Right With Me - Stacey Lewis Page 0,65
the teacher can tell us how our daughter is doing this year?” This meeting is not starting well. Mitchell’s already irritated, whether because he had to stop touching me or because his ex isn’t paying any attention to the meeting we’re supposed to be having right now I’m not sure. It’s probably both.
She waves away his question. “Oh, would you relax? It will only take me a minute to finish this.”
Uh-oh. That’s the wrong thing to say to him.
“Sure, of course. It’s just, you know, our daughter we’re here to talk about. By all means,” he flings one arm out towards the classroom, “finish your conversation first.”
We sit in silence until she’s finally ready to begin and I’m glad it didn’t take her any longer because Mitchell is about to lose it. Tabitha finally puts her phone away, so I take advantage and start before he can lay into her the way I can tell he wants to.
“Evie is an absolute joy to have in my class. She’s bright, inquisitive, and eager to learn everything she can. I wish all of my students were like her.” Mitchell smiles, his pride in his daughter so easy to see. Tabitha isn’t even looking at me. She’s looking around the room, her focus on anything but me and I wonder why.
It's not like her to shy away from confrontation. At least, it wasn’t last year when I first met her. I guess she might have changed since then, but it seems doubtful. Nothing else about her has changed.
Pulling out her folder, I lay it out in the middle of the desk and go over all the different metrics and where Evie is hitting on each one. “If you look here,” I point to one, “she’s doing especially well in Reading. She’s reading on a sixth-grade level which is higher than the majority of the kids in class. I’ve been bringing in books from the school library to satisfy her thirst for books, but before I recommend any on the fifth and sixth-grade list, I wanted to get your thoughts. Some of those books are a bit more mature, and I don’t know how you’d feel about her reading them.” I lift two more sheets of paper, setting one down in front of each of them so they have it. “Here’s the list for those grades. Please look over it and let me know what you think.”
We go over the rest of her progress and thankfully, the meeting is over with almost ten minutes to spare. Neither parent asks any questions, and as soon as I say she can, Tabitha hightails it out of my room with her face buried in her phone screen.
Mitchell comes around my desk, resting his behind on the edge of my desk and taking both my hands in his, pulling me up so I’m standing between his legs. Once I’m where he wants me, he drops my hands and wraps his arms around my waist to pull me even closer.
My palms rest on his pecs and I lean in to kiss him. This kiss is soft, more tender than most of our kisses. I love the feeling of his tongue stroking the side of mine. I’m not sure how long we stand here, but neither of us hears the door open.
“What the hell is this?” Tabitha shrieks so loud I’m a little surprised the windows don’t shatter.
Mitchell and I spring apart like two teenagers caught in my bedroom by my father. Maybe that’s a bit too specific, but it’s true. I turn my head to look at her and she’s standing just inside the open door, hands on her hips and no lie, her hair is flying out behind her. She looks like the villain in a superhero movie. The one who wants to be a superhero and tries so hard to fit in.
I may be losing it a bit. Maybe it’s lack of oxygen because I don’t think I’ve taken a breath since she walked back in.
“Tabitha,” Mitchell starts, taking a step like he’s going to walk over to her.
She holds up a hand to stop him. “Oh no, you don’t. What the hell are you and Evie’s teacher doing? Isn’t that against the rules? You’re not supposed to fuck your child’s teacher, Mitchell. Surely you know this.”
Please tell me she did not just insinuate that Mitchell is only sleeping with me because I’m Evie’s teacher. That is so not the case.
“Tabitha.” Mitchell tries again, but she ignores