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Not on my watch! What time is your lunch?
Katie:
11:30
Nolan:
Consider it done.
Katie:
Wait, what’s done? What are you talking about?
He doesn’t immediately text me back, so I send him another message asking for clarification. When that text also goes unanswered, I finally figure out that he’s not going to tell me what he’s planning. With Nolan, it could be anything. A part of me is nervous about what’s going to happen, but the rest of me is giddy that he’s making a plan in general.
It seems like being mad at Nolan will be a futile effort.
I dump the contents of my lunch bag onto my desk. This is depressing. The container of cherry tomatoes popped open in the rush and is now in a pile on my desk. I also packed a cheese stick that’s now room temperature and a sleeve of Ritz crackers. My phone buzzes on my desk.
Nolan:
Come up to the front office.
Please.
I jump up from my desk and practically sprint down the hallway. Sprint is too strong of a word. I’m walking very fast. I round the corner to see Nolan leaning against the counter where the pass-through window closes in the secretary. His charming smile is dialed up to full wattage. He’s fucking delicious.
He turns toward me, his eyes eating up every inch of my body. I’m pretty sure I could be wearing a garbage bag and Nolan would look at me as if I were naked.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” I ask when I finally get to him.
Nolan leans into me, placing his hand on my hip and pressing a kiss to my cheek. “I couldn’t let you get hangry, so I brought you lunch.” He turns back to the counter and presents me with a stack of cardboard pizza boxes.
“Did you bring enough for my whole classroom?” I tease.
“I thought I’d press my luck and see if you’d let me have lunch with you.” He looks at me with puppy dog eyes, and I have no idea how I’m supposed to resist that blue-eyed stare.
So, I don’t. “I’d love that.” I help Nolan get signed in as my guest. Dottie shoots a wink my way, making me blush.
Nolan holds my hand all the way back to my classroom, taking in the hallways filled with colorful posters and the students’ art projects as we go. I tell him which hallways are for what grade levels.
“It’s odd how similar and yet very different Westlake is from Sonoma,” he muses.
“You went to school in Sonoma, right?”
“Yeah. It’s smaller than Westlake, but I didn’t think it would be this noticeable. This school feels much bigger than mine.”
“I’ve never been to Sonoma’s elementary. I got this job right after I graduated from college and only interviewed at a couple of other schools in Greensboro.”
“I never knew you’ve lived here for that long. For some reason, I always imagined you moving here with Ellie.”
I lead Nolan into my classroom with a hum of agreement. “It does sort of feel like my life didn’t start until we became friends.”
I pull a chair over to my desk for Nolan while he gets our lunch together.
“This is sad.” Nolan is staring at my measly lunch, and I grimace.
“Yeah, it was not ideal. My brain wasn’t functioning on all cylinders this morning.”
