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“This is my extremely inadequate way of making last night up to you,” Maya says, looking apologetically at me as she holds out one of the coffees. “I’mreallysorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” I assure her, taking a grateful sip of coffee.
“I promise it won’t happen again.” She smiles carefully at me. “So…what happened with you and Mr. Superintendent last night?”
“Nothing.”
“Oh, shit. I messed it up for you, didn’t I? I’m so sorry, Claire.”
I shake my head. “You didn’t mess anything up.”
“What are you talking about? Of course I did. You could have been hooking up with him, and instead, you had to babysit me.”
We’ve reached the room where our first session of the day is being held. I lower my voice as we walk in and look for seats. “I didn’t have any intention of hooking up with him, Maya.”
“Okay, fine,” Maya says. “You could have beenflirtingwith him, then. Or justtalkingto him. My point still stands.”
We pick our seats and sit down. “It’s fine. Seriously.”
“Youdohave a thing for him, though, right?”
My heart beats an extra time as I’m faced with the question. Instead of answering, I focus on setting my coffee into the cup holder on the seat and then getting my notepad and pen out from my bag.
When I glance over at Maya, she’s still waiting for my answer.
“Well? Do you?” she says.
“Mmhmm,” I say.
A smile breaks out on her face. “What’s that? I couldn’t hear you.”
“Yes,” I say, a little forcefully, looking down at my notepad to test out my pen. “But it’s not like I’m going to do anything about it.”
I can feel Maya’s grin without even looking at her.
Fortunately, before Maya can keep pestering me about it, someone walks into the room, greets us all cheerfully, and begins the session. It’s a presentation about how school start times affect student performance, and even though I don’t have any influence over our school’s start times, I take thorough notes anyway. Anything relating to education is always fascinating to me.
Forty minutes later, the session is over, and Maya and I head to one of the auditoriums for a panel discussion on how teachers and school administrators can foster better relationships with each other. There are already quite a few people here, and Maya and I grab seats toward the back.
I’ve just gotten settled in my seat and have turned to a fresh page in my notepad when I look up and realize that Jack is on the panel.
It feels like my body temperature instantly rises the moment I see him. He’s dressed in a suit, and he looks sexy as hell. It’s not just the clothes, though. It’s his relaxed confidence, too. Sitting up there at the table with the other panelists, he’s obviously at ease.
“Is that…” Maya says.
“Yep,” I say.
Maya grins. “Nice. Lucky you, Claire.”
The moderator welcomes everyone and starts to introduce the panelists. As he introduces the first panelist, though, my eyes stay on Jack. At first, his attention remains on the moderator. But then the woman sitting beside Jack leans over to say something to him, and he turns and says something back to her, making her quietly laugh.
My stomach sinks, watching the two of them. I hate that it does, but it does.
“…and our next panelist is Jack Goddard,” the moderator says into the mic. “Ahem. Jack?”
Jack turns away from the woman and straightens up in his chair.
“Sorry, Ross,” says Jack, grinning. Everyone in the audience—except for me—laughs. “Go on.”
