"Not too much more than that! Mostly some reading."

"Sweet." He wants to kiss her. Can he kiss her? Is it a good idea to kiss her? He leans over to give her a quick peck on the side of her head. He's not sure he should be doing anything more than that. Not while his mother is around. (He wants to, though.) 

Tiny happy wiggle!!

Okay, homework now.

Homework now! 

Not for very long, though, because about 10 minutes into them working, Mom shows up. "I know you said you didn't need a snack," she says, "but just in case, I brought you this." She presents Rosy with a small plate of vegetables: celery, baby carrot, and red peppers strips, with a small bowl of hummus in the center. "Just in case you get hungry," she adds, placing it down between them. "You can share, but don't ruin your appetite for dinner!" she adds, looking directly at John. 

"I won't, Mom, thanks, Mom," John sighs. 

"Everything good in here?" she asks. "Homework going ok? Either of you need anything?"

"We're fine, Mom," John says.

"Of course you are. You live here. And you, Rosy? Are you also fine?" She imitates John's tone, exaggerating it slightly. 

She considers and discards so many ill-advised replies that it takes her a second to answer.

"I am also fine but in a less aggressive tone of voice."

She grins. "My husband said you and he got along. I can see why. Alright, I'll leave you to it. Let me know if you need anything." And she turns and leaves the room. 

John sighs. "Expect a couple more of those," he says. "I think she just wants to see what we're doing, and makes excuses. She did it when I had friends over when I was younger; it's not because we're dating or anything." 

"Well, it interrupts my homework slightly but I will not begrudge this." She looks consideringly at the vegetable plate. "Will I be encouraging bad habits if I take a carrot?"

"Bad habits?" he squints at her, confused. "Oh! No, she'd just figure out some other excuse. She'll figure out another one in a bit anyways. Feel free to enjoy your carrots."

"Well, right, but I said I didn't want a snack, and now there's a snack! If I respond as though I wanted a snack, I'm saying I shouldn't be trusted about my own snack preferences!"

"I think you'd have to be allergic to carrots for her to not bring you carrots," John says. "And then she'd just bring you something else. Not with carrots specifically, just in general. She doesn't normally bring carrots specifically. That's just how she is." He shrugs. "You don't have to eat them if you don't want to." 

"Hmm." She takes a stick of celery.

In solidarity, John takes a piece of red pepper, dips, and munches. And goes back to his homework. 

They will be so productive and companionable. (With occasional happy wiggles from Rosy about sitting next to her ✨boyfriend✨.)

Mom does not actually bother them for a significant period of time (surprising). Instead, it's his dad that interrupts them next, not long after John has started on his much-less-fun-math. "Hey dad!" John says. "Rosy's here!" 

"I see that," his dad says, smiling at them. "I see you've somehow convinced her to come back to the scene of the crime. Bold."

"Daaad," John says. 

"And doing much less interesting math this time, it looks like. I actually understand most of those symbols. I think they call them... numbers, right?"

John rolls his eyes. His dad has poked fun at the contents of the math book before. "We're doing our homework first this time, this is just schoolwork. Rosy's doing schoolwork too." 

She holds up her Austen, demonstratively.

"Ah, the classics! Well, don't let me keep you from you scintillating reading. And your, hm, extremely desired snacks," he adds, glancing at the mostly-uneaten vegetable plate. "Your mother?"

"My mother," John agrees. 

"Let me go say hello to my wife, then" he says. "Who it smells like is cooking up a storm. She's been very excited to meet you. This last week has made me wonder if I really married a physician, and not a secret government interrogation specialist. Nice to see you again, Rosy." 

Whistling tunelessly, he ambles in the direction of the kitchen, from which can shortly be heard the muted noises of friendly domestic greetings and conversation. John feels something unknot itself in his back. Everything feels a little bit better now. 

"Back to work?" he says. "I think we probably won't have any more interruptions until dinner. Probably."

"Back to work!"

...also maybe picking up John's hand and kissing it, just because. Also maybe that.

John makes a surprised happy squeak! (She's so cute and good and loves him (still complicated) and is so wonderful and adorable.) John grins and blushes, smiling at her, then after a few moments, turns back to his work, still grinning, happy about Rosy. 

Mission success. Now back to work.

Back to less-interesting math! (Yes, the kind with numbers in it, dad.) 

There are no further interruptions (thankfully), and he finishes the last math problem and closes the textbook with an audible (and satisfied) sound. "Done!" he says. "How are your things going?" 

"Reasonably well," she says. "I'll be another few minutes, I think."

"Sure," he says. He wants to start now but he can pass the time. "I can set up and then wait." He pulls the book out of his bag (he's kept it there for just-in-case-of-math even though they've mostly been doing things other than math lately) and waits. He might be a little more impatient than he wants to be, he doesn't want to read ahead without her but also he wants to do something and she only said a few minutes. He can wait a few minutes though. It's fine. 

It genuinely is only a few minutes later when she opens her backpack to shuffle her books around, exchanging her copy of L'Étranger for her Cozy Math notes.

"Are my notes still in there too?" he asks. Not that he needs them, necessarily (he doesn't really take notes, it's just worked-out math problems), but, he was sitting really close to her last time, and it was nice... and he could do it again! (Well. The existence of chairs might get in the way. Last time was on a park bench. They can try anyways?) 

"Mhm!"

They can totally snug their dining chairs right up close and cozify their math.