Chapter 9 #2
“Oh my gosh, you’re ignoring the question. Are you seducing ladies when I have my back turned? Are you giving Cadence cute romantic flower bouquets?”
Poor girl just wanted a girl giving her cute romantic flower bouquets.
I understood… I couldn’t believe I had someone like Summer showing up with flowers she knew I liked, and not even for a specific reason, just because she knew I liked them.
I helped out. “She’s practicing,” I said.
“I’ve been helping her pick out good romantic magic bouquets so she can sweep her true love off her feet once the time comes! ”
“Yeah, that’s exactly it,” Summer said, beaming as she swept over to me and handed me the bouquet, a secretive smile on her face. “How am I doing, teacher?”
She was doing perfectly. And I was going to miss her so much once this had to end and she went to be with her true love instead. I took it tenderly. “It’s perfect,” I said. “The colors balance perfectly and the magic balances perfectly. She’d love it so much.”
Rosie practically swooned, eyes shining. Lumi bought it wholesale, beaming. “Oh, you’re rehearsing!” she said. “Oh, good. I was so worried. Maybe you’re not too bad, Cadence.”
I pulled my gaze off Summer’s perfect sparkling blue eyes to look at Lumi. “Thanks, Lumi,” I said. “I mean… I appreciate your friendship too.”
Lumi clasped her hands at her waist, swaying a little. “Me too. Sorry we got off to a rocky start. I was just worried you wanted to have nonstop wild sex with Summer all across campus.”
“Ah, well…” I put on the best smile I could. Weird how she was so perceptive, for someone who wasn’t perceptive at all. “Nothing to worry about there,” I said.
“Maybe I’ll tell you the answer to your question next time,” she said. “For now, I need a chocolate pastry to go with my coffee.”
Rosie, who had met Lumi once before and was as natural at making friends as Summer was, nodded towards the door. “Let’s go together. I’m always looking for a recommendation for a new place with a good pastry.”
Once the two of them were out the door, I looked after them and said, “Er… isn’t the coffee already dessert?”
“Diviners love sugar. I think there’s something where divination magic activation burns sugars in your system… Lumi’s favorite breakfast is cookies-and-cream chocolate cake.”
“Maybe I should have gone into divination.” I tapped my wand, pulling up a shimmer of anti-divinatory enchantments that settled over us, and I looked to make sure the study floor was empty before I shifted closer to Summer, tugging lightly on her jacket.
“Thank you for the flowers… they’re beautiful. ”
“If I’m lucky, they might manage to be halfway beautiful enough to suit you,” she said, bending down to kiss me.
I murmured softly into the kiss, holding the flowers in one hand and her lapel with the other, and I kissed her long and slow, a sweet kiss that left my heart racing long after she pulled away, her eyes sparkling.
“You’re such a flatterer,” I laughed, brushing the tip of my nose against hers.
“There’s a lot to flatter about you.” She leaned in and kissed me again, and she jerked away when a latch sounded from the door, standing to full height as I fumbled pretending to be busy with my teacup, but it was Rosie coming back in. She put her hands up.
“Oh—don’t worry,” she said. “Just me. Lumi forgot her diviner’s glass in the room and I volunteered to go grab it because I figured you two would be up to something. You can keep making out. Fuck in the archive if you want, it’s quiet here today.”
“Rosie,” I said, at the same time that Summer said,
“Thanks—will definitely consider it.”
“Summer,” I mumbled, withering as I covered my face in my hands. Rosie winked at me as she picked up a small enchanted item from Lumi’s side of the table.
“I’ll teach you a little telekinesis flicker that can be useful for getting somebody off without anybody noticing.”
“Oh, saints, Rosie,” I said, trying to pretend I wasn’t suddenly desperately interested. “Who have you been using that on?”
“Nobody!” She paused. “There was this one girl who came to one of our spell-meets, and, you know, things escalated… don’t worry about it.”
“I don’t know why I asked. I didn’t want to know.”
She laughed. “I’ll give you the codex for the spell. With Summer’s permission.”
“Only if I get to learn it too,” Summer said, and I melted into my seat. Rosie waggled her eyebrows at me.
“Got yourself a good one,” she said, before she turned and left the room.
And, like, she wasn’t wrong, but still.
“So,” Summer said, “found the book you wanted?”
“Huh? Oh… yeah.”
She kissed the top of my head. “All our big projects coming along. I might have found a good lead for my big brew extension project too.”
Ah… right. That was what it meant. Making progress on our big semester projects also signaled the coming end of the semester. Signaled things ending.
But I wasn’t going to let myself focus on that right now. Not when I had Summer right now, and I just wanted to enjoy that as much as I could.
“A big lead?” I said. “What is it?”
“We can talk more if you check the book out and bring it to the alchemy lab while I work on the components. Unless you want to… spend a little time in the archive first?” She winked, and I felt myself blush furiously.
It wasn’t like I was opposed. Because of the situation, we’d had sex more often outside either of our respective dorms than we had in them. But… still.
“Maybe once we have that, um… spell,” I mumbled. “For now, talking in the alchemy lab sounds good. And then… I mean, the alchemy lab door locks.”
She grinned. “It sure does.”
I checked out the book.