Teacher's Pet

He frowned. “I’m not sure I like the sound of this. I . . . I have something to tell you, too. But . . . you go first.”

“Tessa’s staying with me for the time being,” I said mildly, taking a sip of my beer. I watched his face to gauge his reaction, which was surprisingly not as severe as I expected it to be. In fact, he seemed almost distracted.

“Staying with you? Like, living at your place?”

“Yes, like, living at my place.”

“Oh.” He took a sip of his own beer and looked down at the table, then up, over my shoulder at something, then back down as he took another sip of beer.

“Is that all you have to say about it?” I asked, unable to keep the surprise out of my voice.

“Um . . .” His fingers drummed the top of the table. “Well. Of course I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Leo. What exactly led you to doing that?”

“It’s just the way things worked out. Her parents cut her off.”

“Because they found out about you guys?”

“Yeah. In a rather unfortunate way.”

He didn’t ask me what that unfortunate way was, so I didn’t elaborate. “Is everything okay?” I asked. “You’re being weirdly neutral about this.”

“I’m not neutral about this,” he said. “I think it’s an awful idea, and I have from the beginning. And hearing that her parents found out and cut her off is just a further example of why it’s a bad idea. But . . . there is something that I wanted to talk to you about. Not that I’m trying to change the subject or anything.”

“Oh yeah,” I said, my interest piqued. “What’s up?”

He rubbed a hand across his face. “It’s . . . well . . . I’m not really sure how to say it.”

“You could try just saying it.”

“I’m not even really sure how it happened.”

“Okayyy . . .”

“I . . . Colette and I slept together.”

He had a pained expression on his face, like he thought I was going to jump out of my chair and sock him. Which was actually the last thing I wanted to do; this was great news! I reached over and clapped him on the shoulder.

“No shit?” I said. “Good for you guys!”

He stared at me. “You’re not pissed? It was an accident. Neither of us were planning on doing that, it just sort of . . . happened.”

“Well, I hope it was good. I hope it’s something that the two of you plan to do again.”

“You do?”

“I wasn’t joking when I said that I thought you guys would make a great couple! I really wasn’t. If anything, I am very happy for the both of you!”

Jack looked visibly relieved, though still a bit flummoxed. “You’re really cool with all this?” he asked.

“Hell yes I am! And frankly, I’m a little surprised that you thought I’d be pissed. Have I not encouraged you to get together with her?”

“Well . . . yeah, I know, but . . . sometimes people say that they’re okay with things, but then when they actually happen, it’s a different story.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that. Fortunately, this is not one of those situations. So are you two dating now?”

He held his hands up. “I don’t know,” he said. “We haven’t really talked about it. I know I’d like to, but I’m not sure if she’s just totally weirded out by the whole thing. And I know she’s worried about what you’ll think of it.”

“You can tell her that I think it’s a great idea. If you want, I’ll tell her myself.”