by Harlow James
“Thanks, Kane. I just don’t think I’ve needed sleep this badly in my life.”
“Oh, come on. There had to be one point in college where you stayed up too late drinking and partying and didn’t sleep until the next night?” I tease him, trying to distract him from the worry in his life, although I can’t relate to the feeling of nursing a hangover and still having to function. I worked on my degree while stationed in a desert with limited wi-fi and no parties in sight. Sometimes I feel regretful that I didn’t get the typical college experience, but I wouldn’t change my time in the Army for anything.
He smiles at the thought. “Yeah, but I’m not twenty anymore. I’m thirty-one, and I swear, the thirties are great except for the depletion in your energy. If I didn’t have to help coach a football game tonight, I’d be in bed at seven!”
“Just wait until you have a kid. I hear you really lose sleep then.”
Drew stares blankly at me as he processes my words then mutters, “Fuck.”
“Good afternoon, everyone!” Principal North addresses the room of disgruntled teachers, exhausted from another long week of work, effectively ending our conversation. “I’ll try to make this quick since I know you’re all eager to get your weekend started,” she beams, surveying the teachers who look more like students trying to stay awake during class right now.
“Damn right. Make this quick, woman,” Mrs. Waterman mumbles behind me, earning an eye roll from me that thankfully she can’t see.
“As you know, Mr. Kirk left us a few weeks ago, leaving a huge vacancy in our math department.”
“Yeah, well, if I’d won the lottery, I would have left too!” Another teacher shouts across the cafeteria, garnering murmurs of agreement and chuckles from the crowd of almost seventy of us.
“No judgment from me,” Principal North replies with a wink. “I think we can all understand Mr. Kirk’s choice. But I am happy to report we have found a replacement for him. Our new teacher will start on Monday, so please help her feel welcome. She has big shoes to fill, but she came highly recommended and knows her stuff.”
“A woman, huh?” Drew whispers in my ear, causing me to glare at him in wonder.
“Why does that matter?” I growl.
“Easy tiger. I wasn’t insinuating anything. It’s just not very often you hear of a woman teaching math. But maybe this one can end up being your Tammy.”
“My Tammy?”
“In case you’ve forgotten, my wife was hired here and that’s how I met her. Marrying a teacher is the best man. You both get the same time off, you understand what the job is like… it’s the perfect relationship for men like us.”
“That’s pretty sexist, Drew, even coming from you. A woman who can teach math shouldn’t be looked at differently. In fact, that’s pretty hot. But sorry to burst your bubble, I’m not looking for a happily ever after. Knowing my luck anyway, she’s probably in her fifties or something,” I chide while Principal North drones on about the tardy policy.
I swear, with the way these kids are late to class, I wonder how any of them will ever hold down a job.
Drew holds his hands up in the air in defense. “Just sharing my thoughts. Although it seems to me like you could use the company of a woman right now. You’re more surly than normal.”
“I get plenty of company from women when I want it. And I’m not being any more of an asshole than normal, just tired,” I grumble under my breath, knowing damn well that a wet and willing woman would be enough to snap me out of my funk.
It’s been almost a year though since I’ve had the company of a woman in my bed. After Natasha wrecked our future, I sowed my wild oats for a while since she had been the only woman I’d ever been with. It got old really fast, so I called it quits and have only enjoyed the company of my hand for months now.
“The next item is the big rivalry game against Ashland High School next week,” Principal North continues. “This is the biggest game of the year and we get to host. I would appreciate a few of you stepping up to help with taking tickets and just being present in the stands. Security will do the dirty work, but the more eyes we have in the stadium, the better things run. And of course, the kids loving seeing the teachers there.”
The rivalry between Emerson Falls and Ashland High has been a long-standing one for over thirty years. I grew up in northern Oregon, so I was uneducated on the tradition, but the Emerson-Ashland rivalry has always been a brutal game and both towns take the competition very seriously.
“You’re gonna be down on the field with us during that game, right?” Drew pulls my attention back to him while I survey the room. The soldier in me never stops observing my surroundings.
“Yeah, no problem. I can help in any way you need.”
“Thanks. It helps to have another guy down there to keep the boys level-headed. Cory and Holt wanted me to remind you about it anyway, so now I’ve completed my job,” he winks at me just as we hear Principal North end the meeting.
Corey Tanner and Holt Bennet are a P.E. teacher and athletic trainer respectively for the school, and two of the other men I’ve made friends with over the past few years. Drew, Corey, and Holt coach the football team together, and I’ll chip in sometimes when needed but couldn’t commit to the team entirely. After one bad case of PTSD during a practice where the sound of the helmets hitting snapped me back to an IED going off in Afghanistan and I froze on the field, I realized coaching probably wasn’t a good idea. I’m hoping one day that won’t be the case anymore.
“Have a good weekend everyone! See you back here on Monday!” Principal North shouts over the noise of teachers making a mad dash for the parking lot.
“You going to Tony’s tonight?” Drew asks as we grab our stuff and head for our trucks.
“Probably. Lord knows I’ve earned it after this week. It was a full moon and the kids were just more ornery than normal,” I say while stroking my hand through my jet black hair and down the beard I’m obnoxiously proud of. After keeping a clean-shaven face in the Army for eight years, I was itching to grow a beard. So I did, and it looks damn good if I say so myself.
“Wish I could join you, but after the game, I’m headed home to pass out,” Drew says through a laugh and I wish him luck before we both settle in our trucks and peel out of the parking lot.
Tony’s bar is the local hangout for the working class. The younger crowd hangs out at Half Full, a hipster bar on the other side of town. Tony’s is known for an older crowd who know how to keep to themselves and behave, which is fine by me since I don’t really have much to say to anyone nowadays.
After I moved from my hometown to Emerson Falls and bought my house secluded in the thick forest on the outskirts of town, a trip to Tony’s was the only interaction I allowed myself to unwind after a long week of teaching. Tony, the owner, became a close confidant I didn’t know I needed, especially since he served in the Army as well. So most weeks, I take a trip to the bar, have a couple of beers with Tony, and then call it a night, retreating to my life of solitude that I’ve become accustomed to.
But if someone would have told me how my night would end when I made my way into Tony’s later that evening, I would have laughed in their face and bet them a hundred bucks that it never would happen. Because there was no way that some woman would knock me on my ass and give me the best sex of my life. No way.
Good thing I never placed any bets against anyone else, because losing a bet to her took my evening in an entirely different direction.
Keep reading Kane and Olivia’s story here
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