Page 49 of Apparently, I’m Torture

I looked to Shawn and waited as he nodded his approval. Everyone sat back down and I cleared my throat.

“I know all of us have been working hard, but, without our project manager, I think we can all agree the fundraiser would’ve been a mess by now.”

I stole a peek at Stacey, who was completely thrown. She didn’t know whether to be upset or thankful as I slid the pink box in front of her.

“Personally, she’s been a big help to me these past few weeks, and even though I’ve given her every reason not to be, she’s been pretty patient too. Stacey, this is just a small thank you from us, for being such a great project manager.”

I flipped the box lid back and showed her a red velvet cake that sported the words Thank you Stacey in delicious, white cursive.

The teachers around me clapped (well, except for Mia), and it was really nice to watch as Stacey’s eyes glassed over. Before tears could fall, she met my glance and said, “You remembered my favorite flavor.”

I shrugged, said, “My memory might be a wee bit elephantine,” and she laughed.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Mia grumbled as she pushed her chair against the table. “It’s not like she deserves a cake for doing her bloody job.”

Shawn shot Mia a warning glance, and she rolled her eyes as she stalked out of the meeting room. “All I’m saying,” she started on her way past, “is once a bitch, always a bitch.”

The room went quiet, and Stacey’s face hardened before she stood and clapped her hands together. “Thanks for this, guys. I think we should put it in the kitchen so everyone can have a slice.”

“Oooh, I’ll take it.” A squat teacher with a wild mess of curly hair shot her hand up. Sharon. I’m pretty sure that was her name. “I can cut the slices.” She gripped the box, shot me a wink and led the way to the kitchen as she told everyone, “I dabble in baking cupcakes myself. Maybe I’ll bring a few in next week.”

As everyone funneled out, Shawn leaned over, his voice a low velvety whisper in my ear. “Can we talk for a minute?”

I turned to him with flushed cheeks. “Is it about Mia?”

He let his gaze slide across my body, and it felt like he was running his fingers across me. Oh man, it was bad juju to lust after a guy who was already taken, wasn’t it?

I wish I could say this truce was messing with my head, but I had this problem long before that. Even when I was upset with him, I wanted him to push me against a wall, slide his hands along my waist, and do every naughty thing I could think of. I wanted him to fuck me so hard my eyes rolled back.

But I didn’t want to feel like this. Shawn treated me like I meant nothing to him for years. I mean, where was my self-respect? Probably baked into that red-velvet cake.

“No, but if you could talk to her about this… feud thing she has going with Stacey, that’d be great. I need a non-hostile work environment to keep this thing on track.”

I held out my hands. “I get it. I’ll talk to her ASAP.”

“Thanks, but I wanted to thank you for trying to smooth things over with Stace.”

“Oh?” I put my hands behind my back and resisted the urge to bounce on my toes.

“Yeah. She’s been under a lot of pressure lately, and I know you two haven’t been getting along. It was pretty great of you to be the bigger person.”

I lifted a shoulder. “I just wanted to thank her. You may’ve asked her to do it, but because of her I’ve got a happy Mrs Hernandez. She saved my job.”

He offered me a smile, and suddenly he was closer, and it was harder to breathe. But not in a panic attack way. In a forget how to use bodily functions way.

Nuurggh, it was shitty of me to find him attractive. Especially after I just tried to mend things with the woman he was seeing.

Guilt was a rush, but so was lust, and both thudded in my ears as Shawn did that sexy thing where he chewed one side of his bottom lip before speaking.

“About that. I was thinking about putting in a call to Trevor. I could ask him to back off. Professionally, of course. Would you… be okay with that?”

Oh, be still my ovaries. He was not my knight in shining armor.

“Thanks for the offer, but no. I should handle Trevor myself. Besides–” I dared to give him that light punch-in-the-chest friends give friends, and a wave of awkwardness dunked itself over me. “He won’t exactly have a reason to let me go if I finish my tasks here, finish his module, and raise my student exam scores.”

Ignoring my fist to his immovable stone chest, he frowned. “Lilly, I don’t want to sound like I don’t believe you’re a good teacher. I do. I’ve known you for so long it’s hard to believe you could be bad at anything–”

“Math. You know I’m awful at math.”