“You have a female friend?”
Yeah, I sound shocked and he's rightfully offended.
“I could. I’m not a fucking monk,” Nash snaps as I fill my Stanley and walk back over to the counter to unpack my chicken kale salad hoping it magically turned into a cheeseburger. “And I think friend is an overstatement. She’s this woman who lives in my building. A real pain in the ass to everyone who meets her but she’s like, in a bind, and I thought I would be neighborly and offer help.”
None of this sounds normal, or legit, but I know if I push him right now he’ll just get more pissy, so I relent and make a mental note to answer more of his calls and quiz him about it on our trip to San Diego if he hasn’t confided before that. “You’re a good neighbor, Nash. Mr. Rogers would be proud. Now can I go eat my salad? You’ll be happy to know I decided to give your private chef a whirl.”
“Yeah?” He sounds instantly thrilled. “He’s good, eh? Have you tried his pumpkin ravioli? My god, the pesto sauce is insane.”
“I’ll have that tomorrow before practice and report back.”
“If you don’t like it, we can’t be twins anymore.”
He’s been making that joke since we were, like, seven and it never fails to make me smile. “Later.”
I hang up and head back into my living room with my meal, turning on ESPN to help distract me from my thoughts of Olivia. As much as I want to flip through the highlight reel of what we did today, I shouldn’t because it’s only going to make me want to do it again. And she hasn’t agreed to that. Maybe it’s best she doesn’t. This can’t go anywhere anyway.
Olivia is a sweet girl who wants a serious relationship. She also has something that catapulted her into my bed but she hasn't said what that is. I don't want to find out. I don't want to be involved with someone. So instead of thinking of Olivia, I think of all the drama and trauma my marriage caused me. By the time I finish my dinner, I'm very happy with letting this thing with Olivia go. It was fun but now it's done, which is best for both of us.
Chapter16
Liv
Iwatch the kids file out of the classroom. A few of them are humming, one of them is playing air guitar, and all of them are smiling. They like me! They like my class! I glance over to the corner where the actual teacher has been observing and she smiles and nods approvingly.
Carlos also shoots me a confident, happy smile. “We did good, Garrison.”
I grin. “We did, didn’t we?”
I lift my hand and high-five him. The teacher heads toward her desk and we collect our own belongings, say goodbye, and walk out together. “She’s gotta give us five stars. The kids are totally engaged in our classes.”
“It’s not an Amazon review, Carlos," I laugh. "But yeah, I think she'll give us a glowing assessment. Now we have to talk about the quiz. Can you email me your half of the questions and I'll build the file for the kids. I want it to be interactive, with sound clips too, so I emailed the principal to see if I can have access to the school server to store the file so they can access it right from the classroom computers."
“You are the best partner in the world, Garrison.” He grins again and wraps a friendly arm around my shoulder.
I fight the urge to flinch and win. It's not Carlos. He's great. In fact for a while there, despite what I said to Tenley and my cousins, I had entertained the idea of maybe pursuing him after our work relationship was done. I'd run a scenario in my head about our end-of-term party and how I would make some smooth comment that we should stay in touch and then if he reacted well, I would invite him to a movie or something. But… I haven't run that scenario in my head since…. since I slept with Crew Westwood.
We round the corner of the outdoor hallway and I step out of his side hug casually and look up and smile. The building these kids get to go to school in is right out of a movie set, in my opinion. There are huge outdoor marble hallways with painted ceilings and their cafeteria seating is in the middle of a courtyard with colorful canopies to keep the sun off them while they munch on lunches that look like something Jamie Oliver made.
“You are enamored with California, aren’t you?”
“Well, yeah, in general,” I reply as we start down the steps. “You have to understand Silver Bay, Maine, is lovely and quaint, like something out of a Hallmark movie, when it’s not sub-zero freezing and coated in ice. But it’s that about six to seven months of the year.”
“So no outdoor eating at lunchtime in your high school,” Carlos replies, and I shake my head. “It’s not all that, though. I mean I had outdoor eating in Arizona, but my friend got bit by a rattlesnake because of it.”
“What? Shit. Did he live?”
“Yeah. But it was nuts,” Carlos replies. “See, if you don’t live in the rich school districts and your cafeteria is outside, you have to live with pests because there’s no budget for pest control. And there’re drive-by shootings.”
“You’ve been in drive-by shootings?”
"Yeah. Once. Zero stars." He winks at me. "But I'm going back there to teach once I'm done next year because they need people to not give up on the area."
See. I should be making heart eyes at him right now. He’s handsome and noble and kind and driven. Instead, I’m thinking about Crew and wondering if he will be at Tate’s for the barbecue tonight. It’s been four very long, boring days since our third encounter and I haven’t seen him. I haven’t heard from him, but to be fair, I haven’t reached out either. Still, it feels like he’s avoiding me, which is stupid. It’s just… he knows where to find me and he doesn’t. But I don’t want him to, right? Right.
My phone dings as we get to the staff parking lot. I pluck it from my purse and read a text from Tenley.
TENLEY: Sorry! Can’t pick you up. There was a thing I couldn’t get out of & then Parentals showed up.
