Unexpected Lover: College Romance Book 1

by Scarlett Archer

  I hope he asks me out on a date. I haven’t been on a proper date in ages. I need that in my life. A night dedicated to just being myself with someone I can trust, and inexplicably, he’s that person. I don’t know how that works, but it does. I feel like I could tell him all my secrets.

  “I was worried you’d ditched and never intended to see me again.” Peter says, blushing.

  “Why would I do that? We had such a good time last night. I’d like to do it again, sometime.” I reply, honestly.

  I can’t believe he’d think that. Did I not make it obvious that I enjoyed myself?

  A smile spreads across his face and I feel my heart hammer in my chest with excitement.

  “That’s excellent!” He cries, and then seems embarrassed for his outburst. “Uh, I just mean, yeah. I’d like to too. In fact, that’s why I’m here.”

  “Yes.” I say, automatically.

  Oh god, what if he wasn’t going to ask me out? I just assumed that he was going in that direction. How embarrassing. He’s going to think I’m an idiot. What if I left something behind and he was actually just coming by the return it?

  He looks as confused as I am embarrassed.

  “I haven’t even asked yet.” He says, making me feel even more stupid.

  But I shouldn’t. That’s not the Isobel I introduced him to. I lift my head and channel all my confidence into my next words.

  “I could see where this is going. I’d love to meet up with you tonight. Does seven outside here work for you?”

  He looks astounded, and I’m pleased with myself. I am a strong woman. I can be confident. I think he likes that.

  “Yeah, that works for me.”

  “I’ve got to get back to work, but I’ll be thinking of you.”

  I stand up and walk away, almost giddy with excitement. I don’t actually have to go back to work for another ten minutes, but I have to go calm myself down before I start waiting tables again.

  I go into the kitchens and do a little happy dance, oblivious to Jones and Francesca. I think I even squeal a little, but I’m so happy I could burst into a million pieces.

  “Alright there, Isobel?” Jones asks, peering around the oven.

  I smile at him, broadly and bite my lip. Is it possible to cry from being too happy, or would that seem a little dramatic?

  “Yes.” I almost shout.

  “Ah.” Francesca steps forward and takes my hand. “I think someone is in love.”

  “I am not.” I protest, but I can’t fight down the smile.

  “I want to meet this boy before you get serious.” Jones says, calmly.

  “He’s meeting me here at seven. If you’re still here, you can have a look and tell me what you think.”

  Jones nods, satisfied, and Jules joins to conversation.

  “I suppose he’s pretty cute.” She admits.

  I squeal again and give her a crushing hug that she might not actually appreciate.

  “You need to calm down, girl. You’ve only known him for one night.”

  “One?” Francesca asks, dumbstruck. “Maybe love at first sight does exist.”

  CHAPTER 04

  Peter returns to his apartment in good spirits. He’s practically skipping each step as he climbs the stairs.

  “You seem happy.” Jake notes, as he looks up from his mechanics textbook. “You get some while you were gone?”

  Peter punches his playfully in the arm, and walks to his room.

  “Mom! What’re you doing!” Peter cries out as he finds his mother in his room.

  “I’m cleaning, Peter. Your room is a mess. You shouldn’t live like that.”

  “Mom, you can’t just go through my things!” Peter complains, as he picks up a few piles of dirty clothes and throws them in the hamper. “I have private things in here.”

  Peters dad steps in the room, taps his son on the shoulder and mouths ‘I found them, I hid them.’

  Peter breathes a sigh of embarrassed relief and walks over to his desk where he grabs a handful of letters and shoves them in a drawer. Luckily, no one notices, and he’s not ready to talk about that just yet.

  He sets about helping his mother to clean, ashamed of how bad he has let his room become and angry that his mother refuses to let him be an adult. Surely adults can have messy rooms, as well?

  However, he is grateful. If he ever brings Isobel back, he’d like to not have to risk her neck just to get to the bed. He hasn’t seen his carpet in weeks, but it’s tough to keep on top of housework when he’s studying most of the day and spending the rest, in bed, considering his life choices.

  Once the floor is cleared of clothes, he carries the hamper to the kitchen and loads the washing machine and turns it on. He returns to his room with a vacuum cleaner and a cloth. His mother takes the cloth and begins to wipe down all the surfaces as Peter begins to run the vacuum across the floor until it looks like new.

  His mother steps back to observe the room and nods her head in approval.

  “Much better, don’t you think?” She comments, looking to Peter for agreement.

  “Yeah. I guess it looks better clean than it does a mess.”

  Josie laughs and shakes her head, leaving the room and heading into the kitchen to begin cleaning in there.

  Although he wants to stay in his room and daydream about Isobel, he knows that his father will be annoyed if he doesn’t help his mother. Plus, he’ll feel guilty if he lets her clean his entire apartment and he doesn’t lift a finger.

  He beings to clear the sides of dirty cups and plates and bowls that have been gathering mold for weeks. He washes them all and Jake appears, drying them and putting them in the cupboard with no real organisation. They never really found the time to designate cupboards to crockery.

  Once the kitchen is spotless, Jake disappears again and Josie makes two cups of coffee.

  Peter sits down, resigned to not having much time to study. He doesn’t really want to study at all, but anytime he goes an entire day without picking up a book, Peter feels guilty.

  “How is college?” Josie asks, as she sets a cup of steaming coffee in front of them both.

  She sits herself down opposite him and smiles warmly, but Peter’s stomach wrenches.

  Does she know? He wonders, panic making his hands shake.

  He doesn’t want to lie to her and tell her it’s all going swimmingly if she has already seen the letters. There’s a strong possibility that she has, because she’s capable of being very nosy. She’s the type to peak through the curtains at home just to see what the neighbours are getting up to.

  “Um, it’s good.” Peter tells her, as he carefully watches her face for any signs of anger.

  “I’m glad to hear it. We’ve been so worried. I always knew that you would be too smart to struggle, but I know what you get like, sometimes. You get lost in your work and forget to be a human.”

  Peter remembers all the times at high school that he stayed awake late into the night just to cram in extra hours of studying. He was so unsure of himself at that age. He was always convinced that he was going to fail, and he never did. He just never trusted his brain to hold all the information he needed, so he worked himself into a studying stupor.

  He would lose himself to his work and forget to eat or talk to people. He once stayed up so late that by the time he realised he was still studying, his mother had come in to tell him that he needed to get ready for school.

  He doesn’t miss those days at all. He was so stressed that he felt ill all of the time and he never found the time to talk to his friends because he was studying during break and lunch.

  When he moved to college, things became different. He still studies pretty much every day, but he’s learnt to trust himself. He knows that he’s got the information he needs, so there is no sense in staying up all night just to re-visit the books he’s already devoured.

  “I’m not that kid anymore, mom. I’ve gotten better. I have time to have fun now.”

  “And yet no
t enough time to keep your apartment clean.”

  Peter laughs and nods.

  “Yeah, well, we are college students. If we’re not studying, we’re partying.”

  “I hope you’re not doing drugs, Peter. I will make you do a drug test.” Josie becomes serious. “I’m not having you go the same way as your cousin.”

  Peter’s cousin, Tim, smoked a joint at college and his parents came to visit the same day. They got into this huge fight and they tried to make him go to rehab. Peter and Tim both knew it was ridiculous, but their moms can be insufferable at times, and because of that one incident, Tim is now the horror story the family tell their children to deter them from drugs.

  “No, mom. No drugs, I promise.” Peter has to actively force himself not to roll his eyes. “And Tim wasn’t a hard drug user. It was one time. And it was only weed.”

  “Marijuana is a gate-way drug, peter. I don’t like you talking about it like that, as if you have no respect for how serious and illegal it is.”

  “Sorry, mom.”

  Josie’s face softens and she pats Peter’s hand gently.

  “And, how are you?” She asks.

  “What?”

  “How are you?” She repeats. “As a person, within yourself, how are you?”

  Peter is dumbstruck. His mother has never asked him about how he feels before. It’s not as if his mother doesn’t care, but they’re usually more reserved about the touchy-feely emotions. Normally, they talk about college and work and the weather.

  Peter looks at his mother and feels sadness replace his slowly diminishing excitement from the night before.

  He wants to tell his mom about his indecision with college. He wants so badly to talk to anyone about it, but he knows his mother will be upset, rather than supportive. She’s put more stock into his future than he has over this past year. She tells everyone that her son is going to be a doctor, and now he doesn’t want to do that.

  He can’t tell her. She’ll be devastated. And his dad will be furious. They’ve helped him pay for his tuition and his living expenses. They’ve given him everything he could need to become successful and he feels like he’d be throwing it in their faces by saying ‘no.’

  He could talk to her about Isobel, but Josie has a track history of hating all of Peter’s girlfriends. She holds no punches when she meets them, asking all the most embarrassing questions that a mother could and making no attempt to hide her distaste. One ex-girlfriend cried and ran from the house and Josie’s only response was ‘I knew she was weak from the moment she walked in.’

  Peter didn’t speak to her for a week after that, and he also stopped bringing girls over, but that made things more difficult. His mother would ask why she isn’t meeting more of his girlfriends and he straight-up told her that she was never allowed to meet another one until she stopped acting like a bitch.

  Well, you can imagine how well that turned out. His father shouted, Josie cried and Peter stormed out, shouting about how he’s not allowed to have a voice inside that house unless it echoes one of theirs.

  He simply can’t talk about anything with her.

  “I’m good, mom. Really good.” He lies, and her smile widens.

  “I have a surprise for you.” She says, giddily.

  Peter hates surprises. More specifically, he hates surprises from his mother, who’s idea of a gift is something he could really do without. On his sixteenth birthday, she bought him a weights bench and a year-long membership to the gym on their street.

  He’s not saying it wasn’t thoughtful, but Peter never minded too much about how scrawny he is. His father, on the other hand, was very conscious of how his son didn’t have much in the muscle department. He has been a small kid all this life, filling out a bit only when he got to college. Still not a lot of muscle, but enough that he doesn’t look like a twig.

  “Cool, what is it?” Peter asks, fearing her answer.

  “You’re going camping!” Josie announces, with enthusiasm.

  Peter’s face drops and he spills some of his coffee on the table. Josie jumps up immediately and starts to clean it up.

  “Camping?” Peter asks, hoping her heard her wrong.

  “Yes! Not with me, obviously. You know I hate the outdoors, but your dad.”

  “But… I have to study.”

  “No, you need a break from all this. It’ll be good for you and that wonderful mind of yours.”

  Peter doesn’t want to tell her that he hates camping, but he’s certain that she’s well aware of that fact. He’s never once enjoyed a camping trip with his dad. He hates eating river fish and sleeping in a cramped space. He also hates bugs and the stupid hike his dad always makes him take to ‘get to the best spot, son.’

  “Aren’t you excited?” She asks, though she seems to think it’s rhetorical.

  “When?” Peter asks, bluntly.

  “Three days.”

  “How long for?”

  “A week, I think. Your dad has it all planned out. He’s very excited. Says you both need some time in the great outdoors and be men.”

  Peter rubs his hands over his face, not sure how to respond.

  “That sounds great, mom. I can’t wait.” He lies.

  Peter finishes his coffee and excuses himself, saying that he needs to study.

  He closes his door behind himself and throws himself onto his bed.

  Camping?

  He’s not sure what the worst part is. That he’s expected to live like an animal for a week, or that he’s barely had any time to get to know Isobel and all of a sudden, he’s being forced to leave her for a week.

  This is the worst week for it to happen, too, because it’s some of the only time they have to hang out without lectures and deadlines looming over them. He had intended to spend as much time with her as possible. When his parents turned up, that plan was put on hold, but he knew he’d still be able to see her, at least.

  Now, he won’t be able to stay in contact with her at all. His dad prefers places that are really out of the way. No phone signal at all. How is he going to explain this to her? Will she be angry? Upset?

  You’re getting ahead of yourself, Peter. You barely know the girl.

  This is true. He knows very little about her, and they’ve only spent a limited amount of time together. They haven’t even had their first date yet, though that all changes tonight.

  Maybe she won’t mind that he’s going away. Maybe she needs the time to think and not have him badgering her at every moment.

  But what if he’s going away during a vital part in them building a friendship, or even a relationship. What if him going causes any feelings she may have for him to dissipate and when he comes back, she’s moved onto other men.

  Don’t think that. She’s not going around, finding men to hang around with.

  He’s disgusted with himself for thinking so little of her, and he apologises to her, mentally. She probably won’t find someone else, but that doesn’t mean that any feelings she has will stay. She might not want to spend time with him afterwards.

  She might not have any time to spend with him. He’s always busy during term time, and she works in the diner, so she be far busier.

  He doesn’t know how long he’s been in his room, worrying for, but he’s drawn out of his mind by a gentle knock on the door.

  “Peter?” Josie calls, as she opens it. “Get ready, we’re going to lunch in five minutes.”

  Peter quietly groans to himself and grabs a jacket and his phone, before joining his parents and Jake in the kitchen.

  “-we’re going to have such fun, Jake. I’m not sure what we can do in a week, but you can show me around the city and we can clean the apartment…” Josie begins to list all of the things she wants to do and Jake looks horrified.

  “Are you staying in the apartment while we’re camping?” Peter asks, incredulously.

  “Well, of course. I’m not going to spend the week and at home, alone. My house is already spotless. This place coul
d use with a real scrubbing.”

  Peter gives Jake an apologetic look, and Jake replies with narrowed eyes.

  Well, it’s not my fault my mom overbearing, he thinks, hoping his expression passes on that message.

  It’s someone’s fault, Jake’s face seems to say.

  Peter just shrugs and they make their way out of the apartment and to a restaurant a few blocks away.