As Aaron carried on talking about favourite books and calling on children to talk about theirs, he tried to decide if the two other changes he had made were making a difference. Assemblies now only happened on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and a Friday morning. And in the middle of each assembly was an active session.
“Right. You know what time it is now. Everyone, stand up.” Aaron indicated for the piano teacher to get ready. “Remember, please think about where your feet and hands are. We don’t want other children getting hurt if you are too close to them. Go!”
He watched as all the pupils jumped, hopped, danced, shimmied, and whatever else they could think of as the music played. After a three-minute burst, the music ended, and all the children dropped to their bottoms.
“Fantastic work, kids. Now, if you can sit nicely again for me, we will have our story.”
Aaron switched on the projector, and the story’s pictures filled the wall behind him. As he read through the book in his hand, he scanned the children, seeing them hardly fidgeting at all. Maybe it did work. More research had shown that children found it physically painful to sit still for any length of time, so he’d introduced the physical burst to allow them to shake it off, in the theory they would be able to sit still again afterwards.
Time would tell if it worked.
As he finished the story, he caught Zaire’s eye. Aaron couldn’t decipher the expression on his face. It was almost as if he was shocked but not. Focusing back on the children, he bid them a good day. After they left the hall, Aaron found his way back to his office, checking his phone immediately.
The best place would be Infinity, again. The membership section is the best bet, but I don’t know if you want to do that yet. Otherwise, stay in the public section and see what’s there. Any other clubs on a Monday aren’t the best idea for Daddies. X
Aaron exhaled and nodded. He was heading back to the club. He needed to scratch this itch, desperately.
****
Chapter 3
Zaire
He couldn’t believe the headteacher was the guy who’d told him off on Friday. What were the chances? Zaire smiled, recalling Mr Brown’s well-tailored suit and a tie that matched his dark-brown eyes. He was gorgeous. Zaire could admit the guy ticked all of Zaire’s boxes. If only he could be a Daddy. The guy must have some kink or fetish to have been in the club on Friday, but what was anyone’s guess. He had been with a woman, so he probably wasn’t even gay. Zaire tilted his head. Aaron had rebuffed his flirtatious attempts, so he probablywasstraight.
Driving home, he thought about what it would be like to head to the same place of work every day. The school today had been a breath of fresh air. The teacher had explained the headteacher—Aaron—was moving with the times and willing to listen to their opinions. It wasn’t often you found a place like that. If what Uma said was true, he’d love to work there.
The agency rang as he was plating his dinner, and he answered immediately.
“Zaire. I have a proposition for you.”
“Go on.”
“The school today would like you to stay for two weeks. Are you happy to?”
“Sure, that’s fine.”
“He didn’t say the words, but it might turn into something permanent.”
Zaire could almost hear the clink of money in the guy’s voice as he thought about the severance fee the school would have to payifZaire went permanent. Every company had to pay a lot to take a staff member off the agency’s books.
“Maybe. But thanks. Yes. It would be nice to be in the same place for a short while.”
“Fantastic. I will leave a message for the head saying you agreed. I’ll speak to you at the end of the week.”
Zaire clicked off the phone and sighed with relief. He hadn’t been lying. Being in one place would be nice but being close to Aaron might be more than he could handle.
Aaron had been amazing in the assembly that afternoon, and the children responded to him. Zaire smiled as he remembered watching Aaron jumping up and down in the physical session. Only a couple of the other teachers had taken part.
For once, Zaire was looking forward to working.
****
Zaire entered the bar with Rod near the end of the week and wished Rod had chosen somewhere else. Infinity was packed, and though Zaire usually didn’t mind crowds, he was ready for an easy night out with a friend rather than the happy ending type of night Rod had in mind. He supposed it wouldn’t hurt to get laid, reducing his stress levels would be beneficial, but he couldn’t get up the energy for the chase.
He also wasn’t sure if he was likely to bump into Aaron there, too.
Climbing onto a handily vacated seat when he arrived at the bar, Zaire tried to converse with Rod, who was already searching the sea of people for his conquest.