My Son's Teacher Is a Mafioso (MANXMAN)

Chapter 12

A/N: For early updates of this book, please visit Radish.

At first, Gabe thought Orazio was too busy to indulge in a conversation with a parent, but after Orazio had been successfully avoiding him for the past week, he was certain Orazio was doing it on purpose. He had no idea as to why. All Gabe could think of was that he must have done something to make him angry.

It had been troubling him, knowing that Orazio was evading him, and he knew he should ask the person himself about the reason, but he couldn't muster enough courage to do so. He was a cop, for God's sake. He risked his life on daily basis, so why on earth couldn't he ask a simple question?

Perhaps he was scared to find out the answer. What if Orazio had come to hate him? Could it be he was actually disgusted after what had happened last time? Was he a fool for thinking Gabe was feeling the same attraction he was feeling?

His colleagues had noticed he'd been down, and asked him about it. He couldn't tell them anything because he himself didn't know what was going on. If he wasn't such a coward, he might not be stressing himself like this.

Gabe's heart was thumping hard as he was nearing the kindergarten with his son, and his hands were growing sweaty.

Today, he'd succeed in asking Orazio why he'd been avoiding him. Yeah, he'd do just that. How hard was it to say five simple words?

Why are you avoiding me? he practiced in his head. He kept repeating the question over and over again until they reached the kindergarten.

The moment Orazio came out, he took a deep breath. Six words. Six. He wouldn't chicken out. This time, he'd go through with it. If he didn't do it today, he'd have to wait till next week. That would mean spending the weekend worrying about it, and not being able to get anything done. He couldn't afford that.

As Orazio was about to go back inside with his son, Gabe called out to him, determined. He spoke up when Orazio turned around.

"I'll pick him up at the usual time."

Walking away from the kindergarten, he thought to himself, I'll talk to him after school.

Gabe wanted to kick himself. What happened to the brave police officer that he was supposed to represent? Whatever it was, there was no trace of him any more. He was an embarrassment of the police department. He'd been praised for his service, but he was nothing but a chicken. He wasn't worthy of the badge of which he'd been proud. If his colleagues knew he was scared of being rejected by a kindergarten teacher, they'd make fun of him for the rest of his life.

Acting like nothing happened, he went to work. Despite being stressed out, he couldn't let anything show on his face. He hoped he couold take his mind off the beautiful teacher if he immersed himself in work.

Just before he was supposed to pick up his son from kindergarten, his superior called him to his office. Gabe hoped it wouldn't take long because he hated making Leo wait, and he couldn't put off the conversation with Orazio any further.

"You called, sir?" he asked after being admitted inside.

"Sit down. I need to talk to you," the older grizzled man said, sitting behind a massive desk.

From his tone, Gabe could tell he he hadn't been summoned for small talk.

"As you know, Romano and Marchesi have been investigating brothels in town. But Romano was injured recently, so I had to pull him out of the case. Marchesi can't work on it alone, so I've assigned you to him. From now on, you'll assist and help Marchesi."

That old geezer! He knew Gabe and Marchesi didn't get along, yet he still put them on the same case.

"Try not to kill each other on the first day," the old man added. If Gabe didn't know him, he'd say he was amused.