Page 59 of Primary Seduction
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Trent
Unfortunately, he had to go back to work the following day. After dropping Max off at his own place yesterday, he’d lost himself in catching up with the work he had pushed aside when Max had come to stay. He’d managed to get completely up to date, which was a first.
He walked into the staff room at seven-thirty, ready for the meeting that happened every week; usually it was after school, but on the first day back, they always did it before to catch any issues before school started.
Resting his bag on a chair, he headed for the kettle. The coffee at school wasn’t much better than what he had at home, but it was better than nothing, especially as he’d hardly slept last night. His dreams were interspersed with Max, Trish and being chained up. He reckoned he barely had four hours all told.
Taking a sip, he moved his bag and sat down. From his glance around he could see there were still around few people missing, as usual.
“Hey, Trent. How you been?” Claudia Freeman sat down next to him, cradling her mug. Claudia was the year one teacher and a complete gossip. Trent inwardly groaned.
“Hey, good thanks. How was your break?” he asked politely. If she was talking to him, she either had something to tell him or something to ask him.
“It was amazing. Colin and I went to Spain for five days. It was beautiful.”
“Sounds good.” He took another sip of his drink, hoping she’d get to the point of her chat.
“It was. We went out this weekend as well.” He saw that she was staring intently at him. “There was a party happening in a bar we’d never been to before, but we loved it. They had this newly opened Garden Bar; it was absolutely beautiful.”
Trent’s heart sank. He had a feeling he knew exactly where this conversation was going.Fuck.He decided to jump to the point. “Oh, do you mean Crush? Yeah, that bar is great, it’s my local.”
“Oh, is it? I thought I saw you there, but then realised I must be mistaken.”
Here it comes.
“I was sure I was wrong because the person was with aman!”she whispered the last word as if it was scandalous.
He should’ve expected this. He ran through his options. Tell her the truth, tell her she was mistaken about who he was with or pretend it was someone else. The last one wouldn’t fly because she knew it was him, that’s why she approached him. He could tell her she was mistaken but when he thought back to that night, he realised they had been publicly affectionate, so that wouldn’t work either. He had only one option, but he didn’t know if he was ready to come clean. If he told Claudia now, it would be around the school by lunchtime.
Did he want everyone to know he was gay, or would he prefer to keep it quiet? He thought back to the time he had spent with Max this past week. Once he’d figured out his attraction, he’d been fine with it. His friends were still his friends. The only people he hadn’t told was his children, but that would be a phone call he’d be making this afternoon.
He realised he couldn’t do anything but admit it, and he was surprisingly okay with it.
He smiled into his coffee. “Yeah, that was me.”
Claudia’s eyes widened comically, and Trent almost burst out laughing. “Oh, oh. I didn’t realise you swung that way. I mean, um, that’s great. How long have you been together?”
“Not long, it’s a fairly new thing.” He wasn’t going to give her too much information.
“Oh, that’s…great,” she repeated.
He smiled as he took another sip. He had no doubt that he would have several visits throughout the day from colleagues wanting to see the “new” Trent.
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Eight hours later, Trent was exhausted. He’d pretty much had visits from every member of staff that had been working—as he’d expected. Each one had come with a stupidly see-through excuse for why they needed to speak to him and once they had, it had turned to questions about his break. It had gotten so bad that he’d gone out to his car at lunchtime to make sure he had peace and quiet for a while. He knew it would die down soon, but at the moment, he was newsworthy.
Getting into his car, he blew out a breath and looked at his phone. He saw he had three messages, all from Max. The first was just a goofy smile emoji, the second asked how his first day of school went and the third made his heart beat faster,I miss you x.
God, I miss you too.He didn’t know what to reply; he still wasn’t sure if it was fair to make Max put up with the issues he had with Trish. He couldn’t believe she had walked in on them almost…he stopped.
“What the fuck!” he said out loud. “How the hell did she get in?” He thought back through what happened yesterday. He and Max had been cosying up on the sofa, and the next thing Trish was in the apartment.
He lifted his phone again, selecting a number, hoping she would answer like last time.
“Hey, Dad.” Jocelyn said.
