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“I might have been out a little too long last night.” Julia nervously tried to catch her reflection in the window. “Lost track of time. Do I look that bad?”
“Julia Jenner,” she gasped, “you lose track of time? You stay out too long?”
“Oh, stop!”
“Who are you and what have you done with the esteemed Dr. Jenner? You know, the one born with a stick up her ass?”
“I’m so not that bad,” Julia retorted, but she couldn’t hold back her smile.
Keegan, finally noticing the breakfast table to her right, asked, “were you at least having fun?”
“I actually got caught up in a nice conversation with a complete stranger. It was so,” she paused, searching for the right words, “refreshingly comforting.”
Keegan just observed her for a moment, studying her expression. “You’re blushing!” She gaped, her brown eyes widening. “You’re freaking blushing!”
“What?” Julia jumped. She most certainly was not. She raised one hand to her cheek and could feel the heat radiating off of it before she even touched skin.
“Alright, you need to spill it!”
“There’s nothing to spill.” Julia turned to take another sip of her coffee in the most nonchalant way she could muster.
“The Julia Jenner I know does not blush!” Keegan playfully nudged her shoulder. “I haven’t seen you with a grin like that in…”
“A long time,” Julia spoke quietly, the empty air in the room growing somber.
Keegan’s smile faded as she walked over to Julia and gave her a gentle hug. Not many knew about her and Marin. She was still called Mrs. Jenner when she wasn’t called doctor. If anyone pieced it together, they didn’t mention it.
They used to attend all school events together: prom, fundraisers, theater productions, football games. As the last three years passed, it slowly whittled away. After so many excuses, so many times others inquired about her whereabouts, people stopped asking where her partner in crime was. Julia was relieved at that point. She almost began believing that Marin was actually busy at work or out of town. That was, until she came home to her asleep on the couch with a cold cup of tea on the table, the television blaring in the background.
Just thinking about Marin brought her back to her favorite event they attended together. It was the last prom Marin helped chaperone. As the lights dimmed, students rested their heads on taller shoulders. Marin turned to her from the wall they leaned against and asked her to dance. They swayed in the corner, hands cupped in the small of each other’s backs. They smiled and laughed, completely smitten with the puppy love of their own infatuation, even after all those years. It was like nothing else existed, not even the students surrounding them. That moment, that instance of pure happiness, was engraved into her memory like a necklace that hung over her heart; something she’d never take off.
She felt no need to bring her personal life into her work anymore. She’d pretend it was fine until she couldn’t, or until everyone forgot Marin existed. Whichever came first. She had time. She could wait it out.
“Alright,” Julia sighed and straightened her pale blue suit jacket.
She fluffed her curls, wiped beneath her eyes, and took a deep breath. She just needed to get through the hecticness of what that day would be, and then she could retreat to the sanctity of her office and reset. She just needed to make it through the hour.
“So,” Keegan continued in her usual business-like manner, always knowing when to drop a subject, “I’ll take care of the housekeeping and review the upcoming meetings for the month and remind everyone about the past due student evaluations for their intervention reports.”
“That would be great! My plan is to keep this as short and sweet as we can.”
Julia turned her attention back to the coffee in front of her. Keegan nodded with agreement as she stuffed a chocolate donut hole into her mouth.
“Next time, can you get some of those ones with the cream on the inside?” she asked, her mouth overfull and open.
“The ones with Bavarian cream?”
“Yeah, those ones!”
“You do know you can pick them up anytime yourself?” Julia grinned. “You live right next to the bakery.”
“They taste better when someone else buys them,” she snorted, picking up another danish.
Julia flipped through her papers once more as chatter filled the room. Coffee mugs clinked on tables and chairs screeched across the freshly waxed floor. A gentle, chaotic hum floated through the air as they readied their space and grabbed snacks for their seats.
“Julia!” Jonathan yelled from the doorway, his arms brushing his red tie as he flung them in the air. “I got it! I got the grant! I didn’t think they’d give it to a new teacher, but they did!”
“What?” Julia exclaimed. “That’s absolutely phenomenal! For the entire high school?”
