extremely unlikely.
“So, was I successful in distracting you?” I dropped the sound of the radio so he could hear me, determined to distract myself from my own sudden sadness.
“Very,” he smiled, shaking his head. “There’s just one problem.” The smile vanished.
“What is that?”
“When I drop you off, my smile will go with you,” he turned onto the campus, the sharp lines of sadness in his own face visible again in lampposts. “I don’t want that to happen.”
“Neither do I,” my voice was soft as I turned back to look at the dark roads.
“Come back to mine.”
I looked sharply at him, so much so that I got that twinge of cricking your neck at an awkward angle.
“What?”
“Stay at mine tonight,” he spoke firmly, suddenly very keen on this idea. “We’re nearly at yours. Go get something to sleep in, clothes for tomorrow, then come back to mine. We’ve shared a bed once and I promise, I’ll let you sleep.” His words sent thrills through me.
“Okay,” my response was automatic. I wasn’t exactly going to say no! My assent caused him to smile like nothing I’d seen before.
It didn’t take long to get back to his flat after I had packed a bag, but it probably didn’t feel too long because we were both smiling all the way. Even when we got in to find the flat was freezing cold, my cheeks were still sore from the smile.
“How about a hot chocolate?” I asked, opening cupboards as I bobbed up and down on my toes, searching for cocoa powder. “To warm up.”
“I can think of another way to warm up!” Tye called as he took my bag to his bedroom.
“Don’t tempt me!” I joked back as I popped the kettle on.
He returned a few
