Learning Curve

Linda’s smile was beatific. “Hmm.”

Emily sighed. “Here I am giving my master teacher a bad time when he’s been nothing but generous and patient with me.”

“Pull-eez. Joe’s patience is laziness in disguise. And generous?” Linda snorted.

“I’m trying to be grateful here,” said Emily.

“How about honest? What’s he been generous with besides copying duties?”

“That is part of the job.”

“A very small part.”

Emily pushed aside another batch of misgivings about this internship assignment and pulled the feed bin open to slip the printed papers in, sunny side up. “Maybe he just needs time to get to know me better.”

“And maybe he’s keeping you at arm’s length precisely because he doesn’t want to.”

“He made it pretty clear he didn’t want me here.” She muttered a quick prayer to the copier gods and hit Start again. “I figure he needs another couple of weeks to come around. Eventually, he’ll have to get used to the idea of sharing his classroom.”

“Don’t count on it.”

Emily leaned against the counter and crossed her arms. Beside her, papers slapped and settled into the side tray without a hitch. “I can be very persuasive when I set my mind to it.”

“That’s what’s going to make this so much fun to watch.” Linda sipped her coffee. “And I’m not the only one looking forward to the fireworks. Most of the faculty think you’re the best thing to happen to Joe Wisniewski in years. More than one witness to yesterday’s ‘philosophical discussion’ mentioned how good it was to have the old Joe back, even if it was only for a few minutes. We all thought he’d dried up and fossilized way ahead of schedule.”

“The old Joe?”

“Lord, yes.” Linda flapped her hand. “He was hell on wheels his first year here.”

“I’ve heard some stories.”

“He used to drive us nuts with his causes and his arguments. I think he won most of the debates just by wearing down the opposition. He had more energy than any three of us put together. He was like a walking vibrator. You could get a buzz just from being in the same room with him.”

Emily pulled the papers out of the tray, trying to imagine Joe’s laid-back charm hyped up into killer charisma—The Wiz she’d known through her brother’s tales and her parents’ reactions, The Wiz she’d daydreamed over. “So, what happened?”

Linda frowned down into her mug. “I don’t know. He never talked about it. He took off work for a while that spring—which was a shock, because he’d never taken so much as a sick day. And when he came back, he was sort of…I don’t know. Defeated. Dull. It was like all the life had drained out of him. He never told any of us what was wrong. What had happened.”

“That’s so sad.”

“Yeah.” Linda took another sip of coffee. “The old Joe—the Joe that I remember—that Joe never came all the way back. But a couple of teachers saw a bit of that old fire in his eyes when he was arguing with you.”

Emily started in on a second batch of copies. “I wonder what happened?”

Linda shrugged. “Like I said, it’s a mystery.”

Joe was turning out to be a mysterious man. And Emily never left a mystery unsolved—it was so careless, so untidy. Besides, whatever had happened to Joe all those years ago had affected his teaching, which was affecting her internship.

She hesitated to dig too deeply into his private life, particularly when the public parts were so…well, scandalous. Maybe she wouldn’t need to unlock the secrets of his past to get him fired up again. There were other ways she could help him rediscover the joys of teaching or the excitement of a worthy cause, to help him find happiness.

“A mystery, hmm?” she asked Linda. “Sort of like the P in Joseph P. Wisniewski.”

Linda smiled along the rim of her mug. “I happen to know the solution to that little mystery. But before you start in on me,” she said, holding up her hand, “I have to tell you I’m sworn to secrecy.”

“Come on. Not even a hint?”

“You’ll never guess. Not in a million years. And that’s the only hint you’re going to pry out of me.”

“Ms. Sullivan?”

Emily glanced behind her to see Kyle standing in the workroom doorway.

“Yes?”

“May I see you in my office?” He frowned at Linda, lounging on the counter. “When you’re finished with your work here.”

A summons to the principal’s office. Disaster alert. Plague, pestilence and another dose of fake walnut paneling. “I’ll be right there.”

“Thank you.” The door clicked shut behind him.

“Oh-oh,” said Linda. “Watch out.”

“Why?” Emily’s pulse rate spiked. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Linda narrowed her eyes at the spot where Kyle had been standing. “And that’s what has me worried.”

“Did someone call with a complaint?”

“No. You’re doing fine. He’s probably just fishing, that’s all.”

“Fishing?”

“His wife never came home from her little summer trip, you know. And he’s been sighted at the local watering hole on more than one weekend evening.”

“His wife left him?”

“That’s the rumor.” Linda slid down from the counter. “So, watch out.”

“For what?”

“For a move.”

Emily shuddered. “Yeeuchh.”

“It shouldn’t be too tough to spot,” Linda said. “Kyle may think he’s smooth, but he never made it past the slippery stage.”

EMILY WALKED down the short hall as if it were the plank. She knocked on Kyle’s office door and waited for his “Come in” before entering.

“Emily!” He smoothed his tie as he rose from his chair and walked out from behind his desk. He waved at one of the padded chairs in front of it. “Have a seat. Make yourself comfortable.”

She tried to do just that, settling back and tucking her feet beneath her. The blinds behind his desk carved daylight into slits, and the dust motes blinked SOS as they floated on their oxygen ocean. The stuffy space smelled of floor wax and freshly applied cologne.

Kyle leaned back against his desk, crossed his arms and smiled down at her.

She smiled back and waited for him to speak.

And waited some more. And smiled a bit harder. And hoped her cheek muscles wouldn’t start to spasm.

“How’s it going so far?” he asked.

“Fine,” she said. “I really like it here at Caldwell.”

“That’s good to hear.” His smile didn’t change as he nodded or spoke. It seemed to be molded out of some substance that looked like flesh and bone but couldn’t quite capture that genuine, lifelike quality. “I want you to be happy here,” he said.

“I am so far.” Up until about five minutes ago, anyway.

“Any problems with any of the students?”

What was he fishing for? What had he heard? Calm down, she ordered herself. If Linda didn’t know why she was in here, no one knew. And as for Linda’s theory about what Kyle was after… Emily shuffled that thought out of the way.

“Problems with the students?” Emily asked. “None. No problems at all.” She pulled one foot out from under her chair and crossed one knee over the other to get more comfortable.

“So, no problems,” said Kyle. “Glad to hear it. We’re proud of our students here at Caldwell.”

“They’re terrific.”

“And the staff? I hope they’ve been helpful.”

“Oh, yes. Extremely.”

“Good, good.” He smoothed his tie again. “We want you to feel like part of the team here.”

“Thank you.”

He cocked one hip against the edge of his desk, shifting his weight to one foot and letting the other dangle near her knee. When Joe made that same move, it was fluid and casual. Kyle’s version was posed and calculated. She tried to ignore his loafer’s subtle invasion of her space and her urge to shift out of reach.

“You’re probably aware, Emily, that there are several staff members who are single, like you.”

She nodded, hoping Linda’s theory wasn’t about to become fact.

“And many single people these days meet and get to know each other at the workplace,” he continued.

She nodded again, feeling like a bobble-head doll.

“I was wondering if there might be any circumstances in which you would consider a friendly, social interaction with a member of this staff. A social relationship, outside of school.”

“Well.” She cleared her throat. “I’d certainly be willing to attend any parties for the faculty members.”

Kyle tilted his head back and laughed a forced little laugh. “I’ll make sure you get an invitation.”

Emily laughed, too. Hers sounded a bit strangled.

“Actually, Emily…” Kyle hesitated, and the smile disappeared. His hand passed once more over the silk of his tie, a long, teasing stroke. “I was wondering how you might feel about the possibility of developing a…a personal relationship with someone on staff.”

Think diplomacy, she told herself. Think tact and subtlety. And if that doesn’t work, think Sherman tank blasting a hole in the walnut and leaving caterpillar treads on the splintered furniture and the splattered principal on the way out.

She smiled a neutral smile. “I hope to develop personal relationships with several of the members of this staff before I leave. I think I’ve already begun to form some friendships. And I’d like to develop some mentoring relationships, too.” She settled back a bit and spread her hands. “There’s a lot I can learn from many of the people here.”

“Yes, of course. That’s something we can discuss at some other time.”

He rubbed at his chin. “The reason I asked to see you today is to find out whether or not you might consider dating one of the staff members.”

“Dating? No.” She shook her head. “That wouldn’t be appropriate.”

Kyle’s plastic smile was back. And something else, too. Something in the way he leaned forward and glanced down at her neatly crossed kneecaps.

Something fishy.

The vision of her suspended foot swinging up into Kyle’s carefully positioned crotch was strong and clear and too tempting by half. She uncrossed her legs and tucked her feet beneath her chair. “I have a personal rule against dating coworkers,” she said. “It seems the best policy.”

“Yes. Simple and tidy.” Kyle nodded. “I can certainly see how it might seem that way.”

Emily had no intention of hanging around so Kyle could ask her to indulge in some friendly social interaction just to test the limits of her simple, tidy rule. “Well,” she said, setting her hands on the arms of her chair and edging toward escape. “Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?”

“No. I just wanted to touch base,” he said, and paused to let the words hang between them. “To see if you’re happy here.”

“Thank you for taking the time to check with me,” she said, ignoring the remark about touching base as she stood to go. He didn’t move, and she was forced to dance a quick sidestep to avoid brushing against him.

“If there’s anything I can do for you, Emily,” he said, following her to the door, “anything at all, you let me know, okay?”

“I will. Thanks again.” She felt his eyes on her back as she fled toward sunlight and fresh air.

JOE MUTTERED A CURSE as he stepped into Caldwell’s quad at lunch break. Drifts of smoke carried the stench of burning byproducts, piles of refuse dotted the lawn and something that was supposed to be music throbbed from the speakers behind an oversize grill. Another football season hot dog barbecue in all its glory.

He carried his curried-chicken-and-brown-rice salad across the quad to a twisted fir tree, found his favorite napping space between two root bumps and stretched out on his back on the grass, his head cushioned on his hands. He gazed up through the tree limbs and contemplated saying something to someone about the song lyrics, but decided it was such a petty thing compared to the unrecycled waste and charcoaled carcinogens surrounding him. He simply closed his eyes to shut it all out.

“Pardon me.”

Emily. He turned his head toward the sound of her voice and opened his eyes. She was standing above him, sunlight rimming her curls in a blinding corona. He squeezed his eyes shut, but her afterimage danced in a negative exposure. “Yes?”

“Is this exposed root taken?”

“No.”

He cracked one eye open to watch her sink to the ground, cross-legged and skirt-draped.

She held out a can of soda. “You looked thirsty.”

He crossed his ankles and shifted his hands more comfortably under his head. “I was hoping I looked asleep.”

“Nope.” She set the can down near his elbow. “I could see your eyes twitching.”

He watched her sip her soda, her mouth puckering around the rim of the can and her long neck arching back in a grateful curve. She swallowed, lowered the can and ran her tongue along her moist upper lip.

Joe looked away. He wasn’t feeling drowsy anymore. He was feeling far too awake. And far too aware of Emily’s throat and tongue and lips. “What do you want, Ms. Sullivan?”

“To buy you a soda. To say thank you for agreeing to this internship.”

She lifted the can of cola and offered it again. It wouldn’t have been polite to refuse.

“To have a simple, friendly conversation,” she added.

He wondered if this was a student teaching assignment. Have a friendly chat with your master teacher sometime during the first month of classes. Report due on Monday.

Then he glanced up at her and saw the nerves behind her smile.

God, he was getting cynical in his pre-middle age. He really ought to apologize for any number of things: for not initiating a friendly chat himself, or for his bad habit of suspecting ulterior motives. For not seeming more grateful for the offer of free carbonated chemicals. For spending half his time plotting to get rid of her and the other half visualizing her naked in his bed.

This was why etiquette had been invented—to safely channel all manner of primal urges and sociopathic aberrations into G-rated clichés the whole family could enjoy. “Thank you,” he said as he took the can.

“You’re welcome.”

“So.” Joe set his soda on the grass beside him, shifted to his side, braced his head in his hand and prepared to engage in something simple and friendly. “What are your plans for this weekend?”

“Short-term or long-term?”

A two-tiered plan for a two-day weekend? Why did he think any conversation with Emily could be simple? “Forget I asked.”

“Okay.” She shoved a hand into her skirt pocket, withdrew a folded wad of paper and waved it under her chin. “New topic. I have here a list of names beginning with P,” she said.

He groaned. “Believe me, I’ve heard them all.”

“Not, apparently, all of them.” She shifted and wriggled her curvy rear end over the root to torture him. “I figured I could arrange the search in either alphabetical order or categories.”

“Categories?”

“Categories makes the most sense to me, too.” She smoothed her paper over her lap. “I thought I’d start with Polish names. Just in case someone overlooked something that goes with Wisniewski. Names like Pawel? Piotr? Prosimir?”

He shook his head. “No, no and nope.”

“Prokop. Parys. Pankracy. Pius. Pielgrzym. And this one,” she said, handing him the paper. “I don’t know how to pronounce it.”

Przybywoj. “Neither do I.”

“Oh, well.” She took her list back with a sigh. “I didn’t expect to get it on the first try.”

He watched her refold the paper and carefully shove it back into her skirt pocket. They sat for a moment in silence, watching students materialize and vanish through the grill smoke.

Emily picked up her soda and sipped, and then gestured with the can to encompass the scene on the quad. “So, is this where you picture yourself in ten years?”

Joe narrowed his eyes. “Why should I?”

“Because this is where you want to be, what you want to be doing.” She cocked her head to one side with a bright smile. “Because you find teaching challenging and satisfying. Because it makes you happy.”

He stared at her seemingly innocent expression, searching for a trick. Strange that she’d ask him the one question he’d been ducking lately. “Happy?”

“Happiness is a worthwhile goal.” She set down her can. “I’m hoping teaching will bring me happiness. For any number of reasons.”

Her idealism itched along his conscience like a rash. He frowned at her and grabbed his soda. “Do you have another list in your pocket?”

“No,” she said with a laugh. “And we don’t have to talk shop if you don’t want to.”

Thank God. “What will we talk about?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Life, for instance. Specific or generic. Past, present or future. For a start.”

“For a start,” he said. “Would that fall under the short-term or long-term goals for this conversation?”

She smiled one of her widest smiles, the one that twisted and tickled something deep inside him. “Any topic, Joe. Any or all of the above. You could start with the easiest one first.”

“Don’t you have something else to do right now?” He rolled onto his back and set the can of soda on his chest before closing his eyes. “Someone else to interview about the meaning of life?”

“No. I don’t have university classes on Fridays, so I thought I’d hang out here for the rest of the day. Maybe find another opportunity for a friendly chat.”

Joe groaned. “Lucky me.”

He listened to her laugh and couldn’t suppress a miserly smile. He enjoyed hearing her laugh, and he liked knowing that something he’d said was the reason. He enjoyed her company, and her chatter, and her scrunching nose and pinwheeling hands. And he liked this simple, friendly feeling. It was…nice.

He really hated that particular four-letter word, but there it was: nice. He couldn’t come up with a better term for this warm and fuzzy friendship he felt settling over them just the way he imagined grandma’s favorite afghan might feel—soft and familiar and scented with something other than barbecued pork extract. Warm, and fuzzy, and safe. Nice.

He hadn’t planned on it, hadn’t been looking for it, hadn’t been working at it, but there it was. And what was extra nice was that he was fairly sure Emily felt the same, too. The sound of her laughter was a good sign. That and the fact that she hadn’t given up on him and moved away.

So he made the effort to straighten up, chance a sip of the soda she’d given him and take the simple, friendly conversation to another level. “You know, Ms. Sullivan, not everyone chooses happiness as a life goal. Some people put other people’s happiness ahead of their own.”

She tilted her head. He knew that tilt. It meant his philosophical underpinnings were about to be run through the wringer.

“And doesn’t the creation of that happiness give a deep sense of accomplishment and satisfaction to the happiness causer?” she asked.

He shifted forward. “What about pure altruism? Doing good for others at the risk of complete self-sacrifice?”

“Does it have to make you unhappy to be pure? Can’t an act still be altruistic even if there’s a little niggling shred of satisfaction mixed in with the sacrifice?”

“So, in your world, self-satisfied self-sacrifice is, in essence, a selfish act?”

Emily leaned closer. “What is self-sacrifice without some degree of self-satisfaction?”

“Altruism.”

“Or martyrdom.” She tilted her head again. “So, Joe, which kind of teacher are you? A slightly impure altruist? Or a chest-thumping martyr?”

“Neither. And I have the paychecks to prove it.”

Damn. She’d snuck in under his guard and landed another sucker punch. She’d gotten his brain in gear, his juices flowing and forced him to examine his motivations for teaching. He was feeling bruised, and confused, and annoyed, and something else he didn’t care to label at the moment, because it felt like one of those feelings that would get him fired if he followed through on it.

He settled back against the ground and closed his eyes to shut her out and end the conversation. “It’s just a job, Emily.”

When she didn’t respond, he cracked one eye open to see her smiling down at him. One of her admiring smiles. The kind that made him squirm.

CHAPTER FIVE

EMILY PERCHED on her bar stool a week later and surveyed the Friday-night scene at a university area pub: a room packed with hopefuls looking for hookups. The stale beer, the stale peanuts and the stale lines were standard issue atmosphere.

Next to her, Social Studies Methodology classmate Marilee Ostrom ran a red-lacquered nail along the edge of her margarita glass and licked the salt from her finger. Then she leaned forward and set her elbows on the glossy pub bar, crossing her arms to neatly frame her ample breasts for the male art critics on the other side of the counter.

“Okay, you’re right. Nice moves,” said Emily. “But it’s the cleavage that makes it work.”

“You’ve got cleavage.”

“Barely.”

“There’s nothing bare about it tonight,” said Marilee, glancing at Emily’s gray turtleneck sweater. “You won’t land a live one if you don’t get your hook in the water.”

Marilee tossed her lush auburn hair over her shoulder with a sensual shrug. Everything about Marilee was lush and sensual and made for red. Not a sophisticated burgundy or a down-to-earth rust, but a sex-served-straight-up, sirens-screaming, fire-engine red. “Besides,” she said, “your reel will get rusty if you don’t play out a little line every now and then.”

All this fishing talk was reminding Emily of Linda’s theory about Kyle. “Can we drop the fishing analogies? And besides, I’m not interested.”

“I’ve always believed that the best way to top off a girl’s night out is with a man in the morning.” Marilee tipped her glass in a discreet gesture. “That one, over there, the one with the dark green sweater—he looks like your type.”

Emily glanced at a lanky all-American candidate with squared-off shoulders and a squared-off jaw. “Yep, he sure does.”

“So, give him some encouragement,” said Marilee.

“I don’t want to encourage him.”

Marilee rolled her eyes.

Emily stared down at her drink. “It’s complicated.”

“Is there someone else?”

“Why does there have to be someone else?”

“Because Chad, or Blake, or Whoever over there is seriously cute.”

Marilee smiled at the dark and brooding guy in black leather at the other end of the bar, and he smiled back through a ribbon of cigarette smoke. Dark and brooding would suit Marilee, Emily thought.

They watched him send up another smoke signal. “Go ahead,” Emily said. “Go fish.”

“And leave you crying over your mysterious someone else?”

“I’m not. I won’t.”

Marilee rolled her eyes again. “You’ve got all the symptoms. Sighing, dressing like a nun. Ignoring Troy in the green sweater.”

“Maybe I’m just picky.” Because she could feel a blush coming on, Emily turned to stare out at the crowd.

Marilee shook her head. “I’ve got you pegged. And your cheeks are turning bright pink. You’re like a human traffic signal. Stop. Go. Go away.”

Emily reached back to pick up her wine and took a big sip of avoidance.

Marilee gasped. “I know who it is. It’s your master teacher. The tall, dark and cranky one with the troubled past. You like him.”

“Of course I like him.”

“No. I mean, you like him. As in ‘I like what I see and I want to see more.’”

“I couldn’t do that,” Emily said. Marilee lifted one auburn eyebrow, and Emily’s cheeks got warmer. “It’s complicated.”

“We’ve already established that.” Marilee toyed with her straw. “So he’s your master teacher. So you’ve got an itch for him that can’t be scratched till the end of the term. Doesn’t mean you can’t brush up against him every now and then in an innocent social setting. Find out if he’s a little itchy, too.”

Emily spun the stem of her glass. “No way. He’s my teacher and my job supervisor. That’s two big check marks in the hands-off column.”

And she’d better remind herself about those check marks whenever she started feeling a little warm and rashy. Joe would be evaluating her performance during the next few weeks. Things could get sticky if either of them acknowledged a sexual attraction or, worse, followed up on it.