So I grabbed my lunch bag and walked in.
The room went quiet. The particular hush of people who'd been talking about you and stopped just a beat too late.
Mrs. Patterson was stationed in her usual spot, surrounded by her usual audience, but her eyes slid away when I entered. No snide comments today. No casual cruelty. Just a tight smile and a sudden intense interest in her salad.
The other teachers were less subtle.
Linda from second grade caught me at the coffee machine, her voice bright and hungry. "So... Shane Briggs, huh? I didn't know you two were dating."
"We're not."
"But he said?—"
"He was being nice." I poured my coffee and kept my voice flat. "I hit my head. He helped. That's it."
Linda's expression softened, just a little. "Well, that was decent of him. Especially after what Patterson said." She glanced over her shoulder and lowered her voice. "Everyone heard it, you know. What she said to you. It was awful."
I didn't know what to do with that. Linda and I had never been close. We exchanged pleasantries in the hallway, nodded at each other during staff meetings, but that was the extent of it. I couldn’t tell if this was genuine sympathy or just a more polite way of getting information.
"Thanks," I said finally. "I should go sit down."
I ate my lunch at the same table where I'd fainted yesterday. The stain from my dropped empanada was still there, a grease mark on the laminate that no one had bothered to clean. No one sat with me, but everyone watched. I could feel it. The weight of their attention, their speculation, their judgment.
Shane Briggs.I heard his name whispered three times before I finished my sandwich.
By the time the bell rang, the ache behind my eyes had returned in full force.
The apartment was quiet when I got home.
Zoe wouldn't be back for another hour. Chess club on Thursdays. One of the few extracurriculars she'd actually stuck with, mostly because she liked crushing the boys who underestimated her.
I dropped my bag by the door, collapsed onto the couch, and let the silence wash over me.
My phone buzzed inside my bag. I fished it out. It was a text from Shane. I'd saved his number last night, after staring at our text thread for way too long. His name glowed on the screen now.
Shane
Survived day one?
Maya
Barely. My students think I look like a warrior.
Shane
They're not wrong.
I smiled before I could stop myself, put the phone down, and picked it up again.
This was ridiculous. He was being nice. That's all.
The calendar photos flashed through my mind. Shirtless. Confident. That look in his eyes that said he knew exactly what effect he had.
Thousands of women would do anything to have him text them.
And he was textingme.
I set the phone aside and started on dinner. Millie arrived around five to check on us, and I insisted she stay to eat. The three of us sat around the small kitchen table, and for once, Zoe actually talked.
