Page 16 of Lipstick Kiss

She pulled the case on wheels to the chair sitting behindher desk and parked it to one side. Five school kids were mucking about at the back, playing a game she didn’t understand. They shuffled around, looking like they weren’t allowed to engage with the others. Like they were opposite magnets. Another kid sat on his own behind a desk and looked bored out of his mind.

She knew why all six were there. It was a mass fight in the hallway a week ago. As punishment, they were assigned five evenings of life lessons and French.

Very few adults signed up for evening classes at the school, so she inflicted her life skills on the kids who were in detention. The schoolchildren went home first, ate their dinners and then came back. During the winter, she had a full turn-up as there wasn’t much else to do, but as soon as the weather changed, she had a litter of excuses fall onto her desk.

She was three kids down but had three adults attending.

“Miss, why have we got the oldies coming?”

“They’re not old,” Freya replied. “They’re my age.”

“Exactly,” the kid mumbled.

“Hey, make yourself useful and push the tables and chairs to one side of the room. The side that doesn’t have the plug sockets.”

That side was the window. Groans and complaining echoed around the room as sulky teenagers dragged the tables instead of lifting them, making screeching and scraping noises for a solid two minutes. By the time they were done, she had a headache forming.

The door opened, and three adults walked in. Two retired men had recently lost their wives and were learning how to fend for themselves.

And Luke Turner.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded.

He looked freshly showered, his hair a little damp. Dressed in dark jeans and a white shirt open at the neck. It was one of those shirts with no collar. He wore it loose over his jeans. Then she gazed at his boots that were kicking the floor. It was his innocent smile that had her eyebrows knitting.

A chorus of heckles came from the kids.

“Hush, you lot,” she barked out.

Then a chorus of laughter.

“Is that how you greet all your students?” Luke asked, sauntering in like he’d attended all her classes.

Freya walked towards Luke while the other two men joined the school kids who had hefted up onto the tables shoved to the side. She had a peanut gallery.

“Not usually, but you’re you. Why are you here?”

“You have ignored me for two weeks. I’ve assumed you have been spending time with your fiancé, but I’ve missed you. If this is the only place I can spend time with you, then so be it.”

“You can’t be here,” Freya insisted.

“Why not? I’ve paid my money. I can be here. The kids are here. Those two men are here. I can be here. I’m ready to learn life skills.”

“Oh man, you are too much,” Freya muttered. “Come with me. We need to grab the ironing boards.”

“What?”

“Tonight, we learn to iron shirts and some other things.”

“What other things?” he asked as he followed after her out of the room.

“Kids, behave while I’m gone. I’ll be able to hear you, so keep things civil,” Freya shouted over her shoulder. When she looked back, she was startled to see Luke very close.

“I’ll keep a watch on them,” Bobby, one of the older gentlemen, said, tapping his nose.

Five of the kids aimed their groans his way but didn’t move from the desks. The sixth kid, Kenny, dropped his shoulders. Freya didn’t miss that.

“Come on, trouble,” she said to Luke and strode down the hallway.

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