The next morning, I woke up with a shitty headache. As if that wasn't bad enough, it turned out I was set to take a quiz that morning which I forgot to study for. I had to trudge through the questions armed with nothing but aspirin and the remnants of what I remembered from past lectures. Unsurprisingly, I headed straight to bed after the class had finished.

I awoke to the sound of someone knocking on my door. Groggily rubbing at my eyes and sitting up, I called out, "Who is it?"

"It's Precious! Just wanna remind you that we have a cuisine club meeting today. It's starting by 8pm; don't be late, I'm hosting!"

Fuck, I forgot.

"Sounds good!" I replied. "You're hosting it here, right?"

"Yup!"

"Sweet, see you there!"

I sighed as I lay back down. My headache was no more, so I saw no point in heading back to sleep. After a few minutes of laying idly in bed, I grabbed my phone. The first thing I noticed after I switched it on was that I had an unread message from Angelo.

My chest tightened. I swept the notification off my screen, mumbling, "Fuck you."

Unfortunately, the damage had been done by then: as much as I tried to block him out, Angelo remained at the forefront of my mind. Of course, he didn't bring with him loving feelings, just pain and resentment. As time passed, the emotions grew, fed by the thought that Angelo was most likely unbothered whereas I was hurting.

So, I decided to do the one thing that I was sure would bother him.

Dylan picked up after a few rings. "Hello?"

"Hi!" I exclaimed. "How are you?"

"Uh, I'm alright. How about-"

"Fine, fine! So anyway, I was wondering if you want to meet up again sometime this week."

"Oh, about that..."Dylan cleared his throat. "I, uh, told my girl about our meetup and she was kinda pissed-"

Well, no kidding!

"-and she doesn't want me meeting up with you again."

I furrowed my brow. "Wait, what?"

"She's not comfortable-"

"But we're not doing anything inappropriate together! Can't you talk to her about it?"

"Uh...honestly, I'll rather not. I'm not even supposed to be talking to you right now; I only picked up because I felt you deserved to know. Take care, Aimee."

"Dylan, wait-"

He hung up.

Throwing my phone on my bed, I snarled, "Fuck!"

. . .

"Miguel, you're late; as expected."

Grinning, Miguel tipped an imaginary hat at Precious. She rolled her eyes, then grabbed an apron off the counter and tossed it at him. "You can start us off today: blend the red bell peppers, tomatoes, scotch bonnet, and one onion."

"Didn't we establish that my job is to supervise you all?"

"I'm in charge of today's session, and I say you blend."

Miguel looked at the ingredients, then back at Precious. "How about I handle the food tasting-"

"Now, Miguel!"

"Fine!" He groaned. "What are we making anyway?"

"You would know if you had shown up on time." Crossing her arms, Precious looked at me. "Aimee, care to fill him in?"

Fuck.

Miguel stiffened.

I said, "We're making jollof rice."

Without looking at me, Miguel nodded. "Sounds good."

Precious rolled her eyes. "I'm 99 percent sure you don't even know what that is."

The grin reappeared on Miguel's face as he focused on her once again. "Hey, my job is just to blend shit, right?"

"And learn! What, do you think that all you're getting out of this club is free food?"

"Is that a trick question?"

I stifled a smile. Other members of the club giggled.

Precious rolled her eyes. "Never mind, just get on with the blending."

. . .

Precious assigned the rest of us tasks after Miguel finished blending, supervising and giving pointers wherever necessary. She was pleasantly surprised that I was familiar with the preparation process (the rice was a staple in Nabila's family, and I had helped her mum out with the preparation enough to be familiar with it).

Once the rice was cooking, Miguel clapped his hands. "Alright! So, what next?"

Precious replied, "We wait for the rice to finish cooking."

"Well duh, but what do we do in the meantime? Entertain us!"

Precious huffed. "Do I look like Krusty-the-fucking-clown to you? Use your phone or something!"

Miguel pursed his lips. "You suck as a host. Where's your booze?"

He walked over to the fridge - which Precious was standing beside - but Precious stepped in front of it. "Ah ah ah, no booze in here for you."

Miguel groaned. "No booze? C'mon!"

Looking at me, Precious said, "Please take him off my hands!"

I smiled sheepishly. "What do you want me to do?"

"Take him to the rec room!" She glanced at everyone else. "We have a few games in there: you can play them if you like."

There was a consensus, so I led them to it. Precious remained behind to watch the rice.

Unfortunately, Amelia was in the room, relaxing on the couch. I gave her a stiff nod, which she returned.

Miguel exclaimed, "Ooo, I didn't think I'll catch you here!"

Amelia smiled. "What's up?"

Miguel went over to her and they continued chatting. I let out a soft sigh, then turned to the other club members, gesturing across the room. "There's table tennis and a few board games available; feel free to help yourself."

Some of them did, while others began chatting among themselves or turned to their phones. Originally I intended to wait in the room, but the atmosphere eventually became too awkward: Miguel's eyes found their way to me a few times, but they darted away anytime I met them. I went back to the kitchen after a while.

The smell of the rice hit me once I walked in. I purred, "It smells so good!"

Precious looked up from her phone, smiling. "Right? It's been a while since I got to enjoy this. Do you want something?"

"What? Oh, no, I just decided that'll I'll rather wait in here."

She gave me a sympathetic look. "Because of Miguel?"

"Ye-" I caught myself, then furrowed my brow. "Wait, how do you know about that?"

"You mean the fact that you're sleeping with him?"

I stiffened. "Did he tell you?"

"No, I put two-and-two together." Precious smirked. "Wasn't too hard, considering that Miguel asked for your number the night when you came back looking ruffled and acting weird, saying that he 'forgot to ask for it earlier'."

Ah fuck.

I frowned. "That reminds me by the way: please don't give out my number without my consent."

Precious's eyes widened. "Oh shit, I'm sorry. I didn't think it would be a problem."

"It's alright; what is done is done."

"Anyways, what's up with you and Miguel? Are you good with Angelo now or something?"

"How do you even know that I'm having issues with Angelo?"

"You wouldn't have gotten dick elsewhere if y'all were good, right?" Precious grinned. "Speaking of Angelo, what'd he do this time?"

I stiffened. "I'll rather not discuss that."

"Oh come on, you'll feel good talking about-"

"No thank you. Drop it."

Precious rose her hands. "Ok, ok. But I'm always here if you want advice."

I turned my attention to my phone, but by then Angelo was at the forefront of my mind again. Fucking hell.

After a bit of thought, I looked at Precious once again. "I can use some advice."

"On what specifically?"

"I still don't want to discuss it, but...what will you say is the best way of getting over someone?"

"Well you know how the saying goes: the best way to get over old dick is to get under a new one." She smirked. "And in this case, you already have new dick available to you."

. . .

"Precious, you're not serious."

Precious smiled devilishly at Miguel. "Oh trust me: I am!"

He gestured at the dirty utensils we had used to prepare the rice, whining, "You expect me to clean all this up by myself? C'mon!"

"Well you didn't help with cleanup last time, so you have the honor of doing it all this time." Smirking, he folded her arms. "And you can't say shit because I'm in charge today, remember?"

Miguel mumbled something under his breath, then grunted. "Fine, whatever. But imma remember this when next I'm in charge."

"You do that. The rest of you can go except Aimee." Looking at me, she smirked. "You don't mind staying behind to supervise him, do you?"

Miguel started on the dishes. "I don't need super-"

I sat on the kitchen counter. Struggling to keep a straight face, I replied to Precious, "I don't mind."

"Great!" Precious ushered everyone else out of the room, then looked back and said, "Have fun, Miguel!"

Not bothering to look at her, Miguel flipped her off with a soapy finger. Precious winked at me, then left the room. As soon as she did, the awkwardness settled upon the room.

'Don't worry; Miguel isn't one to hold on to grudges. Just talk to him.'

Despite the reassurance Precious had given after I'd given her a general idea of my situation with Miguel, I was still at a loss of words to say. Judging by how intensely Miguel was focused on his task, I had heavy doubt that he was planning to break the silence.

After a while, I sighed. "Look, we may as well address the elephant in the room."

"Elephant?" Miguel chuckled, not taking his eyes off his task. "Is there an invisible one that only you can-"

"I'm sorry."

Miguel stopped moving, remaining silent for a few moments. Then, he chuckled again. "Why? There's nothing to be sorry for."

"Yes, there is." I sighed. "I was really harsh on you the other day, after the... incident. I didn't mean what I said; I was angry."

"Oh wow. Uh..." Miguel cleared his throat. "Apology accepted."

"Um...great."

Silence settled once again. Miguel went back to his task.

Fuck, I didn't think through my phrasing! How do I bring up the sex now without sounding awk-

"So, uh...you didn't mean everything you said?"

I snapped out of my thoughts, focusing on Miguel once again. "Huh?"

"I mean...what are the specific things you didn't mean?"

Ugh, thank goodness!

Smirking, I got off the kitchen counter, approaching Miguel. "You don't need my supervision to finish up here, do you?"

He looked at me. "Huh? Oh uh, no, I'm good."

"Great." I gently squeezed his shoulder as I looked into his eyes. "You know where my room is, right?"

Gulping, he hastily nodded.

"Then meet me there after you're done and you'll find out what I didn't mean."

...

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