Page 14 of When You Left Me Speechless

I hear the door click open, and my gaze leaves Beth. I am now looking at the man walking through the door. He’s handsome. Tall, brunette with a slight curl to his hair. His skin is tanned like he enjoys being outside. His eyes are dark brown and framed with glasses. To my surprise, I know exactly who he is.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

My body stiffens, I immediately start to sweat, my pen falls from my hand, and it hits the table with a loud thud.

“Are you okay?” I hear Beth ask.

I nod, because I can’t speak. My mouth feels dry and my tongue feels thick.

“Mr. Peterson, thanks so much for joining us,” says the woman who I’ve learned is the assistant principal. He nods. His grin takes up his whole face. I remember him being good-looking, but I definitely don’t remember him being this good-looking. I also don’t remember him wearing glasses, but damn, I like them. My stomach fills with butterflies. It would be my luck that the hot guy from the bar—who I still can’t remember if I slept with or not—is a teacher at this school.

I feel his eyes on me, and I catch his gaze. His eyebrow ever so slightly hitches above his glasses like he’s questioning what I’m doing there. He winks and starts to walk around the table, heading straight for me. I straighten in my chair. My brain fumbles through idea after idea of what I might say to him when he reaches me. He keeps his eyes locked on me as he rounds the table. This all seems to be happening in very slow motion. I try to breathe, but the room suddenly feels like it is completely void of oxygen. The door to the conference room clicks open again, forcing air back into my lungs and speeding up time.

Freddie's parents walk in and sit at the table with the rest of the team. Mr. Anderson is a short man with a bald head and mustache. Mrs. Anderson is a tall woman with her black hair cut into a short bob. They are both dressed casually and offer the room warm smiles.

We go through the IEP line by line, pausing every couple of lines to hear what the parents like or do not like about the proposed item. I should be listening, but I’m not. Instead, I’m lost in my thoughts and completely panicking about the fact that this man whom I thought I would never see again is sitting two seats down from me. And he winked at me.

“Mr. Peterson, I was thinking the speech therapist could work with you to help Freddie in your class for the remainder of the year. He is really struggling with the vocabulary, and itwould be great if he could have the extra support right before testing,” Mrs. Anderson suggests.

“Of course,” Beth says with a big, agreeable smile plastered across her face. She looks at me. “Do you think we could make that work while you’re here?”

Her words bring me back to reality. I nod, trying to stay calm, hoping no one notices I’m barely paying attention. And then it hits me what I’ve agreed to. I’m going to have to work closely with this guy. And with that, I hear him agree as well.

CHAPTER 7: THREE DOORS DOWN

LOGAN

With five minutes to spare, I open the door to the conference room. A half dozen faces I recognize meet me. I go around the room and note who is here, hearing our assistant principal, Mrs. Calloway, welcome me to the room. I smile, and then I seeher. The girl who disappeared from Tanner’s apartment a little over a week ago without as much as a goodbye. The girl that stole my favorite T-shirt. The girl that I can’t stop thinking about but thought I would never see again.

She is sitting next to our speech therapist, Beth.

What is she doing here?

Her hair is long and curled, like the night we met. Her eyes meet mine and she looks like she has seen a ghost. That’s not what I was expecting.

I begin to walk around the table. I can’t take my eyes off her.

Mr. and Mrs. Anderson walk in and I quickly sit down. The meeting begins. I try to listen to what everyone is saying, but I am very distracted by the girl sitting two seats down from me. It feels a little bit like fate that she is sitting in thesame room as me. Fate feels like a crazy thought, but how else do you explain it? A little more than a week ago, I woke up to an empty bed, upset I hadn’t gotten her phone number, and now, like the universe is on my side, she’s here and looking just as beautiful as the first time I saw her.

My thoughts are interrupted when Mrs. Anderson asks if the speech therapist would be willing to work with me to help support Freddie. I expect Beth to answer, and that’s when she turns to Poppy and asks her if she would be okay with working with me. She agrees, and then so do I. I can’t help but smile. It looks like we are going to get to spend time together after all.

I walkover to where she stands talking to Beth and our principal, Mrs. Keller, after the meeting.

“Hey—”

“Mr. Peterson, hope we didn’t keep you from your students for too long this morning,” Keller says.

“No, it was no problem,” I say. I turn towards her and try again. “Hey?—”

“This is Poppy Collins, my new student. Poppy, this is Logan Peterson. He teaches fifth grade reading and writing.”

Poppy smiles and puts out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you,” she says.

I reach my hand out and take hers in mine.It’s nice to meet you?She was drunk the other night, but she wasn’t so drunk she wouldn’t remember me, was she? Our hands barely move up and down once when she lets go.

“Ready to go?” Beth asks.

She nods and I watch,speechless,as she walks out of the room and down the hall.

---