Please.
I set the bin down on the nearest desk.
“Hey,” I said.
NotMr. Nash.Just Nash. The way it was supposed to be when we weren’t performing for anyone.
She straightened up, a green gel pen in her hand, and looked at me with that carefully neutral expression.
“Thanks for bringing that in,” she said. “You didn’t have to.”
“I don’t mind helping out,” I said. “You teachers do more than enough. I mean…I did just spend the last couple hours singing your praises to the other parents.”
She shook her head, laughing softly. “Youreallydidn’t have to do that.”
“I wanted to.”
I should have put the box down, but I didn’t. I waited for her to look at me.
She finally did.
And…there it was. The blush.
“Where do you want this?” I asked.
“Just over in the back corner with the other bins,” she said. “I’ll probably have to stay late tomorrow and put everything away.”
“I can help.”
“You can’t,” she said with a genuine smile. “My organization system is uncrackable even for the most neurotic.”
I laughed, carrying the bin to the back corner as requested to set it down with the others. All of them were labeled in the same handwriting—hers, I realized, neat with rounded letters, different colored sharpies. On the wall behind them was a dinosaur drawing with a big heart in pink at the bottom, NELL in capital letters beside it.
I swallowed hard and turned around.
Maggie was still at her desk, still sorting pens. She wasn’t making a show of it; she legitimately had a system. I watched her for a moment, and it was only then that I caught it: the way her face flushed all the way down her neck to her chest, her teeth biting into her lower lip, her breath a little faster. Memories flashed through my mind without invitation: begging me to take her to bed, crawling toward me on the mattress, taking me in her mouth?—
“I’ll go,” I said, cutting myself off. “I just—it was great to see you today, Maggie, to actually get to talk?—”
“It was actually really…nice,” she interrupted, looking up at me. “That night. It was nice.”
I let out a short laugh. “...nice?”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “It was exactly what I needed. It made my breakup so easy.”
“Glad I could help.”
We both laughed, then. It felt like she was trying to end it. Make it clean.
And it was me who just had to be a fucking idiot and not let it end.
“I could help again,” I said, “if you want.”
Her breath hitched. She looked up at me…
Then she very calmly went to the door. Very calmlyshut and locked it. Turned back around and leaned back against it, biting her lip in that way that made me want to do thingsto her that you absolutely should not do in a classroom.
But I was already crossing the room, threading my hands into her hair, and kissing her.
