Page 36 of Dear Mr. Brody

@TheL0stB0y:You should hear me when I’m well rested. I’m a real Robert Frost.

@MeAndMyShadow33:I’ll let you get some rest, then.

@TheL0stB0y:Think you’ll be able to sleep now?

@MeAndMyShadow33:Like the dead.

My heart stammered, not truly wanting to say good night, but knowing I needed to. Before I sent another message, I stared at the picture he’d sent with a crooked smile on my face.

@MeAndMyShadow33:Talk to you soon?

@TheL0stB0y:Like I said before, I’m here for whatever you want.

@TheL0stB0y:This is all for you.

Parker

Since it was my birthday, I’d left work around two. I’d gone out for a late lunch with my mom and had shown up a little early for class. The room was quiet when I walked in, only a few students had already arrived. Mr. Brody raised his gaze and gave me a small smile as I slid into my seat. I grinned back, loving how easily the man blushed. He was dressed in charcoal gray slacks today, and a dark blue button down with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His inky hair fell over his right brow as he lowered his steel-colored eyes to his laptop. It was an absolute crime for a man to be that hot and adorably clueless at the same time. His shyness made me think of James and how much he’d opened up to me this past Saturday. I hadn’t thought anything would happen when I texted him after I’d gotten home from the bar that night. I thought he’d be asleep and had been pleasantly surprised by how the night unfolded. But between work and school, we hadn’t had the chance to text as much as I would have liked. Our conversations were never too personal, and most always sexual. We had a repeat of Saturday night again on Monday. Two days had passed, and I was already craving more.

Like an addict, I pulled my phone from my backpack. Swiping my thumb over the screen to check the time, I smiled. Class didn’t start for another ten minutes. And instead of using my time wisely to go over the flash fiction story Mr. Brody had asked us to write last class, I opened up the Pegasus app.

@TheL0stB0y:Can’t stop thinking about Monday night.

I looked over my shoulder as the classroom door opened and a few more students filed in. I set my phone on the desk and reached into my bag for my notebook. My fiction piece wasn’t my best work. Telling an entire story in less than fifteen-hundred words was damn near impossible, but I wanted to impress Mr. Brody, prove to him my first two assignments weren’t a fluke. I pulled out the paper and started to read over what I’d written when my phone vibrated loudly on the desk. The girl in the row in front of me turned in her seat with a judgmental raise of her brow.

“Sorry,” I whispered, giving her an apologetic smile, as I checked my messages.

@MeAndMyShadow33:You’re all I think about.

@MeAndMyShadow33:Happy Birthday, Michael.

He remembered.

A stranger should not have had the power to make me smile like this, to make my stomach drop like I was a kid all over again, riding my bike with my arms stretched out to my sides, coasting down the giant hill behind my mom’s house. Lust had turned me into an adrenaline junkie again.

@TheL0stB0y: Thanks… I don’t feel any older.

@MeAndMyShadow33:That starts after you turn thirty.

I laughed quietly as I typed out another response.

@TheL0stB0y: I have a few things I need to do but was hoping you’d be around later.

I pressed send and lifted my gaze briefly, checking for Marcos, and my gaze snagged on Mr. Brody’s radiant smile. Unrestrained and candid, it opened him up, relaxed his entire posture. It was one of those smiles that would have knocked me on my ass if it had been directed my way. His eyes were glued to the phone in his hand, and it made me curious who might’ve been on the receiving end of that perfect smile.

“Quit staring at the teach like that, it’s fucking creepy,” Marcos said as he sat down next to me.

“But look at that smile.”

To my chagrin, when we both looked toward the front of the classroom the moment had passed. Mr. Brody’s brows were pinched together as his thumbs tapped against the screen of his phone.

“He looks the same to me.” Marcos leaned back in his chair. “You finish his assignment?”

“Yeah,” I said as another notification from Pegasus came through. “You?”

Marcos started rambling about not having enough time, and something about a customer at the boutique, and like an asshole, I checked my message instead of paying attention to him.

@MeAndMyShadow33:I’m having dinner with a friend, but the rest of my night is yours.

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