Twenty-four students laughed and waved at him as he bowed and used the same awful accent to saygudbye.I didn’t have to fake a smile as I walked him to the door, the high of knowing the lesson went great despite the fact he was there, and I had a comment right on my tongue about how I didn’t use a single prop besides a marker when he nodded at me.
“That was good.”
“Wait, excuse me?” I said, blinking and making a real scene about clutching my chest and taking a few steps back. “What?”
He let out an annoyed breath but repeated it. “The lesson was good. Different from what I expected.”
“Did you think I’d fly in on my hoverboard and use holograms? I’m saving those for next week.”
Christopher barked out a laugh, giving me a real, genuine smile that made my toes curl into my old slippers. “Okay, Martha.”
He waved one last time to the class before leaving into the hallway, and my students had zero chill and distracted me before I had any time to analyze his comment. It was for the best because there was no way he would start being nice to me.
Nothing had changed.
The high fromthe morning only lasted until lunch, where it exploded like a firework when I was midbite into my macaroni bowl. Helen stood up from her lunch table and cleared her throat before smoothing down her blue dress. “Today is the last day, y’all. If you don’t have your money for the group brewery tour, I can’t sign us up as a group. I hate to be that person, but I sent an email about this last week.”
Last week, I had been trying not to have a panic attack that Samantha was here, and Helen emailed the whole staff too damn much, so I often skimmed. She called it agroup bonding,and I forgot it was about the trip. Dang it.I never gave her money.My face burned so hot, I swore my skin was going to melt off. How could I forget to pay her, and now my money was tied up? Shit.
What was I going to do? I clenched my plastic fork tighter and tried to rationalize how I could get the money. It was fifty bucks, which wasn’t insane, but not something I just had lying around.
“Did I pay you? I can’t remember,” Peter Dee said, scratching his head and scrunching his eyebrows together. Conversation seemed to stop in the teacher lunchroom. “My mind is just a blur this week.”
Helen laughed. “I know, mine too. Let me check.” She pulled out her phone and clicked her tongue until she nodded. “Okay, forHops and Hoopsget-together, I need Larissa, Gilly, and Maggie. Everyone else is good to go.”
“Can we still sign up if we’re interested? This sounds like fun,” Christopher said, making my blood boil. The thought of him going to it with all the teachers who were my friends was my version of hell. This was supposed to be fun, and seeing him on a Saturday, with the staff that I loved working with, was the opposite.
Helen, the angel, smiled softly at him. “Sorry, Christopher, unless someone doesn’t give us their money, there isn’t a spot. I can let you know at the end of the day if I have an opening or not.”
He nodded, and his gaze flicked to me for one second. I looked at my plate and felt the sweat forming on my brow. Attending an outing at the brewery would be such a great way for all of us to relax and work out the back-to-school nerves, and knowing Christopher was ready to take my spot made it so much worse. He could turn everyone against me.
Fritz. I would call my brother, and he’d lend me the cash, especially if it was for school. I couldn’t feel too bad about asking when it was to further my professional relationships, right? That was work-related. It was important.
Larissa and Maggie excused themselves to go to their classroom to get their checks, and while conversation picked back up again, my heart beat pounded so loud I couldn’t make out the words. I couldn’t finish the salad, so I tossed it into the trash and went into the hallway. My fingers shook a little when I called my brother, hating that I forgot about this cost. This was my own damn fault, and this stupidone-monthchallenge was biting me in the ass.
“Hey, Gil, what’s going on?” he asked, his playful tone a good sign.
“I need to borrow fifty bucks.”
“Um, no.”
“Please, it’s for this school thing, and it’s due to today and I forgot about it when I did my budgeting. It’s important, Fritz,” I said, almost on the verge of begging.
“Gil, no. We agreed for one month. You need to figure this shit out on your own. If it’s not a life-or-death emergency, then you gotta figure it out. This is what you wanted, okay? I’m not trying to be a dick about it.”
His words were true, but it still upset me. “Fine, yeah, I’ll figure it out.”
“Don’t pout,” he said in a stronger voice. “You can do this, Gil.”
“Yeah, bye.” I hung up and knew my anger wasn’t really at Fritz, more at myself. How could I forget about the payment? I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to think of any way to get that by the end of the day. The only options I could think of were to pawn something or drop clothes off at a consignment shop or sell something online. It would only work if Helen accepted the payment later in the afternoon though. Swallowing down my pride, I tried to sneak into the workroom without making noise, and I approached Helen at the copy machine. “Can I send it to you later this afternoon?”
“The payment?”
“Yes,” I said, hating how I could feelhimstaring at me. It was like there was a specific jerk detector on my skin that prickled whenever he was around. “I forgot, honestly, and need to get the money. I will though.”
“Okay, Gilly.” She smiled. “If I don’t have it by five, it’ll to go Christopher though.”
“Right, fair. Totally understand,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’ll have it by then.”
