Page 27 of Branded

“I want to. I had a nice time, and you’re a nice man who makes me feel comfortable. That’s hard to come by these days.”

“It’s a shame, isn’t it? Men treating women like anything other than the goddesses they are?”

A slow smile spreads over her face. I can see the slightest hint of her white teeth behind her lips. The contrast of the dark lipstick color against her skin is beautiful, and she has this beauty mark just under the left side of her mouth, and a slight scar in her eyebrow that raises skyward when she catches me gawking.

“Are you checking me out?”

“To be fair, I’ve been checking you out all night.”

Her cheeks flush red and she looks down at her feet then back up at me. “Thank you for tonight. Really.”

“It’s my pleasure. I promised Grams I would take her out tomorrow since I’m not on shift until the day after, but I’d really like to see you again soon.”

“I’d like that too.”

“I’ll call you?”

“You better.”

In any other circumstance, I’d lean forward, push her hair from her face, and place a kiss to her lips, but I promised her that she’s different; this is different, so instead, I take her hand in mine and bring it toward my mouth.

“Thank you for spending time with me, Sawyer. I can’t wait to see you again.” I place a gentle kiss on the top of her hand.

Chapter 7

Sawyer

“Listen,Iknoweveryoneis excited because we get to miss most of this period today for the career fair, however, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay attention now.”

I take my seat at the small podium that is placed just beside my Smart Board at the front of my classroom and my class continues to talk amongst themselves.

Fine.

I connect my laptop to the Smart Board via Bluetooth and begin to play a very loud, very obnoxious sound fromDumb and Dumberrepeatedly, all the while staring at my class until they all turn their attention to me.

“We can do this all day long, so you can give me the fifteen minutes I have you to allow me to teach you something, or we can be assigned extra reading for tonight. The choice is yours.”

“Sorry, Ms. Westbrook,” they say in a unison that almost sounds rehearsed.

“Thank you. Now, please turn to where we left off in Gatsby last class.”

My cell phone is perched on my podium so I can see the screen, in case someone calls or texts, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t waiting on bated breath for Isaac to reach out.

It’s only been two days since our date, and I know he’s on shift today, but that doesn’t change the fact I haven’t stopped thinking about him.

To say I was surprised by how much of a gentleman he was is an understatement. He gives off the aura of arrogance that I normally associate with less than chivalrous tendencies, but he’s a conundrum.

I’m sitting silently, reading along as one of my students reads a passage aloud from the book when I see movement in my peripheral that pulls my attention.

Liv is waving at me to come out to the hall through the glass window beside the door.

“Keeping reading aloud. Just go down the rows. A page each. I’ll be right back.”

I slip from my chair and out into the hall.

“Oh my God, I stood over here forever trying to get your attention,” Liv whisper-yells to me.

“I was doing that thing you should be doing. Teaching.”

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