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“Thank you, everyone.” Julia dismissed the onlooking students with faces pressed against the wall and the teachers who tried to help. She looked back at Erin, who held her hands on her waist as she released a held breath. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure. Do you often have fist fights in the hallway?” she joked.
Julia immediately panicked. The realization that she was under a microscope loomed in the distance. Every single moment, including that incident, had the potential to end up in a report. It went beyond academic matters.
She became too comfortable. She fell into the familiar nature of Erin too fast. She knew at that moment how wrong she was. She couldn’t do this. This was such a big mistake. It was risking far too much, far too soon.
“No,” she responded as seriously as she could. “This hardly ever happens. Please, don’t–” Before she could finish her sentence Erin stepped closer, vigorously shaking her head.
“Julia,” her voice was so soft, her hand gracing the side of her arm, “please don’t panic that I’m going to go and tattle on everything that happens in my presence.”
“You are here to observe and report.”
“Educational practices and from what I see, there’s nothing concerning. You’re doing fine.”
Erin gave a small smile, but all Julia could focus on was her hand on her arm. She looked down at it, the way her slender fingers wrapped so effortlessly around her skin. Julia looked back up and met Erin’s eyes. She held them, completely forgetting where they were.
Erin suddenly dropped her hand, took a step back, and then headed towards the office without another word. Julia watched as she stopped and spoke to Keegan before disappearing behind her door.
Julia took a moment and composed herself, taking a deep breath and then wiping her sweaty palms on her pants before making a move. She used one of the conference rooms to debrief with each girl–after school detention being the punishment for both. By the time they left, the girls were laughing and chatting animatedly down the hallway, their conflict forgotten.
That was how the next several weeks went. Julia diffused situation after situation, all while Erin supported from her side. Erin fit right in, took immediate control without ever second guessing. She was a natural within the school, and the faculty was already loosening up around her, relying on her expertise. Just like Julia fit next to her in The Tipsy Hatter, she fit within the community of Kleinton.
Somehow Erin could remain focused on her work in the office, while Julia had to make a conscious effort to maintain her distance and professionalism. Erin pretended not to see her watching, and she tried her best to focus her eyes on anything else. It didn’t matter how hard she tried; she found herself falling far too deep in the comfort it gave her to look up and see those walnut colored curls. She caught herself getting more and more distracted by the sound of her breathing, the way she sighed at the paperwork before her.
There were times when Julia looked up and smiled after meeting Erin’s eyes. She’d pull away, embarrassed at the fact that Erin might think she was staring. What she never accounted for was that Erin could only catch her in the act if she was looking at her, too.
Instead of scheduling time to ask questions or review findings so far, Erin slid a chair across the room. She always sat closer than she had to, leaned over more than necessary. Sometimes she asked questions she didn’t need help answering, just to breathe in the same air.
Julia told herself each day that they could do this. They could be professional without thinking anymore about those stolen kisses past midnight. But gosh those lips. Julia still lost herself in the rosiness of them, especially when she came close enough for her to smell that honeysuckle mix with vanilla–a tropical escape she wanted the first flight off to.
“Dr. Jenner,” Erin began, swiveling her chair away from her desk to face Julia.
The soft light filtered through the dusty gray clouds and threw fragmented patterns on the walls. The lights were off, dimly soothing their tired eyes in dusk.
“We’ve talked about this.” She smiled, closing her laptop screen. “You can call me Julia. After almost four weeks of working in this office together, listening to me jab on at every meeting, you get to call me by my first name.”
“Julia,” she corrected herself. “I have a really great start to my report, but I think it would be a nice idea to begin my administrative inspection now.” Leaning on her chair, she looked at Julia with curiosity.
“I don’t think that should be a problem,” Julia replied, her heart beating just a little faster.
Erin turned back to her desk and grabbed a sticky note, preparing to jot down some notes. She looked so unbothered, so natural in her position.
“Who would you recommend as a good starting point?”
Julia’s voice dropped to a quiet tone as she suggested, “how about me, right now?”
Erin turned towards her, one leg swung over the other. She held her pen just below her bottom lip. She had that hot professional look going on–purposefully messy hair sitting just below her shoulders as she smiled past that pen.
“Sounds perfect.”
Her lip gloss reflected the light from the window, accentuating the tanned tones of her complexion. Julia held back every impulse to stand up and kiss those cupid bows. What had that woman done to her–to undo her like that?
Erin rose from her desk and took a seat in the chair opposite her. She leaned against her arm the same casual way she had before, pressing her weight into Julia’s desk while maintaining eye contact. A smile played on her lips, the pen still poised on her chin. She was so unintentionally beautiful, so graceful in a way that made Julia’s breath continuously hiccup.
Opening a notebook before her, Erin spoke, her words sounding like a question but carrying the weight of a statement. “You’ve increased your budget threshold by 1.5%?”
“Yes,” Julia sat up just a little straighter, pulling a notepad from the side of her desk.
