by Emily N. Kay
His mouth opens and closes a couple times, about to defend himself. Then he gives in and lets out a single laugh. “Okay. Sorry about that too, I guess.”
“That’s okay. I forgive you now. Because you got me pizza.” I do a little dance with my shoulders.
“You’re funny,” he says, shaking his head with a smile. It’s the first genuine smile he’s given me. “To be honest, you’re a lot different than I thought.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, at school you seem… shy?” he says unsurely.
I scoff. “I’m not shy. I just don’t like speaking up in class unless I really have to.” But I have to think that maybe I’m more reserved than I’d like to admit…
“Then I guess I’ve misread you,” he says with a small grin.
“That’s why you shouldn’t be quick to judge someone,” I say to him, but also to myself. I shouldn’t label him a pervert before getting to know him, right?
Then out of habit, I take out my phone and snap a picture of my slice before I’m about to dig in. Nick stops chewing as he glares at me.
“Is this a thing now?” Nick lets out a laugh. “Kids these days––taking a picture of every meal.” He then mocks me with an eye roll.
Kids these days? Even with this dress I’m still a kid to him. My pride is a little hurt, but I shove it down and explain, “It’s called documenting ‘what I eat in a day’. It’s what I always do. It’s not stupid. Even my mom does it. You see, when I look back at this photo, I will think of today––of you.”
He pauses and heaves a tired sigh, like he’s done trying to understand me. “I guess…”
I ignore his rudeness and bite my pizza. Crust first. Always.
Again, Nick stops chewing as he looks at how I eat my pizza. “Of course, you’re one of those people.”
“What?” I ask him as I chew the crust. It’s a good piece of crust.
“Those people who eat the crust first. That’s so wrong on so many levels,” he grumbles.
“You’re such a snob. There’s no wrong way of eating pizza,” I counter. “I just like to eat the crust first because that’s how you know if the dough is really good on its own.”
Nick’s expression slowly shifts from disapproving to admiration. “Hmm, never thought about it that way before.”
“Now you do.” I flash him a triumphant grin.
Finally, I make my way to the cheesy part of the pizza. Not going to lie, the pizza is good, but is it worth walking all the way here? Hell no. But I refrain from telling him that. He will have to rate me after all.
“Anyway, even without the photo to remind you, you wouldn’t forget today. I know I wouldn’t,” he says a little bitterly.
“Agree.” I roll my eyes.
After we’ve finished our slices, Nick checks his watch and says, “Now we have… less than an hour left.”
“Oh, congratulations,” I say sarcastically. “You’re almost out of your misery.”
Nick lets out a soft laugh. “I’m not,” he says, his voice light. “I’m not in a misery, if that’s what you think.” The way he says it makes my heart jump. He smiles, and I realize that he looks so much younger when he smiles.
“Good to know.” I wipe my lips with a napkin paper, then reapply my lipstick using my iPhone’s front camera as a mirror.
Nick observes me quietly, clearly amused. “I forgot to ask––don’t you have a curfew?”
“No.”
“No?” He stares at me quizzically. “Aren’t your parents worried? What if you come home past midnight, won’t they mind that?”
“It’s just me and my mom. And she won’t mind.”
“How come?”
“Because she knows that that I won’t do anything stupid and she trusts me,” I answer with a pang of guilt. “I know what I’m doing can be considered… stupid. I know, but I also know that I can take care of myself.”
Surprisingly he doesn’t retort to that.
“I don’t have a problem at home, if that’s what you’re wondering. My mom and I are like… BFFs.” I silently grunt when I realize how stupid that sounds.
Nick seems like he is about to ask me something, probably about my dad, but changes his mind. “Your mom trusts you.”
“Yes. It’s always been the two of us.” I try to indirectly answer the question he has about my dad.
He scoffs. “Now I feel worse. It’s wrong just having dinner with you. If your mom knows––”
I grunt with frustration. “Enough with the guilt talk already! It’s not your fault I happen to be your escort.”
He still doesn’t seem appeased by that.
“Look, here you’re my client, not my teacher. It doesn’t make a difference that I’m your escort. Even if it’s not me here with you––even if it’s another girl––she’d still be someone else’s daughter. Would you have felt as guilty? No, you wouldn’t have. Because you were the one who hired the service.”
Still, Nick doesn’t seem too convinced. “That’s one way to look at it…” he finally says.
“So, what do you suggest we do with the time we have left?” I ask, shifting the subject.
“I don’t know. We can just talk? I’m your teacher after all. We should be getting to know each other.”
Thank you for reminding me of that…
“You just love to talk, don’t you?” I say without humor. “Then, tell me more about yourself. What did you do? You can tell me about your job back in California.”
He pauses as if thinking. I thought he’s not going to answer me, but then he says, “I was working for a publishing company, as an editor in chief. But not anymore.”
“You got fired?”
He laughs. “No. It’s just… when I realized that I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life, I left.”
“Just like that?” I stare at him.
He nods. “I’ve always wanted to write a book, actually. I guess working in a publishing company does that to you.”
An aspiring writer. “Cool. Now I understand why you get to teach Creative Writing.”
“Not just Creative Writing,” Nick corrects. “I’m also your sub teacher, always ready to fill in.”
“You say that very proudly,” I tease.
“I am proud. Subs are cool.” He smiles. “Anyway, I love to write. I was lucky enough that Nancy got me to fill in for her while I’m figuring things out. It was perfect timing.”
I take my time to digest all this information. “Wow,” I start. “That’s… actually very inspiring.”
His brow raises. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, I wish I have your confidence.” I give him a tiny smile. “I mean, you know what you wanted, and you went for it. And you’re doing a decent job of teaching by the way, for someone who’s never taught before.”
Nick smiles back, but his face remains thoughtful. “Life is too short, right? You have to go for what you think is right for you. I saw the opportunity, and I just grabbed it.”
“But… how did you do it? It must have been difficult to leave a stable job like that––with no back-up plans at all, and coming here with nothing planned out?” I stop talking as soon as I realize I must have offended him again. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you…”
Nick just laughs. “Believe me, I’m not.” He looks at me with sparks in his eyes. “I meant it when I said you’re funny.”
Me? Funny? No one’s ever said I’m funny… except for my mom. And sometimes Leo––usually when I’m being extremely clueless about something. Which I guess is a lot of the times…
“Don’t say that when you review me. No escorts want to be called funny,” I joke.
His smile fades. “You say it like you’re a product or something. Doesn’t that bother you at all?”
Time to change the subject. “What kind of book do you want to write?”
Nick pauses to study me. He knows that I’m averting the topic, but he goes along with it anyway. “Still figuring
it out. I do have some ideas, but… none stood out to me.”
“Well, you can write about me,” I suggest teasingly. “About this––unexpected night. Think about it, a story about a teacher waiting for a nice, pretty escort in a fancy hotel room, but finding his student in front of his hotel room instead. And then… I don’t know, you come up with a cool ending. I mean, come on! It’s a great story!”
Nick shakes his head, a corner of his lips lifting. “Don’t you think it’s too soon to joke about this?”
I grin at him. “Life is too short. Isn’t that what you said, Mr. Chase?”
We take a cab back to the hotel (thank God). Nick offers to drive me home. I jokingly say to him that he needs to pay me an extra hour to do that. He is not amused, so I don’t argue with him and just let him drive me home.
Surprisingly, Nick drives a Mercedes, and it still has that smell of a new car.
“I hope whatever you’re doing, it’s legal,” I say after getting in his car.
“What do you mean?”
“Look at your car! How could you afford this?” Then I quickly add, “No offense.”
He is laughing, his head thrown back. “Again, none taken. You should stop saying that by now.”
“Now I know how you can afford me.”
Nick winces. “Again, I didn’t pay for you. Stop saying that too.”
I look at him, confused. Someone else paid for him then? What’s he talking about? But I’m too tired to press him. “Yeah, well, I don’t want to know anymore.”
“Okay…” He starts the car.
I glance at him from the corner of my eye, trying to figure out his story. I study his profile form the side. He has a perfectly arched nose. I’m not going to lie, he is very handsome. Now that I look carefully and closely, that is. How can a teacher be this good looking?
“Is there something on my face?” Nick asks without turning his head.
I jerk a little in my seat, embarrassed that he caught me looking. “No, nothing.”
“You want to know how I afford the car.” A corner of his mouth lifts.
I shrug nonchalantly. “Yeah. I mean, sure.”
“Truth is––my dad owns that publishing company I was telling you about.”
I crane my neck to look at him. “What? Then why didn’t you tell me? Does that mean that you worked for your own company?” I let out a breath. “It’s not like being rich is something to be embarrassed about.”
“I’m not rich,” he mumbles. Then he pauses. “The company, it’s not––it’s just a small company, Alice. I’m not loaded or anything.”
“Still, you should’ve told me.”
“Why does it matter anyway? It didn’t change anything, did it?”
“No, you’re still you,” I answer plainly, turning my head to look out the window. Doesn’t change the fact that he’s still my teacher.
“Well, to be fair, I earned everything myself. I’ve worked hard and saved up my own money,” he says like he’s trying to justify himself for using expensive stuff.
I put my hands up. “Hey, I’m not judging.”
He grins.
And we are both quiet.
“And what’s your story?” Nick starts. “Let’s start with how you got into the escort thing in the first place.”
I consider this. There’s nothing I really have to hide from him anyway. So I tell him––about how Lacey got me into the business, leaving out the part where Zoe was also a part of it. I don’t want him to judge her the same way he does me.
“You haven’t done this for that long then, if I’m your fourth client,” Nick says thoughtfully.
“Right.”
“Do you have your picture on the profile? On your agency’s website.”
“No. Just some descriptions. Most girls in our agency don’t put up their pictures too. We don’t want to expose ourselves. We avoid anything that can trace back to us. Besides, Lacey mostly manages me through direct contact anyway, so she would only send my photos only to those who request to see. But most of the guys love surprises. Just like you,” I say lightly.
Nick doesn’t respond to this. He simply nods, his face turning grim, not a hint of amusement. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.
I say nothing more for the rest of our ride, except to tell him the way.
We pull over in front of my apartment building.
“Nice apartment,” he finally speaks.
“Thanks,” I reply. “And for the ride.”
“Sure.”
Silence falls on us again. I feel like I should say something before I go, but I don’t know what.
“Um, I guess I’ll see you on Friday?” I stupidly say. Because I only have his class on Wednesdays and Fridays.
He lets out a breathy laugh. “Yeah, sure.”
Before I leave, I turn to him. “Should we completely ignore each other at school? You know, avoid any suspicions––”
“Alice,” he interrupts, “no one will suspect anything. As long as you and I don’t say a word. Don’t worry. We are innocent. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
I raise an eyebrow at that. Everything about this night was wrong. Though I admit it certainly didn’t feel so wrong to me. After spending time with him, it just felt like hanging out with a––familiar stranger––should I say.
Nick sighs. “Just act normal. Be a good student that I know you are.”
“Okay,” I give in. “And sorry about today.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“I don’t know… Did you have a good time, though?” I bite my lip, nervously waiting for his answer.
He pauses before he says, “Yeah, I had a good time. It’s not what I expected, but…” Nick smiles. He then seems to realize something. “Oh, one more thing. I hope we are on the same page here. You do understand that I didn’t, that I don’t, and never will think of you, or look at you that way, right?”
I look at his serious face, and I can’t help but laugh. “You’ve made that clear since the minute you saw me.” I smile, relieved that things are starting to feel normal between us. Honestly, he is not that creep of a guy. I open the door and turn my head to him before I say, “Although I have to say… your effort to resist me was impeccable, Mr. Chase.”
Without looking back, I make my way toward the building. And I hear a laugh echoing after me.
Chapter 8
On Friday, I spend my morning thinking about how I should act or say around Nick at school. Should I stay quiet in class and not utter a word, or would being active in class look more natural? But I was never really active in classes anyway, so that would be more suspicious…
“The girls were talking about Mr. Chase.” Zoe’s voice cuts through my mind.
My heart stops. Mr. Chase… Is it about us? Did anyone saw us that night?
Zoe must have taken my speechlessness for a signal to continue. “They said that Mr. Chase is gay,” she whispers.
I almost drop my textbooks. “Wait, what?” I almost shout. “No, that’s not possible.” Oh, how I want to tell Zoe, and everyone the truth. How wrong they all are.
“It might be true though.” Zoe shrugs.
“And why is that?”
“You know Maria?”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah. The cheerleader.”
Maria Lopez. The hot captain of the cheerleaders––with her tanned skin, long legs, and glossy blonde hair––it’s almost like she spends her entire life at the beach. I also remember her always giving me hateful glares. Girls like Maria––I don’t want anything to do with. Drama follows her. And I don’t want any of that.
“She doesn’t seem to like me very much,” I add bitterly.
“That’s because you’re the only thing standing in her way of being the hottest girl in school. Anyway, she has this huge crush on Mr. Chase––”
“What does that have to do with him being gay?” I cut in.
“Well, obviously, she was trying to get him. That’s how she is, you know that
. So,” She gets into her ready-for-the-best-part face. “She was wearing basically nothing and went to Mr. Chase for an advice on ‘writing a complex character,’” she says, air quoting mockingly.
I cringe. “She did that?”
“Yeah. But Mr. Chase didn’t even glance at her tits.” Zoe instantly barks out laughing.
Not surprising. I was his escort, available to him for whatever he chose to do with me, and he chose to do nothing. His moral compass is undeniably strong, I’ll give him that.
“So… Maria thinks Mr. Chase must be gay… because he didn’t sexualize her?” I ask, confused.
“I know, I thought Maria’s crazy too! But then I remembered you saying that he’s a pervert, so I don’t know… Maybe he’s gay, maybe not. Let’s be real, Maria might not even be his type. She is too intense. I mean, a girl coming on too strong like that. Any guy would fret.” Zoe shudders.
I think back to when I was trying so hard to kind of seduce him––to convince him that I’m a good escort. Does that mean I was coming on too strong for him too? Oh God…
I let out an uneasy laugh. “Maybe.”
“By the way,” Zoe says, grinning, “there’s Jacob. You should go say hi. Maybe he’ll like you better.”
I follow Zoe’s gaze to where he’s standing. Jacob is organizing his textbooks inside of his locker, his red head half buried in there.
“Thanks for the advice, Zoe. That’s a brilliant idea,” I say sarcastically.
“Hey, Jacob!” Zoe suddenly shouts from across the hallway.
I freeze. Is she crazy?
Jacob whips his head to us, his eyes meet mine, then he quickly blinks and turns to look at Zoe. “Hey,” he says, slowly walking over to us, his stride seeming a little awkward.
I cough. “Hi, Jacob,” I utter, my voice coming out higher than I’d like.
“Um, hi,” he says, still avoiding my eye contact. “What’s going on?” He turns to Zoe, his brow furrowed.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just that Alice here likes you very much,” she says, hunches over, and full-on cracks up.
