Love Like This

3 | anything stupid

I'm trying to focus, I really am. But there's only so long I can listen to Principal Rivers drone on and on about policy and procedures regarding my probationary period before I'm not hearing anything he's saying anymore.

I'm grateful when he slides the contract over his desk, towards me.

His desk is small, I note, especially given the tuition this place charges. The kids are in Kindergarten for fuck's sake - eighth grade at most, and it costs thousands a year to send them here. And yet, the school seems full, the drop-off line long and slow this morning.

My fingers tap against my black jeans, my teeth gnawing at my inner lip.

Hell, Beau and Emma are probably looking up schools just like this one to send Maggie to next year for Kindergarten. For fuck's sake, my parents sent me to a school like this. And Peyton and Peter before me.

Still. Thousands? To teach kids colors and shapes and letters and shit? That's wild to me.

"The final page is an agreement to our code of conduct - do read it carefully, Mr. Larson." Rivers graying brows shoot up to his thinning hairline in warning.

"Parker," I mutter reflexively, reaching for the contract and flipping through it absentmindedly. My attention is again drawn to the smallness of his desk, of his office.

It doesn't make much sense for his office to be so small. Shouldn't it be big and impressive to lure families in? Why would parents drop thousands after being brought into this man's closet-office?

Maybe he takes them somewhere else.

I don't know why I care. I skim through the document quickly, eyes scanning the code of conduct briefly before snagging on one line, font big and bolded.

And underlined.

Someone's trying to make a point, it seems.

Relationships of any kind beyond those of a professional nature, including sexual, romantic, and otherwise, are prohibited among the faculty and staff.

I must be an asshole, because my mind immediately conjures Summer's face. Her pretty turned up nose and full, pink lips. My cock stiffens against my leg a little when I think of her mouth. I shift in my seat to hide the evidence.

But then I'm thinking about what I saw in the parking lot the other night. I was supposed to get a ride from Peyton, to join him and the kids at family dinner over at our parents house. But he called last minute with an emergency - one of the kids, Everly, I think he said, had a bad fever. They were going to the ER.

Seems a bit dramatic, but I don't have kids myself, so what do I know? Then again, it's Peyton, and if anyone worries too much, it's him.

Anyways, I called Beau instead, like a fucking toddler stranded at the playground. He said he'd definitely be there to get me, he just had to finish up with Maggie's dentist appointment.