Schooled

by RaeLynn Blue

  “Well, Mr. Pearson, thank you so much for your generous offer, but—”

  “Please,” he said, interrupting her. “Call me Nathaniel. Every time you call me Mr. Pearson, I feel like I’m about to be sent to detention.”

  She laughed. “Sorry, but really, this last minute invite is rather sudden,” she said, feeling the day’s stress slip from her shoulders with each rumbling word he spoke. “I would like very much to see you, but—”

  “But you already got plans,” Nathaniel interrupted again. “I figured you probably did, but I wanted to try my luck. I wanted to see you, again, soon.”

  He thought I already had plans? Really?

  Carlita appeared in her doorway and strutted over to her, a wolfish grin taking up the lower half of her face.

  “Ms. Perry?” inquired Nathaniel. “You still there?”

  “Yes, yes, uh, tonight?”

  Carlita sat down in the student desk closest to Harper’s. She grabbed a sticky notepad and a pen and wrote on it. She put it in front of Harper.

  It read, “Did he ask you out? Circle yes or no.”

  “Yeah, if you got plans, I understand,” Nathaniel added.

  Harper took the pen and circled yes. Carlita silently clapped. She shot her a quick nod of approval.

  Harper shook her head that her friend’s enthusiasm was unfounded and unnecessary. She wasn’t going out with Nathaniel. Not like this, not after the scorching meeting she’d had with his ex-wife and his son.

  “It’s very short notice, and I have other obligations,” she said, heart hammering in her chest.

  “What?” Carlita mouthed. Her face set in determined lines. With her face soured, she rolled her ginger eyes and smacked the desktop. “Harper!”

  Harper gave her the one-finger wait gesture and said into the telephone, “That is very kind of you, Nathaniel, but I must decline your offer.”

  “Well, I expected that you would be busy,” he repeated. “May I ask what day I may see you again?”

  Harper swallowed. She wanted to see him again, and outside of work would be better. With a sigh, she said, “How about Friday?”

  “My night with Scott,” he replied. “Thursday?”

  “I have a class on Thursday night,” she said, thinking of her gym class that met late on Thursday nights. “Wednesday?”

  “Yeah, that’ll work. Is six o’clock okay?” he asked, and she could hear the smile back in his voice.

  “Yes, sure. Where do I meet you?” She grabbed her desk to still her trembling hands. Carlita had given her the thumbs up sign and was grinning so hard it looked like it hurt.

  “Where would you like to go?” he asked, and she could hear the roar of cars behind him. “I like all kinds of foods, so I’m pretty easy to satisfy.”

  Harper didn’t miss the loaded words. “How about Mario’s Italian Eatery over on West Market?”

  “Perfect. I will try to sit on my hands until then.”

  She laughed again. “I will see you then.”

  “Oh, Harper?”

  “Yes?” She failed to hide the smile on her own face and keep it from her voice.

  “Thank you.”

  “For what?” Puzzlement made her wave Carlita off.

  “For meeting me at Mario’s,” he said, but it didn’t sound like that’s what he had intended to say.

  “It should be fun. Bye, Nathaniel.”

  “See you later.”

  As soon as she set the receiver into the cradle, Carlita exploded. “Oh my God! I knew it! I knew it this morning. The way he kept staring you down, his eyes were superglued to you, girl!”

  “Calm down,” Harper said, laughing. “It’s just a date. Nothing serious.”

  Carlita leaned close to her and said, “Heck no, Harper. This is a hunk, but he’s a good man. You can see that all over him. I dunno what happened between him and that bitch he calls an ex-wife, but let me tell you, he’s a keeper.”

  “You can’t possibly know all of that from meeting the man twice,” Harper said, shaking her head at Carlita’s weird wisdom. She began placing papers and her flash drive into her teacher bag. “He asked for dinner and I agreed to go on Wednesday. Nothing crazy or long term. A dinner date. Period.”

  “Are you blind?”

  Harper caught the question and stopped shuffling papers. She met Carlita’s eyes and noted the seriousness on her face, something she rarely saw.

  “Harper, are you blind?” she repeated.

  “No, of course not.”

  “Neither was anyone sitting in this room this morning.” Standing up, Carlita came to stand by Harper’s desk. She lowered her voice and continued. “Nathaniel is in love with you, and it is plainly obvious to anyone whose name isn’t Harper. He couldn’t stop looking at you. When he wasn’t watching Scott, he watched you and everybody here saw it. Hell, he made no moves to hide it, Harper. That man is seriously enchanted with you. For him, this isn’t a dinner date. This is his time with an angel.”

  “Really, Carlita! You exaggerate too much. I saw him too, and he didn’t sit and gape at me the whole time.” Harper felt the sweltering embarrassment on her cheeks and she went back to shuffling papers and straightening her desk. She laughed but it came out shaky and unsure. “You’re silly.”

  No, he isn’t in love with me. We’ve only met twice. Yes, we have great chemistry, but what’s that got to do with love? Nothing. Carlita and her fast love routine.

  “You keep telling yourself that nonsense,” Carlita mocked her. “You’re talented, smart, and gorgeous, and every man at this school knows it. The only person who doesn’t seem to recognize it is you. You don’t see how the custodians’ heads swivel when you walk by? No, because you’re engrossed in your damn lessons or a book, or some fire that has to be put out.”

  Harper shrugged. Sure she didn’t pay much attention to men, but then she was busy and her prep time only lasted ninety minutes.

  Carlita’s hands gently grabbed her shoulders and rotated Harper around to face her. She voice softened even more and she said, “Harper, look at me.”

  Harper sighed and looked Carlita in the eyes.

  “I’m not trying to bring you down, and I know you’ve been hurt by men before. Me too. But I don’t want you to miss this chance to love, really love, Harper. Not the shit I’m doing over in my world. This is authentic, touchable, and true. My heart melted today when I saw how he looked at you and how he nearly knocked the shit out of John Flynn for ogling you. Yes, that’s what that was about, even if he said it wasn’t. It was. I watched him, Harper. He saw John’s eyes on you and he nearly took the guy’s head off for it.”

  “You’re kidding? I thought it was because John was being a jerk.”

  Carlita shook her head. “No. If that was the case, Nathaniel would’ve knocked the shit out of him a lot earlier.”

  Harper swallowed and met Carlita’s eyes again. Here was a woman Harper rarely saw, a kind and emotionally wounded woman. She held Harper’s gaze and her hands squeezed her shoulders for encouragement.

  “When he presents it, don’t be afraid, Harper, to take his love,” Carlita said. “If you feel it too.”

  “Thank you, Carlita.”

  “What the hell you two doing?” Mark called out as he strolled across the classroom to Harper’s desk. “Having some lez fest in here?”

  Carlita let her go and they burst into laughter. As she turned away from Harper, she wiped her eyes.

  “Hell no, Mark,” Carlita said, sniffing and putting her hands on her hips defensively. “We were having a girl talk. That’s all. What’s up?”

  “Nothing, but some news on Scott Pearson,” he said, sitting on the edge of Harper’s organized desk. “Mary said she finally got the mother to back off, but she and the advocate are pledging legal action if Scott fails second quarter. What legal recourse do they have? Dunno, but she mentioned her ex-husband and you.”

  He pointed at Harper.

  “What about me?” Harper asked, her throa
t tightening and her stomach twisting into a knot.

  “Said her son told her that you and her ex were dating, but Mary said that what her teachers did outside of work has nothing to do with their professional time here. The mother accused you of deliberating failing her son because you hated her—jealousy and all that girl shit.”

  “What?” Harper scoffed and collapsed back into her chair. “She can’t be serious.”

  Mark shrugged. “Dunno, but Mary wanted to know if Mr. Pearson was dating all the teachers, including the P.E. teacher, Mr. Bears, because Scott failed all his classes, every subject. Mary said that forced Tara’s mouth to close on the topic of her ex-husband and his activities, for now.”

  Carlita laughed and snorted. “God, you’ve got to love Mary.”

  “What does it mean?” Harper asked, head spinning, heart galloping so fast in her chest she felt lightheaded. “That if Scott fails English then she’s going to take me to court? Beat me down in the parking lot? What?”

  Mark gave another shrug. “Dunno, but I don’t see how she can take anyone to court. We haven’t done anything that violates the law and he’s not in special education so the modifications we give to Scott are a courtesy, a gesture of goodwill and all that.”

  Carlita’s eyes met Harper’s and she winked. “Don’t worry about it,” she encouraged, one eyebrow raised high above her eye. “I will take care of Ms. Pearson.”

  “How?” Mark asked, the doubt plain in his voice. His eyebrows shot into his bangs. He glanced at Harper, but she didn’t know any more than he did about what Carlita knew and who.

  “Oh, I have my ways,” Carlita said and with that strutted out of the classroom, leaving Harper with her jaw on the floor. “Later.”

  Chapter Nine

  Wednesday evening, Mario’s Italian Eatery

  Nathaniel’s gaze drifted across the glazed large window and out to the world beyond Mario’s packed parking lot. Puzzlement kept his mind whirling, and he didn’t notice the vehicles, the pedestrians and the populous at large. He couldn’t quite fathom how he had come to be here, seated at an intimate, candlelit table for two. When he called her school to talk to Harper, he hadn’t intended on asking her out, though the question of whether or not he should buzzed about his brain. As soon as he heard her throaty voice on the line, the words sprang unbidden to his tongue and rolled out of his mouth before he could stop himself or fully think it through.

  Mario’s had been independently owned for nearly fifty years, and Nathaniel could see from the polished, eclectic décor the owners had a sense of purpose in life: a smash of Italian and American artifacts littered the walls, the stone mantle around the fireplace, and the deep rich woods of the tables all spoke to hands-on efforts. He knew they specialized in made-from-scratch recipes, but he’d only tried the spaghetti the one time he’d been here. The citrus burnt cream had been the dessert he and Tara had tried together, but she instantly disliked it. He ate it all alone.

  That was then, and today is heaven. But he had to be honest with himself. His confidence in whether he could woo Harper wore thin. What if she despised him?

  My heart’s been in repair for seven long years, surely, I’m ready. I’m steady. It feels ready each time Harper is around.

  Tonight the cards are going face up on the table for Harper to see, and if she rejects them, fine, but I’ve got to know if she’s feeling the tug I am, or am I simply mad with longing? Celibacy-caused disillusions or does she feel the same way? I’ve got to know.

  Harper…

  At the mere thought of her name, he closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them, he looked to the doorway of the restaurant, checked the clock, noted the time, and wondered how he was going to pass the next four minutes until six. Minutes later, she walked. He had to shut his mouth and swallow the accumulation of drool pooling there.

  Sweet mother of God…

  The demure, professional teacher had been stripped down and packed away neatly. Here was a woman, unafraid and wide open. She met his eyes and smiled sweetly. With a brief wave, she pointed him out to the host and he nodded, guiding her to the table he’d selected for them. Nestled at the rear of the restaurant, Harper had to walk by nearly every table in the place, and Nathaniel both despised and liked how the men kept gawking at her.

  Dressed in a little sable dress, shiny bold bangle bracelets and that necklace with the diamond heart-shaped pendant, Harper Perry strolled over to him as a vision of raw, uncapped sexuality—and she didn’t even know it. Jet-black shiny stilettos on her feet accentuating flashy red painted toes and those delicious calves of hers. With her shoulder length brunette hair, arrow straight and free, she was simply stunning. The dress cinched just beneath her breasts, and billowed out, but still it flattered her figure. Nathaniel rose out of his seat in a trance. He noted again, vaguely, other men falling over themselves—some literally, as she passed.

  That beautiful woman is coming straight to me, fellas.

  And before the night was through, Nathaniel hungered to have her coming for him, hard, loud, and screaming his name, her fingernails buried inside his back as she demanded more of his cock, deeper, faster… Yeah, that was how he wanted to cap off the perfect evening launching at that moment.

  He stood up as the host slid back the chair.

  “Hello Nathaniel,” she said breathlessly as if the walk had winded her. She sank into the vacant seat across from him. “I’m not late, am I?”

  No baby. You’ve arrived just in time.

  When she crossed those caramel legs, his throat tightened to a dry, sandpaper strip.

  “No,” he said, returning to his seat. “Right on time.”

  “Here you are,” said the waiter as he placed two thick menus in front of them and stood the wine list in the center of the table beside the glass-encased candle.

  “Oh, good,” she said, picking up the menu. “I had to go home and change.”

  “If you wore that to school, you’d get more students to do more work,” he said without thinking, his cock a solid staff of steel beneath the table. He liked the dress. It set those delectable globes right up front, an appetizer before the feast. But he wanted her to keep it on, and at the same time, he wanted to peel it off her.

  She shot him a sharp look. Her eyebrows rose as she said, “Meaning what?”

  “Meaning you look gorgeous,” he said, opening his menu too. He kept peeking over its rim to stare at her.

  “Thank you,” she said, a bit of surprise in her voice. She kept her eyes on the menu, not looking at him.

  Nathaniel spied her over the thick edge of his menu once more. Her menu shielded his view of her cleavage. She was still fetchingly beautiful.

  No. He didn’t have any semblance of a choice. She held him fast without even realizing she had captured him. This is a compulsion.

  “So, do you eat here often?” he asked, mundane and cliché to be sure, but he didn’t care. If it meant she would speak, gracing him with her honey-streaked voice. It was worth a bit of corniness.

  “No,” she said, connecting her eyes to his. “You?”

  “Not in years,” he said dryly. “Harper?”

  “Yes?”

  “Thank you for coming tonight.”

  She set down the heavy menu and those butterscotch eyes met his. “That’s the second time you’ve thanked me. What are you are really thanking me for?” she asked, artfully plucked eyebrows rising in question. Her flawless hands tented in front of her as she leaned onto the table. “Confession session.”

  He smiled, charmed by her. He couldn’t halt the spread of his grin and she tapped her fingertips together and said, “Waiting.”

  “All right, but only if you confess something too,” he retorted, putting his menu down too. Happy to have his view unobstructed, the day’s stress began to melt away. “Deal?”

  “Agreed, now start singing,” she said, tossing her hair over her shoulders, something she did without thinking and with complete grace.

 
“I keep thanking you because, well, because you’re presence here is a gift.” He mentally scrambled for words that adequately defined his feelings, but he found his explanation wanting. “So, I’m thanking you for making today nice.”

  “Wow,” she said, hand at her throat. She sat back in her seat and crossed her legs. She fingered the necklace and its heart.

  “Your turn,” Nathaniel said. “Confession session.”

  “Oh, right.” Harper visibly relaxed. “Okay, here goes. I was blindsided by your call Monday.”

  It felt so right, being with her. Time sped up as it often did when he had a good time, and the boisterous noise of Mario’s faded into the background, becoming nothing but a soundtrack to the fairy tale unfolding around him. Too long lost in the worn tapestry of life, Nathaniel actually began to feel alive again in her company.

  “Sir, are you ready to order?” the waiter asked.

  “A glass of chardonnay,” Harper ordered, a giddiness bubbling from her person made the waiter pause.

  “Uh, water,” Nathaniel said, groaning inwardly. He hadn’t even glanced at the wine list, he’d been so captivated by her. “For now.” The waiter nodded and drifted away as quietly as he’d come.

  Harper picked up her menu. “I guess we better order. What to get?” she asked, mumbling as if talking to herself.

  “Order whatever you want. I’m getting the check.”

  Harper smirked. “Fine, but don’t expect some other form of payment in return.”

  “I don’t,” he said softly. Did she really think me that kind of man? “I’m not going to lie and say I don’t think you’re beautiful.”

  “Ah, but I bet you say that to all the girls,” she bantered playfully.

  Nathaniel leaned back in his chair.

  Harper looked up and their eyes met once more.

  “You’re the only light I ever saw in a room full of dim bulbs.”

  Harper’s face stilled; the humor leeched out of it by the draw of his words. She dropped her gaze to the menu once more, as if the clouds had masked the sun’s warm rays. Nathaniel wanted her sunny personality back on full tilt.