Teacher's Pet

Take my ex, Tim, for example. Now it wasn't as if Tim had had power, status, or fame on his side, but he sure wished he did. What he did have going for him was a really great set of genes, and he had used his good looks to charm the pants off…well, God knows how many women.

The whole thing was not only sad, but a little disappointing, not only because I'd been cheated on, but also because it was proof that women, as a whole, were just as shallow as we always accused guys of being. They fell for Tim solely because of his looks. Just like they swooned over Wade Vinson.

And now, I guessed I was feeling a bit guilty about painting Wade with the same brush. It was tough to shake some of the suspicions I had about the type of guy Wade really was, but I couldn't honestly say whether or not it was my gut telling me that or if it was merely the trauma of my old scars. The heart has a way of protecting itself to keep from getting broken again.

I did, however, need to try to be a bit more rational in my jumping to conclusions. Wade had helped me out of the kindness of his heart, seemingly without any expectations of getting anything in return. While I'd felt some tension between us — the good kind — and a little something in the way he looked at me, he certainly hadn't tried to make any moves or suggest spending any time together outside of volleyball practice.

I had to admit, he really had been doing a great job as coach so far. He was focused and professional. It was a hell of a lot more than I could say for our former coach.

I checked the time. Almost noon. I had 15 minutes to get my ass dressed and to Nino's Restaurant where I waitressed part-time. I quickly shimmied into my uniform and said a quick goodbye to Leena, who was chilling and watching Netflix. I imagined she'd be doing just that all day, as she didn't need a part-time job. She got a pretty decent monthly allowance from her parents.

It was only a 10-minute drive from our place. When I arrived, however, I was surprised to find the parking lot empty and the place closed. What was going on here? I got my phone out and called my manager, Phil.

“Hello?” he answered in his annoying, nasal voice.

“Hi Phil, it's Eryn.”

“Uh, yeah? What's up?”

“Um, I arrived for my shift and the place is closed. What’s going on?”

“Oh no, you didn't get my text?”

“Nope. Everything okay?” I asked.

“Last night there was an electrical short in the kitchen. There was a fire and most of the kitchen burned down! The place is gonna be closed for at least a week, maybe more while they clean up and get someone to repair and install new kitchen equipment. I'm real sorry. I could've sworn I'd messaged everyone this morning.”

“Oh, man, okay. Well, at least nobody got hurt in the fire. Let me know when the place is gonna open up again, okay?”

“I will. Absolutely. Have a good weekend, kiddo.”

“Thanks, Phil. Bye.”

I hung up the call and immediately felt my stress headache trying to creep in. Just when I'd thought things were going better, another problem popped up. So I now had the scholarship issue hanging over my head and I was going to be out of work for at least a week, possibly longer. I really needed this job to pay the bills.

I knew that in a situation like this, Leena could cover my half of the rent – her parents were loaded and handed out cash to her like it was nothing – but I really didn't want to do that. I didn't like being in debt to anyone, and I preferred to stand on my own two feet without having to ask others for help.

Still, what choice did I have? It wasn't as if there was anything I could do to make the restaurant reopen any faster.

I sat in my car for a while, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel as I thought about everything. Well, I may as well make use of this free Saturday, I thought – it wasn't exactly as if I got many of these. I took out my phone and called up Leena.

“Hey, Eryn, what's up?”

“Hey, Lee. Guess what. Nino's is closed.”

“What? Why?”

“It seems the kitchen burned down last night. Electrical short or something like that.”

“Oh no! That's crazy!”

“Yeah. Anyway, it means that I don't have to work today.”

“All right.”

“So do you wanna get out of the house, go do something fun? And, obviously, when I say fun, I mean cheap fun, ya know. Outdoorsy stuff. Nothing that's gonna cost me anything because I am temporarily unemployed.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Hmm, well it's a beautiful sunny day. How about we go work on our tans somewhere?”