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Cassie pulled the apron she had purchased at Williams-Sonoma and had ironed ‘Synonym Chef’ in bright letters on the front. She also pulled out a homemade chef’s hat and the cinnamon rolls she had found and made that were peanut ingredient free since several of the kids in class had a peanut allergy. She also pulled out the templates she had made so each student could have a synonym chef hat of their own.
“Ms. Randall, this is so cool!” Cassidy piped up from the back of the room. “I’m gonna make the best chef’s hat ever!”
“As long as you make some awesome synonym pairs, too, Cassidy.”
“Don’t worry, Ms. Randall. I’m a synonym master!” Cassidy responded. With a laugh and nod to Tommie to remind him of his helper status, Cassie gave him the synonym rolls and brainstorming worksheet to pass out while she passed out the chef’s hat template and cinnamon rolls she had gotten up early that morning and baked.
“I really am impressed with how well you are doing, Cassie,” the classroom teacher, Mrs. Simmons, told her. “The way you engage all of the students in the room is so impressive. You’re like a veteran teacher. I have no doubt that you will be an asset to any school you find yourself teaching in. I’ve been doing this a long time. You’re by far the best student teacher I’ve ever had. It’s definitely your calling.”
Cassie blushed at the compliment.
“So how was the wedding?” Mrs. Simmons asked with a twinkle in her eye. “Was it as lavish as I imagined it to be in my head?”
“Actually, it was really simple and sweet,” Cassie said. “They wrote their own vows to teach other and played songs that meant a lot to them rather than the usual wedding ones.”
“How amazing,” Mrs. Simmons sighed dreamily.
“Yeah, it really was,” Cassie agreed. Looking down at her watch, Cassie realized it was almost time for PE. “My goodness, class. We’ve been having so much fun with our synonyms we are going to be late for PE if we don’t hurry and line up in our super straight, amazing line like we always do. Let’s get going! Show me how straight you can make it!”
Without a fuss, the kids got in a line at the door. Some days were worse than others, but this class of kids really was a great bunch. She only hoped that she could get as good a group at her first school.
Tommie held open the door as the line walked out of the classroom, Cassie following behind. “Hi ho, Hi ho, to PE we’ll go,” the kids sang and whistled the Seven Dwarves tune. Cassie smiled a proud smile. She had taught that one to them herself. Changing her major was the best decision she had ever made.
After dropping the kids off at the gym, Cassie walked down to the teacher’s lounge to go to the bathroom, prop her feet up for a few minutes and drink a much-needed coke to drown her headache. She looked at her phone for the billionth time since she had left the wedding. Still no call from Jamal. No text. Nothing. With a sigh, she threw it down on the lounge couch before heading to the bathroom where she could pee without fear that a child would knock on the stall to ask her a question. Washing her hands, Cassie grabbed a coke out of the fridge before plopping down on the couch next to her phone.
“Still no word?” Natasha, the other first grade teacher in the school and Cassie’s classroom neighbor, asked from her seat on the other couch in the lounge. “Honey, why don’t you call him?”
“Because if he wanted to talk to me,hewould be the one to call,” Cassie said with a huff. “That’s what my mom always taught me. Don’t ever chase a man. Especially one who didn’t want to be chased.”
Cassie saddened at the thought. If only her momma had taken her own advice, she might still be alive today. Cassie shook her head, trying to ward off the demons that still rose to the surface from time to time.Hewas thousands of miles away and had no clue where Cassie was. She was safe.
“Girl, you do realize that he’s anNBA basketball player, right? He’s probably pretty busy.”
“Too busy to pick up the phone and send a text? That takes like thirty seconds. If that.”
“He’s at the end of preseason, almost to the beginning of the regular season. He probably doesn’t have time to sleep, much less pick up a phone.”
Cassie frowned. “What is preseason?”
“Seriously?” Natasha asked. “Honey, we’ve got to get you in front of a TV more often. NBA games are like, every day. All across the country.”
Cassie raised her eyebrows. “Really?”
“Really. You should text him. If what you have told me is true, you guys had some serious chemistry. There’s no way a man could kiss a woman like that if he wasn’t interested.”
“Maybe I exaggerated,” Cassie mused.
“Nuh-uh,” Natasha said, shaking her head. “The things he said to you? Thewayhe kissed you? He even let you sleep on his couch, covered you with a blanket and didn’ttryanything. Trust me, the man is smitten. Pick up the phone andtext him.What’s the worst that could happen?”
“The fact that I totally read too much into things and he hasn’t texted or called because he doesn’t want to.”
Natasha pulled herself off the couch and threw her can of Sprite in the trash. “It’s up to you, girly. But if I were in your shoes, I would definitely call. He’s too hot not to. The spitting image of Jackson from Grey’s Anatomy. You gotta know that.”
Cassie nodded. After all the talk of how much he looked like the television character, Cassie had Googled the season where Jackson was introduced and watched the first episode on Netflix. Everyone was right. The men could pass for brothers.
Cassie took her breath and reached for her phone. Just as she started to dial the number, the bell rang, signaling the end of the hour. It was time to pick her students up from the gym. “Saved by the bell,” she said, raising her phone in a salute to her friend. “It’s a sign. I should leave well enough alone.”
Natasha rolled her eyes. ”Whatever you say, girl. Sounds to me like an excuse if I ever heard one.”
