Page 24 of Tangled

“Olivia Walsh. Nice to meet you, Drew. What do you teach?”

“English. Been here for eight years here now. And this is…” He turns to introduce me, but Olivia beats him to the punch.

“Kane Garrison,” she spits out. “We’ve already met.”

Drew flicks his eyes back and forth between us before he raises his eyebrows to me.

“Yeah. Olivia had a little run in with some crickets yesterday morning. I rode in on my loafers and saved the day.”

She sighs with a roll of her eyes before gliding over to the copy machine to program the copies she needs.

“Crickets?” Drew asks while he gives me a look that says he’s thoroughly confused. “Good thing Kane was there to help then, I guess. Aren’t crickets supposed to mean good luck though?”

Olivia gives me a side-eye glance before pushing a few buttons. “That’s still debatable.”

I huff and then shake my head, gathering my papers that just finished on the tray at the end of the machine as I prepare to make my way back to my classroom.

“What the?” Olivia says as the paper jams yet again in the same copy machine I just used.

“Oh, yeah. We call that one Bob, as in Bob Marley, because it ‘always be jammin’,” Drew laughs while giving his best Jamaican accent.

“Well, it seemed to work fine just a minute ago. Is there some trick to this, Kane? You got your copies made. You mind helping me out here?”

I shrug and then start to walk backwards towards the door. “Well, apparently my help isn’t that impressive. Maybe you need more crickets to give you some luck with getting Bob to cooperate.”

If looks could kill, I’d be pierced by the daggers Olivia is throwing my way with her eyes.

“Here, I’ll try to help,” Drew offers just as I head out the door and back to my classroom, leaving the two of them to tackle the dreaded copy machine that haunts any teacher’s dreams at night.

Five minutes later, there’s a knock on my door as Drew pushes his way in and shuts the metal barricade behind him.

“What the fuck was that, Kane?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, playing stupid while organizing stacks of papers on my desk to prepare for my next class. Drew and I have the same prep period, and with a glance at the clock, I realize it will end in about ten minutes. And now I know that apparently Olivia has that same hour too.

“Don’t play stupid with me, man. I know you generally give off the surly, ‘leave me the hell alone’ attitude, but something’s going on here with Olivia. Do you know her or something? Did something happen yesterday morning that has you acting like a complete ass to her?”

“Besides the fact that I saved her from a swarm of crickets and she was less than grateful? Nope.”

Drew eyes me with that look that indicates he knows I’m full of shit.

“Kane, please remember that we both teach teenagers, so I know if someone’s lying to me. Give me more credit than that. What are you not telling me?”

A lump forms in my throat before I blow out a long breath and lean forward, bracing my hands on the edge of my desk. If there is anyone I can trust with the truth, it’s Drew.

“Dude… I kinda hooked up with someone Friday night…” I glance up at him with my body still hunched over.

“Okay, that’s nice. I mean, actually, that’s great, Kane. Good for you getting back out there, but I don’t understand what that has to do with Olivia…”

And then the light bulb clicks on.

“Oh, fuck,” his hands drop to his sides and then the biggest grin spreads across his face.

“Don’t smile like that, Drew,” I point in his direction as I stand up tall again. “This is all kinds of fucked up. I work with the woman now. I never would have taken her back to her place if I knew we were colleagues. You know me, I have a strict policy against that. Hell, Misty Chambers is still trying to get in my pants and it’s been three years since I started here.”

“Yeah, but Misty is Misty. She’s not very particular about who she invites in her bed.”

“No kidding. I just... hell. I actually allow myself to have fun, have sex for the first time in almost a year, and then this happens. Obviously, it can’t happen again and no one needs to find out.”

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