DEDICATED TO thelowkeyloki :) THANKS FOR BEING AN AWESOME READER.

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Chapter 6 - ❝Heart-stopping Smiles.❞

The next week flew by without much interaction between Tatum and Angier, despite them having quite a number of classes in common throughout the week. Their last proper conversation—well, even that couldn't be classified as a conversation—was on that first day after Francesca Blythe's arrival, when Tatum had mind-linked Angier during one of their afternoon classes.

'I assume you'll be taking your Mate out, this evening?'

There was silence for a little while, and Tatum was unsure if it was because he hadn't heard her because he was busy with something else, or if it was because he was wondering what to say.

Then, just as Tatum was about to go back to listening to her lecture, there was a short reply.

'Yeah . . .' Tatum could feel it was hesitant on his part, 'I think I might.'

'Cool. You have some cash with you for a cab, just in case?'

'Yeah.'

'Alright, then..'

Tatum cut off the Telelink after that, satisfied that she'd done her part as her friend. She'd given him an out from hanging out with her every day like he was so adamant he would, and even gone as far as making sure he had money.

Damn, she was a good friend.

Stopping herself from smiling stupidly at that thought, Tatum went back to her lecture.

She was never gonna admit that her heart was breaking in half.

She was a good friend, and she was gonna maintain it at that.

~ * ~

The next Monday at lunch, Ezra entered the lunch hall with a newcomer. Tatum wouldn't have noticed it, were it not for the fact that Seneca and Micajah—who'd arrived on time like Tatum had, had pointed it out. Tatum watched with unconcealed amusement as he talked animatedly with Paige Summers, a thirteen-year-old kid so brilliant that she was already in College. Paige had been found as a kid in the Pack's boundary, and Alpha Karas had taken her in as a member, and even paid for her education personally.

Not that they had to pay much, 'cause the kid had so many scholarships that all they had to make sure of, was she had money to eat and dress. Although, Tatum worried for the kid's well being at times, because they still hadn't found much information about who her parents were, or why they'd abandoned her that day.

Ezra seemed to be very engaged in whatever he was saying, and Paige, as usual, was aloof and acting as if she didn't give two craps about whatever the guy was going on about. After a pat to Paige's head, Ezra split ways with her and walked over to the table, where they'd already bought his lunch for him.

Yeah, he wasn't so averse to the cafeteria these days.

Once he settled in and tucked into his food, the three of them stared at him until he realized it and looked up. "What?"

"You're friends with a kid." Micajah observed, amusement threatening to tilt his lips up in a smile—which he was controlling as much as he could.

"Yeah," Ezra grinned, a wide toothy one, "She's just so pissed off at the world all the time. It's fun to make her want to smile. She fights it so hard."

"Pissed off at the world?" Tatum asked, suddenly feeling guilty that she hadn't paid enough attention to the kid.

"Ah, no. Don't worry, your Pack takes care of her well and she loves your mother, the Luna." Ezra hurried to explain, "She's a teenager who's super smart. So, obviously, people give her a hard time, like everywhere she goes. I think that's why she never talks to people."

"Oh." Tatum processed what he'd just said. "Seems fair."

There was a comfortable silence for a while when everyone concentrated on eating. Tatum was glad that it wasn't awkward, or forced between them. Even if she was a little silent at times, they didn't seem to mind and that made her happy.

"How're things with your Mate?" Seneca questioned, looking up at her Beta. "Did you finally apologize?"

"Yeah." Ezra avoided looking at Seneca while he answered, and Tatum felt like laughing at the way Seneca and Micajah scrutinized him like a bug under the microscope.

"You liar." Micajah glared, dropping his fork forcefully.

"Fine! No, I didn't. I told you that we had a talk, though. We're working on it," Ezra replied, looking like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"I don't know, man." Micajah shook his head disappointedly, going back to his food.

"I promised I would apologize! Just give me some time!" Ezra exclaimed, looking almost dejected.

"We'll see when you do it," Tatum mumbled under her breath, and uh oh, that was a big fault.

"What's with everyone today!?" Ezra bursts out, glowering in mock-rage, "Is it 'Let's-all-interrogate-Ezra' day? What about you, Tatum? When were you gonna tell us about your crush?"

Silence falls across the table as everyone looked at each other with varying levels of horror. Tatum was just plain horrified and embarrassed that the three of them had somehow known, and they were horrified that Ezra had just blurted out the fact that they knew.

"Uh . . ." Tatum didn't know what to say, "W-What crush?" She laughed nervously, trying to play it cool.

"Yeah, what crush?" Tatum's heart just about jumped out of her chest at Angier's voice right behind her. She hurried to scoot over and make room, avoiding meeting anyone's gaze.

"I—I don't know." Tatum mumbled, "Ezra was just kidding, weren't you, Ezra?" She finally looked at Ezra long enough to shoot him a glare.

"Yeah," The man in question agreed, "I was just trying to bait her to get her to admit a possible hidden crush."

"Oh," Francesca Blythe hummed, "That was a real insensitive thing to say, Ezra." After the fact that her Mate died.

The implied sentence hung in the air, and everyone seemed to be searching for something to say, to just fill this awful silence.

Tatum was not hurt that Angier had told Francesca without asking her first. It would be stupid of her to do so, 'cause a lot of people knew anyway.

No, she definitely wasn't.

Finally, Tatum was the one who decided to put everyone out of their misery, "That was eight years ago, Francesca." She said in a flat tone, looking down very carefully at her food to avoid meeting her eyes, "I'm gonna take over next year, you know? I'll need an heir, too, sometime in the future. I'm not gonna be alone forever."

"Yes." Seneca agreed, reaching forward to place her hand on top of Tatum's, "And, he will be the luckiest guy in the world."

Tatum smiled at Seneca's over-exaggeration but was grateful for the kind words because she was just being supportive. Everyone else murmured agreements and supportive words, and for the rest of the lunch, the earlier cheer everyone'd had, seemed to be missing.

Tatum couldn't help but feel like she was to blame.

Again.

~ * ~

That afternoon, as Tatum entered her Financial Management Accounting class, she froze in the doorway when she saw Angier sitting in their usual seats. He'd been entering the class at the last possible moment and running out the second the professor stopped talking, so Tatum had just figured that Angier was feeling a bit awkward to ditch her to meet his expectant Mate and had stuck to saying his awkward one-worded goodbyes.

She'd been prepared for this to go on a little while longer and was surprised that Angier had already shown up early.

Well, that was certainly unexpected.

But, definitely not unwelcome.

Tatum walked over to her seat in the middle of the class, hiding her surprise even more as Angier looked up and shot her his usual megawatt grin. She gave him a little wave as she sat down beside him, still a bit unsure how he was gonna play this.

"Hey, that lecture on Capital Budgeting last week, could you may be, um, go over it again at home sometime? I mean, that chapter is hard enough as it is, and I was kinda not paying attention and when the professor started saying 'Let's find out the wack', I just completely zoned out."

Ah, so he was going to pretend like he wasn't unnecessarily awkward all week. The brush it all under the rug maneuver. "Angier, that wasn't wack. That was WACC. Weighted Average Cost of Capital."

"Yeah, same difference."

Tatum stopped an exaggerated sigh from slipping out. She couldn't understand how anybody could hate Management Accounting like Angier was set on doing, "Alright. You can swing by whenever you're free."

"Cool, thanks."

"Although, you can't avoid this class forever. Better pay attention today. She's covering Receivables Management, it's a pretty simple topic."

"Fine." He almost pouted.

"You know what? Just gimme your phone." Tatum demanded, holding her palm out as she glared at him.

Angier was alarmed, "What!? Why, why, why!?"

"That reaction tells me just what you were planning to do with it during the lecture. Just give it to me."

"Ugh." Angier clutched his heart in fake agony as he rummaged through his pockets for his huge smartphone, "Oh, wait! Looks like I left it in the car! Pfft, sorry, Tatum." He turned back to sit facing the front of the class quickly and pretended to rifle through the pages of his textbook.

"Angier." Tatum was not amused. "Your jeans are tight."

"Why, thank you. I know I've got a great derriere." He gave a pat to the side of his butt, shooting her a charming grin as he went back to fake-reading his book.

Tatum finally rolled her eyes. "I can see the outline of your phone."

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'."

"Fine." Angier grumbled, shoving his hand into his pocket, "Here." He handed Tatum the phone, which she promptly switched to vibrate and dropped into her bag.

"But—"

"No buts, just—ah, good. Dr. Singhania is here."

"Great."

They were silent for the next hour. Angier, to his credit, despite hating the subject, usually tried to pay as much attention as he could and today, he seemed to be back to normal.

Tatum felt his phone buzzing every once in every few minutes against the leg of her chair through her bag but shot Angier a look when he pleaded her with his eyes to let him have a look.

All in all, the class was a success, and by the end of it, Angier seemed to have understood the concept pretty well.

They quickly packed up to leave for their next class, and just as Tatum pulled out Angier's phone, the screen lit up with another text. Tatum didn't mean to glance at it, she really didn't, but accidentally caught sight of it and realized that the top of all the notifications seemed to have the same name in bold letters.

Franny Pooh <3

It was one of those moments where she really wanted to laugh, but also felt a gripping sense of, 'Fûck, I'll never have that with someone'. Scratch that, it was mostly 'Fûck, I'll never have that with him', but Tatum was learning to change that train of thought.

She placed the phone on his desk and ignored the way her heart leapt when he shot her that dazzling smile.

Sigh.

No one said that she had to get over Angier over-night. It will all happen in its own time, besides, the couple really didn't spend that much time in front of her to make her feel hurt or lonely. During lunch, they barely kissed or did anything since they usually came in a bit late and had little time to finish their food.

The bottom line was, Angier and Francesca were not that much into PDA and Tatum was happy with that.

She would soon get over these feelings for her Beta, and until then, she would master the art of faking it.

With that last thought, she strolled out of the room with another wave to him, her mind already moving on to the report she'd have to pick up from her locker, on her way to Business Law.

His last smile did not get stuck in her thoughts.

Nope, it didn't.

~ * ~

QUESTION: HOW DO YOU THINK THIS BOOK WILL END? I MEAN, WHO WILL END UP WITH WHOM?

REMEMBER, I'M A BIG ROMANTIC AT HEART AND THERE WILL BE A HAPPY ENDING.

I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THE UPDATE MIX UP. I thought June 3rd was when i'm supposed to update 'He is Her Beta' and there was a little confusion and here I am, finally having realised my stupid mistake. Sorry again.

NEXT UPDATE: 7 JUNE (a little sooner as an apology)

THANKS FOR READING! XX