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She’s got a point, though.

Lily feels her man’s big, strong hand wrap around her delicate wrist.

Aww, the size difference.

“You all right, my man?”

He just stares back down at her, teeth chattering.

“Cat got your tongue?” In one moment of self-confident drop, Lily wonders if her sister had somehow charmed him too with just her looks.

“I can’t stand another second in this cursed place. No more.”

CHAPTER 29: SAME OLD CAFE

“Shit, dude, I’ve been excommunicated from the community college.” Lily stares down at the formal brown envelope in her hands, probably manufactured from recycled elephant dung for its eco-friendliness and zero carbon footprint points.

Just a perfect letdown for such a bright and shiny Christmas morning, with bells ringing and kids singing carols. Even the weather is better than usual today, cooler, in Lily’s inexpert opinion. Not that she is an avid watcher of the weather forecast or any similarly dull program.

She doesn’t have a TV habit at all thanks to the inconsistency of electricity her home experienced when she was younger, and she sure isn’t starting now.

She still can’t believe it is now winter, weeks since that ole-fateful day when she first met her pretty boy, time passing in what seems to be only a blink of an eye.

Her bright, clear, jade-green eye.

Their romance sure blossomed faster than a whirlwind. But life was so much simpler then, before she found out about her fairy queen status and got roped into the whole shenanigans with the mouse king. She remembers the good old days when she spent her days doing laundry, biking to college, working random jobs, listening to her sister’s moaning and bitching, and rinse and repeat.

It was only a couple of weeks ago, but damn, so nostalgic.

Like the good old 90s, although she wasn’t even born then.

Every, in a knitted sweater from Isela’s with a penguin pattern that matches Lily’s knitted hoodie today, looks up from the book he’s reading.

Who would have known that he actually reads.

“Don’t worry about that, sugartits, your boyfriend can work his magic on the school. They’ll accept you, without a doubt, and maybe even bump up your grades a little if I work even more of my magic on them.”

Lily raises an undrawn eyebrow, since she’s such a natural beauty who’s effortlessly glamorous and all that. Although she does have some light makeup today, ready for the Christmas dinner party with her man’s family. “By magic, do you mean money?”

Yeah, the whole clusterfuck really did her some good.

At the end of this book, Lily has officially gained an additional third brain cell, adding to the two she previously maintained in that little head of hers.

“Of course. Now let me see what they sent us, yeah? I used to be a professor here for a term.” Every takes the package from her before picking up his ringing phone.

Seriously, him, a fucking professor?

That boy can’t even count to save his life.

He really has had all sorts of careers.

And speaking of which, he had been acting weird since the day they came back from Lily’s ranch home, with him always being on calls with his papa dearest for some reason. In the morning when he first wakes up, when he sunbathes on the balcony, after breakfast as Lily busies herself scrolling her new phone, after dinner, and most likely at work too, since he has gone back to work again.

Is it normal? Lily has no idea; she’s never had a father before.

“Oh, Lily,” he looks up, “this ain’t no expelling paper. It simply says you need to take the whole term over again, since you were absent—it says—seventy percent of the minimum duration. Damn, that sounds bad, babe.”

“Thanks for the compliment. It’s even fucking worse, honestly—I can’t make myself retake microeconomics over again.”