“I… Uh…” But I wasn’t in school anymore, I didn’t have any siblings or cousins that it could eventually get back to (If her and Mr. Kime ever got back together.) so I gave up my stammering flailing at covering for myself. The ‘Oh no!’ probably had sounded totally fake. “I never liked that guy. I never knew why you were with him. And…” Giving her a half shrug. “Mr. Kime sounds like Slime.”
“Lawrence!” Shocked but already there was a smile forming on her face, delighted at my bluntness.
“He’s a piece of shit. Ugly too.” Shrugging away fucks I had to give about holding back for her.
“I… Thank you!” And I got another hug, softer and quicker but the smell of her still filled my nose. I somehow resisted leaning forward to keep that smell coming in. She leaned back but shifted her hands from my back to my shoulders, so she didn’t lean far back. And her hands… Shit her hands were still ON me. “My friends all said we should work things out.”
“What? I don’t even know what happened, but it can’t be worth it.” That earned another smile.
“They said… I’m almost thirty-five. It’s Defluer so there aren’t a lot of even halfway decent guys around who are going to want a woman with a kid. Not without being retired and looking for a second or third wife.” She gave a shudder at that, the dress was not low-cut (enough) but it hugged her chest more than ‘On Duty’ dresses. The strawberry blonde teacher had a nice rack on her slim body. “I just…”
“Don’t be miserable.” I told her, not wanting to go on but I went on. “Either way, I guess. Alone or with… Him. Don’t be miserable.” I laughed, “I know I’m just a stupid kid but ask yourself, which one would make you more miserable?”
“Him.”
“Well there you go.”
“When did you get so sage?”
“I had a really great teacher.” That earned a third hug, way longer than the others, the end of which she turned into me a little. Inhaled.
“Alright, enough hugging in the middle of the road.” She laughed so as to not cry. “Could you go to the gas station? I’ve been so distracted lately I ran my stupid car out of gas.”
“My pleasure.” I nodded, getting the car going again.
“Thank you… Really.” Her nearest hand had not left my nearest shoulder, when she said that she dropped it to my leg, giving it a squeeze to reinforce her words.
“It’s going to be the highlight of my weekend. Seeing you,” Seeing that she was still full on beautiful, she had been pregnant at the end of the year when I graduated, the guys had said she would never bounce back. I could tell them this weekend that they were so wrong, they probably already knew but I wanted to say it anyway. “Helping you is the highlight of my year.”
“Oh, well I’m glad I could make your year.” Smiling at her own joke. “If I knew that I would have ran out of gas a long time ago.”
I couldn’t stare back at her, as I was driving, but I felt that she didn’t take her eyes off me. Every time I looked her way she wasn’t shy about the fact that she was smiling at me. I became more and more aware that her hand was on my leg. Not just resting there either! Massaging the muscle but also sliding down to my knee, then back up towards… NO! Don’t think of it like that Lawrence! I chided myself, knowing the last thing I wanted to do was get a boner and make this all awkward.
“Will helping me really be the highlight of your year?” She asked, the fifth or sixth time I looked at her, as we approached one of the random All Way stops that happened out here on the country roads.
“Yeah. Yeah! You were my favorite teacher and all the guys will be jealous that not only did I get to see you. But… Now I’ll be your favorite former student.” She laughed. “It might not be true but it’s what I’ll tell them.”
“It is true Lawrence!” I gave her a look, she got it good since I was rolling towards the stop sign that I probably could have blown through considering there was nobody else out here. “Okay there was Lucy Parkington and Sarah Perkins as far as…”
“Trying to be your best friend?” Mrs. Kime smiled and nodded at that, remembering the two who had thought she was the coolest person alive.
“It was flattering, that I wasn’t old and uncool to somebody.” The two girls were a year behind me, they weren’t exactly the most popular during most of high school, but I’d heard a rumor or two that Sarah had ‘dated’ Colbie and Shawn right before graduation so that was something. Of course I didn’t tell Mrs. Kime that rumor or the fact that Lucy and Sarah didn’t exactly have a wide group of friends, which was why I didn’t really believe the rumor, because I’d never seen Colbie and Shawn within a hundred feet of Sarah. “There were a couple others as far as academics but you are in my top three for sure.”
“Not Top Ten, that’s good.”
“No, top three.” Pause “Top three for sure.” Pause. “Anything else but Top Three would be crazy.”
“Oh thank…” Top Three? I hit the brakes on what I was saying and the car as that registered, my head snapping in her direction.
“I could see how you always paid attention in my classes, how you helped when your classmates got out of hand.” Looking away for perhaps the first time, thinking back. Then her pretty eyes found me again. “And yes, I overheard you debating with your friends. It was crude but… Appreciated.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be, if you don’t expect that out of teenagers than you’re naive.” I did a blank nod to that, as embarrassed right now as I would have been if I’d known she had heard back then. About to let off the brake when she asked, “Do you still feel that way?”
“That you’re in my top three hottest teachers?” She nodded, still not that over my embarrassment enough to look at her at her but I saw her head move in the nod in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, I do.” There really hadn’t been many really attractive lady teachers at University. If I was gay I would have been in heaven as it seemed like all the ‘hot’ guy teachers were professors, or maybe somebody at my university was stacking the deck (or dick) with them. So of the ones there, throughout all of the rest of school, she was still Top 3 for sure. I think it was where her hand was, with a large helping from her staring, that made me say more. Probably too much. “Three years later AND a kid, you’re still absolutely drop dead gorgeous.”
“And now I’m single.” I couldn’t remember the conversation that well, I mean we’d had it probably five or six times a year so who knew which one she’d overheard? But the way she said that made it sound like that had been mentioned, she remembered the one overheard conversation more clearly than I did. “Does that change the ratings any?”
“Ha, no. I never liked Mr. Slime.” Shaking my head, grinning despite the strange situation I found myself in. “You might still be a little naïve if you think being married to him would have stopped me, not that I ever had a chance, but if I did I would have taken it. Married or not.”
“For me?” And Mrs. Bartholomew? Fuck yes! I didn’t say out loud and hoped I kept off my face. I liked Mr. Bartholomew, he always had funny-bad dad jokes when he volunteered at the ticket stand for games instead of just being the blanket shithead Mrs. Kime’s husband had been and or was still. I would have felt bad if strange astronomical events occurred to get her to sleep with me, Mr. Kime? Nope. It would have delighted me knowing I’d fucked his wife.