by Briar Lane
Teacher’s Pet
Briar Lane
Contents
Copyright
1. Katie
2. Lana
3. Katie
4. Lana
5. Katie
6. Lana
7. Katie
8. Lana
9. Katie
10. Lana
11. Katie
12. Lana
13. Katie
14. Lana
15. Katie
16. Lana
17. Katie
Epilogue
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18. Catherine
19. Ellie
20. Catherine
21. Ellie
22. Catherine
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Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Briar Lane
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
1
Katie
I sat at the table, fiddling with the black and white checkered cloth. It was a rough kind of fabric, as tablecloths at restaurants generally are. They need to be able to handle the many inevitable spills from customers, I suppose.
Okay, really, why am I contemplating the fabric of the tablecloth right now?
I already knew why, though. It was easier to focus on that than to focus on what I was about to do.
This date had been giving me anxiety all week. Though I was often on my dating app, I didn’t go out on actual dates that much. Maybe once or twice a month, which really wasn’t enough for me. It was hard to find someone compatible, and those one to two dates a month always fell through for one reason or another. We just didn’t click.
It wasn’t that I didn’t get a lot of responses on my profile. I actually did. Not to be conceited, but I knew I was a very attractive woman. I had long, dark brown hair that almost reached halfway down my back, blue eyes, and flawless skin. I was undeniably pretty. And I didn’t mind being confident about it because in my younger years, I never felt pretty at all.
So when I blossomed in early adulthood, I embraced it. I had fun with it. Why not appreciate how you look, right? It made me a better, happier person. And back in those days, I was never short on dates.
But that was because I was free to go out at night and on the weekend, as most people wanted to do. There weren’t many guys willing to do lunch on a Tuesday to fit my schedule… Even less when they found out that the reason why I had to do lunch on a Tuesday was because I had a kid.
I didn’t try to hide the fact that I was a single mother. On the contrary, I put it as one of the first things in my profile. But I quickly learned that most men don’t really read your profile at all. They see a pretty picture and they pounce.
It was incredibly annoying, actually. I’d often have great conversations with guys who I thought were genuinely interested, and then the second I told them I had a kid… they’d bow out. They’d save me a lot of trouble if they’d just take the time to read my description.
As infuriating as it was, I couldn’t blame them. Most men in their mid-twenties weren’t ready to be a stepdad to a five-year-old. Even the ones who were ready to have kids were dreaming about having a new baby with their future wife, not having to be a father to a child they didn’t bring into the world. And they had a right to feel that way.
I can’t honestly say if the roles were reversed that I wouldn’t feel the same way. In fact, when I was eighteen and dating around a lot, I did step away from men who already had kids. It just wasn’t what I was looking for. I didn’t want responsibility. I wanted to have fun, to go on trips when I wasn’t in school or working, to enjoy myself. Before moving out of my parents’ house, my entire life was responsibility… so once I was out of there, I avoided it as much as possible.
The joke was on me, though, since I got pregnant only a year and a half later.
I heard the familiar ring of a bell—the one that hung on the door of the restaurant. This was my favorite Italian place, so I knew the sound well. My eyes darted up to find a dark-haired man smiling at me.
I recognized him immediately; he looked exactly like his profile picture. He was incredibly handsome and I quickly got butterflies in my stomach.
“Katie?” he asked, as he walked over and extended his hand.
“Yes! And you must be Brian!” I said, taking his hand in return.
“Yes. So sorry I’m late. This is my lunch break, and there was an incident at work that I had to stay a little long for.”
“It’s no problem at all!” I said quickly, even though it kind of was. I was going to have to pick up my daughter from school in about 45 minutes. Though that was probably enough time for lunch, I figured I should mention that to him so he knew the date couldn’t run long or anything. “But I am going to have to leave in about 40 minutes. I’m sorry.”
“Not a problem.” He nodded, though I did catch a glimpse of disappointment in his eyes. “But I thought you said this was your day off?”
I got the sense he was trying to figure out if I was making up a reason to run out the door already. And I didn’t blame him—when a guy I was with cut out early, I always wondered the same thing. First dates are just hard and stressful.
“Oh, it is!” I said quickly. “But I’ve got to pick up my daughter shortly.”
Brian’s face fell. Though he quickly tried to recover with a smile, I had seen it. It was clear that my having a child was news to him.
“Your daughter?” he asked. “Wow, you seem quite young to have a daughter in school.”
God, I hated when people said that. In what universe is that an okay thing to say? I mean, either they’re wrong about my age or I had my daughter young, but either way it seemed incredibly nosy for people to comment on it. It forced me to explain my personal life.
Though it was a date. We were supposed to be talking about our personal lives and assessing whether we’d be a good match. That was kind of the point. So I sucked it up.
“Well, she’s only in kindergarten,” I said, “but I did have her a little young.”
“I see.” He forced a smile, but I could tell he was immediately uncomfortable.
At that point, I knew the date was going to go one of two ways: we were either going to sit there awkwardly trying to make small talk over lunch and avoiding the elephant in the room, or I was going to directly address it, figure out how he felt, and avoid the whole awkward encounter. I really had no interest in an awkward forty-five minutes, so I decided on the latter.
“You didn’t know I had a kid, did you?” I asked sheepishly, as I pretended to thumb through the menu. Though I already knew what I wanted.
“I didn’t. I mean, how would I?” He laughed awkwardly. “You hadn’t mentioned it.”
Oh, great, now he was blaming me for not having explicitly told him about my daughter. As if I wasted his time by not mentioning it before. But we’d only had a short conversation before deciding to meet up, and it was extremely casual.
“It was in my profile,” I said bluntly, not allowing him to blame me for this mishap. If he had just done his due diligence, he would’ve known about my daughter before he even messaged me.
“Oh, gotcha,” he said with a little cough. “But, I mean, who really reads those things anyway, right?” he tried to say with a light laugh.
“I always do,” I once again said bluntly. He looked taken aback.
Okay, maybe that was rude. I was being too blunt. But so far he had
passive-aggressively commented on my being too young to be a mom, and also blamed me for the fact that he didn’t know I was one. Neither of which was my fault. So I was already put-off.
But I continued to be blunt. Because, like I said, I had no interest in another awkward forty-five minutes.
“You have no interest in a woman with kids, do you?” I asked.
“I mean… I…” I’d most definitely caught him off-guard. “I do want kids, someday…”
“But not now. You don’t want to deal with dating someone who has one now.”
Brian frowned. “Not really, I guess. I mean, it’s totally fine that you have one! I respect that, but I have a busy schedule, and matching up with someone else who also has a busy schedule might be…”
He was trying to make excuses.
“Not a problem.” I forced a smile. “Let’s just quit while we’re ahead then, shall we?” I said as I stood up and began to collect my purse.
“Wait, you don’t want to eat?” he asked. “We can totally still have lunch and everything.”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I said. “Just easier this way. Good luck in your dating search.”
“You too…” he said hesitantly, as I began to make my way toward the door.
Well, that was short. That might have actually been the shortest date I’ve had so far.
When this kind of awkward thing happened in the past, I always just sat through the meal and made small talk with the guy anyway. Even if we both knew things wouldn’t be going anywhere after the date, I still sat through the whole thing. But I didn’t see the point in doing that anymore. I didn’t want to keep wasting my time.
I wasn’t eighteen anymore. I had no more interest in just having fun. I wanted to meet someone who actually wanted the life I had. I was ready to settle down. I mean, I already was settled down, really. But I wanted someone who would settle with me, and who saw my kid as part of a fantastic package and not just an annoyance to deal with.
I wasn’t going to waste any more time with people who weren’t what I wanted.
But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t upset me.
As if my day could not get any worse, when I got to my car and turned the key in the ignition, it would not start. I noticed that I had left my headlights on and knew what the problem was immediately. My battery was completely dead.
The perfect end to the perfect date.
2
Lana
I looked up at the clock, discovering we only had five minutes to go until the bell rang. Shoot, the end of the day was always sneaking up on me.
“Okay, guys! Go ahead and pass your papers up to me! It’s almost time to pack up. Get up, grab your backpacks, and stand in line.”
Saying that was a mistake. I should’ve just had the kids pass their papers up before I mentioned it was almost time to go, because plenty of papers were being left on the desks as little legs bolted toward their cubbies. Additionally, I’d forgotten to run around and check that everyone had their names down on their papers. The kids had only learned how to spell their full names two weeks ago and weren’t used to writing them in the corners of their papers yet.
Ah, well, I’d just have to hang all the nameless papers on the whiteboard the next day and have them pick out their own drawings. It wasn’t like I was going to be giving any bad grades on a drawing of the letter Y.
I started going around to their desks and collecting the papers as the kids pulled their backpacks and lunchboxes from their cubbies. One thing I was grateful for was that they really were great at lining up. Last year was my first year of teaching, and I’ve gotta say, that class was a lot more rambunctious. It was harder to keep them quiet and in line. This class was pretty subdued and I was grateful for it.
Though, of course, when you decide to teach kindergarten you expect a certain amount of rambunctiousness. The kids are only five years old, after all. If I wanted calm, I would’ve chosen an older grade group.
But I loved kindergarten. It was one grade where every student was absolutely ecstatic to be at school—it being their first year of real grade school, and all. They were all so eager to learn and their energy gave me energy. I truly loved my job, that was why I was always a scattered mess at the end of the day. The time just flew by for me.
Just as I’d finished putting all the papers on my desk, the bell rang and I saw that the first child in line had his hand on the door.
“Josh, no, don’t open that!” I said, a little snappily. But I was always a little anxious that the kids were going to run out the door without me. In kindergarten and first grade, the teachers walked out with their students to make sure they got to the drop-off and pick-up zone and nobody got lost. I really didn’t want to be that teacher that lost a student.
“Sorry, Miss Andrews,” he responded a little guiltily.
“It’s alright, just remember not to touch the door again, please.” I quickly walked over and opened the door, leading the line of kids out to the pick-up zone.
Most parents were already out there and their kids went darting to them. But I was left with one straggler, Alexandria.
I didn’t mind. Alex’s mom was usually very punctual, so I guessed that whatever reason she had for not being here was probably a good one.
Not that I would really mind anyway because Alex was a total sweetheart. She was one of my favorite students. She was so quiet, so well-behaved, and very smart. She picked up every concept I taught with ease. She was the first one to learn how to spell her name completely. And not ‘Alex’ but ‘Alexandria’ which was quite impressive.
She looked around nervously. “Where’s my mom?” she asked as the parking lot began to thin out. Ten minutes had passed and we had no sight on her.
“I’m not sure, honey,” I told her.
“She’s always here, though,” she said, sounding more nervous.
I knelt down next to her. “Hey, why don’t we go back inside and try to call her real quick? I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation for why she’s not here yet.”
Alex nodded and I walked her back up the classroom, which wasn’t far away. Her mom knew where the classroom was, so if she arrived while we were inside, I was sure she’d have no trouble finding us.
I had a book of all the parents’ cell numbers inside. I pulled out my own phone, which I kept in my desk during school hours, to make the call. I dialed the number and was surprised when Alex’s mother answered on the very first ring.
“Hello?” she answered, sounding about as nervous as Alex was.
“Hello, this is Alex’s teacher,” I said. “I have her here and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. She was getting a little nervous since you’re usually here by now.” I was trying to explain that I wasn’t calling to rush her; I was calling because Alex was worried. Normally, I would have waited even longer before calling a parent, but I didn’t want Alex to continue to panic.
“Oh, Miss Andrews, I was searching for your number!” she said quickly. “Tell Alex I’m so sorry. My car battery died, and I tried to jump-start it to no avail. I’ve been waiting for roadside service for the last hour. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience, but I’m not sure when I’m going to be out of here.”
“It’s not a problem at all!” I said, quickly turning to Alex. “Your mom is alright, she’s just having some car trouble,” I explained to her. The anxiety on her face quickly eased.
I glanced down at my book of numbers, which also included the kids’ home addresses. “You know, you guys live just down the street from me. If you want, I could take Alex home with me and walk her to you when you’re done. I don’t want you to have to stress about finding a rental and all of that right now just to get home.”
“Oh my God, you would do that?” she said excitedly. “That would be absolutely fantastic. It would make my day so much easier, you have no idea!”
“Not a problem at all!” I said cheerily. “Just go ahead and shoot me a text when you’re home and we’l
l come your way. Take your time, no rush.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said. She was incredibly grateful for what really was a very small favor on my part.
“Not a problem. See you later.” I hung up.
Alex smiled at me. “I’m going to go home with you?” she asked excitedly.
“You are! But just until your mom comes home.”
“I’ve never been to a teacher’s house before!” she said enthusiastically.
I laughed. It was the same reaction students gave me when they saw me out at the store or something. It’s like the idea that their teacher has a whole life outside of school is so foreign to them that it’s exciting.
“I think it’s going to end up being more boring than you think. But I do have some board games we can play.”
“Okay!” she said excitedly.
“Perfect.” I grabbed my keys and my purse. “Let’s go.”
3
Katie
It was another hour and a half before I finally got home. I felt terrible for making Alex’s teacher take her home and watch her. She’d already watched her and twenty other students all damn day! The woman was already a saint for doing that five days a week. Now I had her taking care of my kid after school in the middle of the week too? Surely she had better things to do.
The guilt was really compounding on my stress of the day. The bad date alone would’ve been enough to get my mood down, but with my car breaking down and me inconveniencing other people, it was a lot. Not to mention the fact that they’d towed my car home and I still had to find a way to the nearest auto parts store to grab a new battery. All I wanted to do was to lie down and sulk in front of the TV, even if I was watching one of Alex’s boring kids shows.
It was overwhelming doing all this on my own. I loved Alex, loved her to pieces, and I wouldn’t have changed a thing about choosing to have her and go down the road of motherhood. But doing this without a partner was overwhelming. Not just today, but every day. It seemed like there was always something.