“It sure seemed like it. Freaky.”
“No shit. I have the creepy crawlies. There’s something not right about him.”
Teresa nodded as she chugged her water. “I know. It’s why I told him about the guys, figured he’d leave you alone.”
“I’m not sure if it worked or not. I don’t like telling people about Flame, though. I haven’t told you yet but there’s been grief at school over him.”
She pulled her sunglasses down her nose and looked at me over the upper edge. “What kind of trouble? Have you told Flame at least?”
“Nope, no one. He’s been so busy and exhausted with the tour. I can handle it. At least I hope I can.”
“Spill it…”
Why had I opened my damn mouth? Ugh. I’d managed this long without telling anyone. Chalk another one up to the hangover and the weaslies. That’ll teach me to drink when I’m freakin’ pissed off. “After Christmas break the principle called me in to her office. She said a complaint had been filed about my relationship with Flame.”
“What? How did anyone even know?”
“I guess it made the papers over Christmas, and someone, she hinted it was one of my student’s parents, apparently complained. She reminded me of the rules of behavior. Apparently making the news, social media and the paper’s who’s who page is not a good thing.”
“So what does that mean?”
“Basically I’m on probation. If I step out of line they can fire me. I haven’t been there long enough to make tenure and at this rate I’m not sure I will, or even if I want to. Teaching is not at all what I expected.”
“Do you really teach though? Isn’t it more like babysitting a bunch of five year olds?”
“No, it really isn’t. You’d be surprised how smart these kids are. But there’s the stupid core curriculum now and it even applies to kindergarten. You wouldn’t believe the freakin’ rules we have to follow. I wanted to work with the kids but everything is so strictly formatted they take the fun out of it. They are only five, they should be able to have a little fun still.”
“No shit? That sucks donkey balls.”
“Yeah, they wouldn’t even let me bring Sylvester. Too afraid one of the kids might be allergic, get scratched, or some such shit.”
“Damn. Kindergarten wasn’t like that when we were in school.”
“No it wasn’t. Now you see why I’ve been stressed. It’s not just from missing Flame.”
She nodded and finished her water. I took another drink of mine and as I looked around I thought I caught a glimpse of Bob. But I blinked and looked again but didn’t see him. Damn. All the fun of being in the park evaporated like mist.
“I don’t blame you. So if you don’t teach what will you do?”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. Hey, want to get out of here? We can stop and pick up something for lunch.”
“Sure.”
The feeling of being watched stayed with me, like eyes boring in to my back, but I didn’t see Bob or anyone else. It gave me the creeps and I couldn’t wait to get back to the apartment. We picked up a couple of cornedbeef sandwiches on rye and a container of potato salad and brought it home.
Sylvester was waiting at the door for us as usual. Meowing his greeting and sniffing at our bags. I swear he could smell us as soon as we got off the elevator and knew if we had food.
“Meowww, meowwww,” he said, rubbing against my legs and almost tripping me as I tried to get to the kitchen. One of these days I was going to fall on my ass in the middle of the hallway. He’d probably like it too. I could see it now, he’d climb on top of my chest and do his happy feet thing until I passed out, then he’d find the food and eat it all.
Teresa must have gone to change because I realized I was the only one fighting with the cat. Then she came into the kitchen with her phone against her ear.
“No babe, she’s not avoiding him, at least I don’t think so. Do you want me to check? No? Okay, then. I’ll tell her to check her phone. Good. When’s your flight? And when are you landing? Do you want us to meet you at the airport? Are you sure? Gotcha. I love you, baby. Be safe and I can’twait to...” She saw me staring at her, and turned whispering something in the phone.
I wasn’t trying to listen, not really. But she walked in and was obviously talking to Wrath. Grabbing a couple of plates I unwrapped the sandwiches and dished out the salad. Sylvester jumped against me and not expecting it I almost lost my balance.
“Damn cat. Wait ‘til Cynda gets back. You’re gonna be sorry.”
He didn’t even blink just gave me the usual, “meow.”
