“This is a work meeting,” Caleb explained, then he gestures across the table to his ‘date.’ “Miss Jeffries here is a journalist from the New York Times, and she’s asking me some questions so that she can write an article about me.”
“You must be Emmy!” the woman beamed, stretching her shiny pink lips into a repulsive sneer of a smile. “My name is Jade! Your uncle has been telling me so much about you!”
Jade offered her hand for Emmy to shake, but Emmy just looked at it skeptically and frowned. Then she flung herself towards me, wrapping her arms around my legs and angling her chin up so she blinked at me with her giant, pleading eyes.
“Please make Uncle Caleb come with us,” she whispered loudly up at me.
“Uncle Caleb has to do grown-up stuff right now, Em,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder and hoping that she’d understand. That she wouldn’t feel as crushed as I do. “But you can tell him all about the museum when you go home tonight!”
“Will you be there too?” Emmy asked.
“Well, I…” I stammered, unsure of what to say. My eyes flicked up to Caleb, and I saw his jaw pressed together firmly as his eyes darted between Jade and me.
“Of course not, Emmy,” he said. “You know Miss Wright can’t come home with us.”
“Nuh-uh!” Emmy cried, frowning. “Daisy always come
s over for dinner!”
Jade’s eyes lit up across the table.
“Is Daisy your nanny, Emmy?” she asked, and I had to fight the incredibly strong urge to dump Jade’s sickly pink cocktail down the front of her flashy blouse.
“No,” Emmy shook her head. “She’s Uncle Caleb’s girlfriend.”
It was hard to tell who was more shocked. Caleb, Jade, or me. I immediately felt my face turn hot pink, matching the shade of Jade’s cocktail. Caleb’s eyes went wide and I couldn’t decide whether he looked more flustered or pissed.
“That’s not true, Emmy,” Caleb said sternly. Then he turned to Jade. “Actually, Miss Wright is just Emmy’s pre-school teacher.”
And there it was. The truth.
The ugly, bitter, undeniable truth. Whatever happened between Caleb and I behind closed doors. Whatever fantasy world I had been living in, where we had homemade spaghetti dinners and hot sex after bedtime, it didn’t matter. Because in the real world, I was just the teacher. Nothing more.
I was not usually one to be at a loss for words, but as I stared down at Jade and Caleb, fighting back to the tears that were stinging at my eyes, that was exactly what I was. I was speechless. There was no witty, biting retort on the tip of my tongue. So I grabbed Emmy’s hand and pulled her out of the cafe.
The rest of the class had already moved on. I saw them a block ahead of us, following Raven as she took over leading them to the museum. I reminded myself to thank her for that later.
“Let’s go, Emmy,” I said, softening my grip on her hand and using my free hand to wipe the tears from my eyes, hoping to be subtle.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, squinting up at me. “Why did Uncle Caleb lie?”
“He didn’t lie, Emmy,” I said, as I felt the stab of pain rip through my heart again. That was the kicker, he didn’t lie at all. “I’m not his girlfriend.”
“You are,” Emmy insisted. “Boyfriends and girlfriends love each other.”
Before I could correct her, I heard footsteps slapping on the pavement behind us.
“Daisy, wait,” it was Caleb. He just ran from the restaurant and chased us halfway down the block.
“Please,” he said. “Let me explain…”
“There’s nothing to explain,” I said, aware that Emmy was listening. “Because, as I was just telling Emmy, there’s nothing going on between us. You said so yourself, I’m just the teacher.”
“Daisy…”
“I’d prefer it if you called me Miss Wright,” I said. Then I took one last look at the sadness softening through his face before I turned my back and led Emmy away.
18