Page 61 of The Charade

"I don't knowif you'll need a tutor much longer," I told Ava after we finished our math assignment one Thursday afternoon. "I barely feel like you need my help as it is."

When Mrs. Simmons first told me about who I'd be tutoring this year, she'd made it sound like I'd have my work cut out for me.

But so far, Ava had caught onto all the concepts we were learning about in our Statistics class without too much extra help from me, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ava was acing all her tests before long.

"I appreciate the vote of confidence," she said, her cheeks flushing a beautiful pink. "But I think I'll keep you around a little longer."

Was it weird that I actually looked forward to our tutoring sessions?

In previous years, I'd mostly seen tutoring as a way to give back—to help people who struggled with the subject to get on better terms with it.

But it was different with Ava. Sure, I wanted her to get to where she didn't groan every time the wordmathwas brought up in a conversation, but I also had more selfish reasons for wanting to keep our tutoring sessions going. I liked having the one-on-one, uninterrupted time with her. I liked the excuse to sit close and accidentally brush arms as we worked side by side. I savored the chances I got to breathe in her delicious shampoo when I leaned close to check her answers.

And I also liked having a reason to keep our fake relationship going. Because while we'd probably already satisfied my need for our arrangement—the need to give Sofia the impression that I had indeed moved on from her—as long as Ava wanted people to believe I was wooing her instead of tutoring her, I had an excuse for why I was always close by her side when we were hanging out with our friends.

Ishouldprobably remind her that having a math tutor was nothing to be ashamed of in the first place. But the selfish part of me just wanted to keep this thing going for another month, or two…or possibly until we graduated.

Would it be too obvious if I offered to tutor her in college?

"Got any other fun plans for this evening?" Ava slipped her notebook with the pink skulls on it into her backpack.

"Not really." I shrugged. "You?"

"Elyse has a drama club meeting and I think Scarlett said she had a volleyball game tonight, so I was probably just going to watch a movie in my room or something since I finally don't have homework."

Was this her way of hinting that her night was open if I wanted to hang out with her?

I didn't think I had anything other than a workout scheduled for tonight, and since it was just a run, it shouldn't take me very long to do.

I studied her, trying to figure out if I should take a chance and ask her to hang out with me tonight.

Despite spending a lot of time together the past few weeks, we hadn't done anything alone that didn't involve schoolwork. I was pretty sure that we'd gotten to the place where she considered us friends—at least I hoped we were friends now. But were we the kind of friends who could do things without a larger group of friends around?

The kind of friends who didn't need tutoring sessions or fake girlfriend/boyfriend duties to be able to hang out alone?

Deciding that the best way to figure out the answer would be to actually ask her to hang out, I said, "The only thing I have planned so far is a quick run, but after that my schedule is wide open." I fiddled with the chain bracelet on my wrist, running my thumb across the name engraved on the small charm, nervous for some reason. More nervous than I'd been to invite someone to spend time alone with me in a long time. Years maybe.

I cleared my throat and tried to push some confidence into my voice. "Would you want to come hang out at my house after that? I could do my run on one of the trails around the school and we could head to my house after."

"That sounds fun." Her cheeks lifted into a warm smile at my offer, and I released the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

"Great. Meet me in the lobby in about forty minutes?"

"I'll meet you there."

"I'll just takea quick shower and then we can grab some dinner," I told Ava when we got to my house. I hadn't wanted to shower at the school, only to change back into my school uniform again since I hadn't brought an extra change of clothes with me today. So hopefully she wouldn't mind entertaining herself for a few minutes while I got myself unstinkified.

"Should I just wait in the family room at the end of the hall?" she asked, gesturing in the direction of the room my siblings and I usually hung out in the evenings before heading to bed.

"That, or you can wait in my room if you prefer," I offered, since I really wouldn't be that long.

She bit her lip and eyed my room, and I realized how that might have sounded.

After thinking it over, she took a step toward the family room and said, "I'll just wait out here."

I considered teasing her about the first time she'd barged into my room and asking her why she seemed so timid now, but she was likely turning down my offer because she knew just how explosive the fireworks could burn between us and that it was better not to tempt fate. I nodded and said, "I'll be out soon."

I made quick work in the shower and grabbed the first clothes that I saw—a charcoal button-up and dark-wash jeans. Then I headed down the hall to get Ava.

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