Page 36 of Wanting You

There were some cheers that he thought were adorable, and apparently Chloe did too because she was smiling.

“What can I do for you?” he asked casually, doing his best not to notice how her blue sweater matched her eyes.

“Sorry to interrupt, but next week we’ll be starting our fall unit and thought we could do some of it together. You know, merge our classes for some of the activities. What do you think?”

“Um…”

“Mr. Westyn! Mr. Westyn! Jackie knocked all the books off the shelf!” one of his students cried.

Turning his head, he glanced into the room and sure enough, there were a lot of books on the floor.

“I know you’re busy,” Chloe stammered. “Maybe you can meet me at Books & Beans after school and we can discuss it?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Sure. Thanks.” And then he walked away to deal with the mess before anything else got too wild. Crouching down next to the pile, he smiled patiently at the culprit. “What do you say you give me a hand cleaning this up, Jackie?”

The little girl nodded solemnly and began picking the books up one at a time and placed them back where they belonged. As much as he wanted to make her clean it all up, he had a lesson to get to. It wasn’t until they were done and he picked up the book he planned to read for story time that he realized he’d agreed to meet Chloe for coffee.

He silently admonished himself, but knew it all didn’t mean anything. It was just coffee between two coworkers for the sake of their students. No big deal.

Except…he suddenly couldn’t wait for the end of the day.

It wasn’t like he had been pining away for her or anything, but…he genuinely liked her and just wanted a chance to get to know her better.

Probably shouldn’t be so petty about competing for Teacher of the Year then…

But he really wanted the title.

Like…a lot.

A conversation he’d had with his father a month ago came to mind.

“And the principal told me I was sometimes a little overzealous and rubbed some teachers the wrong way. But that’s only because I’m passionate about teaching and everyone else was way too laid back!”

“Were they too laid back, or were you trying to show off? Because I think we both know…”

“I hate it when you do that.”

“What? Tell the truth?”

This continuous quest to be number one was possibly ruining his life more than he realized. Why couldn’t he just be good at what he did? Why did being the best have to consume him?

And that was something he vowed to work on if today’s coffee maybe led to dinner.

Or maybe I should work on it because it’s the right thing to do…

“Mr. Westyn! Mr. Westyn! Are we going to hear a story?”

He looked up and realized his class was sitting on the floor waiting for him. Smiling, he moved to his spot and sat down. “You bet we are! Who’s ready to read about the little pug who thinks he’s a superhero?”

There was an excited round of “Me!” that made him chuckle, so he opened the book and began to read.

When story time was over, he took his class down the hall for PE and opted to hang out in the teachers’ lounge instead of in his classroom. He found Chloe doing the same thing. She smiled up at him and he looked around and saw they were the only two in there.

“Hey,” he said. “Hope I’m not interrupting your break.”

“Not at all,” she said as she looked up from the book she was reading. “I just felt like relaxing in here while the kids are at PE instead of my classroom.”

That made him smile. “Great minds think alike. That’s exactly why I’m here.” Then he held up the curriculum binder he’d brought with him. “I was going to look over the unit we’re going to talk about after school. I’ll admit I haven’t really allowed myself to get too far ahead in planning. I’m just trying to master everything for the current week.”

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