“You so fucking are. Now, shut up before people start rumors about us dating… again.”
“Ew. No offense Remi, but I could never. Aiden is my true love. He’s my forever hoe.”
Remi tried not to laugh, but failed as he burst into giggles. Phoenix was such an idiot, but that was what Remi loved about him. He and Aiden were really the perfect couple, because Aiden was the only one who could keep Phoenix under control, but he still shared the alpha’s ridiculous sense of humor. Remi buried his face in his hands that were covered by the long sleeves of Dimitrios' sweater to try and muffle his laughter.
“You are the most ridiculous couple in the fucking world.”
Remi was using the sleeves of his sweater to wipe at the tears gathered in his eyes from his laughter as the teacher entered and called the class to order. They were too busy for the rest of class to talk much more about anything except their dishes and work. Phoenix still bombarded him with questions that Remi mostly ignored as they walked to their next class, finding Aiden waiting outside the classroom.
“Aiden if you value your alpha’s balls at all, I would get him away from me.” Remi said to the other omega as they walked up to him.
“Phoenix, stop bothering Remi. He has plenty of time to figure out his relationship. Stop pestering him.”
“Okay. Fine. I’ll stop asking questions about your boyfriend. But, you know you can talk to us, right?” Phoenix asked, sincerely.
Remi smiled at his friends and nodded. They really were good friends, even if they were incredibly embarrassing idiots most of the time. He honestly thought that they had the kind of relationship that he wanted. They were so honest with each other, and accepted all the other person’s weird qualities without question. Aiden and Phoenix supported each other no matter what, even when they were mad.
Remi recalled a bad fight the couple had a few months back. Aiden had ended up staying over at Remi’s place when he’d left his and his boyfriend’s shared apartment in anger. Phoenix had appeared in the middle of the night banging on the door, and when they’d finally opened, the alpha had pulled Aiden into his arms and cried, begging for forgiveness. It had been a very touching scene to witness, and part of the reason why Remi really respected Phoenix as an alpha, even if he was a moron most of the time. He cared about his omega so deeply.
Aiden was just as devoted as Phoenix, just a bit quieter about it. He was the secretly jealous type. Anytime someone seemed to be checking out his alpha, he responded by getting overly touchy. Remi always laughed at Aiden ending up in Phoenix’s lap at coffee shops or restaurants when other omegas were getting too interested in his alpha. Phoenix was so clueless, he didn’t usually understand the reasoning, but he got excited whenever his omega wanted to give him attention.
Conversation went back to their usual topics as they waited for their class to start. Remi was happily sitting with his two friends chatting when the teacher entered and called their attention to the front. When the professor announced that they’d be working in pairs of two, Remi groaned. He preferred to work with Aiden and Phoenix.
The couple would obviously be working together, so Remi looked around to see who was still available. Before he could pick out his fellow solo-fliers, someone appeared at his elbow. He turned his face and looked up into the eagerly smiling countenance of none other than his ex-boyfriend.
“Hey, Cade.”
“Hey, Remi. You wanna partner up?
Remi couldn’t think of a polite way to say no, so he just gave him a slightly pained smile. His eyes scanned the room one last time looking for any way out, but everyone else seemed to have successfully paired off, leaving Remi no choice.
“Sure. Why not?”
Remi shared a glance with Aiden who looked sympathetic to Remi’s plight as he gathered up his backpack and left to go sit with Cade at his table.
Advanced Pastries and Cakes class was also about baking. Unlike his Baking 101 class, it was more specialized and a lot harder because it was judged at a much higher level. They took not only composition and presentation into account, but also nutrition. It made the course much more difficult because the teacher was not the type to forgive those who took shortcuts in his class.
Remi did know that at least Cade was a good student, and the alpha would do his part of the work properly. Remi felt his stomach sink at the teacher’s next words.
“Take a good look at your partner, because you’ll be working with them on a big project that will take up most of this class through the next few weeks, as well as some outside research and homework.”
Remi tried not to show the dismay on his face at this news. He could practically feel Cade’s excitement beside him, like a happy puppy wagging its tail.
The very last thing Remi wanted was to spend more time with his ex, especially outside of class, but he didn’t have a choice. He cared more about his studies than the alpha’s crush. Nothing was more important to him than school and if Cade interfered with that, the alpha was going to get a taste of the real Remi. The omega who would kick his ass if he tried to stop Remi from achieving his dream.
“I am assigning you to create a completely new recipe from scratch. I want you to add some surprise element to it, and write up all nutritional information, as well as your reasoning for your ingredient choices. This assignment will be due in three weeks, so make sure to use both your class time and free time to complete it by then. Late submissions will not be accepted.”
Remi wanted to groan. This assignment was going to suck. Not because he didn’t want to do it, but because it was going to require him to spend an extraordinary amount of time with Cade. Maybe they could just take on separate parts and come together at the end with a final result… probably not. It was going to require a lot of collaboration.
Remi actually thought the assignment itself sounded really fun, and would normally have loved to work on something like this. But working with Cade… was going to make things weird. At least Cade thought that Remi was seeing someone, so if he started to get too flirty, Remi could always bring up the subject of his “boyfriend” to cool the alpha down.
“This project seems interesting.” Cade said as the teacher finished up his speech.
“Yeah.”
“So… Do you have any ideas about what you’d like to do?”
Remi wouldliketo not do this at all, or to do this alone. He felt irritation build up in him as he thought of having to spend hours cooped up with the alpha whose heart he had broken, and who still foolishly seemed to be holding out hope for him. But when Remi looked at Cade, he really resembled a big puppy with his sandy hair and brown eyes. He reminded Remi of a golden retriever and he felt bad for the unpleasant feelings he had internally directed toward the smiling alpha beside him.