Page 102 of Apparently, I’m Torture

“Oh relax, Bri, they’ve heard worse. Besides, talking shit about our new boss before he gets here gives us all a chance to be pleasantly surprised.”

Lilly’s laugh–bright, bubbly and warm–filled the doorway. A familiar heat crept down my spine.

“How does that work?” she asked. “Are we lowering our expectations by pre-emptively shitting on him?”

I pictured Mia winking as she said, “Exactly.”

“What if it’s a woman?” Brianna interjected. “How do you know it’s a he?”

Mia’s voice took on an edge. “Don’t worry, I’m not making an assumption. I overheard the math teachers, and they were sprouting boners over the fact that another sausage was joining the party.”

Principal Rutton looked over her shoulder at me with a raised brow, and I fought to keep from laughing. This was going to be so much fucking fun.

“I apologize, Mr Jackson,” she said, voice lowered. “Miss Walker can be… colorful at times, but she is an excellent teacher.”

I nodded and offered her a sliver of the smile I was fighting.

Then Principal Rutton rolled her shoulders back and marched in, leading the way. I stood, lingering just out of sight behind the doorframe, as she barged into the female fray.

“Ladies, how are we today?”

“Good.”

“Okay.”

“Fine, although my scoliosis is acting up,” Mia said, probably palming her back and twisting her neck.

“That’s… too bad.” She cleared her throat and changed tact. “I wanted to wish you a happy start of semester. I hope this one will be… less disruptive than the last. Not to undermine our last head teacher, but I think we can all agree that his focus was not entirely on the job itself.”

An understatement, if I ever heard one.

“I have a couple of things to announce this morning. First, we have a new teacher joining us.” She gestured with the assumption I’d be standing right behind her. She did a double take, then watched as I stepped into the room.

From the corner of my eye, I could see an older, curvy woman sitting up, nodding a friendly hello. Judging by the gasp in the right corner, Mia was surprised. But all I could see?

Lilly.

Her face went from mild expectation, to wide-eyed disbelief, to open-mouthed shock. Then she screamed, jumped from her desk, and crashed into me, wrapping her arms around my neck as I stumbled backward, laughing.

“I take it you two know each other,” the principal drawled, joking. She was well-aware of what she was getting into when she hired me.

“What is he doing here?” Mia asked, standing as Lilly pressed a kiss to my lips.

“Babe,” I said, glancing meaningfully at the principal.

My girlfriend flushed prettily as she realized she kissed me in front of her boss, but to her credit, Principal Rutton waved it away.

“As long as the students don’t see it, I don’t mind. I assume I don’t have to remind you to keep it above the belt during school hours.”

Brianna colored as Mia crossed her arms and griped, “Are you kidding me? You hired him to be our new head teacher? He’s going to lord this over us for bloody years.”

Lilly gave Mia a pleading glance. Mia gave her a half-smile and winked. She wasn’t really mad that I was here. She was just acting up for old time’s sake.

“He’ll be an amazing head teacher.” Lilly turned to me and beamed. “I bet you’ve already planned our entire year.”

Principal Rutton cleared her throat again as I shook my head.

“I don’t have any plans,” I said, watching her face fall into confusion. “I’m not your head teacher.”