“But I’m ready, Miss Reynolds. My mom is taking me to the store to get the new videogame that came out last night.” Riley throws his little arms up and grunts. “What if it sells out? I’ve been waiting a lifetime for it already.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Riley.” I look over at the clock above the door, checking the time for the fifth time in the last five minutes. “The bell doesn’t ring for another seven minutes. You can use that time to finish studying for the spelling test coming up this week. All of you.”
My entire class grunts and whines at the mention of a test, even though they’ve known all week that one was coming. I laugh and continue to go through the papers they turned in after lunch.
Everyone pulls out their list of words and manages to quiet down and study for a few minutes. But that silence is broken when someone farts loudly.
I try to hold back my smile when I look around the classroom. “Does someone need to use the bathroom?”
“It was Xander!” Stacy screams, before plugging her nose and pointing beside her. “And it stinks! He’s so gross! Make him stop.”
Everyone laughs and points at Xander, and it takes everything in me to hold back my own laughter to be the role model I signed up to be when I became a teacher just over five years ago. I may be the adult, but sometimes I want to laugh right along with my students. Even when it comes to something as silly and disgusting as passing gas in class.
“All right. All right. That’s enough. Put your papers away and grab your backpacks. If you can do it quietly, I’ll let you out one minute before the bell rings. One minute and no sooner.”
The kids try their best to be quiet, but they still end up bickering at each other in hushed voices, while scrambling to gather their things in a hurry.
I’ll give them credit for trying. It’s not easy getting a bunch of ten-year-olds to keep it down to an indoor voice. They’ve gotten better since the beginning of the year and that’s something.
“I’ll accept the attempt.” I stand up and walk over to open the door and place the doorstop beneath it, before I stand in the doorway. “Everyone line-up at the door nicely and no shoving to...” They all rush toward the door in a hurry, as if I didn’t just ask them to be respectful of each other.
Reminds me of when I was in fourth grade, and sometimes even my twenty-seven-year-old self, when all I want to do is escape the day to be with Douglas. Like right now. I feel like budging them all to be the first one out the door.
I look up at the clock again, waiting impatiently for the seconds to tick by. I’ve been feeling impatient all day, ready for a night out with adults.
Who knew seconds were so long.
“Come on, Miss Reynolds!” Stacy says anxiously, looking up at the clock. “Can we go now? Please!”
“Yeah, Miss Reynolds,” Matthew adds. “Please!”
I step away from the doorway and out into the hall, letting my students know it’s about time.
In three… two… one…
“Everyone have a good weekend. See you all on Monday, prepared and ready to learn.”
My entire class is practically out the door, yelling bye before the last word can leave my mouth.
I laugh as I close the door and return to my desk to finish going through today’s work.
Once I’m done here, Douglas and I have plans to go out to dinner and get a few drinks with our friends. It’s something we plan every weekend if possible, and after a long week with ten-year-olds, I desperately need adult time. I love my students, I do, but adult time is my relaxation time. It soothes me.
Douglas told me he’d wait for me in his classroom. It’s something he always offers, so I quickly make my way through the papers and shove them to the corner of my desk. I don’t want to keep him waiting too long.
Douglas won’t be expecting me for at least another ten minutes, so it’ll be a nice surprise to show up early, then we can go ahead and get the evening started. I know he will be just as ready to get out of here for the weekend as I am.
I flip off the light and lock up my classroom, before making my way across the building to where Douglas’ sixth grade classroom is.
“Miss Reynolds.” I smile and nod to Jonathon as he steps out of his office, looking just as I feel. “You and Douglas have a good weekend. Enjoy the nice weather now that it’s here.”
“You as well, Principal Goodwin. Say hi to the wife for me.” He offers me a smile, before he makes his way down the hall, speaking to everyone he sees in passing.
Everyone seems to be leaving at once, so by the time I get to the other side of the building the hallway is empty. I’m relieved I won’t have to deal with Susan’s snooty ass, whose class is right next to Douglas’. I usually end up running into her as she’s leaving her class for the day.
For some unknown reason to me, she’s been a bitch to me since the day I started. I refuse to let her get under my skin, so I always brush her off and offer her a synthetic smile.
Once standing in front of Douglas’ classroom, I reach for the handle, about to open the door when I peek through the small window to see him chatting with the one person I was hoping to avoid. She’s been known to go to his class quite a bit during class hours, and even trying to combine their classrooms a few times a month, but this is the first time I’ve seen her here after hours.
I understand they need to meet because they give out a lot of the same assignments, but when she spends as much time in my boyfriend’s classroom as she does her own, it does nothing to make me hate her any less.
Douglas is sitting on his desk smiling up at Susan as she twirls her dark hair around her finger. It’s hard to see her facial expression from this angle, but from the looks of it she seems to be a little too giddy to be discussing curriculum, eyeing him occasionally as he messes with some paper beside him.
I give myself a small pep talk to keep my cool, but that goes to shit the moment she steps in between his legs and runs her hands up his thighs as if he is hers to do with as she pleases. I wait a moment, my breath held, expecting him to push her away.
He’s going to push her away, right? Of course he is…
But that doesn’t happen. My heart stops and a wave of nausea hits me when he grabs the back of her head and kisses her right on the lips.
For a moment, I almost believe I’m imagining it, but when I shake my head and open my eyes again, their lips are still locked together.
I’m going to puke.
Five years.
Five fucking years and he goes and kisses another woman as if I mean nothing to him. And of all the women he could’ve chosen, it just has to be Susan. He knows how uncomfortable she makes me feel.
I grab my chest and take a deep breath to keep from exploding. I could go in there right now, rip her stupid perfect hair out and cause a scene, but he’s not worth throwing my career away.
I do the only thing I can think of. I pull out my phone and snap a picture of the two of them, before forcing myself to walk away.
My chest is being crushed by an imaginary boulder, and it hurts to breathe as I make my way down the hall to escape.
I need to get as far away as I can and do so as fast as possible, before I do something I’ll regret. I’m sure Susan would be thrilled to see me lose my job over a scene, so she can finally prove to me that she’s the better woman.
It’s been nothing but a competition with her since the day I started here, and now I can see why. She’s probably wanted Douglas long before I came along.
I’ve been nothing but kind, loving, and faithful to this jerk, and he doesn’t even have the decency to break things off with me before giving into his dick and screwing around with her. Who knows what all they’ve done or how long this has been going on.
I’d love nothing more than to knee him in the balls before pouring a glass of my favorite wine over his pretty head, but I can’t. No, scratch that, my wine is too valuable to waste on a shit like him. He just had to ruin my right to shove his ba
lls into his stomach by getting caught here of all places.
The place we’ve worked together for the last five years. We met here and fell in love here, and now I’ll always fucking hate him here.
I push the exterior door open, finally feeling as if I can breathe for the first time since forcing myself to walk away. It’s never been so hard to walk away from something before. It’s also never been so hard to breathe.
After mentally collecting myself, I force myself to keep walking. Just keep walking, Cami. Don’t stop until you reach your car or you’ll end the day unemployed.
When I finally get across the parking lot to my car—which feels like the longest walk of my life—the sight of Douglas’ SUV parked beside Susan’s Jeep has me wanting to carve ‘Fuck’ into the back of his vehicle and ‘You’ into hers, to show them I know about them messing around behind my back.
But instead, I take a deep breath and reach for the door handle of my old Sebring. He’s going to be the one regretting that we’re done. Not me. At least that’s what I’m telling myself and hoping to believe it.
Feeling dazed and out of it, I get in my car and sit for a while, thinking about how he’s probably expecting me to show up right about now. I can’t help but wonder if he would’ve kicked her out first or pretend they were ‘talking’ about their sixth grade homework assignments. Thoughts plague me.
How long has this piece of shit been doing this?
Have they slept together?
The way Susan Peters flaunts herself around here in her tight little dresses and stilettos, I likely already know the answer. “Of course they have. Late nights at the school, my ass.”
Taking another deep breath, I grab the steering wheel with shaky hands and drive out of the parking lot. I shouldn’t want to grab my phone and look at the picture I took of them kissing, but that’s all I can think about during the thirty-minute drive back to our house—the house he convinced me to move into with him three years ago—as if witnessing it the first time wasn’t torture enough.
I need to pull over so I can get another look. I don’t know why. It’s not like I need more convincing that what I saw is real. There was no mistaking his lips on hers. “Don’t do it, Camille. Don’t fucking do it.”
I squeeze the steering wheel tighter and before I can stop myself, I pull off to the side of the road and reach for my phone.
The moment I unlock the screen, it goes straight to the picture. Apparently, I forgot to get out of it before locking my phone.
My heart sinks to my stomach and I feel sick as I stare at the two of them together. I could seriously vomit or cry right now. Truthfully, I think I might do both.
His hand on the back of her head, holding her in place like he has done to me so many times before. If he didn’t want her there, then he sure as hell wouldn’t be holding her like that. The way he holds me.
They look comfortable together, which tells me this most likely isn’t the first time. But for how long? I’m not sure I want to know.
The knowledge of that turns my pain to hate and anger. “Fuck you, Douglas!” Screaming, I hit the steering wheel repeatedly, causing the horn to blare as I let some of my anger out, along with some tears. “I hate you!”
It does little to make me feel better. In fact, all it does is cause everyone driving by to slow down and look at me having my little psychotic breakdown. I fight back the urge to flip them off like an angry child.
I take a few calming breaths, just like I always tell my class to do, and pull back out into traffic. The faster I can get to the house, the faster I can get some of my things and leave.
That’s all I want right now. I just want as far away from that lying, khaki-wearing asshole as I can get.
The cheating prick is not even worth me trying to save what we had. I won’t be the girl that stays and works on building trust again once he gives me his sorry explanation and apologizes for hurting me.
I can’t. I won’t.
Break my trust once and I will always remember it.
By the time I pull into the driveway, I have two texts from Douglas. Even though I shouldn’t read them, I do.
The first one asks where I’m at, and the second one says he’s about to leave in a few minutes, which means he left about fifteen minutes ago.
That doesn’t give me much time to pack and then have a glass of wine, so I’ll have to drink a glass of wine while packing my shit.
One glass turned into two by the time I am done, and now, here I am sitting on the porch with a slight buzz and a suitcase at my side.
All the things I should say to him keep running through my head, but the truth is, I don’t want to say anything to him. I just want him to know we’re done. He doesn’t deserve my energy.
My heart instantly reacts the moment Douglas’ SUV pulls into the driveway and he steps out with a look of confusion. “Hey, babe. Why didn’t you…” His words trail off when he notices the suitcase beside me. “What are you doing, Cami? Is that a suitcase?”
I swallow the lump in my throat and stand up, reaching for the handle. “Yeah, it’s exactly what it looks like, Douglas. And before you ask, yes, my things are in it, but I think you’re smart enough to figure that out.”
He quickly walks through the grass to get to me, but I hold my hand up, stopping him before he can touch me. “Don’t. Don’t fucking touch me.”
“Why?” he asks, doing a good job at sounding clueless. “Did I do something wrong? Tell me what I did and I’ll fix it. Did you have a bad day at school? Tell me and we can talk about it.”
I keep my emotions in check, not willing to let him see me cry as I reach for my phone and send him the picture. “I’ll show you what you did and it’ll make this a little easier for you to understand.”
He pats his vibrating pocket and then reaches inside to pull out his phone. His face drops once he sees what’s on the screen. “Shit! I can explain. It’s complica—”
“Have you slept with her?”
The look of guilt on his face says it all. He has, and more than once. Most likely for a while now too. “Cami, let me explain. I have a past with Susan, but it’s over now.”
“We’re done, Douglas. Don’t bother calling or texting.” I push past him and head to my car. “I’ll be back to get more of my things this weekend. Don’t touch anything.”
“Cami, wait.” His hand wraps around my arm, so I yank it from his reach and spin around to face him. “Please—”
“No,” I say stiffly, my nostrils flared in anger. “Don’t touch me. Don’t ever touch me. Nothing you can say will change my mind. Have fun with Susan. You two deserve each other.”
He stands there looking helpless as I throw my suitcase in the backseat and climb into my vehicle.
The only good thing out of this confrontation is that it was a complete buzz kill, which will make it easier to drive the thirty minutes back to Highland.
In between packing and guzzling wine, I called my friend Veronica and she offered me her spare bedroom and told me the house next to hers will be available for rent in a few weeks.
Her place is only a five-minute drive from the school, so I guess things aren’t completely shit.
Veronica is sitting on her front porch when I arrive, and immediately hands me a glass of wine once I make it to her.
She’s so pretty with her brown, knot-free hair and smudge-free eyes. I most likely look like a damn racoon that’s been hit by a car right now. I’m a mess and I know it.
“I can’t believe that asshole, honey. You deserve better.” She gives me a quick one-armed hug, being careful not to spill her wine. “You can stay here for as long as you need. No more crying, babe. Ever.”
I force a small smile and nod once she breaks the hug and begins wiping the makeup from my eyes. “Thanks. Are you sure Peter doesn’t mind?”
She laughs and takes a seat on the porch, patting the spot beside her. “Peter thinks you’re hot. Trust me, he won’t mind having you around to look at fo
r a while.”
I shake my head and muster a tiny laugh, sitting down beside her. “You always know the right thing to say to lighten the mood.”
“It’s part of my charm, honey.”
We both sit here in silence for a bit, enjoying a couple glasses of wine, because she knows more than anyone that I’m going to need a while before talking about what went down today. I love her for it too.
“So…” She smiles and points to the house next door. “This is the place I was telling you about. The landlord has been doing some renovations since the previous tenant moved out last month. I know it’s kind of early to talk about it, but you should consider it before someone else calls dibs.”
I guzzle the last of my wine and look to my right at the white house. “It seems a little big just for one person, don’t ya think?”
“A guest room is always nice to have. Plus, you’ll be close to the school and right next door to your favorite person. You can’t pass that opportunity up.”
I nod in agreement. “True, very true.” I stand up before I can change my mind.
Making a rash decision to commit to my own place might be exactly what I need to ensure I stand solid on my decision to not give Douglas a second chance. “Is the landlord there now? The lights are on.”
“Well, yeah. But…”
“Let’s go talk to him before someone else does.”
“Cami, wait…” She takes off after me as I quickly make my way across the yard and to the next property. “It’s probably best not to disturb him when he’s working. Cami, slow down.”
Despite her warning, I stick with my decision, determined to make this breakup with that cheating asshole as official as I can.
I step onto the porch and push the door open, not bothering to knock first. The wine is telling me nothing can stop me right now. Nothing.
Except for the sight I’m greeted with. A sweaty, rock-hard body with tattoos is the first thing my eyes land on, before they slowly ascend to a very sexy, highly angry face and messy blond hair. His icy blue eyes pierce right through me as he speaks. “What the fuck are you doing in here?”
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