Like the Red Rose blooms in the Oxford Garden

Chapter 9: I said: ''No one has to know what we do''

"I need to get going now—" Nina was about to get up from Gastón's bed when he grabbed her hand and pulled her back down.

It had pretty much become a routine, at this point, for any time his room was empty during lunch, which during this term was often, they took advantage of it as much as they could. Gastón knew that he was an extremely physically affectionate person, so the "secret dating" or whatever you could call what they were doing wasn't the ideal, but what they were working with. The Easter vacation had now been almost four weeks ago now, and they had miraculously kept up their charade and had not gotten caught by anybody.

"Hey! Let me go." Nina squealed in a playful protest, and he pulled her closer. "I have class."

"There's plenty of time," Gastón ran his fingers through her hair.

"It is easy for you to say, you are not a freshman with a packed full class schedule," Nina sat up and rolled her eyes at him, "It's in another building, so I won't make it there just in the academic quarter."

"Since when?" Gastón had pretty much learned Nina's schedule by heart already. It made it easier to catch her in the hallways in between classes.

"The Thursday lecture changed locations," Nina explained while smoothing her hair down with her hand, "Didn't I tell you that?"

"No, you didn't."

"Well, I must have forgotten." Nina turned to look at him, "But I actually need to go, or do you want me to be late?"

"Of course not," Gastón laughed and scooted to sit next to her, "Soooo... I guess I will have to let you go, as long as you kiss me first."

Nina rolled her eyes before leaning towards him. Gastón placed his hand on her nape, deepening the kiss momentarily. Honestly, he'd much rather just keep going with this, but they were still at Oxford, so like it or not, they had to attend classes. Being in love was no reason for failing, neither his nor Nina's parents would not let them get away with, nor should they let themselves get away with it either.

"I love you," He looked deeply into her eyes after they separated, "You know, how about we go away for the weekend? Get a hotel somewhere. I am kind of getting tired of sneaking around."

"That sounds really great," Nina traced a pattern on his hand before her eyes focused on his watch, "But, now I really need to go."

Gastón reached for his laptop after Nina had left. He didn't have any more classes today, but still, there was some work that started to pile up. The minor requests should be submitted before the end of the month.

As he was about to open up a project file, the door suddenly opened. He half expected to see Nina come back for something she had forgotten... except that she never forgot anything plus there was no way she would have gotten the door open, she didn't have the key, she would have been needed to knock.

Instead, through the door came Oliver and Jacob.

"What are you doing here?" Gastón asked before realizing what he was saying.

"Well, we kind of live here," Oliver looked at him skeptically.

"What happened to the classes both you have had, for the whole year now, out of campus?" Gastón asked.

"Oh, mine got canceled," Jacob dropped down on his bed.

"Mine too," Oliver sat on a chair and took his tablet out.

"Well, that is just convenient," Gastón mumbled. He was not sure if he should be freaked out about almost getting caught or relieved that it didn't happen.