He goes back to his car and looks at me as he gets behind the wheel. His expression is totally unreadable, a mask of stone.
I watch Manny drive away in a cloud of exhaust and I stand alone in the parking lot, no idea what to do now.
◆◆◆
I'm in my bathtub, I have my bubbles, I have the hot water and I have my cell. I begged off dinner tonight, telling Mom I wasn't hungry and locked myself in my bathroom to soak and think.
I've been in here for like twenty minutes and I still am nowhere near knowing what I should do. How in the hell have things gotten so crazy? I have no best friend and no other friends that I can talk to. I certainly can't talk to Mom about it. That would go over great! "Hey Mom, Mr. Hayes kissed me and touched my thigh and wants me to text him, AND I'm totally in love with him and with Ryan! AND Manny, the pool boy and my boss, kissed today too!" She'd have me locked up!
What is wrong with me?? People don't just fall in love with three people at once, do they?? I mean, only complete sluts do that, right??
I'm not a slut. Not that I don't think about sex, because, hell, I'm human! But I don't go around wanting to throw myself at every guy I see. Can I help it, if three totally hot and wonderful guys seem to like me at once??
I have to smile a little as I stick my toes out of the bubbles at the end of the tub. Kim would be so jealous if she knew about all of this. She wouldn't be able to stand the thought that plain old, second place Taryn, her former sidekick and punching bag had managed to attract three guys at once.
I glance at my phone on the little table beside me and then pick it up, scrolling through my contacts. I know what I should do. I should text Ryan. He's probably expecting me to text and by now he must have heard I'd dumped Patrick. My thumb hovers over his name but then I scroll up and stare at Manny's number.
That kiss. Holy hell, that was probably one of the hottest kisses I'd ever been given. But what does it mean? Was he just messing with me? Manny is dating Gina, isn't he? I mean they are always together it seems anyway. I scowl and go back to Ryan's number. Of course, Manny is screwing around with me. This is just another way for him to be a dick.
I'll text Ryan, it's only right.
But before I can, I get an incoming text. It's Michael.
Chapter Nine
I can't believe Michael is really texting me again! I sit up in the bath, sloshing soapy water onto the floor. My heart is fluttering as I read the text.
"How's it going? We need to talk about what happened. The kiss."
No, no, no! He's going to tell me he shouldn't have kissed me. He's going to say we can't do this and he's going to shut things down right now. I can't let him. Because I don't care that he's a teacher, I don't care about anything but keeping this going.
I quickly tap out a response before he can tell me these things. I'm faster than he is because I spend practically every waking hour texting.
"Don't say it's wrong because you didn't do anything I didn't want you to do."
I sit back in the water andhold my breath, waiting to see what he says.
It seems like ages before he answers.
"Me too. I didn't do anything I didn't want to do either."
I giggle and my thumbs fly across my phone. "I wish you were right here with me now."
He's slow at texting back. Most adults are. It takes my mom ten minutes to write a simple three sentence text.
"Where are you?"
"I'm in the bathtub. Naked."
There is a very long pause after that one and I hope I haven't gone too far. But this is too much fun and my heart is racing.
"Taryn, you can't say stuff like that."
I pout a little and type back. "Why not? Is it naughty?"
Another long pause. "STOP!"
I burst out laughing. Teasing my teacher is a blast! "Should I send you a pic?"
"Jesus, NO!"
I send him a crying laughing emoji but he doesn't text back, which seriously bums me out. I hope Ava hasn't texted him. God, I hate that bitch and I don't even know her.
Finally, after several more minutes with no return text I get out of the bath and get ready for bed. Then I suddenly realize I forgot to write my stupid Shakespeare paper. Crap!
Sitting cross legged on my bed in my jammies I grab my lap tap and open up Word. A wicked thought shoots through my brain. A really, seriously, wicked thought. Before I change my mind, I type out my title:
Will and Anne: Their First Time
Michael had said to use our imaginations, but to keep things real. I figure it can't get more real than a girl’s first time. I try to keep it rated PG but in my paper I make it pretty obvious that Will and Anne were mad for one another when he gently took her virginity.
At the end I add one more alluring question:
"What better way for a girl to become a woman, than for her to have a skillful, gentle, older lover to show her the way? To be her teacher, in all things?"
I honestly don't think I have the guts to print this thing out and lay it on his desk in the morning. I quickly make a copy and bring up Michael's email, pasting the paper into the text.
My hand hovers over the send button and I hesitate. I'm not sure what Michael will think. Maybe he won't want to be my
