Hot For Teacher(138)

Arleen nods, intently listening, and lies on the bed on her stomach. Propping her head up with one hand, she’s facing me and urging me to continue.

“Then I met someone.” I swallow, trying to avoid telling her who it was, even though she’s going to start putting together the puzzle any minute now. “She was perfect. Attentive. Beautiful. But she was a lot older than me. And after I met her, I couldn’t stop thinking about her and how she made me feel. Of course now I realize that it was foolish, but back then she seemed like the perfect solution to my loneliness.”

“So what happened?”

My head bobs down and I exhale a deep breath. “I came up with a plan to become the perfect man.”

She smiles. “That didn’t work out so well, did it?”

I laugh. “Right?” Although I still have a smile on my face, it begins to fade as I know the tone of the conversation is about to get more serious. “I thought… I thought in order to get a woman like her, I needed to become someone she’d never want to leave.”

Her smile disappears too, and I can see she understands what I’m telling her.

“That’s when I started my spreadsheet.”

She nods, and I don’t need to explain anymore.

“Can I ask you a question?” she says.

“Yeah.”

“What’s it like? You know, sex?”

“It’s…it’s…” I shrug. “It’s never really been a big deal. I mean, the first time it was, but after that it got weird for me. It became something I started analyzing and breaking down. And it was about trying to learn about it instead of just experiencing it. It became a homework assignment—something I was studying for because the test was coming when I turned eighteen.” I think back to my first time and try to remember what it was like not to know. “It’s never been like what we read about. What we hear about. Or what we dream about. Not for me, anyway.”

A long silence falls between us, but I can tell she has more she wants to say.

“Do you know where she is now? The woman that started all of this?”

I take a sharp inhale and close my eyes. “Yes.”

“Where is she, Simon?”

I lift my head and open my eyes. “She’s in room four-oh-six.”

I can see that she’s pieced it all together now.

“Isn’t that the room right next door to the room Mallory will be sleeping in tonight?”

I slowly nod my head and keep my eyes on the floor.

“What was this weekend supposed to be, Simon? Was Miss Shields going to have sex with you?”

I scratch my eyebrow and take a quick look at her. “I guess I’ll never know.”

“And you’re here, with me?” Her eyes are wary. “Three years of your life thinking about her, and now you’ve been given the chance, and you’d rather be here with me?”

“I’d rather be here with you,” I tell her emphatically. “I take that back,” I say, holding up a finger. “I’d rather be eating pizza with you right now, because I never got a chance to eat dinner.” A smile spreads across my face.

“Oooh. Pizza!” Wiping eyes I hadn’t realized were wet, she scrambles for the brochures by the phone and starts dialing the first delivery number she finds.

“So what happens next? For you, I mean,” she asks after she hangs up the phone.

“I’m okay. I’m going to be fine. I obviously have a lot I need to talk to my parents about, but I’m saving that for awkward holiday get-togethers when I’m thirty. I figure by then I’ll have fun just watching them squirm.” I wink. But then I sober up and think about what she asked me. “Honestly, I don’t know. I know I have to choose a college or a job of some kind. I hadn’t really taken into consideration that I’d need to do much past Katie—I mean Miss Shields.” I cringe at Arleen’s dark expression to my overly familiar use of our teacher’s name.

“But now?”

“But now she means nothing to me. The only person I give a shit about is sitting right in front of me.”

Arleen looks away shyly and picks at an invisible piece of lint on the comforter.

“And I want her to know that I’m not going to leave her. If she wants me here, I’ll stay.”

She nods. “Stay.”





Chapter Twenty-Two


The debate will start early—eight o’clock—and by seven, Arleen and I are out the door and eating the complementary breakfast in the lobby restaurant.

“You ready for today? It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Are you prepared?” she asks.

I shake my head and take a bite of bacon. “Nope. Not at all.” I laugh. “I honestly don’t even know what the topic is.”