ME: I’d like to see you try.
Walking the hallway of Stanton High after two weeks of being away felt very much like no time had passed at all. The hallway still smelled faintly like B.O. and cafeteria food. The seniors still hung together down their hallway. The teachers’ lounge already had crumbs littered along the countertops. Somebody brought muffins, I noticed. I didn’t stop to clean anything, however, and kept walking toward my room. On my way, I passed Harvey’s empty classroom, and I placed the thesis on his desk, happy to be rid of it.
There was a lightness in my step I hadn’t remembered being there before. I had bought myself a new outfit with a gift card my mom had given me for Christmas. When I had gone shopping, for some reason, the typical grays and creams and blacks didn’t call out to me as usual. Instead, it was a green floral blouse that matched my eyes that caught my attention. The material was both loose and fitting in all the right places and paired nicely with my gray pencil skirt that made my butt look like a felony （Millie’s words, not mine）。
Eventually, I had responded to Millie’s texts. I didn’t want her to think something had happened to me, though I refused, point blank, to give her any details about Miles. I told her all about the lovely cabin her “friend” had recommended, and I thanked her for her help. She had asked me out for coffee over the weekend, but I declined, telling her I had an appointment. She was not pleased by my answers, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid her today. I unlocked my classroom and strode inside, turning on the lights and my computer. Class started in about twenty minutes, and Miles still wasn’t here yet.
“You’re looking pretty today.”
My body tensed. I looked up from my desk and spotted Millie leaning in my classroom doorway, raking me in with a very suspicious undertone in her mannerisms.
“Um, thanks?” I said.
Her eyes narrowed as she strode a few paces closer. “How was your…appointment?”
I swallowed, not meeting her eyes. “It was…fine.”
“What was it for? Gyno?”
“No.”
She took a few steps closer. Slowly. Like a cat sneaking up behind a bird just minding her own business. “Ortho?”
I bit my lip, really concentrating on the blank screen of my computer. “Nope.”
She leaned forward, both hands on my desk, her face next to mine, drama teacher until the end, and said, “Cardiovascular?”
She said the words with so much heat behind them I couldn’t help the grin that broke free.
“I KNEW it! I knew you wouldn’t last a week with Miles Taylor at a Christmas lodge. Are you two in love yet? ”
“Shhhhh!” I stood up and flung myself toward her, attempting to cover her mouth with my hand. She brushed me away.
“Spill everything right now, and I’ll forgive you for ignoring me this whole week.”
“You deserved every bit of that!”
She gave me a knowing look. “Oh, did I? Or will you be thanking me at the wedding?”
“Stop talking so loud,” I insisted, cocking my head to see if I could hear Miles arriving. Still nothing yet.
“What happened?”
My mind raced for a CliffsNotes version of what I could tell her before students began arriving to the classroom. The whole thing sounded like something out of a dream. If I told her we were fake dating, she’d want to know why. If I told her it was because I used his name to get me out of hanging out with Glenn, she’d want to know why. So, I settled on the basic truth.
“We made an arrangement to put down our weapons for the week, and it was a nice break.”
She put her hands on her hips and leaned closer, sniffing out the lie. “You two kissed, didn’t you?”
It was apparent I would never do well in a drama class. I tried to keep my face passive, stoic, but at the word kiss, moisture filled my mouth, and my mind raced back to a cozy cuddle, watching Home Alone, and keeping warm inside a covered bridge, and the feel of his arms wrapped around me. The feeling I had craved all week. A smile came unbidden just then, and Millie’s eyes lit up, clapping to herself.
“I knew it.”
And then I told her everything and even graciously accepted her rubbing the whole thing in my face.
Slowly the kids in my class began to trickle in and Millie floated on cloud nine back to her own classroom. My morning classes passed by in a blur. Miles had been teaching next door all morning long, and I still hadn’t seen him. He hadn’t made a peep. Or made any sort of effort to see me. My girl brain whirled at the possible explanations. He realized during our time apart that he didn’t like me. The space gave him the clarity he needed. Now, he was avoiding me, and our life at Stanton High was about to get awkward. I would have to move again. All of this was running through my head as I attempted to introduce The Taming of the Shrew to my classes. I was a sweaty nervous wreck of a mess, and to top it all off, I had worn a stupid new shirt full of colors and flowers, and he wouldn’t even care.
The bell rang and I stood, talking in a blurred daze to my students as I shooed them out for lunch. I contemplated sneaking out my window and eating lunch in my car. Perhaps we could exist this way and never have cause to see each other. There were ways to make it work.
“You look pretty, Miss Wilson.”
I looked down at the face of Erica Sanders, one of my favorite students. I blinked, taking her in as if seeing her here for the first time, her pink hair and all. Had she been in my class this entire hour? My hands and heart felt so jittery I couldn’t name a single student that I had just spent an hour looking at. I forced myself to pull it together and held the door open for her to exit.
“Thank you, Erica. I apprecia—”
Across the hallway, another door opened. A student walked out with Miles trailing behind, stopping just inside his doorway. His dark gaze was on me, and I watched his eyes trail down my body and back up at the same time he said something to his student.
Smoldering air crackled between us as the loud bustle of the students in the hallway dulled to white noise. My heart raced underneath my skin, pounding into my ears as I locked onto his gaze. Ever so slowly, his face began to crack. A tiny smile at first, at the corner of his mouth, growing wider by the second. I tried my best to hold mine back, but my strength didn’t last for long. Or at all. I didn’t want it to. I was done holding back. This whole week, I had been terrified of this moment, of coming back and discovering that nothing had really changed. But now I knew. Our time here would be different because we were now different.
Ever so slowly, Miles closed his door behind him and began walking toward me. I straightened and took a few steps back, suddenly feeling nervous. His grin grew even wider as he stepped through my threshold. I drank him in. He had traded his flannel shirt for a polo and khakis. He was missing his gray beanie, but otherwise, I found him and the twinkle in his eyes completely unchanged.
He closed my door with a thud. Like usual, my room felt smaller with him inside, but that could have been the way he kept stepping closer to me until he had me nearly trapped against the wall. He wasn’t touching me, but he was close enough that I could feel the heat.
“Hey there, Spanks.” His voice was soft and gravelly and brought out every last goosebump on my skin. “Nice shirt.” And then my emotions completely overwhelmed me. I burst out laughing and immediately covered my face with my hands. This wasn’t real. No way could he be real.