Principals Aren't Meant To Be Hot What The Fuck

Coffee And Cheek Kisses.

 Jack was internally freaking out. Maybe a bit more than that, but close to that. He—he wasn't nervous is all, he'd been on plenty of dates, but he couldn't just act like this is casual. Sure, it was a coffee date. Sure, it's a normal date with no other intentions. At least, on Linc—does he start calling him Abraham? Abraham's part (thinking it made him shiver), but on Jack's part, it was more than that. So much more. He didn't fall quickly, if at all. Sometimes it was just casual. The only other hard love that he'd had was Jackie, and they broke up. He didn't want to love harder after that. Even with encouragement from Bobby, he could barely continue on. Speaking of...

Bobblehead: yo, you sure you're gonna be okay?

He sighed and texted back a quick reply.

Jackolantern: yeah, yeah. Ill be fine

 The only thing he got in response was a thumbs up with a heart, and he put his phone back into his pocket. The kids were off at their mother's after he drove them there. The timing—too good. Too good. Something would go wrong. Something or someone would get in the way, and he would be left alone. Again. Maybe this was why he didn't want to love, because it'd all go wrong. Because he wasn't meant to love. That was what his brain told him, anyway, and he knew it was dangerous to get into that habit of always listening but God it was hard not to.

 And hell, again; what if Abraham was not into men? What if he was straighter than a wooden board? Or—and he really didn't want to guess this correctly—he was against that thing? Would say it was gross, pat him on the back, tell him something all conservatives and republicans say and make him nearly vomit in disgust. Because that was exactly how his last two 'platonic' outings with men had gone. Bigotry, ghost, alone.

 Always the same cycle.

 But he did not want to keep the cycle going, so he agreed to this. The timing of this was still too good, but he was almost falling over in exhaustion. The kids took long to get dressed and Patrick started crying, and then Caroline got stuck in her shirt, and it was all so fucked. He almost rescheduled out of tiredness. But that wouldn't be a good look, nor would it be right, so he had to go anyway. And part of his heart told him that he should take this chance—pursue it more than the others. Chase it like it's his lifeline.

 Maybe in some way, it was.

 However, he jumped when his phone vibrated. He pulled it out hastily and checked. An email.

 I'm ready to pick William up—very sorry this took a bit. Had work, and my assistant, Grant (you may've met him before), had to temporarily take a few days off. He's sick. Just outside! Didn't feel like getting out, as it is raining and, not too sure how well that'd work on a white shirt.

 It was from Lincoln, and he swallowed. Yeah—he'd met Grant. Beard, blue eyes. Right? It wasn't possible for the guy to have two different secretaries both named Grant, and the guy had volunteered to watch his kids during after-school hours when it took him an extra hour to pick them up, so he would say yeah, he'd met him.

 Jack got up from his position on the floor against the wall and smoothed out his turtleneck. He had to look presentable and good. With a slow walk toward the door, he opened it, and saw Lincoln's car with said man inside of it. Willi—he remembered suddenly—William jumped up and cheered, "Papa!" and then the boy was racing out, into the rain, of course with an umbrella—and to his father who still sat in the car. When he got close enough Jack watched as Abraham opened the car door and the child jumped across the passenger's seat to hug his father.