So it goes [Breakable Heaven #1]

19. Game on

Going back to work after the holidays is always strange, especially since I have just spent two weeks surrounded by people who only speak properly and now I have to go back to my students who speak the most broken of all English. I'm glad to be back, though, mostly because I've missed Sirius like crazy. The little guy has spent every single moment I've been in the apartment since I got back shadowing me, and I'm sure he's not exactly happy I have to go to work and leave him alone for some hours just two days after I got back.

The first day I arrive at school in the late morning, a couple of hours before my first lesson of the day starts, so I can organize the rest of my week. The school is quiet, as if people are in need of some extra time after the holidays to get their head back into learning English. When I park my car I can only spot the receptionist's vehicle, which means I am the first teacher there. I wonder who else is going to show up today. Jean has resumed her lessons in the companies, and she will be at school only on Wednesday. When I first started working there, she used to spend way more time at school, but then Violeta has assigned her to be the company girl, and now we work in the same place just a couple of nights a week.

I am going over the material for that night's group lesson when Rory comes in and waves a cigarette in front of her face to signal me to join her in the backyard. I grab my jacket and follow her outside. I have seen her only two days ago, yet there's something different about her, something that she doesn't waste time showing to me.

"Well, you haven't said anything about my new haircut," she says, flipping her now shorter hair off her shoulder in a way that women typically use when they're trying to flirt or to make their men notice a change in their appearance.

"You haven't given me time," I reply, laughing. "Looks good."

There's a hint of pouting on her face, like I haven't exactly said what she wanted to hear, so I quickly correct myself.

"You look beautiful," I add, and I wonder why she needed to hear my compliment that bad.

"Thanks," she smiles, then she asks me about Sirius and we chat about him until we're ready to head back inside.

The lessons are slow that day, with a bunch of last-minute cancelations, so around five, I join some of my colleagues in the break room. The conversation, apparently, is focused on dating, and specifically what you should do when neither you nor your date lives alone.

"It's like we can't find a single moment when our parents are out," Lucia, a new teacher and the youngest of us, who still lives with her parents, whines. "I am going crazy here, we've been dating for two months and we still haven't got the chance to sleep together."

"I know what you mean," Rory steps in. "I had the same problem when I had just started dating my first boyfriend. Thank god for cars!"

I roll my eyes. "Please, cars are so teenagers! Too constraining, too crumpled. Nope, no car for me."

"It sounds like it might be my only option, though," Lucia sighs. "Unless one of you wants to lend me their apartment for a night."

Jacinta, who is usually in companies like Jean but for some reason has stopped by at school today, tells her that she would have no problem lending her the apartment, and on that note Rory and I leave the break room to go out for yet another cigarette.

"So you don't like cars, do you?" she inquires.

I shake my head. "They make me feel like I am not a grown woman, but a teenager. Besides, have you seen my car? It's way too small, and I have a thing for women with long legs."

"Come on, it's totally doable. I've done it in a Smart, so I'm pretty sure your car wouldn't be a problem."

"In a Smart?" I exclaim. "With your legs? What the hell?"

"I am extremely flexible," she claims, proudly. "It might be because I used to practice gymnastics when I was a child, but I'm pretty sure my hips are totally bendable. Sometimes men ask me if they're hurting me while we're having sex and I'm like 'hurting me? You can fold me!'"

I feel my mouth getting dryer and dryer as she speaks, while images of a very naked Rory in crazy positions start forming into my mind. I'm pretty sure I am paler than I've ever been, and when I speak, my voice is as feeble as a whisper.

"You can't tell me something like that..." I gasp.

Unfortunately, she picks up my inner turmoil, and a flash of mischievousness appears in her eyes.

"What? Have I shocked you?"

"No, I..." I struggle with finding the right words. "I just... I didn't know you used to be a gymnast, that's it."

She sees right through my bullshit, I know that. The satisfied smile on her face is proof enough that she perfectly understands the effect she's having on me right now, and she's enjoying it. For a moment, I am this close to push her against the wall and fuck her right where we are, but luckily it takes me only a few seconds to come back to my senses.

I don't know why she's doing this, I don't know why she's playing so hot and cold since the night of the Murder Mystery dinner, if she has realized I am attracted to her and likes to tease, or if she's just craving the attention her behavior gets her from me. I don't know, but she's playing with fire, because, as I've said a million times before, I'm gay and weak, and she's hot, and if she flirts I definitely won't shy away. She wants to tease me? I'll tease her right back. She wants to flirt? I'll do the same. At some point, she will have to either stop because it's getting too out of hand, or actually do something about it.

"I was," she confirms. "And it's something that has come in handy more than once. Too bad my hormones seem to have fallen into hibernation lately."

"You know what, Rory?" I say to her in what I hope is the sexiest voice I can come up with. "It would take me thirty seconds to awake your sleeping hormones. Let me know when you want to try."

I put my cigarette out and go back inside, without turning around to see if my words had the desired effect. I can't hold back a smirk, though, because I heard a sharp intake of breath while I was talking, and it definitely wasn't coming from me.

Game on, Davila.