Page 47 of Mr. Principal

“You have plans for this weekend?” he asked.

I smiled and shrugged flirtatiously. “Maybe… depends on who’s asking.” And then I immediately stiffened up, I did have plans for the weekend. I was such a dope.

“I mean, I actually do have plans. It’s Meredith’s birthday this weekend. We’re throwing her a surprise party at Piper’s house.”

Piper and I had patched things up pretty easily. We both hated to be mad at each other so after a few “I’m sorry’s” and a few tears, we were right back to being tight friends. She had offered to host Meredith’s party at her house months ago. At the time, I’d been barely speaking to Tom, so Piper’s house had been considered “neutral” territory.

“Oh, she’ll love that.”

I nodded, “She’s excited about it already, so it won’t be much of a surprise.” I brushed my bangs away from my face. “You should come. I’m sure Meredith would love to see you there.”

He nodded. “It’s a deal. I’ll see you then.”

He made his way back up the front steps and into the school and I found myself thinking about how sexy he walked. I was caught off-guard by my thought process. It seemed now every time I thought of Carter the word sexy popped up in my head.

Like lovesick teenagers, we called each other every day. We talked about nothing important, but I frequently fell asleep with my phone next to my ear, drifting off after we’d talked for hours on end. Sometimes it was almost daybreak before we got off the phone.

I learned a lot about his life over the years. It turns out that his stepmother had opened a thriving family law practice not too long ago. I remember her being a no-nonsense woman who freely spoke her mind. I hadn’t known that she was a lawyer. If I’d known that I wouldn’t have used the last bit of savings to take Tom to court over shared custody on an incompetent lawyer that rarely returned my phone calls.

Besides that, I also realized that Carter was probably the most giving person I’d met in my life. I already knew that in college, but he hadn’t changed one bit. He’d spent time in Suriname working with an indigenous population there. He’d also traveled throughout Brazil, working with teachers and students there to implement technological changes in the schools.

And most recently, he’d been a principal of a small international school in Guatemala. I was in awe of him. He’d done so much and had positively impacted so many lives. He literally had made the world a better place. I was proud of him even though I’d always known that was the type of person he was.

I found myself opening up to him about a lot of things in my marriage that I hadn’t shared with anyone, not even Piper.

I talked about how I felt like I’d just been going through the motions when I was married. I talked to him about how I thought I might have been depressed because some days, especially the days before I was pregnant with Meredith, I’d been so unhappy I hadn’t even bothered to get out of bed.

And Tom had never noticed. Or maybe he had and just didn’t care enough to say anything about it.

One thing was for certain, Carter cared. He wanted to know everything about my life over the past few years, the good and the bad. He asked me about my relationship with my parents and if they were still the same. Sadly, I’d informed him that they hadn’t changed a bit and their example of parenting informed mine—I knew exactly how NOT to raise Meredith.

We covered so many topics— from our disappointments to our proud moments over the years and it was nice to have someone to reflect with. Carter was a great listener. A great lover. A great friend.

He was everything my ex hadn’t been. And so I was glad that Carter had chosen to fall in love with me. I’m sure he’d met plenty of women over the years that he could have built a life with, but he hadn’t. And part of me wanted to believe he’d been waiting for me. I knew that was a fairytale ideal, but the romantic in me, who I rarely let surface, loved to believe in the impossible.

Speaking of love, we hadn’t said the “L” word to each other. I thought maybe it would be premature to do so, but honestly, it would be late. Carter had been more than just my college crush. I just hadn’t admitted it. I’d loved him from afar all throughout college, I just thought that love and happiness were a thing of fairy tales. At least, that was what my parents had always led me to believe.

I realized now that I’d been modeling their relationship. My mom had married an emotionless, absent man and I’d done the same. I’d repeated her mistake. I figured now was the time to stop making the mistakes of others and learn to make mistakes of my own. That way, at least I could own up to it and accept that I’d made a choice even if that choice was wrong.

The week passed by faster than I expected and the next thing I knew it was the day of the party. I’d solicited Piper’s help and to my surprise, Becca also joined us.

I was determined to be nice to her. She treated Meredith like her long-lost daughter and made her laugh, I couldn’t ask for anything more.

“Thanks for letting me help out,” she said to me as she helped hang the streamers while Piper ran out to collect the cakes and cupcakes that I’d ordered.

I fought with a streamer that had gotten tangled around my arms while saying, “No, thank you for offering to help. Clearly, I need it.” I gave the streamer one firm tug and it promptly fell from the ceiling, undoing about twenty minutes of hard work.

“Ugghhh…” I said, pressing my palm against my forehead in frustration.

Becca laughed and jumped down from the chair she had been standing on. “I got it.”

We worked in silence, fixing what I’d messed up until finally it was done.

“Not too bad,” I said, looking around at our work.

“You don’t think there’s too much pink, do you?”

I pretended to be in deep consideration as I said, “There can never be too much pink.”