The Brightest Stars ✨

Chapter 25

Hey! I hope this chapter finds you all well. Welcome to all the new readers! Thank you guys so much for taking the time to read this. Your votes, comments and love have cheered me up during this panasonic.
//Some Trigger warnings for this chapter. Mild mention of homophobia and suicide//

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"Can you just acknowledge how awkward it will be for me? A whole day with 11th grade girls, talking about safe sex and I'm visibly pregnant?"

The sound of Gabe's laugh curled around the room as Natalia glowered at him. Why would he acknowledge how awkward it was? He was a man. If anything he enjoyed others seeing the evidence of his virility. She'd been enduring weeks of seeing the not so subtle back slaps from the Male faculty and some rather brazen students, congratulating him on their news. As if he was the one that was waddling around the school with swollen feet and disgusting food cravings.

Ella had the good sense not to laugh at Natalia's predicament. "I'm sure it will be fine," she encouraged, in that non-meaningful way that Head Teachers did. Now Natalia was stuck teaching a sex education workshop next week that she had no desire to do. At least she had a visceral example of why everyone should glove their love, she mused sarcastically to herself.

They were in Ella's office discussing the student-athlete programme that Natalia and Gabe had designed. It was fully fledged and ready to roll out to their students. It was the project that had started it all. It had broken the ice and the tension — looking back now, Natalia knew it had been sexual tension between them. She had been attracted to Gabe from the moment she had heard his voice but it had taken her some time to come to terms with it.

She looked at the irresistible dimpled cheek of his side profile, from her vantage point seated next to him. She still couldn't believe he'd proposed and knocked her up in under a year.  And that she'd let him. Life had a funny way of working out, Natalia thought wryly. Ella was giving her a knowing look when she raised her gaze to rejoin the conversation.

Her mind had wandered off again — it was a new symptom of the pregnancy. At this point it felt more like a collection of syndromes rather than the wonderful life creating miracle everyone made it out to be.

Ella still had that knowing smirk on her face when the meeting was over and even Gabe had picked up on it.

"What?" he asked warily. "Out with it."

"Who knew what I was starting when I asked you to pick Natalia up from the airport," she shrugged. "That's all I'm saying..."

"How do you mean?" Natalia said. "Are you saying it was a set up?"

"I have a phone call to make, so if you two would excuse me..." Ella started dialling before she could be asked any more questions.

Gabe gently led Natalia out of the room. "Do you think she set us up?" she asked.

"Do you think she didn't?" Gabe retorted with an eyebrow raised in reply and when Natalia thought about it, everything about the situation had felt highly contrived. She and Gabe had even been neighbours for goodness' sake.

"Damn, we'll never know."

"I don't care. I'm just glad it was you and not Agnes," Gabe shuddered.

"And don't you forget it," Nat agreed with a smirk as they walked down the corridor to the teacher's lounge.

"I gotta go, I'm covering a gym class. I'll see you later?" He squeezed her shoulder and laid a warm hand on her belly before he walked in the opposite direction. She watched after him rather forlornly.