Mia
SOUTH brONX CLASSICAL
Monday Morning
Well. Here we were.
I left my staffroom on Friday afternoon with the assumption that I’d get a massage, visit the bookstore over the weekend, and wound up tripping all over Theo’s dick instead.
Well done, universe. Truly, I couldn’t have predicted that on my boozy bingo cards.
I also couldn’t have predicted the thoughts and feelings circling my brain since Theo left my doorstep last night.
Kira had a panic attack. Kira wasn’t okay.
And neither was I, but for very different reasons.
The time Theo and I spent together didn’t feel like we were just getting sexual tension out of our systems. It felt like more than that.
And I felt hot and prickly and frustrated because, despite what Theo told me, I didn’t know what that more was. I couldn’t sleep last night, and as the alcohol in my system dissolved into something achy and sober, I kept replaying all those easy moments together.
Him cooking for me, making my bed, cleaning my kitchen.
Him dancing with me. Him making me laugh with a goofy smile and a dirty joke.
Him showing me pictures of his daughter on the subway.
Him by my side at the bookstore. Him throwing back shot after shot just because I wanted him to.
Him sobering the minute he heard Kira needed him.
It was the worst night of my life. But only because I’d just had the best weekend of my life.
And maybe Theo was right about my standards, and it only felt so good because they were too low. But that wasn’t it. It felt like someone strong and steady had just given me an irreplaceable gift, and I didn’t know what to do with it.
As I made my way through the morning, I had this insane urge to bring him up in every conversation.
I wanted to run to the staffroom, take Lilly’s hands in mine, and just spill all of it out–my feelings, my thoughts–because while I was away from him, it felt like this deep, heady emotion had nowhere else to go.
It was just building inside me, boiling and roiling, and there were no two ways about it. I was about to blow.
I had to tell Lilly.
“Wait, wait, slow down.” Lilly held her copy of Arlena Brandowe’s latest book as I nervously fidgeted with my fingers. “I can’t believe you got this signed for me.” She pressed it to her chest and made an adorably happy noise. “Thank you.”
I let out a nervous laugh. “Just remember how much you love me right now, okay?”
Her smile slipped. “Oooohhhhkaaaay. What’s going on?” She studied me then, like she was seeing me for the first time today. “You look a little tired.”
“You have no idea how tired I am.”
She frowned. “Why? What happened?”
I smoothed my hands down my pencil skirt and took a breath, steadying myself. Lilly knew what that meant.
“Oh. This is big, isn’t it?”
“It’s… largish,” I admitted.
“How big exactly?”
“Big enough to fill our doorframe and build a few wooden sets for Gem.”
Her green eyes cleared. “You mean Kira’s father.”
I nodded. “Yep. Him.”
She set the book on the table behind her and folded her arms. “What’d he do now?”
I locked eyes with her as the word slipped out. “Me.”
“You?” She scrunched her nose. Then her lips dropped into a shocked ‘o’. “He did you?”
I shushed her and quickly shut the staffroom door. “Yes. He did… me.”
“What does that even mean?” she asked, putting a hand to her stomach. Oh, cripes. The last thing I wanted to do was give her a panic attack.
“I… it just happened, and I–”
She surprised me by bursting out with, “You said you’d rather get a bull’s ass tattooed on your forehead than sleep with him.”
I winced. “Please don’t hold me to that. I’d have to cut bangs, and you know they don’t look good on me.”
I was being too casual about this. These jokes were meant to lighten the mood, but they didn’t. They only turned her from panicked to angry.
“Mia, tell me what happened.”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“Start with the meeting room,” she demanded. “Did you lie to me?”
I swallowed, then nodded, watching her expression flit between disbelief and hurt before she settled back into anger.
“What did he do to you in there?”
“He kissed me.”
She scoffed. “After you said you couldn’t stand him–”
“It was true. Back then,” I blurted. “But we kept running into each other, and things just kept happening.”
“And it was the universe,” Lilly finished sarcastically. “You’re stuck in an enemies-to-lovers plot with your student’s father.”
I threw my hands out. “I don’t know how else to explain it. I kept running into him, and then he wasn’t just my student’s father anymore. He treated my spine, then wanted to thank me for standing up for Kira–”
“He treated your spine?” she interrupted.
I nodded. “He bought Gary’s practice.”
She put a hand over her mouth, muffling the outraged squeak that followed. “When you hurt your back, he treated you?”
“Yes. This is what I mean. What are the odds of that happening in a city as big as New York?”
“So that means you had to sleep with him?”
I shook my head. “It wasn’t like that. Not at first. Once we stopped arguing, I started to, you know.”
“Like him?” Lilly finished.
“Yes. And when he kissed me, he said no one would find out–”
“Then you lied to me.”
“Only because I really thought it was a one-time thing, and I didn’t want to put you in a bad situation with Rutton.”
She started pacing, pushing a hand through her bangs as she went.
“What happened after the kiss?”
“We agreed to avoid each other. Someone else treated me at his practice, and he stayed away from me at school.”
“Then how did you–?”
“On Saturday.”
“When you went in for a massage?”
“My usual therapist left, so Theo had to step in.”
I lifted my shoulders, helpless as Lilly turned to me with shock.
“He gave you a happy ending?”
I gave her a wry smile, because as serious as this was, I had to say it. “The happiest of endings.”
She was beside herself. “Did you consent?”
“I made the first move, actually.”
“Mia!”
“I know. I’m not usually like this. But the man is just…” I sighed. “I couldn’t get him out of my system, and I thought if I got him into my system, maybe that would change? I didn’t really plan to tell anyone about it.”
She glared at me. “Then why are you telling me this now?”
“Because I love you.”
Her face hardened.
I wasn’t above pleading. “Lilly, please. I do. You know I do.”
“I know,” she admitted. “But you lied to me.”
I put my hands on her shoulders, testing the waters. And thank god, she let me touch her.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to disappoint you or hurt your career. I knew you could lose this promotion because of me.”
“Then why did you do it?” She heard how her question sounded and smoothed her features before trying again. “I mean, you know me. You know I would’ve wanted to be there for you. We could’ve talked this out before it went anywhere.”
“I know. But I didn’t really know it was this big thing until after I’d already… done it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, it felt like… like more. And I had to tell you about it because I needed you to know.”
She softened then, under my hands and under my gaze, and I watched as she truly understood what I was trying to say.
“You needed me to know because you’re in love with him.”
The door to the staffroom flew open then, slamming against the wall. We turned to find Principal Rutton standing in the doorway.
With a flair so dramatic that it would have made Gem proud, Rutton barked, “Walker. Fares. Get in my office. Now.”