Ah shit. I wish I knew where he was headed with this. “Yeah. Trish and I are going. Should be a good day.” It wouldn’t be. It’d be long and tedious, and I’d probably end up covered in sports drinks and mud, handing out more band aids than an emergency department nurse, but I wasn’t about to tell Corey that. With my luck, he’d probably be putting his hand up to come with us.
“Oh. I didn’t know she was going too.”
“Yeah. Thankfully she’s not leaving me on my own.” I regretted my choice of words as soon as I said them.
Spying the front office building looming just ahead, I ducked, just as a tennis ball flying through the air barely missed my head before ricocheting off the brick wall.
“Whoa! Watch out,” Corey warned, grabbing my arm and hurrying me across the quadrangle.
Shaking his grip off, I turned and offered him a small smile. I didn’t want to be a bitch, but I didn’t want him touching me either. “Thanks for your help. I need to run though. Marnie wanted to talk to me about something before my class started so I better get in there. I don’t want to keep her waiting,” I lied. Marnie didn’t even know I was coming, but I had to put some space between Corey and me. If I was being honest, he was starting to give me the creeps with all his random appearances.
“Ah. No worries. I’ll catch up with you later.” He waved, and I scurried across the asphalt and climbed the steps to the office without pausing to take a breath. I had no idea what I was going to do about Corey, but if he kept this up, I’d have to do something.
Shaking off the yucky feeling, I stepped into the office and made a beeline for the coffee pot which was already bubbling away. After filling my mug and adding three heaping teaspoons of sugar, something I was going to need today, I wandered down the hall to where I found the terrible trio gossiping.
“Busted!” I announced, rounding the corner, only for Margaret to throw the pen cap in her hand at me.
“Damn it, Elise! You scared me half to death,” she chided, pretending to look cranky. Even I had to admit, she pulled it off. She’d mastered the cranky pants look.
“Well it’s a good thing I wasn’t Vickie… She wouldn’t be as forgiving if she heard what I just did.”
“Oh pfft. We didn’t say anything she doesn’t already know.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“What are you doing in here anyway?” Marnie questioned, looking at me like I was the one who was up to no good.
“What? Don’t you like my visits?” I challenged.
“You’re either lurking or hiding. Which is it?”
I thought about answering that I was hiding from Corey, but I didn’t want to look like a drama llama. There’s a very good chance it could be, so I didn’t want to make a big deal about it. I’d just keep living in my delusional little bubble.
Instead, I lifted my coffee mug up, and they nodded knowingly. “Well, I better go see which little terror I’m sending in your direction today,” I teased with a laugh.
“Not Karenya! Please not Karenya,” Marnie begged with a wicked smile.
I understood completely. Marnie and Karenya were the same person with a forty-year age difference. Both were sassy and stubborn and refused to concede defeat or admit they were wrong, even when the evidence was clearly against them.
“We’ll see,” I said with a wave, heading towards my classroom.
I made it all the way to the final bell before I caved and checked my phone. Not because I was avoiding it, but because today had just been so damn busy. With Trish out sick, the casual covering her class kept coming in every five minutes to ask me yet another inane question. She might’ve been young, but I wasn’t buying that as an excuse. If she was working as a relief teacher, then she’d had the same training as I had.
Seeing Luca’s name on my phone made my day a whole lot brighter.
Luca: How was your day?
Rushing around, I gathered my things and dashed towards the car before anyone had the chance to stop me. As soon as I dumped my bag on the seat beside me, I pulled out my phone and tapped out a reply.
Elise: Long. Headed home for a bath and a glass of wine
Luca: Sounds interesting
Luca: Want company?
I coughed. That wasn’t expected. But then again, I should’ve expected it in a way. Expecting the unexpected with Luca was something I needed to get used to, and in a hurry by the looks of it. But two could play at this game.
Elise: In the bath or sharing the wine
