Page 27 of A Longtime (and at one point Illegal) Crush

But this request wasn’t on par with writing essays for Matt so he didn’t flunk out of school or making a few of his truck payments because their mother had been foolish enough to cosign, and creditors were about to start calling her.

Olivia pinched the bridge of her nose and shut her eyes. “No. Absolutely not. I’m not pimping myself out to your boss. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t have the kind of moves needed to bring in twenty-one thousand dollars.”

It was then that she noticed the class had fallen silent. She opened her eyes and saw that Mrs. Newman, the assistant principal, was standing in the classroom doorway. The woman’s mouth hung slightly ajar, and her eyebrows were lifted in what was probably horror. The students all returned to their desks, their gazes bouncing back and forth between Mrs. Newman and Olivia.

Lovely.

“I’ll call you back,” Olivia told Matt and slid her phone into her pocket. Her face was flaming red, she knew that, but she forced a smile at Mrs. Newman that hopefully looked professional. “Yes?”

Mrs. Newman took a step into the room. Her gaze kept going over Olivia in that same disapproving way. “I’m taking members of our student body presidency around to deliver thank-you gifts to our teachers.” She glanced back and seemed to notice that no one was with her. She stepped into the hallway and motioned to someone.

A few moments later, Ezra Daniels, the school newspaper’s photographer, walked in with Wren Cohen, the student body secretary. She was a thin blond girl who’d won her position by being so bookish and competent that she was made for the job. She strode up to Olivia carrying a gift basket wrapped in red and yellow cellophane, the school’s colors. Ezra trailed her, camera raised.

Mrs. Newman sent Olivia a we-will-discuss-this-later look and left to take some other members of the student body around to different classrooms.

Wren smiled brightly at Olivia, posing for the photo op. “The students would like to thank you for being one of our teachers. We know that sometimes when you work, you have to deal with some hard things.”

A few boys in the back of the class sniggered.

Yep, that’s what Olivia got for making prostitution references on the phone during class. She wanted to send the guys warning glares, but Ezra hadn’t taken the photo yet, and she didn’t want everyone who saw the newspaper’s end-of-year edition to wonder why the art teacher looked so murderous while receiving her thank-you gift.

Olivia reached for the basket, but Wren wasn’t through talking. “We know you don’t get paid enough for what you do.”

More laughing from the back section. One of the guys—she couldn’t tell who—muttered, “At least not twenty-one thousand a day.”

Wren sent the guys a confused look and continued, “We’re glad you’re here instead of working somewhere else.”

Even though it was more of a stretch to infer innuendo from that sentence, the boys in the back laughed like Wren had just said something hilarious. Teenage boys could do a lot of stretching.

Wren ignored them. “We hope you’ll have a great summer, full of touching moments—”

“Thank you!” Olivia grabbed the gift basket before Wren could say more. Then she glared at the guys in the back, trying to set them on fire with her eyes.

That’s when Ezra took the picture.

Well, that would look great in tomorrow’s edition. The school year really couldn’t end fast enough. And now, to top off everything else, Olivia was going to have to talk to Carson Clark.

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