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I lay in bed that night, the scent of her on my pillowcase. It was the one item on my bed that I hadn’t washed. As it turned out, I was a glutton for punishment. Or, I simply couldn’t let her go.
What the hell kind of employer got in the way of people’s private relationships? Anger burned in my gut at the principal and whoever else made that rule. Was that even legal?
If only Ellie wasn’t Mollie’s teacher. I remembered Rick saying that Mrs. Snyder wanted to move Mollie to a different class, so it was clear that even with a different teacher, as long as Ellie and Mollie were in the same school, we weren’t allowed to be together.
I thought about the house I’d taken Mollie to, but it was in the same school district. I’d done that on purpose, so Mollie wouldn’t have to leave her friends and start a new school. But maybe the answer was to find a home in a different district.
If I did that, would Ellie even want to see me? Rick suggested Ellie liked me, but she’d walked away pretty easily. She appeared to be going on with her life like nothing had changed.
Fuck! Why did love have to be so hard?
The next day, I dropped Mollie off at school, and for a moment, I considered going in and giving Mrs. Snyder a piece of my mind, but couldn’t quite bring myself to do it.
Instead, I returned home. I did some work and then looked for homes online in a different school district. Thoughts of Ellie kept whirling in my brain, but I had no place to organize or store them. Giving up on work and house hunting, I went to the balcony to look over the ocean. I’d miss this when we moved, but unfortunately, I didn’t have enough for a house on the beach.
As I stared out over the waves, I was swamped with memories, like the first time I was inside Ellie’s sweet body. She’d put so much trust in me. I’d never forget the way she surrendered her virginity to me. Or the time we’d fucked out in the ocean. She was a woman who wanted to experience a lot but seemed timid about going after it. Not much different from Mollie. But with me as her guide, she’d been open and eager to experience life, not just sexually, but in other areas as well. She wouldn’t have put that sort of trust just in anybody, would she? There had to be some feelings there for me, didn’t there?
I desperately needed to know.
I went back into the condo and grabbed my keys. Ten minutes later I was parked in the visitor’s lot at Mollie’s school and marched to the principal’s office.
“Mr. Mathers, you can’t just-” the secretary said, but I ignored her and entered the principal’s office.
“Mr. Mathers.” Mrs. Snyder stood, her expression sour; the same expression I imagined most of her misbehaving students received.
“Did you threaten to fire Ellie Webb for seeing me?” There was no sense in small talk.
Mrs. Snyder motioned to a chair for me to sit, as she sat behind her desk. “Ms. Webb knew the school’s policy when I hired her. She broke that and I gave her a second chance because she’s an excellent teacher.”
I remained standing. “What business is it of yours what she does outside of class?” The gall of this woman.
“We had an incident several years back. I’m sure you know of it. It made the news. Since then, we made it a policy that teachers aren’t to have relationships with parents or other teachers for that matter.”
What the fuck? I sank into the chair as I searched my brain for what she was referring too. When it came, I frowned at her. “That was a teacher and parent who were both married to other people. Ellie and I are single.”
“True, but-”
“And they were making amateur porn.”
“Nevertheless,” Mrs. Snyder started with that same pinched expression.
“So, if Ellie was dating someone else and making amateur porn, you’d be okay with that as long as he wasn’t a parent?” Surely the issue with the other incident had to do with the porn aspect, not the dating.
“The policy is set.”
I stared at her, wondering how she could be the principal of an elementary school when she had no heart. I stood abruptly. “In that case, I’m withdrawing Mollie from school, effective today. Get me whatever paperwork you need and I’ll sign it.” I headed to the door of her office. “I’m going to get Mollie now and be back to sign them.”
“Mr. Mathers, there are only two weeks left—”
“I don’t care.” I was out the door before she could do more than call my name.
Each step I took toward Ellie’s classroom, I felt confident yet nervous too. I wasn’t going to let Mrs. Snyder get in my way, but I still wondered if Ellie even wanted me.
