Page 95 of Kiss Me Honey Hone

“Hey, Aaron.”

Aaron blinked himself out of his trance. “Sade, hey.” He straightened, getting himself back in check to scan his pole dancing society president’s minimal shopping of a loaf of bread and spreadable cheese through the till. Mundane tasks. That’s what Dr Riley had said too. When his feelings overloaded him, do something mundane.

“You all right?” Sade asked, shoving the groceries into her bag, and tilting her head to get in his line of sight.

“Yeah. No.” Aaron pointed at the card reader. “Two pound fifty.”

“Give us a scratch card.” She tapped her nail on the glass casing of the lottery cards. “Need some luck.”

“Don’t we all.” Aaron ripped one off, scanned it, and handed it over. “Four pound fifty. Reader’s ready.”

Sade buzzed her contactless from her phone screen. “Heard you split up with Taylor.” She gave him a sympathetic smile, as if she thought that was what had Aaron preoccupied and not some nut job trying to reclaim the power his mother had severed from him along with his dick.At aged thirteen!

“Yeah.” Aaron rubbed his returning headache. “You want a receipt?”

“Nah. What Idowant is a Pole Dancing social event.” She gave him a look. “Y’know, what your committee role requires you to do?”

Aaron scrubbed a hand down his face. “Yeah, I know. I’ll get onto it. Been a bit…busy.”

“We’ve got a bunch of first years joined, so we need to do something.”

“I know. I will.”

“Good. Just avoid next week. I’ve got lab finals.”

Aaron nodded and watched her walk to the door before a thought struck, fierce and alarming. “Sade?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re on a chemistry degree?”

“Natural sciences.”

“Yeah. Whatever. You have access to the labs here?”

“Course.”

Aaron’s heart jolted, and he checked his phone for the time. “I finish in ten minutes. Don’t suppose you can hold off until then and let me in the labs?”

“Why do you wanna go to the labs? No one will be there this time of night.”

Good. “It’s for uh…” He wracked his brains for what might get Sade to cave. What did she want from him? Then, switching on his liar mode, he winced. “A TikTok video idea. Need those benches and stuff.” God, she wouldnotfall for that. It was ludicrous.

Sade furrowed her brow. “You want to go to the labs now to record avideo?”

“Yeah. It has that white sterile look I need.”

“I could get in trouble…”

“Just open the door, pretend you went in to get something, and I’ll sneak in behind.”

She gave him a sceptical look.

“I’ll sort out the social as soon as I’ve done this. And you said it yourself, I go on TikTok, it could bring us more members. It’s the labs or the health ward. But that’s creepy as fuck with all those dead mannequins.” Although would probably be a lot less creepy than an actual, real live murderer concocting death toxins in lip balms.

But Sade didn’t need to know that.

Sade sighed. “Fine. I’ll meet you outside.”

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