Buzz, fumbling with his notepad and stumbling over his words, asked us if we needed anything, and we told him we were fine for now. He told us he’d come back and take our entrée orders, then headed back towards the kitchen, and I caught Addison checking out his ass.
“Scoping out your next boyfriend, Addison?” I teased her, before digging into the appetizer tray. I grabbed one of the small plates at the corner of the table, and snatched up a potato skin, which was tethered to the platter by a long, stubborn ribbon of cheese. I took my knife and severed the string of cheddar.
“Uh, no,” she answered briskly. The girls laughed. “He’s adorable, but I’m not looking, honey, trust me.” She flipped her straight, silky black hair over her shoulder.
“Is anyone at this table looking?” Holden asked, her penetrating emerald eyes scanning all of us.
There was a long, awkward silence at first, but then the “no’s” started trickling out.
“Nope,” I answered first.
“No,” Dacia came in behind.
“Single and not ready to mingle,” Evie said.
“So, what’s everyone been up to this summer, then? If no one has been dating?” I asked the table.
Evie, unsurprisingly, was the first to answer my question. She was the most vocal in the group, and also the most honest, which was one of the things that I loved most about her.
“Well,” she started dramatically. “I went to South Padre Island with a boy toy, and—”
“Wait, boy toy?” Addison cut in. “I thought we just established that this was the Sisterhood of Single Ladies.”
“Could you let me finish, pushy pants?” Evie snapped jokingly. “He’s just… someone I can have fun with. You know, like…”
“Like a friend with benefits, basically,” Dacia finished for her, sounding a little judgmental. “Come on, Evie, you never mince words. Out with it!”
“Well, I didn’t know exactly what to call it. I really don’t like that term ‘friend with benefits’,” she said, throwing up air quotes. “It just sounds… icky.”
The table erupted in laughter, Addison laughing the loudest. “Icky? What are you, five?” Tears poured from the corners of her eyes.
“Okay, you know what, screw all of you. You don’t get to hear the rest of the story!” Evie snipped, folding her arms like a spoiled brat.
“It’s okay, Evie,” I tried to reassure her, gently touching her hand. “You can finish your story. Ignore Addison.”
Buzz interrupted the arguing when he came back to the table with pen and pad in hand, looking a little more confident than he had before, like he had just gone out back and given himself a pep talk.
“Alright, lovely ladies, have you all decided what you want to order?”
We all looked at each other, dumbstruck, because we hadn’t even peeked at the menu yet. We were so busy making fun of Evie and her no-strings-attached summer buddy.
“Uh, we need some more time,” I said coyly. “Sorry. We’ll be ready when you come back next time, though, I promise.”
“Okay, take as much time as you need. No worries,” he replied, closing his pad and stuffing it into the pouch of his apron.
“Thanks, Buzz,” we all said in unison. He walked back towards the kitchen, probably to muster up the courage to come back to our table for a third round of conversation.
“So, McKinley, what have you been doing all summer?” Holden asked me we’d finally looked at the menu.
“Studying mostly, for chemistry classes. And I’m still interning at Friendly Flippers. So, I’ve been doing that about three days a week.”
Friendly Flippers was a non-profit, dolphin assisted therapy foundation. People with disabilities from all over the world would come to participate in their therapy programs and I had been lucky enough to get an internship with them last summer. I mainly worked with the trainers, helping them with the care for the dolphins. However, my favorite days had been had been spent in the water, assisting with the therapy sessions.
While the girls continued chatting, in the distance, I could hear a lively conversation taking place at the bar. I looked over to locate the source of the ruckus and saw a group of about six people who all appeared to be professionals, immersed in a spirited discussion. Within the group, there was one man who seemed uninterested in what was going on, which was apparent by the small wedge of space he’d created between him and the rest of his associates. He stepped down from his stool and checked his watch, looking around for anything to take his attention away from what appeared to be a frivolous exchange.
My heart jumped instantly when I was able to see him entirely; he was one of the most striking, most handsome men I had ever seen in my life. He was tall and muscular, with sandy blonde hipster hair that set him apart from his friends. His face was sexy and masculine: he had a strong jawline, with a scattered bit of five o’clock shadow, and green eyes. And I admired his fashion sense; I had never seen a guy rock a pair of skinny pants so well, especially with his muscular calves filling them out so entirely.
“See something ya like?” Addison teased. I guessed I deserved that for earlier. Her question snapped me out of my lust-filled daze. I hadn’t been on a date since last year and seeing this hunk of a man reignited my desire in a way that surprised me. I knew he was older than me, though. Judging from his looks, I guessed he was at least twenty-eight, so, he had about seven years on me. But I could deal with that. Older men were much more mature, respectful, and in many cases, hotter than dudes within my age bracket.
“Do you see him?” I whispered, low and discreet, directing them to the bar with my eyes. Like idiots, all four of them turned their heads to where he was standing, then grinned like giddy schoolgirls.
“Wow, way to be not obvious, guys,” I said sarcastically.
“That man is sexy,” Addison commented, batting her eyes at no one in particular.
“Hands off, he’s mine. You said you weren’t looking, remember?” I reminded her.
“Um, you did, too, sweetheart. Let’s not forget,” she responded sassily.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Hey, sometimes when you’re window shopping, you see something you just have to buy, right?”
The girls laughed at me and went back to their conversation, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of Mr. Mysterious at the bar.
Who IS that man? I thought to myself as I continued to watch him.
Four
Knight
I checked my watch for the millionth time, wishing that 8:30 would hurry up and arrive so I could leave. I made a private agreement with myself that I would stay at the restaurant with my new colleagues until at least 8:30, no matter how bad a time I was having; now that it was 8:00, I desperately needed those thirty minutes to speed by. As I had guessed, everyone from the university who had shown up at Frankie’s was under fifty. The oldest among us was a thirty-eight-year-old Atmospheric Science professor named Atticus Longfellow, a smug, know-it-all who thought he was a lot funnier than he actually was.
Atticus and a few of the other professors had spent the entire of our time together talking about Las Positas’s recent decisions regarding tenure, and a few surprise hirings and firings, none of which I knew anything about since I had just arrived. Casaundra kept glancing over at me, trying to suck me back into the conversation, but I wasn’t taking her bait. Unless the dialogue steered to something that was actually meaningful, like goals and plans for this academic school year, I was not interested. I also couldn’t help but think she was glaring at me and it was making me a little uncomfortable.
After a while, Atticus could sense that I wasn’t having the greatest time because he gave me a look as if to apologize for what he had done. He had singlehandedly caused an interesting discussion about unorthodox teaching methods to derail into one about job stealing, and it felt a little pointed given my recent arrival. The segue began with a comment about how younger teachers tend to use nontraditional but more effective ways of instructing, and fr
om there it just spiraled into the train wreck that I was itching to get away from.
“How did we ramble on about this for so long?” William Martin, an Advanced Astrophysics professor said, as he took his last few bites of marsala.
“I don’t even know,” Casaundra answered, taking a sip of her cranberry and vodka. She shot me another scowl, which I ignored. I knew she was enjoying the conversation, mostly because she could tell how uncomfortable it was making me. But since I didn’t know why she was getting so much pleasure out of it, I refused to take the bait and just focused on my phone instead.
“Knight, you’ve been mighty quiet over there,” Atticus pointed out. “What’s your take on this?”
I sighed, not wanting to be the person who dragged the mood down. But I had to be honest, especially because I was hoping to move on. “I don’t have a take, Atticus. It’s not really something I care to talk about.” There was a level of harshness in my voice that made my feelings crystal clear if my words somehow hadn’t done the job.
“Well, what are your objectives for the new school year? What do you hope to accomplish with your students?” Atticus asked me, a question that I could actually get behind, but now was not in the right headspace to answer.
“I can tell you all what my objectives are,” said a Geophysics professor named Amy Kellerman. Next to me, she was the quietest person among us. Since we’d stepped into Frankie’s nearly two hours ago, she had uttered all of six words.
“Tell us, Amy, please. What do you have up your sleeve this semester?” Atticus inquired, his entire focus shifting back to scholastic substance, where it should have been the whole time. They talked for a while about lesson plans, and student objectives, but I was already checked out. All I wanted to do was get home and crawl into bed to watch a movie in peace. It was time to make a run for it.
“Hey, yeah, can I get a box for this, please?” I called out to our waiter as he walked by.
“Sure, of course, sir. Let me just grab your bills, okay?”
I nodded a thank you and was about to return to staring at my phone, but when he stepped out of the way, I noticed a group of beautiful young ladies sitting in a booth on the opposite end of the restaurant. I glimpsed over there quickly and then tried to turn my attention back to my colleagues but did a double-take after I spotted a gorgeous girl with long hair and round, sparkling eyes at the end of their table.
She looked a few years younger than me, maybe twenty-five or so, and she was wearing a silvery, satin blouse that hugged her in all the right places. I craned my neck around the end of the table and now could see her snug, boot-cut jeans and sexy but tasteful heels. She had a natural glow about her that seemed to make her stand out, even in the crowded restaurant, and her smile was bright and happy. I wanted to hear her voice, but I felt like our table was a thousand miles away, and I couldn’t hear anything over the dull roar of my fellow teachers.
I started to feel like kind of a creep, though, checking out this girl who was just trying to enjoy a night out with her friends. So, I dove back into my world of half-eaten steak and forced conversation. But even as I tried to distract myself, I couldn’t stop glancing over at her. I had to say something to her, even if it was just a simple hello, I couldn’t walk out of here without at least introducing myself.
Then, while gazing in her direction for the hundredth time, I caught her looking back at me. She hung her head down shyly, looked back and forth between me and her friends, and giggled.
The waiter returned at the most inopportune time to serve us the bills.
“Hey bud, you payin’?” Atticus asked me in jest and laughing at his own joke, still putting forth an effort to befriend me. I gave a halfhearted chuckle, just so I didn’t look like a prick, but my focus immediately returned to the girl in the booth.
My colleagues commenced another fruitless discussion about their dissatisfaction with their salaries, while fumbling through their wallets for debit and credit cards.
“How much were you getting paid at the old gig, Knight?” Atticus probed, once again attempting to pull me into the conversation. I was too busy gawking at the girl to answer.
The waiter came back to pick up the bills and deliver boxes for any uneaten food. I took the steak knife and scooped the block of meat into the box with a heavy thud.
The rest of the professors began putting on their coats as the waiter came back again to distribute their respective cards and hand out receipts.
“Hey, Knight, did you pay yet?” Casaundra called out to me, suddenly.
It caught me off guard, because she said it while the waiter was standing around, and I was paranoid that she might have been trying to frame me for a dine and dash.
“Oh… no, I didn’t pay yet. You know, you guys can go on without me. I’ll stay behind for a bit,” I told them.
“You sure, bud? We’ll wait for you,” William offered.
“No, really, you don’t have to do that. I need to go to the men’s room anyway, and I don’t want to hold you up,” I lied.
“Alright, buddy, well we’ll see you around on campus, I guess. Nice meeting you,” Atticus spoke for the group. The rest of them looked at me, baffled, as if they didn’t know whether to smile, or eye me with contempt. So, they settled on cordial nods and a stiff wave as they made their way for the Frankie’s exit. Casaundra peeked back over her shoulder at me with a pointed glare.
I positioned myself back at the bar and crossed my fingers that that pretty young woman would feel compelled to come over here and get herself a drink. If she didn’t…
I just might have to take one over to her myself.
Five
McKinley
The last thing I wanted was for this gorgeous man to catch me looking his way. But he did; my heart ceased its rhythm for a millisecond, and I looked down in that painfully shy way I always did when a crush acknowledges my existence for the first time. I turned to my friends and started laughing, to play it off and make it seem as though I was amused by our conversation instead of checking him out. I hope I wasn’t obvious.
“Can he see you?” Addison asked, her voice barely above a whisper. She extended her lips over her straw and slurped up some raspberry lemonade, her mouth and eyes the only things on her body that were moving. She somehow managed to stiffen everything else like a statue, as if being incredibly still would make her invisible. I guess she thought that he’d see her too, but her back was facing him, so I doubted it.
“I think he knows that I’m looking at him,” I replied, holding my head down like a bashful middle school girl. My eyes darted back up at him, and I noticed that he was finishing up dinner with his friends. He was stuffing a carry-out container with what looked like a juicy steak, and I secretly had a small tinge of jealousy, regretting my decision to order a basic hamburger with fries.
I wished I could summon up the courage to talk to him but being brave around handsome men had never been my strong suit. He seemed cool, aside from his evident aversion to whatever his friends were talking about. I could see the agitation on his face, and frankly, I didn’t blame him. The folks he was with, some of whom I recognized, were being kind of obnoxious.
Buzz reappeared at the table unexpectedly. “How’s the food, ladies?” he asked us, massaging his hands nervously, but with a genuine customer-service grin.
“It’s delicious,” said Addison, Dacia and Holden in a unanimous chorus. I was the only one to not respond, since I was too invested in the guy on the other side of the restaurant who looked like an underwear model from the 90s.
A throng of patrons suddenly obstructed my view of Mr. Mysterious, and I huffed with attitude like that would miraculously get them to move out of the way. It seemed that they were purposely dallying around, as if they knew that they were blocking me from seeing my tentative husband. Addison noticed my expression and had a good laugh at my expense.
After hovering around for a good ten minutes, the man-blockers finally scurried along, and my view o
f the bar was reopened. But the guy wasn’t there anymore. My breath and heart halted at the same time, and I rose up in my seat to see if I could figure out where he disappeared to. Then I spotted him making a bee-line for the door. He had his coat with him, but he didn’t put it on. Still, I assumed he was leaving.
And instantly, I became sad. A small part of me had hoped I might have a chance with him, but any chance of that was walking right out the door. Talk about a short-lived romance.
I scooted my glass of cherry soda closer to me, and took a long, dejected sip in hopes that it would fill this newfound emptiness inside me. I never expected a total stranger to affect me so greatly, or so quickly at that. But then in my peripheral vision, a flash of slick grey appeared, a color that seemed all too familiar. I focused my sight and realized that it was Mr. Mysterious!
He was at the bar again, paying his tab. I hoped he wasn’t about to leave for real, though.
“This girl is head over heels,” Addison teased me, digging around in her purse for a mirror. She managed to find one and popped it open, so she could check for food residue in her teeth.
“I am not!” I defended myself, with a sheepish smile that betrayed my obvious feelings.
“Oh, please. It’s written all over your face. You can’t keep secrets from me,” she said with a wink.
“She doesn’t know about the time you used her toothbrush to fish your favorite necklace out of the toilet,” Evie said without thinking. Once she realized what she’d done, her eyes went wide.
“EVIE!” I yelled.
“Okay, on that note, I think it’s time to get out of here,” Evie said with a forced laugh. “Before I make this anymore awkward… check please!” she shouted, throwing up her finger for the nearest server.
Forbidden Lessons Page 2
