Beautiful Burn(21)

I took it slow, jogging the few blocks of main street before taking a side street down to the water's edge. My muscles felt tired and weak, protesting the exertion that they one time had welcomed. I hit the paved path that followed the shoreline and sped up.

My feet pounded the pavement as I ran, my mind swirling with equal parts excitement and frustration. Not only had the closet encounter earlier today with Auburn left me breathless and desperate to see her again, but Mel had been blowing up my phone the last few days, looking for another fight, I was sure. I'd answered a few of her texts, mostly to keep her from stomping over to my apartment and starting something. With all the worry swirling in my brain right now, Mel's accusatory anger was the last thing I could bring myself to deal with. I was trying to focus on myself, eating healthier, taking vitamins, and seeing our couples therapist for private appointments. I didn't even know if Mel knew I was still seeing Dr. Warner, though he'd already told me she wasn’t. It didn't matter, I wasn't going for us, I was going for me. And while I hadn't yet told the therapist about Auburn, I'd told him everything else. It was the one time a week I could vent about Mel, divulge that my parents' perfect marriage had left me feeling with much to live up to and like a failure if I signed on that dotted line, and how the adjustment of all of it left me fearful and anxious.

I was glad that I could finally get back to running and settle into some sort of routine. Running had always been my outlet and I hadn't even realized how much I'd missed it until I'd taken a break from it these last few months.

When I reached the one mile mark my muscles screamed and my body swayed with weakness. I reluctantly slowed my jog to a walk, disappointed that I couldn’t run the three miles that I'd been running each day this spring. I stopped at one of the boulders dotting the path and stretched my legs, keeping my muscles loose as I gazed out at the west bay where Auburn and I had rowed our first night together. I stretched my arms behind my back, pulling at my sore shoulders in the hopes of staying flexible for the way home. After a few minutes of stretching and realizing that my body would not take any more of a beating today, I turned for home, taking it slow and getting lost in my thoughts the entire way.

I wanted to give Auburn everything, but I could close my eyes and see the headlines. High School Teacher Seduces Student. The local news would have a field day. The media attention in our small state alone would prevent me from getting a job. I kicked at a rock on the pathway as I tried to figure out some way to have it all. I'd been working on my doctorate in the hopes of one day working as a professor at the local college, maybe if I buckled down I could breeze through the remaining classes in a few years and start as an adjunct professor, leaving me free to date Auburn, free from scandal and gossip.

A few weeks ago I would have said I didn't know what my future held and that fact shook me to my bones and left me paralyzed with anxiety, but with time, that feeling had dissipated. Auburn had said it was our time, but I still couldn't shake the memory of the look of quiet disappointment on her face. There'd been more she was saying, something that left me with the sense that I didn't have the time with her I thought I had.





seven


I sent her an email the following morning.

Meet me tonight at the entrance to the resort off of highway 31.

I reclined back in my deck chair basking in the warm morning sun with a cup of coffee and a baseball hat pulled low over my eyes. The chime indicating a new email sounded a minute later.

Uh…ok. What’s there? was her reply.

It’s a surprise. 8pm. I briefly wished I could just text her, but I wasn't ready to take that risk yet.

Yes, Sir. she answered.

The blood pumped a little slower through my veins, thick with the insinuation of her reply.

I sat outside the entrance of the Pines Resort off of highway 31 later that evening. Auburn pulled up a few minutes after me and stepped out, tucked her phone in the back pocket of her black shorts and stepped up to me. “I'm all yours,” Her hand dusted down the front of my jeans. The short shorts she ran around in always left me clutching at control, but her hands on my cock had me on the edge of exploding.

“Get in.” I growled, gesturing to the other side of my old Blazer. I hopped behind the wheel, adjusting the painful ache between my legs, and drove a few yards along the shoulder before pulling into our destination.

“We're going to the drive-in?” She grinned and looked at me, then back to the drive-in theater sign that dominated the roadway. “So what’s the main attraction tonight?”

“It’s a surprise.” I paid for two tickets before giving her a playful wink.