Page 55 of Inside Out
“Nice job, everyone! See you tomorrow.”
Rome slowly rose to his feet but didn’t make his move toward me until the last student crossed the threshold. His strides were predatory, and his pale blue eyes burned with intensity. When Rome reached me, I noticed the skin on his face looked like it was stretched tighter. His body was rock hard and rigid with tension, and he practically shook with how badly he wanted to touch me. I reached for my bottle of water to moisten my mouth which had gone dry.
“Last class,” he said tersely.
I smiled then because I knew he wasn’t mad. “Was that the final bell?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do after school since tennis practice was canceled due to the bad weather. Do you have any ideas about what I could do with my free time?”
“Dinner at my house. Five thirty.” That had already been the plan, so I was disappointed I wouldn’t be seeing him sooner. “I have to meet with the board to go over our agenda for tomorrow’s meeting.” I filed away my disappointment because he had something very important to do.
“Duh. It’s the ‘gay agenda.’ Haven’t you read the petition?”
Rome snorted. “You know I read every word on the petition at least twice the last time I was naked in bed with you living our ‘gay agenda,’ or have you forgotten?”
“Not in a million years could I forget that. I’ll go home and do some laundry while you’re busy so it won’t cut into our time together later.”
“I’m sorry,” Rome said, looking and sounding conflicted.
“Don’t be. You’re doing something amazing, and I’m going to be so proud of you tomorrow night when you get in front of everyone and stick up for our kids and every marginalized person who’s needed a champion.”
“Our kids?” Rome quirked a brow.
“An educator doesn’t look at their students as just another face or just another number. The students become our kids and their success becomes our motivation. We take every slight against them personally, and we do something about it. You, sexy man, are taking on that fight with the full support of the board and the high school faculty. That POS leader has picked the wrong man, the wrong school, and the wrong town to mess with.”
“I really like this side of you, Julius.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice another notch. “If I can find a yardstick, can we play bad teacher later tonight? That scolding you delivered was so fucking hot.”
“Rome, I need to ask you to leave my classroom now,” I said in a stern voice. His response was a needy little whimper in the back of his throat. “Five thirty.”
He nodded. “Five thirty,” he managed to rasp out.
When I pulled into the driveway, Dare was dumping a plastic tub of recyclables into the bigger bin we hauled out with the trash each week. “Well, hello there, Mr. Shepherd. Did you have a good day at school?”
“I certainly did,” I said, smiling from ear to ear. “Did you have a good day?”
“There’s never a dull day at Curl Up and Dye.”
“Really?” I asked. “And just because your day wasn’t dull doesn’t mean it was good.”
“True, but I got enough material from today to laugh about it for weeks. If I wasn’t heading over to see my grandpa, I’d tell you all about it. As it is, I’m running behind. Grandpa signed us up for another euchre tournament. He and another resident at his nursing home are locked in a vicious battle until one of them dies. It used to be an annual tournament but the two guys had nagged and griped until it’s now a quarterly tournament. We have signals and all kinds of ridiculousness.”
“Rome’s aunt Astrid would fit right in there.”
Dare started walking backward to his house. “You’d just have to bring up his name when I don’t have time to grill you. Don’t think I haven’t noticed your car missing in the driveway a few mornings this week.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not trying to hide anything.”
“Good for both of you. I’ll see you around.” Dare waved then turned around so he could hustle to his car.
After I went up to my apartment, I started my laundry and grabbed a snack. I felt restless and unsettled, and I couldn’t put a finger on what was wrong with me. I found myself staring off into space and wondering how Rome’s meeting was going which was silly because he’d tell me all about it over dinner. By four, I was making myself crazy and dialed the one person who could verbally slap the stupid out of me. I knew she’d be home watchingEllen.
“Hello, baby boy,” Mom said warmly. “I was starting to think you lost your phone or forgot my number. I can’t recall the last time we went this long without talking on the phone. I hope this means you’re up to something five-ten, silver-haired, and sexy.”
I couldn’t keep the chuckle out of my voice. “I’m neither your baby or a boy, Mama.”
“You are if I say so. Did you finally stop fighting the inevitable? Is that why I haven’t heard from you?”