I spun and faced the unfamiliar man. He stood about a foot shorter than me and had graying blond hair and a handsome smile. “I am. I’m sorry, I don’t think I know your name.”
Behind him Brandt appeared with wide eyes, waving his hand across his throat like it was a knife. It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about, but it was too late.
The stranger held out his hand. “I’m Benny Daughtler. My son, Jury, mentioned your class that he took last year. He also said you could bench press a school bus, so I assumed you must be the man in question. No one else here fits the description.” He grinned.
“Jury?” I stuttered over the name, then took his hand and shook it.
Benny laughed, his face lighting up in amusement. He was gorgeous, and if Judge had gotten his DNA, I could see why he looked the way he did, but I had no idea how the Daughtlers had gone about doing the baby thing. “I know, it’s ironic, right? My husband was insistent on naming our twins Judge and Jury. I got used to the names, and if you know my boys, you know it’s perfect for them.”
I nodded, fear lodging in my throat and blocking all my words so I couldn’t speak.Stay calm. He had no idea I was getting fucked by his son.
“Anyway, Jury said he loved your class, and you wereimpressiveas a teacher, so I had to come over and say hello. My husband, Roger, is here somewhere.” He turned to peer around us. “But who knows with him? Usually I’m the chatty one, but when you get him in a room with other people interested in law, you can’t shut him up.”
“Yeah. My uh... boyfriend’s the same.”Boyfriend? Fuck!
His face lit up. “Oh! You’re gay. That’s great. You should come around for dinner one night with your partner. We have the best wine, I insist on it.” He laughed as though there was a secret joke there, but I didn’t understand.
“I can’t, sorry. He has a very busy schedule.” The lies were falling out of my mouth so freely I was going to be sick.
Brandt still stood behind Benny with wide eyes, arms out, and mouthed, “What the fuck are you doing?” Someone caught his attention, though, and he turned to chat with them.
“That’s fine. You tell us when will work for you and your boyfriend, and we’ll make it happen. We’re half retired now anyway, and we need more friends.” He shook his head. “Our last good friends in the area moved to Pleasant Beach in Cali, lucky bastards. Probably getting suntans on the beach as we speak.” He winked to let me know it was obviously another joke. “We can trade phone numbers and talk?”
I didn’t have it in my heart to tell him no. Wordlessly I got out my phone and added a new contact. He told me his number, and I put it in, butterflies doing somersaults in my gut the entire time. When I texted him, he whooped in a way I never would’ve expected from a man of his standing.
“This is great, I’m so excited.” He grinned at me as he slid his phone back into the inside pocket of his dark blue suit jacket. “You’ll definitely be receiving more donations from me and Roger. I’m going to go tell him about our dinner plans!”
I thanked him, my voice wobbly, but it didn’t matter if I kept it together or not because he sauntered off to find his husband.
I was in a mess and there was no escape from this social nightmare. Taking a deep breath, I turned toward the exit and nearly ran out of the gym, tripping over my feet as I got over the threshold. Brandt was right on my heels, grabbing my arm to stop me from collapsing on the ground to the right of the door. I grimaced at the litter of cigarette butts in the grass. The cool air helped, but not much.
“What happened?” he asked.
I relived every heart-pounding moment of the horrible story as I told it to him, and his eyes widened.
“You’re fucked, Flynn.”
“Thank you, I know I am.” I groaned and rubbed my hands over my face. “I can just ignore him?”
“Or move to a different state and get a job there.” He laughed and nudged me. “What are you going to do? Are you going to end this thing with Judge?”
I gazed up and couldn’t see the moon or stars because they were hidden behind a boiling storm cloud; we would get rain soon.
“No.”
“No?” Brandt sounded surprised.
I looked back at him, more confident. “No. I’ll ignore Benny’s calls and texts. He won’t come to the school to find me, and he’ll get the message, but I’m not ending this with Judge. I like him a lot, maybe more than I’ve ever liked anyone.” It was scary to admit that out loud.
“That’s awesome.” He winced. “Is this a good time to tell you what I heard this afternoon?”
“What?” I didn’t think I could bear any more bad news.
“Chris is back in town.” He gave me an awkward smile. “He and the new boy toy broke up and he’s penniless. Wanna bet he’ll want to get back together?”
I groaned and stared back up at the sky. I didn’t know who or what was up there, but they hated me, I was sure of it. “Fuck you!” I shouted at the sky. “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.”
Brandt laughed. “Hey, at least you can tell Chris to screw off. You have your own boy toy now.”
