“No idea.” He put a toothpick in his mouth and started chewing on it. “How’d it go with McCrae? You give him the ol’ blonde bombshell routine?”
“Thewhatroutine?”
He waved it off. “Maybe you just can’t help it. You dress a little frumpy for your age, but you still rock it. Makes us guys use our imagination.”
I bristled, insulted by his description of the way I dressed and repulsed by his admiration. I didn’t even have words for how much I didn’t want to know what was in his imagination. The worst part was, if I called him on it, I knew he’d twist it around to make it seem like I was being too sensitive. After all, he’d only given me a “compliment.”
“The meeting was fine,” I said, resisting the urge to put my jacket on again. My classroom wasn’t hot, but I wasn’t prepared to overheat myself just because this jerk was a pervert. “Mr. McCrae only wanted some information since he missed the open house.”
Harvey hummed, leering at my body as I spoke. I didn’t think he was listening. “Let’s grab sushi tonight. I’ll drive. No need to change.”
“I’m sorry?” I could think of a couple of other words I’d have liked to say instead.
“Don’t be. It’s my treat.” He licked his lips luridly. “We’re both single. Just makes sense. It would be a shame to waste any more time playing coy.”
He was leaning too close to me. I pushed my chair back with my foot, putting a bit more distance between us. “I don’t like sushi.”
“Of course you do.” He made one of those dismissive gestures. “You just haven’t hadgoodsushi. I know the best place in town. It’s just like they make it in China.”
“Japan,” I corrected.
He took a step toward me, eliminating the space I’d made between us. “You prefer Japanese? That works for me. Come on, my car’s out front. Primo parking spot, primo car.”
I stood up, straightening myself until we were nearly equal height. “Mr. Harvey, I’m not comfortable–”
“We can get comfortable at my place.” He took another step forward, and I took two backward. His expression tightened, but his smile remained. “Lumen, we’ve been playing this game for weeks. You can stop playing hard to get, and we can carpool back here in the morning. Save the environment and all that. Everyone wins.”
Any hope I’d had that he would back off if I kept deflecting disappeared.
I was running out of options of how to handle this tactfully, and I honestly wasn’t sure I wanted to anymore.
I could threaten to hurt him if he didn’t back off, but who would believe me? Maybe the other female teachers. But would they defend me, support me by sharing their own experiences? Or would they just protect their own careers and reputations?
This was a private school with wealthy parents who had their fingers in all sorts of pies. And I knew how people like that thought. If I slapped the vice principal of an elite school, he could easily fire me, or charge me with assault. There was little chance anyone would believe a first-time teacher. Especially not if everyone learned how I’d grown up. Foster kids weren’t exactly known for being believed.
“If you really care about the environment, we can share a shower too. You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.” He winked at me. “Not with all the signals you’ve been throwing my way. Is it that you want more than sushi? Okay, how about we get wine with dinner. Is that better? Sushi, wine, then back to my place.”
I moved my chair between the two of us as casually as I could and spoke firmly but politely, “I’m not going anywhere with you, and you need to stop asking.”
He planted his hands on the top of the rolling chair, his grin flattening. “I’m your boss,Lumen. I tell you what to do, you don’t tell me.” He smiled again. “Hey, this isn’t a threat. I’m not that kind of guy. I’m not an asshole. I’m a nice guy. You know that. After all, I convinced Principal McKenna to give you a shot, you know. One dinner isn’t too much to ask as athank you. Whatever happens after that is entirely up to us.”
He moved the chair out of the way and panic flooded my system. Shit.
“It’s the least you could do after you’ve been winding me up every day. I sit in my office and think about how I want to–”
I really didn’t want to hear the end of that sentence. “I…I have to go.” I picked up my phone and darted around the desk and out of the room.
I thought about going to the principal’s office, but I knew if I came across as frazzled as I felt, instead of supporting my accusations, they’d only make me appear less credible. Just another woman being hysterical.
I needed to get out of there.
Some students were still milling about the hall, waiting for their parents to pick them up, almost all of them goofing around on their cell phones. Teachers chatted as they kept one eye on the kids, and many of them smiled politely at me as I walked past. Everyone was acting normal. Everythingwasnormal, as far as they knew. Hell, as far as I knew, this was how it was here. It would always be this way, and no one cared.
Tears burned my eyes. I was almost at the front doors. Almost free. Almost away fromhim.
As I reached for one of the double doors, one swung inward, and a figure came through. My hands bumped into a firm chest, and I flinched, my racing mind wondering how Mr. Harvey had gotten in front of me and what he would do to me and if anyone would–
“Lumen?”
