“Hi,” she said softly. “You must be Mr. Harper?”
She reached out her hand to shake mine.
“Yes, I am,” I replied. “But, please call me Luke.”
We shook hands.
“And you must be Mrs. Batista?”
I immediately felt like an idiot for trying to sound as Spanish as I could when pronouncing her last name. I always hated when people did that, and I had no clue why the hell I had decided to. Thankfully, she laughed.
“Yep, that’s me. Probably not what you were expecting, huh?”
“Well, not exactly. But, who doesn’t enjoy a surprise?”
Her lips took their time curling into a smile. “I get that reaction a lot. Like people are expecting a little old Mexican grandma or something.”
“Hey, as long as you can cook posole, I will be happy.”
She laughed and I noticed an enormous diamond adorning her ring finger, left hand. Very married. Damn.
“Actually, my husband picked up a great recipe from his grandparents. I will have to see if he would be willing to share that with you.”
I had no desire to talk about her husband. He was a lucky bastard, even if this woman turned out to be evil and despicable and cruel. He would still be lucky just to get to wake up next to her every day.
It took me a second to realize that I was supposed to probably respond to what she had said. I hoped that the mention of her husband hadn’t created a noticeable scowl on my face.
“So,” I said, squashing the awkward silence, “have you had a chance to look over Robin’s lesson plans?”
“Yeah,” she said, turning back toward the desk to grab the paper.
My eyes scanned over the back of her. God, she had an amazing form.
Focus, Luke.
“Looks like it’s a pretty easy day for me today,” she said, turning back to me. “Nothing but spelling tests and reading assignments.”
“Ahhhh,” I said, and then immediately wondered if anyone under the age of sixty still actually said the word “ah” unless they were at the dentist’s office or in a porno. “Robin always has one day a week where she makes things easy on herself. She calls it the day she catches up on her sleep. Guess you got lucky and landed a sleep day.”
“Well, it should be a nice way to ease into the week. The rest of the week doesn’t look as pleasant.”
I watched her lick her bottom lip as she studied the paper in her hand, and for a moment I was entranced. The bell finally chimed over the school’s intercom system, jarring me out of it. We both instinctively looked up as if we somehow expected to see the chiming bell.
“If you need anything, I will be right next door. If you get bored during your free period, feel free to come over and sit in on our class discussion. Robin likes to come in and remind her old students that all their answers are still wrong. But, in the meantime, just bang on the wall if things get crazy and you request assistance.”
“And you’ll come to the rescue?” she asked, looking up at me with a playful glint in her brown eyes.
“Probably not,” I replied, wondering if I was blushing. “But if I hear screaming, I might send a student to check it out.”
I can be snarky, and my sense of humor is dry. I sometimes say things to the wrong people and they just stand there, looking offended. This happens a lot in a Christian high school with parents and other faculty members. But, Mrs. Batista laughed. And it was a beautiful laugh. It’s safe to say I was smitten right away.
She walked back behind Robin’s desk as I headed for the door. I could hear the cacophonous melody of lockers slamming and voices competing with one another to reach a higher decibel.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Batista,” I said, turning for one final look.
“April,” she replied.
“That’s pretty,” I said.
She smiled, that beautiful, angelic, perfect smile, and I thought I even caught the slightest hint of a blush.
“You are incorrigible, Mr. Harper.”
I smiled back as the first students began making their way into the room and to their desks, slightly turned on by the use of a word like “incorrigible” from a woman as pretty as she was. Beauty and brains. Smart words made me hard.
I made my way back to my classroom, selfishly hoping that Robin would decide to take a couple of extra sick days just to make sure she healed properly and was germ-free. If I had known that Robin would never step foot into her classroom again, I probably would have felt differently. But, as I have learned in my life, everything happens for a reason, and good can manage to come from the saddest of circumstances.
Six Years Earlier
“Cancer?”
I heard the word and I found myself repeating it over and over again. Cancer. Cancer. Cancer. Maybe I heard it wrong. Maybe I was dreaming that this was even happening. My wife and I watched shows like Scrubs and The Big C all the time, and found ourselves laughing in spite of the serious subject matter, but hearing the word for yourself was the least funny thing I could imagine ever happening to anyone. Well, now I didn’t have to imagine it. I was hearing it for myself. Cancer.