Page 18 of My Turn

When I forgot my phone at home, I thought it would be fine. I was just popping over to the store to get a bottle of vodka. Yeah, that was the mood I found myself in after I took a nap. Wine wouldn’t cut it and I’d get too emotional in the state I was in. Vodka, on the other hand, would either make me forget about my woes or I’d have a burst of anger, in which case I’d probably get through it and move into apathy at a certain point.

I figured Jayce would be blowing me up. We were supposed to go out tonight. He hadn’t been forthcoming about the specifics and right now, I just didn’t care that much. I needed some time to process and I didn’t think that was asking for too much.

What I hadn’t anticipated was running into one of the teachers, Mr. Everhart. We hadn’t interacted very much outside of when our classes were seated next to each other at a few assemblies and the occasional greeting in the hallway. I didn’t know if he’d seen the redness of my eyes or simply recognized me and struck up a conversation, but I found myself glad he did. He invited me to an adult Halloween party, as in above college age, which was a relief. It was in a nice area, in a house I couldnever afford, and those that were already here seemed nice so far.

I brought my beer to my lips as I took a moment to study him. He was young, probably barely older than me, and I had to admit that he was attractive. His chestnut brown hair was long enough to be styled in a nice quiff and he had just the right amount of stubble to draw my attention to his jaw. It was a pretty nice jaw too. At first, I thought that his eyes were brown, but in the light of the living room, I could see that they were a very dark green. It was an interesting color that I hadn’t seen before.

“What’s the verdict?” he asked.

“What?”

He smiled, then ran his tongue across the bottom of his top teeth. “You were sizing me up. Do you think you could take me in a duel?”

I laughed and covered my mouth. “No, I would lose that immediately. I have no idea how to fight.”

“You can have the first swing. How about that?

“I think that’s gonna land me in trouble with HR, Mike.”

“Oh, ye of little faith. You think I’d turn you in?”

“Maybe. You probably want my classroom. It’s bigger than yours.”

He put his hands up in surrender. “You got me. All of the teachers are envious and we throw darts at a picture of you in the break room.”

Shaking my head, I drained the last of the beer. He immediately took the bottle and grabbed me another one.

“So, are you going to tell me what made you look so despondent while you were browsing the vodka?”

“I was fine.”

He gave me a pointed look. “I teach English, you know. I can recognize an air of melancholy when I see it.”

“Remind me not to hang out with you again.”

“That would work against my interests.”

“Oh, you have interests?” I teased.

“Well, that depends. Are you open to someone having an interest?”

Either this man was pretty smooth or I’d been out of the game for too long. Probably both. As far as dating prospects went, he had a lot going for him. Young, attractive, funny, and he was a teacher, so I liked to think that was a point in his favor for character, but they weren’t all good people.

“I’m notnotopen to it,” I replied.

“In that case, maybe I can interest you in dinner tomorrow night.”

“Oh, he’s forward. That’s refreshing.”

“And she’s good at changing the subject.”

I bit my lip on a smile. “Okay, how about this? We hang out here where it’s much harder for you to murder me.”

“Okay,” he laughed, gesturing for me to go on.

“And if neither of us are sick of the other by the time we leave, we can have dinner.”

He pretended to consider it for a solid ten seconds. “Challenge accepted. Although, that means I’m going to show you all of the worst parts of me throughout the night so that you can make an informed judgment.”