Teacher

by R. L. Merrill

  He smiled. “Do you see your parents often?”

  I shook my head as I put several pairs of panties and two bras in my bag. So I said I was only staying tonight... Didn’t hurt to be prepared! “I haven’t been since Christmas. I need to drive up there at some point this summer.”

  His eyes darted to me. “Would you like some company?”

  A road trip with Danny? This could be interesting. “You mean to visit my parents? Yeah. I think I would. Do you mind if we drive?”

  He shook his head. “Not at all. I would love to meet them and I love the idea of a road trip with you.” He was hitting me with his heated stare and it made me want to give him everything he was asking for; moving in, getting married... All of it.

  “Great! Perhaps we can go as soon as you finish your diploma.”

  He smiled wide, looking determined. “I’m going to do it, Jesse.”

  I walked over to him and kissed him. “I know you are. I’m going to go change.”

  He nodded and watched me walk into the bedroom.

  When I came out dressed in another long skirt outfit, he was sitting on the couch, his eyes closed and his head resting on the back of the couch.

  “Are you tired? Did you sleep at all?”

  He opened an eye and took in my outfit with a grin. “I’m fine. You look great. Are you ready to see your boss?”

  My smile fell a little. “I just hope she’s not completely disappointed with me. I can’t believe I let this happen.”

  Danny stood and walked over to me. “I don’t think you 'let' anything happen, Jesse. It’s love. We fell in love. Whether we got physical or not, the fact remains that I was never just a student to you and you were never just my teacher. We were going to have to deal with that regardless, right? Plus, we’re consenting adults. It’s not like I’m some 16 year old." He was absolutely right.

  “Ew, don’t even want that visual. Ok. Let’s go.”

  The drive to my school was quiet. I was so nervous, I had no idea how this meeting would affect my career. Danny must have picked up how nervous I was. He was keeping his physical distance, but all I had to do was look into his eyes to know that he was there for me.

  Gloria’s secretary smiled at us when we came in. “Hey Jesse! Did you forget something?”

  “Hi Barbara. No, I was just hoping to see Gloria. Does she have a few minutes?” She stopped talking to me because she’d caught sight of Danny. “Oh, this is Danny Black. Danny, this is our secretary, Barbara Norris.” They shook hands and even though Barbara was in her fifties and married, she was seriously appreciating Danny.

  “Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Norris.”

  Barbara just smiled and then caught herself. “Oh, let me call Gloria.” She rang her office and told her I was there. “She said to come on back.”

  I thanked her and looked to Danny to give me a minute. He smiled and took a seat. I made the walk of shame alone back to Gloria’s office.

  “Hey Jesse! What brings you by?” She stood to hug me, looking surprised.

  “Sorry to bother you, Gloria. Do you have a few minutes?”

  She assured me she did and motioned for me to take a seat. “What is it, dear?”

  I took a deep breath and jumped off the cliff. “I’m afraid this home instruction position is not going to work out. In fact, my student fired me and I quit last night.”

  She raised her eyebrow at me. “You’re kidding, right? How could he fire you!?”

  “He fired me and I quit because we kind of fell in love with each other. I refuse to sign off on his grades. He refuses to have me as his teacher if that means we can't be together, so that’s it.”

  She stared at me for a minute and then burst out laughing.

  “I’m sorry I let you down, Gloria. I just don’t feel right continuing and he still wants to get his diploma. I swear nothing happened until he fired me.”

  When she caught her breath, she stood and came over to sit next to me. “Jesse, I’m not disappointed in you! I’m happy for you! Aren’t you happy?”

  I felt myself blushing. “Yeah, I really am. I can’t believe it’s happening. He’s pretty wonderful. But I want him to continue so I was hoping you could help find someone else to sign off on his grades.”

  She nodded. “Of course I can, that will be easy. So do I get to meet him?”

  “If you like. He’s outside.”

  Her eyes narrowed and she reached for the phone. “Barbara, can you send the gentleman back who came in with Jesse? Thanks.”

  I was almost more nervous for Gloria to meet Danny than I was for my own parents to meet him. He opened the door with a million watt smile and walked over to Gloria with his hand extended. He'd opted for Afflicted jeans in black, and a dark grey fitted t-shirt. Gloria sucked in a breath and stood to shake his hand.

  “I’m Danny. It's very nice to meet you. Jesse speaks very highly of you.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, too. I’m Gloria Jensen.” She walked around to sit at her desk and Danny took the seat next to me. She looked between the two of us and my palms were sweating.

  “So! I hear you’ve fired my teacher?”

  Danny blushed a little. “I did. She’s a terrific teacher, but it’s just not going to work out.” I bit my lip to keep from giggling nervously.

  “Well, I’m certainly glad to hear it. How much have you accomplished?”

  Danny looked to me and I pulled out a folder with his grade sheets. “I brought his work in along with his grade sheets. He’s been a mad man! He’s already earned 110 credits.”

  Her eyes grew large and she looked up at Danny. “In two months?”

  “I’m determined,” he said. “I’m not sure if Jesse told you, but I’m doing this for my daughter. She’s 12 and when she learned I didn’t have my diploma, she was pretty disappointed in me. I couldn’t have that, so I’ve been trying to rectify the situation. And Jesse’s been a great teacher.”

  “I know it’s been fast, Gloria, but he really has done a ton of work. I’m not sure he’s been sleeping. The quality of the work is A range, but I wanted you to look at it.”

  Gloria took a few minutes to read over the work he’d done, looking carefully at his research paper and when she got to his Creative Writing portfolio her eyes were a little wet.

  “This is fantastic, Mr. Black! I wish all of our students were as motivated, and talented! Your writing is superb! Why is it that you didn’t finish high school?”

  He laughed. “It’s Danny, Mrs. Jensen, and I guess the lure of Hollywood and a rock n’ roll dream was too much for me. And to be honest, I was not a well-behaved student. The nuns only sort of tried to dissuade me from leaving. I’d already made up my mind.”

  She laughed. “I can imagine. Well, Danny, congratulations on your success so far! As for firing my teacher, I’m going to ask you to reconsider.”

  He frowned and we looked at each other.

  “Hear me out, you two. I see no problem with the two of you continuing on with your work. Bring me his completed courses and I will evaluate them, Jesse. I will assign the grades.”

  Danny’s lips spread into a triumphant grin. He reached over and squeezed my knee.

  I just stared at Gloria in shock. “But how? Gloria I don’t want there to be any question about how he earned this.”

  Gloria raised her eyebrows at me. “Unless you’re questioning my judgment, there isn’t any question.”

  I shook my head vigorously. “No! Of course I’m not questioning you.”

  She laughed. “Ok then, it’s settled. Now, the exit exam is two weeks from tomorrow. Are you ready to take it Danny?”

  He nodded. “Just tell me when and where.”

  “It takes place over two days and we start at 8:30 a.m. I’m sure Jesse explained to you that it has to be taken here.”

  He nodded. “Of course, no problem.”

  She smiled at both of us. “Well, this is great! Is it too soon to ask for an invite to the wedding?”

&nbs
p; My eyes popped open. Danny just smiled and smoothly answered, “Absolutely not. You will honor us by attending.” I nudged his foot with mine and he winked at me. “I have to meet her parents first. We'll do that once I’m finished with my school work.”

  Gloria was clapping her hands together. “Oh, this is just wonderful! Jesse is such a great teacher and a wonderful person. I’ve wanted to see her happy for a long time.” Then she got her principal face on. “Now, Danny, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that you better take excellent care of my girl...”

  He held up his hands. “No ma’am, you don’t have to tell me. I intend to as long as she’ll let me.” His sheepish smile did nothing to ease my shock at the fact that we were even having this conversation.

  “That’s good to know, because as soon as this budget situation is worked out, I intend to hire her back, is that understood? You might have fired her, but she is too valuable a teacher for me to let go if I have any say about it.”

  Danny laughed. “No ma’am, if that’s what she wants, then of course she’ll be back.”

  I was glad to hear him say that. It eased my fears a little of a Danny takeover.

  “Thank you, Gloria, for everything. I wouldn’t want anything to jeopardize Danny earning his diploma. Or my job!"

  She laughed. “No problem. Why don’t you leave his work here with me and keep at it! I’ll see the two of you in a couple weeks.” She shook hands with Danny and came around to hug me.

  “I’m happy for you, Jesse. Relax and enjoy this,” she whispered in my ear.

  I smiled at her and thanked her again before we left. When we walked outside, the shock of the meeting hit me, and I had to sit down for a minute on the front steps.

  “Honey, you ok?” Danny sounded concerned and I laughed nervously. He crouched down next to me, his hand on my shoulder.

  “Wow, I can’t believe that just happened. Did you just tell her we were inviting her to the wedding? Danny?”

  He held out a hand for me to stand up, chuckling to himself. “Yeah, I guess I did. That scares you, doesn’t it?”

  “A bit. But Danny, I thought you didn’t want to get married again.”

  He frowned. “Why would you think that? I love you, Jesse. Of course I want to marry you.”

  I shook my head. “It was something you said the night Alex was over and he was teasing you about being married. You said you’d learned your lesson. I guess I thought you were talking about marriage.”

  He put his hands on my face and kissed me. “No, Jesse. I was talking about Brooke. I married her because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do, you know? We met, sparks flew, and the next thing I know we’re having a huge fucking wedding. I loved her, but it wasn’t like what I feel about you. It was more like a business transaction. Having Janey was the best thing about being married to her. I don’t regret any of it because of Janey. But I know when you and I get married it will be because I’m totally fucking crazy in love with you.”

  I laughed and he pulled me in for a tight hug. Everything felt right in his arms. Everything. I knew we were going to make things work with his schoolwork and somehow I’d learn to deal with the whirlwind that was his life. I just hoped Jane was ok with all of it.

  “So we never got further than planning for this meeting. What else would you like to do?”

  I was still a little shocked. I shrugged and said, “I have no idea! I hadn’t thought that far. All the times I thought about what it would be like if we weren’t student and teacher, I never thought about what else we would do.”

  He laughed. “We do have plenty of schoolwork to do, but I thought maybe I’d take you on a real date. How does that sound?”

  I giggled. “What is Danny Black’s idea of a real date?”

  He frowned. “I’m not sure. What do boring couples do on dates?”

  I socked him in the shoulder playfully. “Oh, now we’re a boring couple? Why do we have to be boring?”

  He laughed and led me to the car. “Maybe because you and I are both homebodies? I’m willing to break that habit if you are, honey, but I don’t know how you feel about the whole fan thing. People are usually pretty cool about it around here, but there’s always going to be the chance I get recognized.”

  “It was pretty weird that night at the club. How do you usually deal with it?”

  He rubbed at his hair. “It doesn’t usually bother me to sign autographs or take pictures unless the people get grabby with me. That doesn’t happen too often, and if it does, I just get to where there’s security. But I don’t want you to be nervous and I don’t want anything to happen to you. If it makes you feel better, I can have security come with us.”

  “You actually have security? Like a bodyguard?”

  He nodded. “I do when I’m on tour and sometimes if I’m taking Janey out where I’m afraid there’s going to be a lot of people.”

  I shook my head. “This is just crazy! I never thought how difficult it must be for celebrities to go out in public just to do normal things.”

  He shrugged. “It’s really not a big deal. How about this, how about we grab an early dinner and head back to my place? We can put on our jammies and you can read to me... That sounds like perfection right now.”

  I giggled and took his hand as he helped me into the car. “Sounds great. We can finish Romeo and Juliet and discuss Shakespeare’s use of love language.”

  Danny’s eyes flared. “Can that be a hands-on demonstration? I’ve had my hands off you long enough and I can’t wait to touch you again.” He leaned in and kissed me sweetly before closing my door and jogging around to the driver’s side.

  We drove to towards the Los Feliz neighborhood and Danny parked the car behind The Dresden restaurant.

  “I’ve always wanted to come here. It seems so swanky,” I said as he helped me from the car. Danny placed his hand at my lower back as we entered the restaurant. The maître d' welcomed Danny by name and took us to a large white vinyl booth near the back.

  “Thanks, Frankie,” Danny said. Frankie eyed our linked hands and beamed.

  “No problem, Mr. Black. Glad to see you again. It’s been a while.”

  Danny nodded and held my hand up to his lips. “I’ve been preoccupied,” he said against my knuckles.

  Frankie laughed and handed us the menus. “I’ll give you two a minute.”

  Danny’s thigh was pressed against mine and he had an arm around the back of my shoulders. I didn’t think I could ever get tired of being so close to him. It surprised me because I’d never been particularly affectionate with anyone other than my parents, but I couldn’t stand not touching Danny. Perhaps it had something to do with that invisible tether between us. Something was pulling us together and it felt comforting and sensual at the same time.

  When Frankie came back, we both ordered steak, baked potato and ice water to drink. I looked around and loved the feel of the place.

  “I take it this is an old haunt?”

  Danny smiled and nodded. “After I left Brooke, I moved to this neighborhood for about a year I guess. I used to eat here several times a week, sometimes every night. The owner is a great old guy and he’s got lots of old Hollywood stories. I used to play piano in the bar sometimes since I couldn’t fit mine into my dinky apartment.”

  Our fingers were laced with each other’s and resting on my leg. I was partially turned to face him and couldn’t help but kiss him.

  “What was that for,” he whispered.

  “I can’t help it! I can’t believe this is really happening. I feel like I’m going to wake up back in my apartment and this will all have been a dream.”

  He shook his head and tucked my hair behind my ear. “No way. This is real. It feels good.”

  I rested my head on his shoulder and we sat quietly for a bit.

  Our food came and my steak was mouthwateringly delicious. “Between you and Nora I’m eating better than I have since living at home!”

  “And it’s driving Nora
crazy. She worries you’re too thin, worries about your health.”

  “I’m fine. I know she worries. But I’ve always been thin, even before I was sick.”

  He looked at me seriously. “I worry about you too, Jesse. I think you’re perfect, but I worry about your health. I know I’m not supposed to try to fix things, but is it ok if I have Connie over to work on you? On us? She helps me with my neck, shoulders and arms, especially when we’ve been on tour or in the studio.”

  I nodded. “I would imagine you’d need her then. How often do you go on tour?” I wasn’t actually trying to change the subject, I really was curious, but I could tell from Danny’s expression that he wasn’t happy.

  “I’m serious, Jesse. Will you let me do that much to take care of you?” The pleading look in his eyes touched me.

  “I would appreciate that very much, Danny,” I said quietly.

  His stern look melted into a grateful smile and he pulled me to him, crushing me with his kisses.

  “Mr. Black! So glad you could join us again!”

  We looked up to find the owner smiling brightly at us.

  Danny smiled and stood to hug the man. “Carl, it’s been too long. How’ve you been?”

  They chatted amiably while I finished what I could of the gigantic slab of meat.

  “So will you play for us tonight? Just for a bit? I love to hear you play and sing,” the owner was saying.

  Danny shook his head sadly. “Can’t sing for you, Carl. Just healing from an operation to remove a nodule from my vocal chords. Doc says no singing for a while. I only started talking a couple of days ago.”

  Carl’s hands flew up to his mouth. “Oh no! I’m so sorry. You will be fine, of course. I will keep you in my thoughts.”

  “Thanks, Carl. I will come back and sing for you as soon as I’m cleared. Hey, I’d like you to meet my girlfriend, Jesse Martin.”

  Carl’s eyes grew wide with surprise and he took my hand, kissing the back of it. “So nice to meet you, young lady. It’s nice to see Mr. Black not eating alone.”

  I smiled. “Thank you. Dinner is wonderful.”

  He seemed very pleased with the compliment. “I’ll leave you two to your meal. Can I bring the dessert menu by?”