Getting Schooled (Craving #9)

by Anthology

  “Fine, I’m leaving.” The bitterness toward him not responding was clear in her tone as he heard her heading out. “Bye, Kara!”

  “Just go and properly say goodbye,” he said as he swung around and gave her a furious look.

  “Then I’ll be late and she’ll be fine. I’ll video call later when Zo is gone.” The bitterness in the way she said Ms. September’s name couldn’t be missed.

  Taking another breath, he waited to hear the door open and close before he turned the alarm back on. He heard Kara hadn’t stopped talking, and with a smile back on his face, he headed toward her room.

  “If Daddy is home, you can teach me in here, so we don’t bother him. Otherwise the kitchen table is where I usually do my homework,” Kara said as he was about to enter her room, but instead he waited a beat to do so, curious over how Ms. September would handle the situation.

  “Has he told you that you bother him?” He couldn’t hear Kara’s answer, so he assumed she either nodded or shook her head. “I’m certain he would want to see you as much as possible. You should ask him if he would want us to work in the kitchen all the time, then at least you’ll see each other more often.”

  It turned quiet before he heard Kara again. “I miss him when I’m with Mummy, but he’s happier now.”

  He cleared his throat, afraid his daughter might reveal more than he was comfortable with her sharing before he was able to have a proper chat with the woman. “How are we doing here?” he asked as he entered and saw Kara hugging Ms. September.

  Kara immediately let Ms. September go and came toward him for a hug, while Ms. September gave a sweet yet sad smile. She even went about busying herself by taking out papers from her bag, just to allow them to have the moment.

  Crouched down, he was at eye level with Kara and wiped a tear from her cheek while her green eyes glistened and broke his heart. “I also miss you every day you aren’t here, princess.”

  “I-I know,” she hiccuped her teary reply.

  “I’ll wait in the living area and set up at the kitchen table, if that’s okay?” Ms. September asked.

  He nodded his head and attempted to smile, but with his child sad in his arms, it didn’t feel genuine.

  Zolyn was certain her stomach would be in spasms the rest of the evening as Kara was one of the most excitable children she had ever come across. For every word she attempted to teach her, she found a humorous association to remember them. It was clear that the humour was a front for the emotions she was hiding, but her bubbly personality showed the pure innocence of a child.

  “Try to place the pictures with what you think the words are,” she told Kara, who eagerly began placing the pictures of the fruits next to words she associated them with. “You did very well. Many of the words are just like the English ones, with just a few to confuse us. Like lemoen is an orange in English, while lemon in Afrikaans is actually a suurlemoen, like sour lemon,” she explained.

  “Who was so silly to not call it oranje and give lemon the lemoen name?” Kara looked absolutely astounded over this, and it made Zolyn laugh as Kara easily saw the colour relation between the word in Afrikaans that could have been used the same way as in English.

  “Someone was definitely a little silly, weren’t they?” Zolyn wanted to move on to the vegetables, when Mr. Elgin entered the living area.

  “Sorry to interrupt the lesson, Ms. September, but a moment please?” he asked and showed her toward his home office, where he had been since she began the lesson with Kara.

  “Sure,” she directed toward him before turning to Kara. “Try the veggies while I talk to your dad…and what do we call them in Afrikaans again?” She did a quick check.

  “Groente! Like green in English…Afrikaans is weird,” Kara thoughtfully called out, already grabbing the pictures to start sorting them. “I like animals. Will we do them soon?” she asked with a sweet smile while twirling her brown hair with her free hand and swinging her feet as they were unable to reach the ground.

  “We’ll do them next time I’m here, promise,” Zolyn confirmed.

  Walking toward Mr. Elgin, she heard Kara say something about a potato and not finding a word starting with a P, and it made Zolyn curious over how she was going to resolve the puzzle. Entering the office, the opulence of the penthouse was amplified as dark wood and a stunning view of the city had her staring.

  “I take it you’re enjoying the view?” She heard the smile in his tone.

  Shyly, she nodded her head and finally began moving toward the desk to take a seat, never diverting her gaze.

  “Kara was so excited earlier we barely had time to talk terms, and she seems taken by you, so I didn’t want the technicalities to ruin her mood,” he said in a businesslike tone that took her a second to process as the father figure was quickly replaced.

  “Uhm, yeah, of course. I got so caught up in her bubbly personality, I forgot about that and sort of assumed I would be continuing to work through Mr. Sibille, your assistant,” she confessed.

  “Right, and yeah, Kara has pretty much just accepted you already,” he said. The touch of gray framing his hairline only just showed he was steadily aging.

  “Has she had trouble before?” It felt out of line, too personal and something she knew she shouldn’t have dared to get involved with, but it was nagging at her over why previous teachers left.

  He groaned but surprisingly answered. “Assuming you mean why you are the third tutor she has had, yes, she’s had trouble learning before. But then again, it was her mother who chose the tutors, so…I think you get it.” He eyed her.

  “Not a great divorce. I noticed, so yeah,” she offered with more bite to her response than she had intended.

  “There’s something I did want to ask, though.” He seemed hesitant, so she simply nodded. “Why do you teach at Sakumlandela Primary School, when the world is open to you?”

  She gave a dry chuckle, too used to the question she always received. “It’s where it all began for me, where my sister and I went, and to be the stereotype, the teachers who taught us gave us opportunities many didn’t have back then.” She broke eye contact and looked back at him, only then seeing the green of Kara’s eyes came from him. They mesmerised her as he listened and wasn’t trying to convince her to go after the better opportunities many others have suggested she do.

  His head nodded thoughtfully as he sat forward and rested his elbows on his desk. The angle at which the light fell on his jaw emphasised the defined line, and she watched his Adam’s apple bob. “I think it’s best if we keep Mr. Sibille in charge of your payment and the contract. I’ll have him get in touch with you again,” he said before quickly adding, “That is, if you even want to continue?”

  “Yes, of course!” She couldn’t believe he questioned her regarding it, but to reaffirm, she added, “Kara is a wonderful child, and she’s a quick learner, but I suppose she has caught some words from you?” The inquisitive question was purely to pry at his heritage, as it seemed like he had all but abandoned it.

  “I tried teaching her some words, and also my mother has, but your games seem to help a bit more than a bombardment of words here and there,” he casually answered.

  “We are a visual species,” she jokingly offered. “Anyway, I should get back to her. I don’t want her to break her spirit over a potato, of all things.”

  “Yeah, good idea,” he said, smiling, and she began heading to the door.

  Reaching for the knob, she stopped and turned back to him. He looked near untouchable at the desk, but it was clear that he was still tender from what she assumed was the divorce.

  “I think…” She paused, uncertain if she should say the words, but she knew it was the best thing for Kara. “She’s young, but she understands well enough that it has clearly begun affecting her. The divorce, I mean.”

  “The crying at strange times?” he asked.

  She nodded her head. “You should really consider letting her see a therapist to help her through this. I�
�m only suggesting it because it will hurt her in time, and I know you wouldn’t want that.” A definite line was crossed with her statement, so she made quick work of heading out of the door, only just seeing Mr. Elgin looking like a truck had hit him, which she knew meant that he had a hunch that Kara needed professional guidance; he just couldn’t yet admit it.

  Chapter Two

  Two months later…

  Zolyn stood outside of the penthouse, waiting for Kara and her father to arrive. Leaning against the wall opposite the door, she wondered how Kara’s session with the therapist had gone, for in the last few weeks the difference was finally starting to show. She was still the bubbly kid she had first met, and her teary-eyed moments lessened as the therapy taught her to share her feelings instead of keeping them hidden.

  It was a world apart, but to Zolyn it rang home, as she knew the pain of being a child and seeing your parents fall out of love with each other. In her case, her parents never separated, and the resentment boiled over to the point that her mother walked out on them and never came back. To this day, Zolyn still wondered where her mother went, whether she was still alive, and if maybe one day she’d be able to get back in touch.

  “Zo!” The shrilly call came from the elevator’s direction and ripped her from her reverie. With a big smile minus a few teeth, the tiny brown-haired girl came rushing toward her.

  A smile consumed her own face, while she noted Mr. Elgin was also looking like he had a spring in his step. His gloomy demeanour had faded away, and she could now see why he had always been admired by the public. There was an ease to him, his kindness easily showed, and his daughter was the centre of his world.

  “Hello, Kara,” she excitedly screeched out as Kara ran into her open arms for a hug. “How are we today?” she asked, looking at Mr. Elgin, who nodded his head to show it had gone well at the session, before she looked into Kara’s bright eyes.

  “I wanted to go to the beach, but Daddy said we first need to do the lesson.” She made a sad face in a comical manner that made Zolyn giggle.

  “He’s such a mean man,” she jokingly offered Kara.

  “No, no, let the princess finish,” he insisted with a slight rise of his brow, while his smile hadn’t moved.

  “Sooo,” she began, “Daddy suggested we do beach words today at the beach. If that’s okay with you?” she exaggerated, her smile pulling her lips beyond her teeth line to get the message across. “Asseblief?” She asked please in Afrikaans, and only a monster would be able to deny the sweetness that was Kara.

  Overwhelmed by the excitement, Zolyn simply nodded, and Kara was out of the hug. The door was barely opened when Kara was already through it and heading in her room’s direction.

  “Are you certain it will be okay? I took the day off because of the session, but if you would rather do a lesson first, I can take her afterwards?” he offered as she stood rather close to him in the doorway.

  She knew the closeness was definitely messing with her judgment, but it didn’t bother her too much, as she was certain only she felt the spark between them.

  “Ms. September?” he asked as she had grown too quiet.

  “Yeah, it’s no problem, Mr. Elgin. She can get a bit of a break today. Besides, we live in a coastal city, and I haven’t been to the beach in ages, so it could be nice. Especially if we could go somewhere near the harbour, where I can teach her some extra words.”

  “Sounds like a good idea. I also need some sharpening up on some of those words myself, so we’ll call it a double lesson.” His smile was cheeky and stirred up an emotion that made her feel near giddy.

  “Sure,” was all she managed to say as she walked in and headed for the kitchen. Taking the lesson she had planned to do with Kara out of her bag, she set it down and turned to Mr. Elgin. “Later over the weekend, or whenever before her next lesson, could you please just go through this with her?” She tapped her finger on the file. “It’s easy stuff. Even a rusty old Afrikaner would understand,” she teased with his previous statement still in her mind.

  “Ne?” He used the South African slang term for really, slapping on the sarcasm as thick as possible.

  She only chuckled and shook her head, while Kara came running back, suited up and ready. “I’m ready. Let’s go!”

  “Uhm, Ms. September, did you want to…” He struggled to find the words.

  A chuckle left her. “No, I’m fine, but thanks. I’ll roll up my jeans and dip my toes at best.” Thankful she opted for comfortable clothing before she came over, she continued watching as Kara ran back and forth from her room, piling all her stuff into a pink wagon.

  “I’m just gonna go get out of the suit. Don’t want to throw sand out of it while in a meeting,” Mr. Elgin said with a smile, needing to sidestep Kara as she came running out with a single sandcastle bucket, ready to take on the world.

  Ben sat the pink wagon down on the sand, next to the cabana Kara and Ms. September had already set up. He watched Kara grab the sunscreen, and instead of asking him to put it on, she stood in front of Ms. September. The shy smile that followed warmed his heart as he watched the two of them.

  With her tank top and rolled-up jeans, she didn’t quite fit with the private beach crowd, but she seemed happier than most of the people who were staring. What he admired most was that she didn’t even care about them, as she went about making sure Kara had enough sunscreen on before helping her put on her swim vest.

  “We're lucky with the weather today,” she said, zipping up the front and checking to see if the swim vest wasn’t chaffing Kara.

  He made a motion of looking at the sky and along the horizon while taking off his shirt. “Yeah, we struck lucky, though rain would be nice,” he said as he set his shirt down and caught her wide-eyed expression. It flattered him as she quickly turned her head away.

  “What’s a crab in Afrikaans again?” Kara asked, pointing at the crab on her vest’s front.

  “Wait, what?” Ms. September stared at the image.

  “This one?” Kara stepped closer as if Ms. September couldn’t see the large image from where she sat, and he had to stop himself from laughing.

  “Oh, krap, the same as scratch,” she said, pulling her hands in front of her face and wiggling her fingers about.

  Kara pantomimed the motion and repeated the word several times, while bouncing from one leg to the other.

  “Well done,” she offered, while he noted she didn’t dare to move her gaze toward him.

  “Ready to go?” he asked Kara, who ran a metre toward the ocean and then back, before repeating the action. “Will you be okay here?” he asked Ms. September.

  “Come on, let’s go!” Kara called again.

  “Yeah, definitely, it’s a beautiful view.” The moment her words left, she closed her eyes, as she was still looking at him. “I just meant, uhm…” she began to say apologetically.

  “Don’t be. I’m rather enjoying this side of you,” he admitted.

  She looked down and nodded her head. The shyness was a sweet addition to her already kind manner, and it had him curious over the more personal side of her instead of just the teacher.

  Outside of the building, Zolyn exited the car and was about to remind Kara to prepare for her lesson on Monday when she saw the sweet child call her father closer and whisper something into his ear. His face showed approval mixed with apprehension as he looked in her direction, but it quickly settled back to the casual manner she had seen him carry for most of their afternoon together.

  “Ms. September,” he began, which earned him a giggle from Kara’s direction, “would you like to join us for supper? Kara is insisting you share the fish we bought at the harbour.”

  Deep inside, she knew this was nearing a line she shouldn’t dare to cross, but throughout the day, she had grown even more fascinated by him. The looks they shared felt like secrets they hadn’t quite ventured toward, and it excited her for all the wrong reasons. The way he looked without his shirt on the beach assured she could
never look at him again without remembering what lay beneath. It was territory she knew she should rather avoid for Kara’s sake, but the elated feeling she was experiencing while with them was such a beautiful change from the sadness she felt every time she left.

  “I don’t want to be a bother,” she told him softly as Kara was already heading toward the door, decided that she was going to stay.

  “It will break her heart if you don’t stay. Unless you have a date?” He carefully added the last, not shifting his eyes away, clearly checking her reaction.

  She smirked. “Smooth,” she casually said and regretted it the second it sunk in. “Just ignore that.”

  His deep green inquisitive eyes and easy smile drew her in deeper.

  “Point is, I don’t think it will exactly be very appropriate,” she admitted.

  “Hmmm, because when she had dinners before, while you were here, there were so many issues,” he said sarcastically as he was pretending to think it through while checking his watch. Wickedly scheming eyes found their way to hers. “If you teach Kara three or four words while we make dinner, it’s kind of a lesson, so you don’t have to feel guilty that I’m offering food as well. Would you agree then?”

  “Damn, you’re crafty, but fine, I’ll accept, Mr. Elgin.” Her smile settled back into the spot where it had been most of the afternoon. She couldn’t help feeling exhilarated, as his manner reminded her of what it was like to be wooed while in high school—which only aided in reminding her how long ago she dated, for after her own divorce, she barely ventured between her job and home.

  “You can just call me Ben,” he said.

  “Okay then, Ben, there’s a catch in me accepting to join the dinner,” she said, turning it on him.

  “I’m intrigued, Ms. September.” His eyes narrowed as he analysed her while taking the pink wagon out of the car boot.