by Gray, Meg
“So,” Stacy said, changing the subject with one big flap of her hands. “I’m thinking about getting my lips done. Sexy, right?” She looked from Seth to Emma.
“If you say so,” Emma replied.
“I do say so, men like full pouty lips,” she said as she leaned over the table and pursed her lips into a pout. “Tell her Seth.” She pointed at Emma. “Tell her men like pouty.”
“Men like pouty,” Seth mimicked and smiled at Emma over his wine glass before taking a drink.
“Really?” Emma asked.
“Yes, they think it’s sexy,” Stacy said. “Tell her Seth.”
“Sexy,” he mimicked again and raised his eyebrows for emphasis before taking another drink of wine.
“Maybe we could go together, Em, it would be fun.” Stacy’s eyes lit up with her idea.
“Oh no, I don’t think so, I’m not into plastic surgery,” Emma replied as she stood to gather the plates from the table. She carried a stack to the kitchen.
“It’s not surgery,” Stacy said.
Emma didn’t need to look at her friend to know she was rolling her eyes. It was a classic Stacy move that she’d seen hundreds of times.
“It’s just a couple of injections and it wears off in like six months or something. If you don’t like it, you can just go back to your thin little lips.”
“Oh, well in that case,” Emma said, returning to the table and exaggerating her voice. She rested her hands on the back of her chair and looked at Seth before turning back to Stacy. “The answer is still NO.” Emma took another stack of plates to the kitchen.
“Right, I forgot who I was talking to. Little Miss Vanilla,” Stacy called after her. “Do you know what she wore the other night when we went out with James and Peter?” Stacy asked, turning her attention to Seth.
“I can’t imagine,” he replied, leaning back in his chair.
“Jeans, tennis shoes, and a turtleneck for crying out loud!”
“Shameless,” Seth said in mock dismay.
“I know,” Stacy replied with a nod. She eyed Emma when she came back to the table. “Just look at you, girl. What is this you’re trying to pull off?” She wagged her finger up and down at Emma’s outfit. “You’ve got this whole cover-me-up thing going on. Have you seen her closet?” Stacy asked, slapping both hands on the table as she leaned over it and questioned Seth. “It’s all floor length skirts, turtlenecks and Mary Janes for God’s sake, it’s like she’s trying to turn men away.” Stacy laughed at her own joke. Seth just smiled.
“Do I have to remind you,” Emma said, setting three parfait glasses on the table before heading back to the kitchen to get spoons. “That it’s the middle of winter and I work with five and six year olds. Short skirts and high heels aren’t exactly practical in my line of work.”
“Whatever Emma,” Stacy said, reaching for a parfait. “All I know is you’ll never get laid if you keep dressing like that.”
“I’m not trying to get laid,” Emma said to her wanton friend.
“Oh girl, you need to get laid,” Stacy nodded back at her emphatically. “Tell her Seth.”
Seth threw his hands up this time, “I’m staying out of this one.”
Stacy dipped her spoon into her dessert. “Oh look Seth,” she said, her voice drenched in sarcasm. “She made us vanilla pudding, how fitting.” She popped a bite into her mouth. As the mousse settled over Stacy’s palette her eyes bulged.
“Oh my God, Emma,” she panted. “This is sinful. What is it?”
“It’s a white chocolate mousse.”
“Yum, yum,” Stacy said, digging in for more. “But seriously, Emma, you’ve got to spice it up a little. This country mouse thing isn’t going to get you far with these city boys.”
“Oh, I don’t know, I think I’m doing just fine on my own,” Emma said, a smile tugged on the corners of her lips.
“Oh really, and when’s the last time a guy asked you out?” Stacy retorted.
“Um, just this week.”
“Really?” Seth and Stacy asked at the same time.
“Yes, really,” Emma replied.
“One of your cutsie little kiddos doesn’t count,” Stacy said.
“It wasn’t one of my kids. It was another teacher,” Emma said, taking in another spoonful of mousse.
“Well, fill us in,” Seth urged as he scraped the sides of his glass with his spoon.
“He invited me to go watch his band play at a bar tonight.”
“Tonight?” Seth repeated. “Then what are you doing sitting around here with us?”
“We’d already made our plans and besides he plays there every Saturday, so I can go another time. Hey, maybe you’d like to come with me next weekend.” Emma answered.
“Yeah…” Seth started to agree.
“No, no, no,” Stacy said, jabbing her spoon in the air at the two of them. “You can’t bring another guy on a date with you. Are you crazy Emma? That’s a sure way to turn a guy off, they don’t like competition. It’s a testosterone thing. Some guys have it worse than others, but if I were you I’d go solo and show him just how available you are. He’s not going to like seeing Seth there.”
“Aaah,” Emma soothed, petting Seth’s arm like a kitten. “Who wouldn’t like seeing Seth, he’s adorable.”
Seth flashed a patronizing grin in her direction.
“I’m just warning you,” Stacy said with a shake of her head.
“You know who really doesn’t like me,” Seth said, licking the last bite of mousse off his spoon. “Is that dad of your student that we ran into at the gym. He stared me down pretty hard.”
“Really,” Emma said. “I didn’t notice.”
“Yup and he did the same thing the night he brought you home.”
“Brought you home?” Stacy repeated, her ears perking up.
“It was months ago,” Emma said, settling back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest. “He picked me up after a guy tried to mug me outside the school and drove me home.”
“Wait a minute,” Stacy said, waving her arms in front of her face. “You were mugged? Why am I just now hearing about it? What happened?”
“It wasn’t a big deal,” Emma sighed. “I left school after dark one day and didn’t see the other guy coming. He caught me by surprise and tried to take my bag. But my student’s dad saw everything and drove up and scared the guy off. That’s all.”
“Oooh, so are we talking about a single dad or a dad who’s married with five kids?” Stacy asked, jumping right to the part of the story she found most interesting.
“Single,” Emma replied.
“And he rushed up to help you when you were in distress?” Stacy flipped her hand pressing the back of it to her forehead.
“Yes.”
“Is he hot?” Her eyes twinkled with anticipation.
Emma rolled her eyes, “Yeah, he’s good looking enough.”
“Girl, you should totally go for him,” Stacy said, her voice raising an octave in her excitement.
“Yeah, right?” Emma replied.
“Oh come on,” Stacy said. “What’s wrong with this guy?”
“Oh I don’t know, maybe that he’s the father of one of my students,” Emma said, knowing this sound reasoning would be lost on her indiscriminant friend.
“For only like a few more months, so what’s the harm in laying down the ground work now. Let him know you’re interested.” Stacy gave a little shrug like there was no problem with flirting with a parent of one of her students, as if it was an accepted practice.
“But I’m not interested,” Emma said.
“Sure you are,” Stacy persisted.
“No, I’m not. And I thought I just told you about this other guy who asked me out.”
“You’re not that into him,” Stacy said with a wave her hand. “Because if you were, you would have pitched our plans right out the window and ran to that bar tonight, not even thinking about dragging Seth along. You’d want that guy all to you
rself, but you didn’t. So now, tell me. If Mr.-I’m-A-Hottie-Single-Dad called you up and asked you out for tonight, what would you have done?”
“He wouldn’t call me,” Emma replied, inwardly thinking he’s never called me.
“But, what if he did?” Stacy smiled, liking this game she was playing with Emma.
Emma shook her head. She couldn’t imagine any circumstance where Mr. Lewis would call her for a social reason. That would never happen. He wouldn’t even call her back when she wanted to talk about his son. But it disturbed Emma that she couldn’t form the words of her refusal. Why would Emma ever willingly choose to be around Mr. Lewis?
She remembered how she rushed out of her classroom last month to see him for their spur of the moment meeting, but that was because of Brayden. Her own intrigue into the man had nothing to do with it. It couldn’t, right?
No, of course not.
Of course not.
Chapter Eighteen
Stacy had no idea what she was talking about. Of course, Emma was interested in Alec. Why else had she spent the last two weeks since having dinner with Stacy and Seth imagining herself and Alec as a couple? She could picture the two of them in a modest home complete with a white picket fence and a handful of children running around the backyard.
In the evenings, they would sit together commiserating about the students in their classes, the ones that drove them crazy and the ones that melted their hearts. They would spend their summers traveling to new and interesting places. The two of them together made perfect sense.
Every day at school, she anticipated seeing him and felt like a giddy schoolgirl each time she walked down the hall hoping they might cross paths. But she had scarcely seen him since Brayden’s meeting.
Emma ignored the blustery rainy days that came one after the other, consuming herself instead, with images of a future with Alec Martin.
The morning announcements were droning on again. The children squirmed like little worms on the carpet in front of her. The day showed the promise of spring as the sun climbed to its post in the sky, keeping the clouds at bay. For the first time in weeks, the kids might be able to play outside the confines of the small covered space on the playground and access the entire grounds. But by the end of the announcements, the clouds had overtaken the sun.
Brayden sat gloomily inside his coat locker, sitting as still as a statue, when Donald joined the class. Emma’s heart skipped a beat when she saw Alec followed him. Sandy was taking her son to the orthodontist this morning, so Emma had expected a sub, but she never imagined that Alec would fill in for her. Emma felt a light flutter of butterflies in her stomach when he smiled at her, just like a lovesick adolescent.
He closed the door quietly behind him and watched Donald put his things away in his locker. Donald, as usual, stopped to greet Brayden before joining the rest of the class at the carpet.
“Brayden?” Alec mouthed to Emma and pointed to the solitary boy. She nodded and Alec walked over, kneeling beside him. Brayden remained frozen, except for his eyes, which shot like laser beams from Alec to Emma and back to the floor. When Brayden didn’t engage him, Alec gave up and pulled a tiny chair to the carpet near Donald.
Emma could feel herself becoming flustered as Alec watched her lead the class through their morning songs, dances and calendar routine. It was one thing to sit in front of her class making funny voices and singing silly songs, but it was quite another to do it in front of someone that she was trying to make an impression on. And a good impression at that.
The children peppered her with requests for the chicken dance. Usually she would indulge them—it was their absolute favorite— but she would be mortified if Alec saw her strutting around like a chicken. She bluffed, telling them there wasn’t enough time and transitioned into writing centers, dismissing one group at a time to their workstation.
Emma sat with her five students at the kidney bean shaped table and started with their lesson. Alec followed Donald to the table where he would work on illustrating a short story he wrote with Emma yesterday. Usually, Brayden would find his way to his group at this time if he hadn’t already joined the class. He especially liked illustrating his books, but Emma could see he wasn’t moving from the shelter of his locker.
Alec noticed Brayden’s book at the table.
“Brayden, here’s your book,” he said, holding it up.
Brayden ignored him.
Alec tried again, this time taking the book with him as he walked to the back of the classroom. “Here Brayden,” he said and held out the papers folded and stapled into a booklet. “Let’s go work on your book.”
Brayden’s eyes turned on Alec, a wild frightened look in them. Alec waited, holding the book. Brayden ripped it from his hand and tore it in half. Alec’s eyes turned to Emma, stunned and apologetic. He returned to the table without the company of Brayden.
Emma worked with Lyle on sounding out the word dinosaur when Brayden walked over and stood next to her. Lyle’s eyes shifted to Brayden, but Emma kept her attention on his work. When they finished working out the word, she looked at Brayden.
“Is there something I can do to help you Brayden?” she asked while pointing at Naomi’s sentence to remind her to put a period at the end.
“My book is ripped,” he mumbled and held up the two halves of his book.
“I see that. What would you like to do about it?” This wasn’t the first time a piece of Brayden’s work had suffered a ripping and they’d been over how to fix it many times before. He also knew if he wanted to join his class at recess in fifteen minutes, he would need to have his work finished.
“I need to tape it.”
“Okay,” Emma replied. “The tape is on my desk. If you would like me to help you, bring it over here and we can do it together.”
Ivan passed Emma his writing book and she looked over his work as Brayden went to retrieve the tape dispenser. She excused Ivan and then Naomi.
Emma held the halves of the book together as Brayden stretched the tape across the rip. He returned the tape to her desk and then slumped down in the seat next to her as Lyle left the table. Emma organized her materials and made a couple of notes about her group’s progress before she walked to the panel of light switches, turning them off. A buzz of activity filled the room as the students cleaned up their stations. Brayden kept his eyes down and focused on his work.
Emma walked the rest of her class down the hall to the playground. Alec and Donald came out of the classroom when she got back, meeting her in the hall. Alec stopped while Donald walked ahead.
“Sorry about that,” Alec said, jerking his head back toward the classroom where Brayden was working.
“Don’t worry about it,” Emma said with a mild shake of her head. “It certainly isn’t the first time this has happened and I’m sorry to say it probably won’t be the last.”
“Well, you’re really good with him, you know,” Alec said and pushed his hands into his coat pockets.
Emma could feel her cheeks blush as she shrugged.
“Any word from his dad yet?” Alec asked.
“Not a word.” Emma peeked into the classroom to make sure Brayden wasn’t able to hear them. He was at the table working on the pages of his book.
“Well, let’s not give up hope yet, he could still come around, huh?” Alec reached out and gave her arm a squeeze.
“Yeah, maybe,” Emma said, a smile blossoming on her face. They both turned at the sound of Donald opening the metal doors out to the playground and Alec started in his direction, but then stopped and turned around.
“Hey, I didn’t see you at The Brewery last Saturday.”
“I know. Something came up,” she told him. Audrey called with a babysitting emergency last Saturday and Emma spent the night with her nieces.
“Well, I hope you can make it this weekend.” He smiled and took a few steps backward.
“Okay, I’ll try,” Emma said. He noticed her absence last weekend? He was inviting her to the
bar again? This had to be a good sign.
He smiled his infectious smile at her.
Yep, this was definitely a good sign.
“Well, I better catch up to our little guy. See ya Emma.” He threw his hand up in a wave and went outside to join Donald.
Turning into her classroom she nearly collided with Brayden. He had his coat on and handed his book to her. He rocked back and forth on his heels as she flipped through the pages. The illustrations were basic, but he had colored each page. There was a little less precision and detail to his work than usual, but she let it go, because it was still better than some of her other students’ work. She gave him a nod and he hurried out to the playground.
Emma met her class on the red star at the end of recess and saw Sandy following behind Donald. Alec had already returned to his classroom. Her disappointment was outweighed by the fact that he had asked her to see his band again and she was not letting anything keep her from that bar this Saturday night.
* * *
“Where are you off to?” Seth asked when Emma walked out of her bedroom Saturday night. She wore a pair of dark blue jeans, black spiked boots, and a tight white top under a loose cardigan sweater, belted with a tie at the waist. It was all a part of the new casual-trendy-look Stacy was helping her piece together. Most of it was working for her except the tiny heels on the boots. She rolled her ankle in them just walking down the hall.
“I’m going to watch Alec’s band play tonight,” she said.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to tag along. To check the guy out for you? You know, make sure he’s worthy.” Seth winked at her.
“No, I think I’ll be okay. Besides I don’t want to give him the wrong idea about us. I’ve got to go solo and show him just how available I am,” she said copycatting Stacy’s words.
Seth shook his head. “You know I wouldn’t exactly call our dear friend Stacy an expert on men. It’s not quantity, but quality that counts. If you’re not going to let me meet the guy at least give me the run down on him.”
“Well,” Emma said as she pulled her black coat on and fastened the toggles. “He’s a teacher at my school, and he plays in a band.” Seth nodded as she stated the obvious, but waited for more. Emma racked her brain for something else to share, “And he’s really hot, you know, tall, blond and built. I guess he kind of reminds me of you.” She smiled, teasing him.