Page 19 of Rum & Coke

“Come in,” I called out. The door opened, and I stood, smoothing down my tie. When I looked up, I shook my head slightly.Was I daydreaming?

“Mr. Reed, this is Teresa Stewart,” the principal, Alan Fitzgerald, stated. “She’s here for her three o’clock classroom transition meeting for her son, Colton.”

I blinked and stared at Tessa for a few beats, then cleared my throat and stuck out my hand. “Right. It’s nice to meet you.”

Tessa took my hand. “You too.”

There was an awkward silence until Alan said, “All right, if you need anything from me, Ms. Stewart, please come to my office, but your son will be in good hands with Mr. Reed.”

“Thank you,” Tessa replied, and we watched Alan leave and shut the door behind him. Her blue eyes locked with mine again. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a teacher?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a son?” I countered.

“Because I wasn’t ready. I thought you only worked—”

“The school doesn’t know,” I informed her.

She walked a few feet and sat on a mat where the kids played. “I get it now.”

“Get what?” I asked, confused.

“Why you use a fake name for S&R.”

I nodded. “Yes, but my picture is on the S&R website, so technically they could still find out.”

“Then why bother using a fake name?”

I shrugged as I sat next to her. “It’s just another step to hide it. And no one has found out—until today.”

“To be fair,” she chuckled, “I only found out because I’m a stripper.”

I felt hope in my chest at the sound of her laughter. At that moment she held my career in the palm of her hand, and I was preparing myself to do whatever I needed to prevent her from going to Principal Fitzgerald. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

She stared at me for a moment. “I would never do that to you, but what do we do?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re going to be my son’s teacher.”

“Working at S&R doesn’t affect my work here,” I assured her.

“I mean us.”

I cocked my head to the side slightly. “Us?”

Tessa laughed again. “I mean, I gave you a lap dance.” Her eyes widened as the words left her mouth. “Oh, God. I gave my son’s teacher a lap dance.”

I reached over and touched her hand and grinned. “And his teacher paid for a lap dance and frequents a certain strip club.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Yes?” Iwastrying to make her feel better. No one needed to find out anything. Tessa didn’t say anything further, so I continued, still touching her hand. “Look, Tess. I’m technically not your son’s teacher yet. So what if we have a friendship? So what if you gave me a lap dance? No one needs to know, and no one can know about S&R. I will lose this job, and I don’t want that. I love all my kids.”

“Why did you become a teacher?”

I chuckled slightly. “Let’s get off the floor, and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

“Okay,” she agreed.