“It’s—that’s—huh.” He had a point. There was absolutely nothing between Jeremy Olsen and me, and there never would be. And if I had a crush on him (if it could even be called that), it was nothing more than professional hero worship. Jeremy was brilliant. He was kind and funny and sweet, and sometimes when he laughed, he tilted his head back, flashing his teeth and—
“Baby doll?”
“You’re right,” I said. “It’s just… it was surprising, I guess. Walking in here and finding out that he’s my boss.”
“Of course,” Sandy said easily. “That would be a shock for anyone. I thought one of the Super Gays was the director?”
“He was. He had to resign to go do Super Gay stuff.”
“Well, then, there you go. Because even if you were keeping things from me about how you felt about a certain nerdy and hot professor, that would be a moot point now, because he’s in a position of power over you. The dynamics are all off.”
Yeah, and that was absolutely part of the problem, but I kept that thought to myself. It seemed safer that way. “Right.”
“And since he is your boss,” Sandy continued, “and you worked so hard to get the job, and since this is technically part of your education, you wouldn’t want to do anything to screw that up.”
“Exactly.”
“Good. Then I don’t see what the problem is.”
I was relieved. “That makes sense. Thank you, Sandy.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “Anything for you.” But then, “Of course….”
I dreaded hearing what he would say next, but I couldn’t help myself. “Of course…?”
“Hypothetically, if you were lying and you did have feelings for a certain nerdy and hot professor—excuse me, nerdy and hot boss—then you would need to do your best to keep that under wraps until either one or both of you has moved on from your job. And then and only then would you be able to suck on his cock until he came on your face.”
I yelped.
He ignored me. “But since that doesn’t seem to be the case, you have nothing to worry about.”
“Yeah,” I said weakly. “Nothing to worry about.”
He sounded amused. I hated him. “Good. Well. I’m glad we’ve had this talk. If you need anything, you call me. I’ll always be here to listen. You know that, right? For anything. All of us will.”
“I know,” I said. And I did. They might aggravate me, and every now and then we might find ourselves in ridiculous positions that tended to defy known logic, but I couldn’t ask for better friends. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve them. “Thanks, Sandy.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “And I promise to keep this between us.”
“And by that you mean you’re going to tell Darren. And Matty and Larry. And Nana. And Charlie.”
“You know me so well. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go find a hose so I can spray these two mutts in heat. Paul, you are going to hurt yourself! Put Vince down. Bad Paul! Bad!”
I thought I heard Paul snap back through a mouthful of something before the phone disconnected.
It was then I realized I was still in a closet that smelled like feet with a shit-ton of toilet paper.
“My life,” I sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “Jesus Christ.”
I’d wasted enough time in here. Any longer and Marina (or heaven forbid, Jeremy) would come looking for me, and I didn’t want them to think I was slacking on my first day. I took a calming breath as I put my phone back in my pocket. I opened the door and—
Two teenagers were standing in the hall, staring at me.
Unfortunately, I recoiled, forgetting that when one is surprised by teenagers, one can’t show terror. They would sense it and use it to either attack or tear me down emotionally with slang that sounded like text-speak.
It took me a moment to recognize them and remember their names. Diego and… Kai? They’d been the ones sitting out in the front when I’d arrived. Up close, they looked so fucking young. And even though it hadn’t been that long since I’d been their age, it felt like a lifetime.
Diego was short, almost more so than Tyson. He was rail-thin and had the beginnings of a mustache growing on his upper lip. He wore cutoff jean shorts and a loose black tank top with a smiley face on it. He had a wallet chain that looped around to his back pocket, and I wondered if I’d ever been cool enough in my life to pull off a wallet chain. I thought not.