“Okay, well you still owe me two hundred for the towing.”
I think I’m going to be sick. I’ve asked Gwendolyn for an advance on my pay for the last three paychecks. If I ask again, especially after being late today, she’s going to fire me. I’m sure of it.
My stomach is churning as I look at my untouched coffee. I don’t even want it anymore. I don’t deserve it. My life is a mess.
“Suck it up, buttercup,” I whisper to myself. Whenever I was feeling sorry for myself as a kid, my dad would put his comforting hand on my shoulder and tell me that.
He raised me and my brother by himself and died of a surprise heart attack last year. My brother took off traveling throughout Asia a few days after the funeral and I haven’t seen him since. I’m on my own in a new town and I can’t help but think that I’m failing everything.
What’s something you can do to make it better right now? That’s what my father would say next.
I suck in a breath and pull out my phone. I call my bank to increase my credit card limit, but I’m still on hold when the bell rings and the kids come pouring back in with red cheeks from the cold and messed up hair from their hats.
“How was recess?” I ask them with a big smile on my face. I’m only twenty-one and at the start of my teaching career. It’s much too early to be bitter and checked-out for the kids.
“Good,” Liam says as he sits down at his desk. “We saw the fireman’s truck.”
My ears perk up and I immediately glance out the window. “The fireman?” I ask as my pulse starts to race. He was so hot. Like, five-alarm fire hot. Even if he did break my globe and then race out of here.
I sigh as I remember how he couldn’t get out of here fast enough. You’d think a hot single fireman (yes, I checked and he wasn’t wearing a ring) would want to hang around and flirt with the young teacher of the class he’s presenting in, but he didn’t at all.
Can you blame him?
I don’t have any sexy clothes. I don’t even have any nice clothes.
My wardrobe is lame even for an elementary school and my hair usually has at least some glitter in it. It’s not exactly what hot single firemen are looking for. I don’t remember the last time I went to the salon.
But I can’t even afford to fix my old beater car, let alone get my hair done or buy new clothes. The only clothes I get are hand-me-downs from my neighbor who’s a retired librarian, so you can imagine how sexy and stylish I look. No wonder he fled from my class.
“What are we doing today?” Isabella asks as the whole class stares at me.
“I don’t know,” I say to her. “What do you have planned?”
“Nothing! I’m the kid!” she says with a laugh.
“You’re supposed to plan the day,” Michael says and they all nod in agreement.
“I am?” I say as I make a confused face that always makes them laugh. “I thought I was a student too.”
“No!” they all shout together.
“You’re the teacher,” Isabella says with a giggle. “You have to pick something.”
“Okay,” I say as I walk around the classroom, tapping my chin as I look up at the ceiling. “I think we should do… really hard math.”
“No!” they all shout.
“We’re only in kindergarten,” Michael says. “We don’t do math.”
“Okay, what about physics?”
“No!!!!”
“Okay,” I say as I walk around while their cute little eyes follow me. “What about a… snowman craft?”
“Yes!!!” they all shout.
I start pulling out craft supplies and the cardboard pieces I prepped yesterday as they all gather around. After I show them how to make it, Isabella leans on my shoulder and looks at it.
“Are you going to bring that home to your husband?”
It’s an innocent question, but it skewers me.
I clear my throat as my cheeks get hot. “I don’t have a… husband.”
“Boyfriend?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
“Why not?”
God, will this chick step off? Geez.
But she keeps at it. Relentlessly and heartlessly.
“How come you don’t have a boyfriend, Miss Olson?” she asks again as everyone waits for my answer.
Because I’m broke, overweight with ugly clothes, and I’m about to be homeless.
“I just haven’t found the right guy,” I tell them. “Where should we put the snowman’s hat?”
Isabella doesn’t fall for my attempt to change the conversation. “You should just get a boyfriend.”
If only it were that easy. If only I could dial up a number and have one sent over.
I’d pick one exactly like Carter, the fireman from earlier. I still can’t get over his big muscular frame and tattoos that were hiding under his clothes. He had brown wavy hair with hints of grey, which I love and amber eyes. They were so piercing and beautiful as he stared at me so intensely, probably wondering why I was dressed like an eighty-year-old librarian.
I do need a man. Badly. I’m twenty-one and haven’t even been kissed before. Obviously, I’ve never had sex either. I’m not saving myself for marriage or anything like that. I’m just waiting until I know it’s the right guy.
“Okay, that’s enough about my love life.” Or lack of a love life is more like it. “Let’s make some snowmen.”
The kids start their crafts as I walk around, supervising them.
Something catches my eye out the window and I jerk my head back in surprise when I see Carter the fireman across the street watching me.
No… He couldn’t be watching me.
My whole body starts tingling and I swear that he is. His sexy dark eyes are locked on me.
I head over to the window with my heart pounding and he quickly moves on. He starts jogging toward his firetruck, then quickly gets in and drives away.
That was strange…
I’m still thinking about it ten minutes later when I’m helping the kids with the glue gun. They’re not allowed to touch it, but that doesn’t stop Max from grabbing it when I’m busy helping Annabelle with her orange construction paper carrot nose.
I smell burning and then feel a weight on my hair. “Max!” I scream in shock when I realize what he’s done. He put the glue gun too close to my hair and it got all tangled up.
My tone scares him and he starts wailing just as Gwendolyn walks by.
“Everything okay in here?” she asks as she pops her head in my class.
“Everything is great!” I lie. Max is crying his eyes out, there’s a glue gun stuck in my hair, and two boys are fighting in the corner.
Why does everything I touch turn into a dumpster fire?
She leaves and I get everyone settled down. I’m not supposed to, but I put on a movie for the kids as I head into the bathroom with a pair of scissors.
The fucker really got me and I have no choice. Hot tears spring to my eyes
as I cut a huge chunk of my hair off. It’s either that or figure out a way to style it with a glue gun accessory.
My shoulders slump down as I look at the ridiculous reflection staring back at me. If I had trouble getting a boyfriend before, it’s going to be damn near impossible now.
* * *
After my long day, I wave to the janitor who gave me a lift home and walk into my apartment. Buddy, my German Sheppard, rushes forward and leaps on me like Hobbes would always leap on Calvin when he got home from school.
He’s all licks and pants and jumping around as I dig my hands into his thick scruff and give him a kiss on his snout.
I love this dog. He’s one of the only good things in my life even if he is the reason why I’m getting evicted.
The landlord doesn’t like that he barks sometimes and he said either the dog goes or we both do. And I’m not about to abandon my Buddy.
Not now, not ever.
“What’s that, Buddy?” I say as he licks my cheek. “You love my new haircut? Why, thank you! I did it myself.”
He jumps up and barks. He’s so excited he can barely contain himself.
“Yup. It is a new style. I’m pioneering it. Tomorrow, you’re going to see anyone who’s anyone walking around with a big chunk of hair missing from their head.”
I take him for his walk, feed him, and then I sit down with a microwave dinner and watch some Jeopardy while he rests at my feet and watches me with those big brown eyes of his.
“What is an omnivore?” I say to Alex who always ignores me.
Buddy’s head pops up and he turns to the window. A low growl rumbles out of him as his lip curls up over his teeth.
“What is wrong with you?” I ask as my pulse starts to race.
He leaps up and rushes to the window, growling and snarling and barking his head off.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” I shout as I put my dinner down and rush over. “What has gotten into you, dog?”
He’s got his two front paws on the window ledge as he barks at the dark night sky. I grab his collar and take a quick peek outside, but I don’t see anything.
“Come on, dude,” I say as I try to pull him down. He doesn’t want to budge. “It’s hard to convince the landlord to let us stay when the whole neighborhood can hear you!”