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“Hey,” she said and wrapped her hands behind his neck.

“Hey, baby.”

They started kissing again. Like they hadn’t just spent all morning together. And he hadn’t just driven her to school. They were kissing like they hadn’t seen each other in days instead of minutes.

Yeah, this was going to be really hard with Mr. Halifax. Because I wanted that. Maybe we could go out to dinner like he wanted tonight. Somewhere out of the city. Where no one would know who we were.

I hugged my calculus book to my chest. Maybe he’d finally show me his place. I couldn’t wait to see it. I couldn’t wait to talk to him again. He was right, there was still so much we needed to know about each other. And I couldn’t wait to stay up until the wee hours of the morning chatting. Naked on his bed.

“How am I supposed to keep my hands to myself?” I asked. “Now that you guys have touched you’re like inseparable.”

“Yeah, that’s going to be hard,” Scarlett said. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’ll keep my hands in my pockets.”

“But you have to take notes.”

I laughed. “I’ll figure it out.” I wasn’t sure why I was so nervous. I knew Mr. Halifax liked me back. But the radio silence for the rest of Christmas break had been hard. I was excited to officially exchange numbers with him today. I was planning on taking more pictures for him since I knew he liked them so much.

“You’re going to be on your best behavior today, right?” Axel asked.

“You have nothing to worry about,” I said. “Pockets.” I gestured to my blazer pockets. “I’m not going to get him fired. I think I’d die if I couldn’t see him every day in class.”

“Good,” Axel said. “Well, not the dying thing.”

I laughed. “Luckily we’ll never have to find out.” I frowned when I saw Uncle James going into Mr. Halifax’s classroom. “Um...why is your dad going to talk to Mr. Halifax?”

“What?” Scarlett spun around. “He went in there?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit,” she said. “You don’t think he somehow found out that Mr. Halifax was at that party, do you?”

“When did you find the note Mr. Halifax left me?”

“The next morning. But my dad left Natalivanka’s when we did. He didn’t go anywhere near our secret lair. There’s no way he knows that Mr. Halifax was there.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “So they must be talking about something else.”

“We should probably go chaperone,” Scarlett said. “The last thing we need is for them to get in another fist fight.”

“They’re going to have to learn to get along,” I said. Because this wasn’t just some fling. I was madly in love with Mr. Halifax. Soon enough, he’d be coming to all our family gatherings. Well, once I graduated. So Uncle James needed to stop it.

“See you later,” Scarlett said and gave Axel a quick goodbye kiss.

Scarlett and I walked into Mr. Halifax’s room. To see her dad standing behind Mr. Halifax’s desk. He opened up a few drawers like he was looking for something.

Shit. He was probably looking for proof that we were fucking. I cleared my throat. “Uncle James?”

He sat down in Mr. Halifax’s chair and leaned back like he was planning on staying for a while. “What’s up, Sophie?”

I opened my mouth and closed it again. What the heck was happening? My heart started hammering in my chest. Had Mr. Halifax already been fired? But...how? Why? We’d been careful. No one knew he was the mascot.

“Is Mr. Halifax sick today or something?” Scarlett asked.

My dad shook his head. “Not that I know of. Why don’t the two of you take a seat. I have an announcement for the whole class.”

Scarlett and I looked at each other.