All Chapters of Loving Him For 30 Days: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Chapter 59: QuorumThe heavy oak door click felt deafeningly loud when it finally shut behind Noah and Cassian.Lucien was already pacing the small strip of Persian rug between the bookshelves, his fingers aggressively running through his hair until the neat styling completely fell apart. “You’re late,” Lucien said, his tone dropping into that freezing, flat register he reserved for council members he was about to dismantle.“I was busy,” Cassian said. He didn't offer anything else, just pulled his dark coat tighter around his shoulders as he walked further into the room. He didn't look at Noah, who had immediately moved to the far corner by the window, his arms locked over his chest.“We don’t have a three-minute window for you to be busy, Cassian,” Lucien said, “The Board moved the executive session to nine. If they gavel that meeting to order without the council present, the scholarship tiers are getting rewritten in fifteen minutes, and the registrar will have the amendments pr

Lucien reached the bottom of the steps and stopped. He didn’t say anything immediately, he just looked at the two of them on the cold stone, Eli with his hands buried in the sleeves of the blue sweater and Rafael beside him with his duffel bag on the gravel, and the silence stretched long enough that Rafael felt it and sat up straighter. “Hey,” Eli said. “Hey,” Lucien said. Rafael stood, picked up his duffel and slung it over his shoulder. He looked at Lucien once, a brief, assessing look, then at Eli. “I’ll see you at morning practice,” Rafael said, and walked off across the quad without waiting for a response. Lucien watched him go, then looked at Eli still sitting on the step. Eli hadn’t moved, he was just looking up at him with the patient expression he wore when he was giving Lucien room to say the thing he was actually thinking. Lucien sat down beside him. The stone was freezing even through his trousers, and the wind was picking up across the quad, but he didn’t move.

Lucien stood by the tall, narrow window at the end of the corridor, his fingers tugging at the knot of his tie until it loosened by an inch, letting him breathe properly. His shoulders were stiff under his jacket, a dull ache settling into his lower back from three straight hours of arguing with the financial subcommittee over lines on a spreadsheet. “You look like you’re waiting for a trial,” Mira said, stopping two paces away with her leather folder tucked tightly under her arm. Her hair was pulled back into a severe knot, “Vance didn’t only freeze the discretionary funds,” Lucien said, his voice low as he kept his eyes on the grey mist hanging over the quad. “He moved the budget for the annual dinner into the contingency reserves. He’s cutting everything that isn't strictly tied to basic facility maintenance until the general assembly sits.” “He’s squeezing the margins to see who blinks first,” Mira replied, her thumb tracing the gold latch on her folder. “He wants the s

The noon bell hadn't even finished striking when the first notification hit the courtyard.It started with simultaneous pings from three separate phones near the training tables outside The Bee’s Hive, but within seconds, the sound was echoing across the gravel paths in a ragged chain reaction. Students walking stopped mid-stride, their thumbs flying across their screens as the internal campus forum underwent a system update. A group of sprinters practicing handoffs on the grass cut their drill short, clustering around a single device while their breathing was still heavy from the track.Eli was sitting on the low brick wall by the equipment shed, his training log open flat on his knees. He didn't look at his phone until the screen lit up three times in a row, the glare bright against the midday sun.At the very top of the campus feed, the notification sat under a bold, unmissable header:THE ANNUAL DINNER IS CANCELLED, BUT THE BOARD STILL FLIES FIRST CLASS.Below the header, the d

The main hall was so crowded the air felt thick, hundreds of bodies packed into chairs spread across the big hall. Eli sat near the aisle three rows back from the front, his shoulder pressed against Noah’s. "Move your leg," Eli muttered, nudging his knee against Noah's. "You’re taking up the whole bench." "My legs are longer than yours," Noah said, not even looking over. He was focused on tearing a tiny piece of loose grip tape off the edge of his bag. "Sit somewhere else if you want space." "We’ve been here since six-forty, there is nowhere else to sit," Eli said, leaning back against the hard wooden support and looking out at the stage. "And your legs aren't longer. You just sit weird." "I sit normally. You’re just twitching because you’re nervous." "I'm not nervous." "You’ve shifted three times in the last two minutes," Noah said, finally getting the piece of tape free and rolling it into a tiny ball between his thumb and forefinger. He flicked it toward the floor. "Lucien’