Page 38 of Reluctant Chemistry

He frowned. “Why not?”

“Because I give some younger kids from our road a ride most days. The school bus is full.”

He paused. “Okay, well, I’ll email you some online resources. Let me know if you need anything more, but please don’t come here again. I don’t want anyone else finding out about us.”

CeCe stood and picked up her bag from the floor without hesitation. He followed her down the hallway and opened the door. “Yes, sir.”

He sighed at her attempt to bait him. How had their fling so rapidly turned into a shit-show? “And please don’t call me sir.”

She glanced back. “And don’t call me Sydney.”

As she walked down his driveway, Luka stood in the doorway and watched her, the knots in his stomach tightening. If he had any sense, he’d tender his resignation at the end of tomorrow’s staff meeting. But that would mean going back on his word, and going back on his word wasn’t in Luka’s makeup.

* * *

Luka didn’t see CeCe the following day, and as he lay alone in the dark until well after midnight, thinking of her, vivid details of their time together played on his mind. He’d never met any of her friends, and when they’d first started seeing one another, he’d wondered if she came from a broken home. He had no idea why. Maybe it was the troubled vibe he sometimes caught when she thought he wasn’t watching.

He missed her. The way they’d talked into the early hours on those nights when it was too muggy to sleep. But she’d never shared her story or given any real indication of what made her tick.

Thinking about it, he’d never been so infatuated with a woman before. But when he saw her in his class, that infatuation soon turned to trepidation. Luka had never understood how a teacher could fall for a student; he saw it as a professional line one just didn’t cross.

But life sometimes swept a color wash over the black and white we painted for ourselves, and now, he didn’t know how to handle his growing passion for CeCe Dobson.

Sitting at his computer before class the next morning, Luka brought up her results for the previous year. Until the end of the second term, her achievements had been impressive, with high marks in all subjects. After that, she hadn’t passed a single standard and had eventually dropped out.

As students filed into the classroom, Luka clicked out of the screen. CeCe arrived a few minutes late, but he ignored her as she took the same seat as before. From his position at the front of the class, he watched her, then watched Travis watching her.

Ignoring Travis, she took copious notes, her head down over her notebook, concentration furrowing her brow. When class was almost over, she raised her hand. Luka glanced back from cleaning the whiteboard. He turned. “Yes, CeCe.”

She cleared her throat. “You asked me to learn part of the periodic table.” Her eyebrows knitted together. “Are we being tested on it?”

“Not today.”

After the bell rang, Luka stood to dismiss the class. He shut his laptop and slotted it into his messenger bag as CeCe waited until the rest of the students had left the room.

“So, I spent all that time for nothing?”

His thoughts in turmoil, Luka had tossed and turned all night, and he flinched at her tone. The maturity he’d once found endearing had vanished. He looked down at her and gathered his response. “Learning the basics is never for nothing. It’s often the difference between a pass or a fail. Don’t expect me to give you validation for something you should have known in the first place.” He grabbed his phone and keys from his desk drawer and stuffed them into his pocket. “You’re a senior student in this school—perhaps it’s time you started acting like one.”

“Fine. And you know what?” Without giving him time to respond, she continued, “I’m really looking forward to Easter.”

He didn’t miss a beat. “Yes, so you’ve already said.”

CeCe stormed out the door, and he watched her leave, feeling like an utter bastard. But more than that, he wanted to pin her up against the wall and take her like he meant it—without contrition or restraint.

Luka rubbed the back of his neck, the many reasons he’d decided to leave the profession flooding his thoughts. Was he a good teacher? How could one evaluate one’s own academic qualities in the classroom? He wanted her to succeed, but he wondered if their past association would hold her back.

Granted, being in his class after what happened between them couldn’t be easy for her, and unfortunately, she appeared to lack the emotional maturity to deal with it. Some days, he did as well.

Later that afternoon, Luka watched from the side window of the classroom as a group of half a dozen younger kids congregated on the tennis courts. Just as he was about to turn away, CeCe strode toward them, dressed in her PE gear and with a sports bag slung over her shoulder. The students gathered around her, and they conversed back and forth, her face full of smiles.

As he watched them interact, he realized she must be their coach. They volleyed for a time, CeCe helping the younger ones with their backhand. Luka enjoyed watching tennis, especially if it was live, but no matter how hard he tried, he had zero racquet skills. It appeared CeCe Dobson had more to her than he’d first thought. It was a shame she’d never get to give him a lesson.

If the janitor hadn’t arrived to clean the room, Luka would have stared out that window for the rest of the afternoon. Then he remembered. He shouldn’t be watching her at all.

19

Rumors

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