freeze our asses off in during the winter.”
Dee grinned, thinking of Riona as a petulant fifteen year old. He turned to his right, intending to give a “Well, lookie here” expression to Marc, but Marc, it seemed, was already lookie-ing there all on his lonesome. That is, right at Riona’s hand, which snaked around her waist and was cutting an imaginary line across the top of her legs, presumably showing where the plaid skirt of her parochial past left off, and Marc’s imagination began.
Dee’s eyes narrowed. He knew that glare, that heavy stare. And when next Riona added, “And Sister Marie Therese was a firm believer in corporal punishment. I can’t tell you how many times that fricking banshee laid into me… Right. Here…” and demonstrated the effect by smacking her backside hard enough that the crack made even Dee flinch, the priest all but went to pieces in his chair. Marc licked his lips like they were covered in honey, his breath hefty. Unless there was a box of fried chicken on the windowsill that Dee couldn’t see, however, the finger-lickin’ good that Marc was salivating for tasted something like a wiccan-gone-wild.
The door slammed behind them, shaking the pane of glass set within it, on which the title “Principal, Father Jose Hermosa” was etched in the lower right corner.
Hermosa’s color had softened since their face-to-face in front of the children. He now only resembled an irradiated peach, rather than a bottle of hot sauce. The return to Zen hadn’t yet reached his vocal cords, however, when he began to lash out like a stockbroker bidding up pork belly futures.
“Luckily, whatever you did seems only to have rattled the students a bit,” he began, but didn’t think to stop there. “Ms. Dade, do you care to explain what happened to Mr. Johannes’s school blazer and dress shirt?”
“Um, they’re gone?” Riona stumbled for an answer. “The lost and found maybe?”
Dee suppressed a giggle, but Hermosa was not impressed.
“And you, Mr. Zitka! Don’t think that just because of Ms. Dade’s screw-up I have forgotten about what you pulled.”
Marc’s eyes flashed accusingly to Dee. “What you pulled?”
Oh, hell no. How could this guy even begin to compare having students off campus without permission to almost exploding one?
Dee shrugged. “I took the kids on a little run by the river, and we got back a little late. No harm, and lesson learned, sir.”
“And I’m happy to pay to replace Damien’s uniform,” Riona added in a rush. “And pay for hair implants, if he wants to fill in the pieces that burned off.”
The comment seemed to remind Hermosa that Riona was in the room. “You most certainly will, Missy. In my twelve years of running this institution, I have never seen a substitute teacher less capable of classroom management than you. And I’ve never… never had a situation where I had to explain to the parents of a student why their innocent child, with whom they entrusted us, was attacked by a teacher, and a woman no less!”
“It wasn’t an attack.” Riona rolled her eyes and cocked her hip. Dee so hoped she’d let the chauvinist comment fly. “And he wasn’t that innocent, even if he wasn’t… what I thought he was. That Damien has some real serious authority issues.”
Hermosa balanced on his fists as he leaned over the desk and glared. “Sounds like a case of takes one to know one, Miss Dade. Are you even really a teacher? Or is that just your day job?” His eyes traced Riona’s fashionable, but slightly revealing blouse and pencil skirt. “Things on the street a little slow these days?”
Marc was on his feet before Dee had a chance to reach out.
“Now, hold on just a minute! Riona was only trying her best.”
“So she’s not a teacher, then,” Hermosa concluded. “So why did you so highly recommend her and so readily to me, Marc? Our years of friendship and counsel don’t make me worthy of your honesty? Or have you run through all your granddaddy’s trust fund money and this was your way of paying her for last night’s services?”
In comparison to Riona’s ghostlike shock, Marc was burning embers in his checks. “How dare you…”
Hermosa’s eyes narrowed, a grin spreading across his aged face. Each wrinkle looked like it was placed by an artist to increase the annoyance of his mocking expression. “You were seen in the hall with her, you know?” Marc and Riona blanched as their eyes darted away. “Have you any idea of the