Chapter 13 Piper
PIPER
Fuck off. What gives these elementary teachers the audacity to flirt so openly in the school hallways? Or to flirt, period?
I’m still livid, unable to get the vision out of my head from earlier when I caught Ellie’s teacher laying it on thick with Caleb. I saw them through the window.
Caleb walked away. And she thought she had the right to check out his ass?
These past two weeks of silence have been rough, but it’s what I’ve needed in order to get my act together. Clearly, I’m still in the process of doing that…
We’ve been keeping our distance, but actions have consequences, and this consequence is a big one.
I can barely contain myself now when we’re in the same room.
My heart fluctuates. My stomach flips every time he breathes.
I remember how close we were to losing control, and feel an urge between my legs that requires immediate attention.
I’m getting withdrawals, not just physically, but emotionally. My body craves his arms. I get horrible chest pains every time I make breakfast in the morning and see that he’s already taken off to work. He leaves for work early to make sure he doesn’t catch me.
All of this because I decided to boil some sunflower oil.
“I keep forgetting how to work out this equation.” Ellie’s voice brings me back to the kitchen table, where I’m helping the kids out with their math homework.
Caleb still isn’t back and it’s been an hour. My mind wanders many different avenues as I work out where he could be. Caught up at a job? Under another woman, getting some much-needed release?
The distance is tormenting me. I’m worried that Caleb is back on the dating app, searching for a hookup.
“Here.” I take the question booklet from Ellie and explain the multiplication method to them again, this time in more depth.
“I think I get it,” Sonny says, shuffling his booklet over to Ellie to help her understand.
My eyes are on that door again. I check my phone. 7:30 PM. We already ate.
The door flies open as if I’ve manifested the man into existence. Ellie looks up at her father, smiles, and continues listening to Sonny.
Caleb is topless. In nothing but salopettes. The suspenders clip over his giant torso and squeeze together his muscles, making them look even more compact.
What the fuck is he playing at?
“I got caught up at work. Apologies.” He’s breathless, and a thick layer of sweat lines his chest, like someone’s oiled him up in lube.
It was hot this afternoon—I understand why he has his shirt off. But it’s not really helping matters.
Our eyes lock, and he immediately slings the shirt back on.
For the kids—before they notice that something weird is going on between us—I ask him, “How was your day?”
“Busy, surprisingly.” He answers with a neutral tone, the same tone he puts on when he’s speaking to someone he doesn’t know well. “I saved a man from a stream. Cut someone out of a car.”
My eyebrows rise on their own accord.
“My friends all think you’re cool.” Ellie looks up from her homework with a smile.
“So do mine,” Sonny adds. “I want to be a firefighter someday.”
“Someday, yes.” Caleb forces a chuckle—something that sounds like it takes great effort. He opens up the oven and finds the dinner I left him. “Hart, you didn’t have to—”
“I know.” I try not to sound too spiteful in front of the kids. “But there were leftovers.”
He sits down at the table, knife and fork in hand, and catches my eyes while the kids are busy with homework. “How did you get these two monkeys to be so quiet?” he whispers.
“Magic.” I stand from the chair. He doesn’t get to make small talk with me when he’s making me feel like crap. When, for all I know, he could be lying about work running late. “I’m gonna take a shower.”
Caleb glances up at me from the table, his eyes wide, like he’s picturing me naked and dripping wet. I feel his eyes on me as I retreat upstairs.
The distance thing is getting kinda repetitive.
But I’m only living here temporarily. Soon, it won’t feel as hard to keep distance. It’ll come naturally.
I disappear into my room. I wasn’t lying about the shower, but I need to take care of something else first. My pussy is burning once again with need from the way Caleb scanned his eyes up and down my body.
I go to close the drapes…
And that’s when I feel like something is incredibly off.
The car parked on the roadside shouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary. But it is. I don’t recognize the model or the registration plate. When you’ve lived in a town as small as this your entire life, you learn to memorize cars and who they belong to.
And I have never seen this one before.
It’s probably just somebody traveling through, I remind myself. A lot of people take rest breaks here on their road trips up to Canada.
I close the drapes, but something still feels off. The desire to finger-fuck myself is gone.
Why does it feel like I’m being watched?