Page 43 of One More Chapter
“How’s the house situation?” he asks.
“Good. How’s thewifesituation?”
He swallows thickly, but nods.
“Good. Good,” he repeats, as if to maybe convince himself, and rubs the back of his neck.
“Are we going back inside anytime soon?” one of the students asks him, interrupting. “I left my phone in my locker and I ammadbored.”
Juliet and I smirk.
“They’re just finishing up the walk-through. Actually,” he says, lowering his voice as he moves closer to Juliet and me so that the kids don’t hear. “Word is, they caught the kid on camera, so you guys should be back inside any minute now.”
As if on cue, the outside speakers crackle to life, announcing that we can all return to our classrooms. It’s going to be one hell of a day in the office. All the more to keep Anthony and I apart.
By the time we’re back inside, it’s already time for lunch. We all step into the hall to deal with crowd control, and then send out a group text—to keep Claire in the loop, and to tell Lucy to get her butt to Juliet’s classroom as soon as she’s available.
“I’m going to need an explanation on what happened with the fireman,” Juliet says before her lunch is even unpacked. I sigh.
“Same thing that happens with every man who has ever shown interest in me: He’s already taken, and wanted a little side action.”
“Excuse me,what?” Lucy says as she enters the room. “I thought he was a good one!”
“So did I, when he tried to ‘comfort me’ outside my flooded house with a tan line from his wedding band.”
“Are we sure he’s not divorced? Widowed?”
“His last name is on his uniform, so I Facebook stalked him. His wife just posted that they’re pregnant with their third child,” I deadpan.
My friends shake their heads, and as we spread out our lunches, Lucy says, “That’s… this is why you write, isn’t it?”
“Hmm?”
Her brows furrow in deep concentration, staring into space before her eyes meet mine.
“PJ Layne—well,you—dedicate all of your books to men who have wronged you. It’s how you process and heal.”
I’d say I never really thought about it that way, but she not only hit the nail on the head, she drilled right through the wall on this one. If I can’t have the happily ever after, at least I can write the one I never got to see.
I slump in my chair like a cooked spaghetti noodle.
“I knew having a counselor for a friend would land me in the hot water of my secrets one day,” I grumble.
“Hey, I never said it was a bad thing. Look what it’s brought you.”
“Can I… Can I ask about them?” Juliet asks. “I know they just make cameos in your books most of the time, but like, what exactlydoesyour dating history look like?”
“Where do you want me to start?” I chuckle humorlessly, ticking them off on my fingers as I go. “I’ve been cheated on, I’ve been ‘the other woman,’ I’ve been led on, gaslit, and one time on a dating app, a guy said he had been stalking me, intentionally narrowed his search to match with me, and asked if I would ‘fulfill his fantasy of having detention sex with a real teacher.’”
“No.”
“He didnot!”
“He sure did,” I say, blinking through my tight lipped smile, then shaking that thought from my head. “Ugh. I almost forgot about that one.”
“Did you tell her about the drug lord?” Lucy—who has heard my entire dating history forwards and backwards by now—smiles.
I tell Juliet the story of how I went on what looked to be a promising blind date, only to find out that the guy had pending charges of drug possession, and said he’d pay me if I gave him an alibi in court.