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“Miss Kate!”
Kelsey pulled Kate from her deep thoughts when she bounced up and down in front of her desk.
“Yes, Kelsey? What is it, dear?” She wiped her loose strands behind her ear and looked up to see the kids in her class standing in a big huddle in front of the windows. Kelsey pointed to something outside, and Kate followed her five-year-old index finger.
On the playground stood Donovan in a white overall, full of colorful paint stains. His beautiful black locks stood out in every direction, and his tanned complexion showed a glowing red hue. He was busy spraying green paint on the floor tiles. He must have been on the playground for quite some time, because it seemed like he’d already made a jungle of some kind. But he only reached their window just now.
“That’s Miss Kate’s boyfriend!” Jonathan shouted over the racket from the other kids in her class.
“Stop banging on the windows, kids. Go back to your seats,” Kate admonished while standing up from her seat behind her desk. She straightened her black pencil skirt and glanced down at her baby blue, button-down shirt. All was in place. Sometimes a button between her breasts would pop as the fabric always strained there the most. Putting on a larger shirt size wasn’t the answer to that little problem as the shape of her hourglass figure would be demolished by an oversized waistline.
She almost tripped in her two-inch kitten heels as she looked outside. On closer inspection, he’d made a path on the floor, just like a maze. He’d painted green bushes and trees in all kinds of shapes and sizes.
“What’s he doing, Miss Kate?” Jonathan asked.
“Umm….” Kate was at a loss for words. She had no clue of what was going on. It was Monday, and she had been a bit late this morning as she’d stayed till late at her sister’s last night. She hadn’t been in the break room before she’d started her class today. She probably missed Principal Albert’s announcement about any improvements on the schoolyard.
She was saved by the bell—literally. All the kids cheered at the sound of the bell that told them school was out for the day, and they moved around like frenzied ants in search of some sweets. Putting away pencils, puzzles, and other works and placing their chairs on top of their tabletops for the cleaning crew that night.
Kate made her rounds through the class and picked up some wads of paper from the floor. When the last kid had his coat and backpack on his back, she checked the zippers of a few children she knew had trouble zipping up their coats.
“Oh, wonderful! You did it, Kels.”
Kelsey beamed up at Kate and nodded with a proud gleam. For the very first time, she’d fastened her shoelaces, put on her coat, and her own backpack instead of Jessie’s, which was a similar Moana backpack. And she’d even pulled up that wrathful zipper on her cute but annoying purple jacket.
“Okay. Everybody ready?” Kate said in a hopefully cheery voice. She tried to keep up appearances, but she dreaded going outside and running into Donovan there. The children confirmed that they were ready, and off they went.
Kate opened the doors to the schoolyard, and behind her kids, Bree had entered the hallway with her class. She mouthed over their heads to Kate, “What the fuck?”
Oh boy, maybe this wasn’t some kind of renovation by Donovan after all as even know-it-all Bree wasn’t brought up to speed. What was he doing here? Her heart rate went sky high, and she had to take multiple big breaths to calm down somewhat.
The first caretakers stood ready to take over from Kate, and she gave each child a goodbye. “See you tomorrow, Shania,” she said as she nodded and searched the yard for the last parent.
“I see my mom! She’s there.” Kelsey pointed and jerked on Kate’s shirt to get her attention. But Kate had already seen her mom. Maggie was on her way, walking in Donovan’s direction who stood with Bree and wasn’t paying any attention to Kate, or Kelsey for that matter.
Kelsey dragged a reluctant Kate for a few steps but let go of her to run over to her mother. Maggie almost tripped and fell when Kelsey jumped on her, as she’d only had eyes for Donovan. Kate decided to do the right thing by not avoiding Donovan, or Maggie for that matter, and started to walk up in their direction.
When her gaze locked with Donovan’s, he started to kill the remaining distance between him and Kate while passing Maggie without acknowledging her. He took determined steps with his head held high and his chest puffed out. All she could see was him. It was like the high-pitched squeals and shouting from the playing kids in the background slowly faded away.
He halted in front of her, and weirdly enough, his eyes seemed to be drawn to her breasts. She narrowed her eyes in annoyance, but before she could speak, his hands came up to her breasts. She turned red in the face, and just as she was tempted to punch him in the face, he tsked. “Why, Miss Kate, have you been flashing those kids all day long?”
She looked down at her shirt, and sure enough the damned button had popped again. Must have happened when Kelsey jerked her arm. Her breath hitched when his knuckle grazed her nipple when he took her button and straightened her shirt for her.
“T-thanks.”
He winked and she blushed in response.
“What are you doing here?” She looked over her shoulder and saw several kids and a few moms and dads speed walking through Donovan’s maze.
He held her tight by her biceps and leaned in as she watched him again. “I want you to know that I called Principal Albert this morning, and he immediately was all-in and thought this was a good idea.”
Kate nodded and turned in his embrace so she could have a better look at his work on the floor tiles. He held his arm over her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “Do you want to have a go? I’ll be at the end of the maze, let’s see if you can find your way.”
She swiftly turned her head and looked up to him. Before she could argue that she didn’t want to do this at her workplace, he simply kissed the side of her head and walked away from her in the direction of the maze.
She sighed and looked over at Bree, who now had been joined by Kelsey and Maggie. Bree gave her two thumbs-up and a blinding smile for encouragement. She passed Donovan, who was busying himself with pulling his overalls off. He’d placed the cans of paint in a cardboard box full of stuff, and something big leaned against the box. It had the form and size of a huge television screen.
She righted her shoulders and braced herself for something embarrassing. It had to be something big as he made a show out of coming to her school and spray-painting a large area of the playground. She hated, just hated to be the center of attention. And he knew how she felt. So why was he doing this?
