Layers of Heat

Layer 17

Winnie did her best to ignore Miles, but it was a hard task to do when she not only had multiple classes with him, but they also lived in the same dorm building! And to make matters even worse, their roommates and best friends—Leila and Ken—were officially dating, so every time they happened to see each other, of course they wanted to be together, which inevitably caused Winnie to interact with Miles more as well.

She really didn't understand his train of thought. After all these years, why the sudden change of heart? Why not just continue as they were? Not like they would see each other after university anyway.

Unless he thought they were going to see each other just as often afterwards? But the futures they had chosen for themselves were different. Miles wanted to be a pastry chef while Winnie was going to help in her family's catering business. Of course there was always the chance that they might meet even with different career paths, but the chances of that were low.

Right?

Her suspicions began to rise, and the next time Miles tried to confront her, she reversed the roles on him.

"You're still planning to be a pastry chef after we graduate, aren't you?" she questioned.

Their last class for the day just ended, and their destination was the same: their dorm building. Since he wasn't going to leave her alone along the walk, Winnie decided to get her suspicions out of the way.

Miles was puzzled by her willingness to converse with him, but regardless, answered, "I'm surprised you even knew that. I thought you had absolutely zero interest in me."

Again, he was trying to twist her words. "You're right. But I won't pretend like I didn't overhear your conversations with your friends. So are you or are you not?"

He smiled. "My plans haven't changed. And you're still planning to help with your family's catering, right?"

It was Winnie's turn to be shocked by his knowledge of her. However, she assumed he knew the same way she had, so she didn't question him. "I am."

A pause stretched between them for a couple seconds before he asked, "Why did you bring this up?"

"Because I thought you had changed your mind and planned to get into catering or something. It would explain why you'd suddenly want to get along, in case we happened to meet each other after university."

Miles frowned. "You thought I was planning to use you to get a foot in the catering industry?"

"If those were your intentions, then you'd be stupid."

"Well, it's not."

Winnie narrowed her eyes at him before rolling them away. "Fine, then."

He sighed. "You think I'm planning something heinous for wanting to get along with you?"

"I don't see any other reason. Neither have you given me one."

"Because I like you."

She froze, utterly shellshocked. Miles realized she had stopped walking and turned around to face her, his face completely calm, not betraying a single emotion.

"You're lying," she blurted.

He raised a brow. "Since the moment we first met, I've liked you. Your attitude intimidated a lot of our classmates, but I knew you were dedicated to your studies and took your education seriously because you wanted to help in your family's business. But because you were so stand-off-ish, I couldn't find the right time to get to know you better. Then the incident with Isabel happened."

"Stop."

He ignored her and continued, "She's a good friend of mine, so seeing her cry like that immediately made me defensive, and I said things that were insensitive. It wasn't until later, when the tension fizzled out did I realize my mistake, as well as Isabel's. You were just genuinely trying to correct her and even did so privately. But the two of us repaid you by calling you out in front of the whole class. I'm sorry, Winnie."

"Enough!" she shouted.

It was the first time someone had apologized so sincerely to her that it threw her off. Winnie didn't know how to respond. She didn't know how to feel. Especially since all of this was coming from Miles of all people, the one person she thought she would never get along with.

To be fair, at the beginning she didn't hold these feelings towards him. In fact, he was someone she thought better of due to his friendliness and the way he genuinely seemed to care about the success of not just himself, but others as well. But ever since their first confrontation, she did her best to justify her vitriol towards him—whether it was his every little action or his every little expression...

Never wanting to admit she actually envied the way he so easily defended those close to him; something—someone—she never had at that time in her life.