Page 31 of Substitute for Love

He smirked as he took the book from her, his fingers grazing hers. “I think you’re ready.”

Avery’s heart leapt as she raised her eyebrows. So, whatever this Gabe thing was, it was apparently going somewhere.

At the end of class, she handed her phone to him. “Promise you won’t send me memes,” Avery said as he typed in his phone number.

“I will promise no such thing.” He handed her phone back slowly, his eyes meeting hers, a smirk spreading across his face. Avery furrowed her eyebrows and took her phone back.

“I’m regretting this already,” she said playfully.

Gabe and the students exited and all was quiet again.

The bell rang and a minute later a text notification dinged her phone.

GABE: I’m fine with substitute teaching math, science… even music.

AVERY: Okay….

GABE:But art class is where I draw the line.

AVERY: Wow.

GABE: You said no memes. But you said nothing about jokes.

She found herself smiling. Gabe was so playful. Flirty. Unlike Marshall who was serious, Mysterious. But mostly annoyed at her. This flirting with Gabe was fine, right? She switched to text someone else.

AVERY: How do you know if a guy is being nice or if he’s flirting?

CLAIRE: Flirting. The answer is flirting. Is the janitor bothering you?

AVERY: Yeah. He won’t leave me alone. LOL

Claire: So really, who is it? What did he say?

AVERY: Just a guy. He’s friendly so I can’t tell if he’s being himself or if he likes me.

CLAIRE: Who, the principal? A bus driver? Who?

AVERY: Another teacher.

CLAIRE: What school are you subbing at?

AVERY: It’s a new one. Desert Scorpion. Don’t worry, none of our old teachers from high school have moved here.

CLAIRE: Yuck. Can you imagine? Remember Mr. Peterson?

AVERY: Don’t remind me. Always walking by us in the back of history class, trying to get us to tell him the latest school gossip. Granted, you did know all the latest school gossip.

CLAIRE: Yes, thank you.Peoplemagazine had nothing on me.

Pretty soon the door opened and students rolled in, followed by Gabe again. Avery tried to act natural, though internally she was smiling. When he was around she felt… good.

They went through the same spiel, the students got to work, then when things settled Avery sat behind the librarian’s desk and Gabe leaned on it.

“So. What’s your favorite flower?”

“Why?” she put her hand on her hip.

“Well, you can’t go to a dance without a flower.”

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