Chapter 24 Boundaries
Boundaries
Ispent the better part of Monday night and Tuesday morning mentally kicking myself for my impulsive display of gratitude.
It had seemed like such a good idea at the time.
He seemed to enjoy having my mouth on him as much as I had enjoyed doing it, even after Alan had interrupted.
As far as I was concerned, the danger of being caught had just made the whole thing even more fun.
But then, he ran away. AGAIN.
The evidence was irrefutable. I gave him a—pretty spectacular, if I do say so—blow job. Then, he zipped up his pants, grabbed his backpack, and bolted. He left me standing in an empty classroom melting into a puddle of liquid mortification.
What the hell was I thinking?
That was an easy question to answer—I wasn’t thinking. I liked Jack. I wanted to be with him. But he, very clearly, did not want to be with me.
Homecoming weekend had been a fluke. That was the only explanation that made sense.
That was the only time we’d kissed, etcetera, when he hadn’t immediately run away from me like I was harboring the black plague.
And even then, he still had his rules. One night.
Sure, we had extended that to twenty-four hours, but only after I’d pushed.
I had no idea what made me think he would be okay with more. He admitted he liked me, but that didn’t mean he wanted any kind of relationship.
I felt so stupid. I was just as irresponsible and reckless as my dad thought I was. Jack had been very clear with his boundaries, and I had totally ignored them. That stopped now. I was going to give him the space he asked for. The space he deserved. It was the right thing to do.
My Fun Chem lecture passed in the blink of an eye as I waited for the moment that I feared the most—the moment that the bell would ring and Jack would come in for his own class.
My cheeks heated and my mouth dried out the closer the clock ticked to the end of the hour, to the time when he would come in and I would have to face him again.
Luckily, he hadn’t been in the cafeteria this morning when I swung by for a bagel and coffee.
I planned on trying to avoid him between classes too, but there were too many variables to control.
He could be early. A student could ask me a question and hold me behind. My success was always mixed.
But I could damn well try.
The students were packed up and ready to go five minutes before the end of class. Even still, I nearly jumped out of my skin when the bell rang. I scooped up my bag and coat with lightning speed and started for the door behind the crush of teens.
I was close, nearly to the door, but before I could slip from the room, the atmosphere changed. Jack was here.
I froze. Maybe his vision was based on movement. Maybe if I held really still he wouldn’t see me.
His eyes immediately found mine, and he started coming my way. Fuck, fuck, fuck. His expression was unreadable. He wasn’t angry, but he didn’t seem happy to see me either. Just infuriatingly neutral.
My heart jackhammered in my chest even as I held my breath. He wouldn’t make a scene in front of the students. Would he?
A smirk spread over his face as he closed the distance between us. When I heard him say “Good morning” like he did almost every day, I replied in kind by reflex. But I was taken aback when he added, “You look beautiful today,” in a low tone that only I could hear.
“What?” I spluttered, my eyes practically bugging out of my head.
“I brought you a coffee.”
As if controlled by strings, my hand reached out and took the to-go cup that I hadn’t noticed he was holding.
“Thanks,” I said lamely. “I’ll see you later.”
“Enjoy your free period,” he said as I scurried from the room clutching the coffee.
I didn’t stop walking until I was outside. I sucked in a deep breath to the count of four, relishing the bite of the chilly fall air. I replayed the brief and bizarre conversation in my head, and I couldn’t make sense of it. So, I did the only thing that did make sense to me.
Silvia picked up on the first ring. “What happened?” she demanded.
“I don’t know,” I replied, shaking my head.
“What do you mean ‘you don’t know?’”
“I don’t know,” I said again. I sat heavily on a bench, dropping my bag next to me.
“You didn’t accidentally go down on the abs-hole again, right?”
“No!” I hissed, sitting bolt upright and looking around as if someone might have overheard. The quad was deserted. “And don’t call him an abs-hole.”
“Why not?”
“He… I don’t get it. I was trying to avoid him after yesterday, but he cornered me after class and gave me coffee and told me I was beautiful.”
“How is the coffee?”
I had forgotten the cup was still in my hand. I took a tentative sip and hummed in caffeinated bliss. It had caramel syrup and a splash of milk, exactly how I liked it.
“It’s perfect,” I said. “That has to mean something, right?”
“Not necessarily,” Silvia said, cautiously. “Mel, you know I love you to death, so please believe me when I say that you can’t read too much into this. The guy is flaky. You said it yourself—he keeps leaving and pushing you away. If he wanted something, he’d stay. It’s that simple.”
I rolled my neck, trying to stretch out the tension. “You’re right. I know you’re right,” I said. “There’s just… something. I feel it. He’s so good. You should see him with the students. He’s so good with them—”
“Stop. Just stop, babes. He’s blinded you with science. The semester is halfway over. Finals are in… how many weeks?”
“Seven,” I said.
“Seven. Exactly. That’s not much time. You need to focus on landing that job. That’s the most important thing, right? It’s what you wanted?”
The reminder felt like a sharp slap in the face.
A bucket of ice water dumped over my head.
She was completely right. I wanted this job more than anything.
I wanted to prove to my parents that I could get by—no, not just get by, flourish—on my own.
I didn’t need a silver spoon or a division at Burke Ltd. And I didn’t need a man, even this man.
“You’re right,” I sighed. “I need to keep my eyes on the prize. It’s crunch time.”
“Attagirl! Alright, I have to run to a client meeting. I love you! Text me later!”
The line went dead before I could say goodbye.
I checked the time on my phone before slipping it into my bag.
Second period would end in twenty minutes.
It wasn’t really enough time for me to do anything.
I took another sip of coffee. It had cooled off since I’d been sitting here, but it still tasted like a barista made it.
Jack said he had worked a lot of jobs. Maybe one of them was in a coffee shop.
As much as I hated it, I knew Silvia was right.
Even if Jack wasn’t a walking beacon of mixed signals, he was still my professional rival.
I couldn’t let myself forget that. According to Richmond, I still stood a chance at winning this job.
I needed to focus. I needed to succeed. The idea of facing my parents if I was the one let go was unthinkable.
They wouldn’t be disappointed in me. No, they would be smug.
I took a long pull on the coffee, wishing it were something stronger.
My cup was empty by the time the bell for the end of second period sounded.
I stood, smoothing my skirt and mentally pulling up my big-girl panties, and headed back into the building to teach my next class.
My anxiety about what to do with Jack was going to have to take a back seat for the next hour, at least.
My AP class was going to be electroplating pennies today—one of my personal favorite experiments from when I was in school.
I still had a couple of old pennies coated in a thin layer of silver or gold from a decade ago, though they had tarnished over the years.
I needed to give the lesson my full attention since the students would be handling caustic reagents.
I felt marginally better as I walked back to our shared classroom. This time when he offered me a small smile and asked how my coffee was, I was able to respond like a human rather than a robot with a short circuit.
“It was excellent,” I replied, offering him a sunny smile. “Thank you, again.”
He nodded, and if I didn’t know any better, I would say his smile turned shy. And was that… Yes. There was a faint blush staining his cheeks and the tips of his ears. But I didn’t have time to obsess over that little detail because Headmaster Richmond walked through the door.
“Good morning, Headmaster,” I said, slapping on a too-bright smile and praying I sounded normal. I didn’t even know what was going on with Jack. The last thing I needed was Richmond suspecting fraternization.
“Good morning,” Richmond replied. He patted Jack on the shoulder and nodded to me. “Mr. Cooper. Ms. Burke.”
My tongue was huge and dry in my mouth. “To what do we owe the pleasure?” I asked.
“I’m here to observe the lesson,” he replied, “as part of my evaluation.”
I barely heard Jack say “good luck” before he turned and left the room.
I spared him the briefest glance before turning my full attention to the Headmaster.
“Alright then,” I said. “Make yourself comfortable.”
Richmond followed me to the front of the room, and while I was stowing my bag in a drawer, he took a seat behind the desk. In the chair. I turned quickly to face the room. I didn’t care if the students could see me blushing, but Richmond sure as hell wasn’t going to.
The bell rang, and I took a deep breath through my nose to the count of four.
“Good morning,” I said in a loud, clear voice. “We have an exciting lesson today. Building on our previous discussions about oxidation-reduction reactions, you will be performing an experiment to illustrate these principles.”
I plucked a dry-erase marker from the tray and started to write on the whiteboard. I could feel Richmond’s eyes on me like a spider crawling up my spine.
“For the next hour, we will be electroplating pennies using a galvanic cell,” I announced.
“This is a two-step experiment. First, we will be using a redox reaction to coat copper pennies in zinc.” I wrote the equation on the board, careful to balance the equation.
“And then we will be applying heat—which will do what?”
I turned, and to my relief, there were several hands in the air. “Jessica.”
“The zinc will react with the copper?”
“Exactly,” I said and nodded in encouragement. “And who can tell me what happens when zinc reacts with copper?”
There were more hands, but a boy called out the answer before I could call on anyone. “It makes brass.”
“Correct! Brass is a copper-zinc alloy.”
A little wave of relief rolled through me. The class was engaged and active. I didn’t think it was only because we had a visitor, though that was likely a factor. They had gotten a lot more comfortable with me since I had begun using Jack’s lesson plans. I hoped Richmond could see it.
“Everyone should have a copy of the procedure,” I continued, “so let’s go ahead and get started. But first things first.” I paused and held up a finger.
“Safety first,” the class droned in chorus as I waved my finger like a conductor’s baton.
“Everyone needs goggles and lab coats today, plus nitrile gloves. You may also collect two 250mL beakers per station and set up your hot plates. I’ll dole out the reagents.”
The students began to move in a calm, unhurried manner, collecting their PPE and supplies. I also donned a white coat, goggles, and gloves before collecting large bottles of zinc sulfate and deionized water.
For the rest of the period, the class bustled with productive energy. Each bench had its own hot plate and scale, and I moved from station to station asking questions to assess understanding and checking progress of the experiments.
At every station, pennies first turned silver in the zinc sulfate-sodium hydroxide solution, and then gold when placed directly on the hot plates. The little gasps of surprise and delight were music to my ears. My heart was so full that it was in danger of bursting.
The cherry on top of this little teaching sundae was Richmond’s stamp of approval. He pulled me aside to speak toward the end of the period.
“I’m quite pleased with what I’ve seen, Ms. Burke. You seem to have this well in hand.”
I beamed. “Thank you so much, sir.”
He excused himself before the end of class, leaving me to bask in my triumph. I’d gotten off to a rocky start at Newbury, despite my good intentions and boundless enthusiasm. Now, under Jack’s mentoring, I was finally realizing the dream that I had been carrying with me for months.
I was here. This was real.
I was doing it. I was succeeding.
I was warm all over and tingling from my fingertips down to my toes.
The remainder of the period passed in the blink of an eye, and I was surprised when the bell rang signaling the end of class.
A couple of students helped me collect the glassware and deposit it in the utility sink in the equipment closet.
But then, I shooed them away to get their lunches.
I was free for the rest of the day and had plenty of time to rinse the beakers and flasks and load them into the dishwasher.
It didn’t feel like a chore. It felt like a privilege.