Page 3 of Doubly Claimed

“The students only left a few minutes ago, Mr. Gardner,” she returned.

“Yes, but as I said in the morning’s memo, the cleaning staff will be in early today, and I thought perhaps we could have that lunch—”

“I just need five minutes to finish, then I will be on my way, Mr. Gardner. There is still a week left before the superintendent sends out contracts for the next term, correct?”

“Yes, well, that is, if we even go ahead with renewing the preschool program at this location. Maybe we should discuss it over lunch. Veggie Bowl has added some outdoor dining tables, the minimum six-feet apart, of course,” he began. “I know you must worry about your size with these health scares. I wouldn’t want to impede your road to weight loss—”

“Excuse me?” Ginger felt her cheeks heat as anger boiled inside of her.

She had officially reached the limit of her patience with this man. Having spent most of the year ignoring his comments about her figure and his dirty looks whenever she wore something form-fitting or frilly, like the navy blue and yellow polka dotted short-sleeved dress she had on today, Ginger was about to blow a gasket.

True, she was a curvy girl. Despite society’s predisposition to praise only women of a certain body type, Ginger had learned to love herself. So, yes, she had large breasts, wide hips, and thick thighs, and she stood only five-foot three-inches tall. But her body was none of Mr. Gardner’s business. Neither were her eating habits.

“Mr. Gardner, I don’t know why you’re worried about what I look like, or where I eat my lunch, as I have no intention of ever eating with you socially. I am a certified preschool teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education. I am very well qualified to do my job, but it is the Superintendent who renews the position, not you. Still, you are my boss, but that is all. For your information, and believe me it is none of your business, but I will share this with you, only this once, I see a physician regularly for check-ups. I can assure you, my health is just fine.”

She saw his face flush above his mask, but his discomfort did nothing to soothe her ruffled feathers. The guy was off his rocker! Did he think she was so desperate for a man she’d ever consider dating him? He obviously did not like her the way she was. Why did he even bother asking her out?

“Ms. Freeman, Ginger, perhaps you don’t understand, I am asking you on a lunch date. I would think someone like you would be exceedingly happy to accept my generous offer—”

“Are you serious? Look, I am not sure how often you’ve successfully convinced a woman to date you, but that line is not it. This is not happening. Like ever.” She straightened her shoulders. “Now, if you will excuse me, I must finish packing up. I will send the virtual summer lessons I made for those students who need to connect over the upcoming weeks off from school from my home computer. Goodbye, Mr. Gardner. I will look for that email regarding whether my contract will be renewed from the superintendent.”

“B-but,” he stuttered.

“Good afternoon,” she said loudly, and turned her back on the man.

Ginger had to work to control her temper. Trying to breathe through the mask was difficult when her emotions were in such a state, but she closed her eyes and counted to three. The same advice she gave her littles whenever they got overwhelmed.

“Easy-peasy,” she whispered.

Her hands trembled as she returned to packing up her belongings. She heard him clicking and clacking out of her classroom, and only then did Ginger exhale. The stupid, insufferable, idiotic jerk-wad!

She swung her pocketbook and laptop bag onto her shoulder, and grabbed the crate loaded with the rest of her knick-knacks. Sure, there were supplies she’d bought and whatnot still spread out and around the classroom, but she was too mad to even think of collecting them. Whatever. In less than seven hours she was going to be elbows deep in succulent treats from the Bear Claw Bakery located in the lobby of the Stein Luxury Hotel & Resorts, where she and her sisters would spend their vacay.

Contrary to what Mr. Gardner thought, Ginger worked extremely hard to eat healthy and exercised at least four days a week. She was just naturally curvy or whatever. It had been months since she’d indulged in something decadent and sweet; and she meant pastry, not sex. That was a horse of a different color altogether.

Sigh. Maybe sweets made up for smexy times in some strange way for the lonely redhead. Or not. Her sex life was all but nonexistent for the last year and a half. If it wasn’t for her trusty side-drawer with a few economically feasible and sinfully pleasurable, rechargeable battery-operated friends, Ginger might have exploded from all the pent-up frustration. What did a curvy girl have to do to get a little love, anyway?

In a sad point of fact, most of her sexual encounters had been dreadfully disappointing. Men tended to underwhelm her. But what else could they do when her expectations of what men were like in the bedroom were based on impossible fantasies garnered from the minds of the fantastic authors she read? Amanda Kimberley, P. Mattern, Gina Kincade, Erzabet Bishop, and of course, the delightfully sassy southerner, Julia Mills, to name a few. Fiction was better than reality.

It also didn’t help that no matter what she tried, Ginger’s tastes ran to the unconventional. For the staid, stuffy men who usually asked her out, the idea of oral sex sent them running in a tizzy. Never mind the threesome she’d secretly been longing for since she’d hit puberty. Okay, it wasn’t exactly a secret. Ginger frowned as she recalled the vacation she’d shared with her sisters just last year in Cabo.

“Sage, you clam up whenever we discuss anything even remotely involving sex.” Anise snorted into her Cosmo glass.

“That’s cause big sis is a freak,” Ginger chimed in. “She just doesn’t want us to know.”

Their hotel room was crowded with all their suitcases packed with souvenirs from the trip, and it was their last night to be together until the holidays. Sage and Ani had high-powered jobs that kept them super busy. Ginger understood, she just missed the bond they shared whenever they went away again.

“Like you would know about freaky, Miss School teacher,” her sister teased, pulling her from her thoughts and back to their raucous discussion.

“Actually,” Ginger leaned forward. “I have to tell you both, this has been on my mind since I was like sixteen, but I wish, well, that is I really, really, really want to be with two guys,” she said in a hurry.

“So, you like two men at the same time? That’s okay… You can alternate date night.” Ani thought she’d solved the dilemma, but Ginger frowned.

“Oh, oh, OH!” Sage’s eyes bugged out of her head, but she nodded and squeezed Ginger’s hand. “It’s strange because I know exactly what you mean. That is, I’ve wondered about the same thing,” her big sister confessed.

“Thank goodness,” Ginger sighed. “I thought I was weird or broken somehow.”

“Of course, you are not,” Sage scolded.