AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rhonda playfully slapped at him. “Stop it, Sharpley. I told you. It’s true love!”
Zora finally saw an opportunity to excuse herself, and she headed back to the bar to refill her glass. She nearly ran into Woody’s wife, Crystal Gilles, whose tattooed arms were on full display outside a sleeveless and shapeless ecru cotton dress and sandals. She was a preschool teacher; go figure.
“Sorry,” Zora murmured politely. She was surprised Crystal had even come. She’d purposely avoided the pre-graduation barbecue at the Forsythes’, a good move as it turned out, but she’d managed to make it to their ten-year reunion. Maybe she’d had a change of heart over the years. At least the Goth period seemed to be over.
“Woody told me about you,” Crystal said with a mysterious smile.
“Told you what?”
She turned her head, still smiling, and wandered to where Woody was regaling the guys’ group with a story that elicited a wave of laughter. Zora found herself more uneasy about her comment than she would have credited. What was there to know about her? Was it the heavy make-out session with Tanner? Amanda had already spilled those beans, though maybe Crystal didn’t know it.
“Bitch,” Zora muttered under her breath, carefully holding a protective hand in front of her wineglass as she maneuvered back through the crowd.
Mr. Timmons was talking to Anne Reade, who had one hand on his forearm and was regarding him intently. Clarice Billings cruised up to them and, like Anne, seemed to be offering condolences. Anne pulled back, and Zora could practically read her mind. Get away from him, you blond bitch. Unlike Anne, who’d grown softer over time with a bit of a pudgy belly, Clarice still had a slim runner’s body, and her face was smooth and unlined. Botox, or good genes? Maybe both. Seeming to sense she was unwanted, Clarice moved away from Timmons . . . and Zora took her place, causing Anne to frown.
“Mr. Timmons, hi, I just wanted to say I heard about your dad, and I’m really sorry. They said that you were really close. That you were taking care of him. I’m sure it’s really hard,” Zora said in her most heartfelt voice.
The math teacher looked at Zora in an unfocused way. For a moment, she wondered if he’d imbibed a bit too heavily, but his hands were empty, and he didn’t seem drunk. Emotion, she decided, as he answered, “Thank you, Zora. Um . . . call me Brian, please. High school was ten years ago.”
Anne said, “Doesn’t seem that long.”
“I know, right?” Zora agreed. “And then sometimes it feels like nothing’s changed.”
“Everything’s changed,” he said. Then, as if realizing what a downer he sounded like, he allowed, “Some things for the better.”
“This reunion just brings up all the sadness about Carmen Proffitt,” said Anne. “We haven’t had a student’s death since, while they were in school. It’s still difficult.”
Though she was saying the words, there was something wooden about her delivery that made it seem like she was, well, just saying the words.
“I think it’s on everyone’s minds,” Zora said. “Certainly Bailey’s.”
“They were good friends,” Timmons agreed.
“BFFs.” Zora gave them both a nod. Maybe it was time to leave. She’d given her condolences, and sticking around might get awkward.
Anne said, “Clarice should have been able to pull Carmen out of the water. She’s all muscle, and I’ve never known anyone so determined. I just don’t know how Carmen drowned.”
There was jealousy lurking in Anne’s rebuke of Miss Billings. Zora reminded them, “Carmen was five-ten and all muscle herself. Bailey tried to get her to come out of the water, but Carmen wouldn’t even listen. Then Bailey fell in, and Carmen went after her.”
“Is your husband here?” Mr. Timmons asked Zora.
“No, he couldn’t make it.” She was a little surprised he knew she was married.
“Reunions are made for the classmates,” Anne observed.
/> Zora felt herself grow stubborn. Anne was treating Mr. Timmons as if he were hers, and hers alone. But she’d had years to land him, and it hadn’t happened yet, so . . . “Tell me about your dad, Brian,” Zora said, testing out his name on her tongue. It felt a bit strange, as she’d always thought of him as her teacher, one who knew that her talent for numbers wasn’t exactly up to the same level as Amanda’s or Ellie’s. “My parents split up right after I graduated, and my relationship with them has been, well . . .” She waggled her free hand back and forth. “It’s hard to lose family.”
Anne made a sound of disbelief, but the math teacher regarded Zora with damp eyes. “Thank you,” he said, meaning it.
“I think I’ll get something to drink,” Anne said drily. “Want anything?”
Brian shook his head. He moved closer to Zora as soon as Anne, with a lingering look back that could have melted steel, headed away.
Zora gazed into his eyes. Blue. She liked blue eyes. She liked the color blue. He wasn’t all that bad-looking, and he wasn’t all that old.
“Tell me about him,” she invited again.
“You sure you want to hear?” He looked at her askance, but she could sense the eagerness beneath his words.
