“Shit!” she barked.
She had to go into the school where she taught the next day. There was paperwork to do, lesson plans to review, and several in-service presentations on new policies and procedures she had to complete before starting back to work on Monday. She had acquaintances at the school, but no real friends. Everyone knew she had been on a leave of absence to work on some sort of music project, but no one knew any of the details. She did not share any with anyone she ran into.
The only one who noticed anything was Jolene Fullar, the assistance principal, an up and comer in the district who gossiped about anything and everything she could and loved to brag about how much money her husband, the architect, made each year. She drove a Mercedes and was always dressed in expensive clothes. Nobody liked her, and Laura was no exception.
“Laura, dear,” she said, as Laura was packing up her things to leave just before noon. “Is that a new necklace you’re wearing?”
“Uh ... yes,” Laura said. “A little something I got up in Oregon.”
Jolene stepped closer, her eyes examining the jewelry closely. “It’s quite becoming,” she said, almost suspiciously. “Is it real?”
“Real?” Laura replied. “Do you suspect it’s a hologram?”
Jolene looked at her crossly and then shook her head. “No, I mean is it real gold? Are those real diamonds?”
“Yes,” Laura said. “It’s real.”
“Impressive,” Jolene said, actually reaching out and touching it. Laura was too surprised by her boldness to back away. “Something like this must have cost a few thousand dollars at least.”
“At least,” Laura agreed.
“It’s quite a gift,” Jolene told her. “Or did you buy it yourself?”
“It’s a gift from a friend,” Laura told her.
“I see,” Jolene said. “A diamond studded heart around that music thingy. This must be quite a friend.”
Laura smiled. “You could say that,” she said. “Is there anything else, Jolene?”
“Uh ... no, I think you’re ready to come back on Monday ... as ready as you’re going to be anyway. I hope you realize how fortunate you are that the board elected to grant your leave of absence. They didn’t have to do that, you know.”
“I know,” she said simply.
“I was opposed to it, of course. We had the hardest time keeping your slot filled with subs.”
“Somehow you got by though, right?”
“Well ... yes, we did,” Jolene said, taken aback. She was not used to the mousy redhead speaking so plainly to her.
“Now then,” Laura said. “I’ll be on my way.”
“This man who bought you the necklace...” Jolene started again.
Laura turned and smiled sweetly at her. “Who said it was a man?” she asked.
While Jolene tried to process that through her shock, Laura turned and walked out the door. Twenty seconds later, she in the parking lot and unlocking her six-year-old Toyota Corolla, feeling absurdly proud of herself. She had never talked back to Jolene—that gossipy, power hungry bitch—in that manner before. Now, however, she just didn’t care. What was the worst she could do to her? Not like her? She already didn’t like her. It wasn’t like she could fire her for not telling her who had given her a piece of jewelry.
She drove home in the late morning traffic, pondering the newer, more aggressive, more self-assured her. Jake really had changed something in her. And it was a change for the better. It was sad that she couldn’t see him every day like she used to, however. She was accustomed to having a couple of orgasms a day now. What was she going to do without the naked games they played? How was she going to get by? How was Jake going to get by?
I could use a little orgasm right now, she thought sadly as she pulled her car into her designated parking spot. Maybe I could do a little experimentation with my fingers? She had tried masturbation a few times in her younger years, but had never quite gotten the hang of it. Maybe it was time to revisit that subject? Now that she knew orgasms really did exist after all, she could probably figure out the procedure.
She was already starting to juice up at the thought of the coming experiment when she put her key in the door and opened it. She closed and locked it behind her and tossed her folder full of official district papers that she had no intention of reading onto the end table near her favorite spot on the couch. She would let it sit there, unopened for a few days, and then toss it in the garbage can.
She headed toward her bedroom but paused for a moment when she saw that the door was closed. That was odd. She typically left it open when she wasn’t in there. She looked around at the rest of the apartment, seeing that Phil’s door was closed as well, but that was not unusual. He was a bit on the messy side—she often told him that he was the worst gay man ever since he had no fashion sense, no decorating sense, and was a slob—and keeping the room shut off kept her from complaining about it to him. She didn’t even know if Phil was here, hadn’t noticed whether his car was present when she’d parked.
A little confused, but not alarmed in the least, she continued her trip to her bedroom. She had probably closed it absentmindedly as she’d left. It was not exactly an unheard of thing, just a bit unusual. And she really couldn’t remember one way or the other if she’d shut it or not.
She turned the handle and opened the door. And there, laying on her bed as if he owned it, dressed in his red scrub bottoms and green scrub top, was Dave. He was smiling at her salaciously.
“I was hoping you’d get home before lunch hour was over,” he told her.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” she spat, unconsciously using one of Jake’s favorite expressions. “I told you not to come to my house anymore, Dave. What in the hell are you doing here?”
“You were obviously not in your right mind, Red,” he said. “I could tell that just by talking to you.”
“Out!” she yelled, standing back and pointing in the direction of the front door. “Get the hell out of here! And leave the goddamn key when you go. We are through! What in the hell did you not understand about that?”
“Look ... you’re upset,” Dave said, pulling himself into a sitting position. He patted the bed next to him. “Come over here and we’ll talk about it.”
“There is nothing to talk about,” she told him firmly. “We are no longer seeing each other. I am seeing Jake Kingsley now. We’re a couple.”
“Jake Kingsley?” he asked. “I seem to remember you saying that yesterday too. Who the hell is Jake Kingsley? You don’t mean that death metal guy, do you?”
“He’s the one,” she said. “He’s part of the record company that Celia is with. He’s doing his own solo album and he played guitar on most of Celia’s tunes.”
“You never told me about that!” Dave accused.
“No,” she said firmly. “I didn’t. I was under the impression you would take it the wrong way.” She giggled a little. “Although, as it turns out, you would have been taking it the right way. We’re involved with each other now.”
“Involved?”
“We fuck, Dave!” she said, almost viciously, her tone intended to hurt. “And we fuck very well together.”
“You’re telling me that you went to Oregon with this ... this freak you never told me about, and you’ve been having sex with him?” he asked.
“He is not a freak!” she barked. “He is a kind, loving man who just happens to not have a wife, if you can imagine that. He is the most honest person I’ve ever met in my life, including my own fucking parents! And he is extremely good in bed.”
That hit Dave a little bit where it counted. “Well, I can see that you fell under his spell,” he said, shaking his head in pity. “I can see how someone as naïve and vulnerable as you would fall for whatever bullshit someone like that would throw at you.”