Page 14 of You've Got a Place Here, Too
“So you’re off the apps, are ya?” he asks, grinning widely after I’ve shared my last Hinge debacle.
“Man, yeah.” I sigh and shake my head. “I give up for now. Me and my hand for the immediate future.”
“Shiiiiit.” He angles me a disgusted look. “You s’posed to be out here getting it for all us married dudes. This should be the best vicarious sex of my life. You trippin’.”
I shrug, my smile dying. “I’ve never been one for a string of casual hookups. I prefer commitment, but it just never…” I let the words trail off, finding it difficult to articulate how even long-term girlfriends have never felt quite right. Even the one I almost married.
Damn,especiallythe one I almost married.
“We’ll find you somebody,” Bailey says, opening the door to the student center.
“Aw, hell no.” I fake a scowl as we enter the large open space filled with booths and brimming with activity. Recruiters man their tables and students mill around, investigating each booth, searching for opportunity.
“Well, somebody gotta help your ass or you’ll be alone forever.” He chuckles. “My booth is over here.”
I follow him, elbowing him in the side. “I wouldn’t trust you to find the hair on your head much less a woman for me.”
“Bruh, I feel the need to intervene. As distracted as you are half the time, you could easily miss the right one.”
“Nah, I’ll know her when I see…” The words lodge in my throat as we pass a booth decorated with a sign readingNew York Morning.Standing behind the table is a woman I’d know anywhere.
Celine Wallace was beautiful five years ago, at twenty-one, but she has blossomed since I last saw her. That fresh radiance from before is now gilded with a sheen of sophistication. She’s petite, no more than five four, but the expensive-looking heels lend her another few inches. Her body is now as it was then—subtly curved and audaciously sexy—only even more so. Her complexion, the color of burnt copper, glows with health, and her smile still seems to capture the sun. She wore braids when I taught her as a senior, but I’ve seen her on socials wearing her hair the way it is today, natural curls haloing her heart-shaped face.
God, she’s gorgeous.
A short line of students has formed at her table, and she’s passing out a smile with each of the cards stamped with QR codes. I remember that smile, a wide stretch of confidence between her dimpled cheeks. Her gaze passes over me and then abruptly snaps back, shock widening her deep sable eyes. Her jaw drops for an instant before she recovers, dragging her attention back to the student in front of her.
She’s playing this off better than I am. I can’t move even an inch, frozen as people navigate around my stock-still body. My head empties of thought for a few seconds and her name is all I can hold on to—a chanting refrain that won’t let up and won’t let anything else in.
Celine Wallace.
Dammit.
I force my feet to shuffle along with Bailey, not hearing a word he says. I’d forgotten how her bright smile always lit something inside of me. How her charismatic presence stirred me every time she entered my class. It had been a secret I’d kept from everyone, especially her because I recognized that I stirred something inside of her, too, but a relationship with one of my students? Especially considering I was mere months from marriage? Impossible. Forbidden. Wrong on so many levels.
But that was then.
I turn back, not even bothering to explain to Bailey, who is saying something about his younger daughter’s soccer team.
“Dude!” Bailey shouts from behind me. “Where you going? My booth is on the other side.”
“I’ll catch up,” I toss over my shoulder, taking determined steps back in the direction of Celine’s booth.
What am I doing? The last time I spoke to this woman, I shot her down. She took a huge risk putting her feelings in writing, confessing them in public, and even though I’d been fighting the attraction since the day she walked into my class, I crushed all hope. I had to. And to make matters worse, I ran like a coward, not even showing up for the final class because I didn’t trust myself not to take her up on her offer. She was right. Graduation was right around the corner and we could have been…hell, I’m not sure what we could have been, but we could have tried. The distance had already been wearing on my relationship with Lilli, proving that what I had thought could be forever might not last at all. I’d been determined to try and make it work, though. My naïve ass had believed Lilli when she’d promised fidelity on the other side of the country, and I’m not a cheat.
After everything came out about Lilli’s betrayal, my greatestregret was wasting two years of my life with a woman who would do that to me. My second-greatest regret was Celine Wallace.
Life doesn’t always deliver second chances, do-overs, but for some reason it’s giving me this one. I’ll be damned if I screw it up again. I swallow my pride and trepidation, stand in the line of students, and wait.
Celine
“And when will we hear back?” the student asks.
“Um, I’m sorry what?” I blink at her, trying to focus on the words coming out of her mouth. My blood rushes like a mudslide, forceful and sludgy. Slowing my responses down even as it carries me helplessly along.
“You said we’ll hear from the station to schedule a virtual interview.” The young woman frowns at me as if I’ve lost my senses. That’s the furthest thing from the truth because all my senses are attacking me—the sounds too loud, the lights too bright, the smells of perfumes and the popcorn they have as a snack at the booths leaving me almost dizzy.
I drop my gaze from her puzzled face to the card in my hands, hoping it offers some details because I can’t for the life of me remember anything I’m supposed to say.
