I carefully shuffled and reshuffled the papers on my desk in front of me. I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened a few nights before. I’d barely been able to stop focusing on it since. But who could blame me? That had been about the hottest night of my life, and I wasn’t going to be able to let go of it any time soon.

Class started in the next few minutes, and I had to gather myself to be able to deliver a decent hour for the kids who needed it. I’d had all weekend to drift about the house in a happy haze, carrying on a text chain with Holden that lasted all day and all night, drifting from flirty to dirty to prim and back again. I loved having him at my beck and call, loved having him at the other end of the line. No games to play, neither of us working as hard as we could to keep the other at arm’s length. It felt like, for the first time since we met, the two of us were on the same page, and I couldn’t have been happier.

“Good morning.” A familiar voice drew my attention, and I looked up to find Zoe poking her head around the door.

“Morning.” I grinned at her, and she slipped in and pushed the door shut behind her.

“What’s the weekend gossip?” she asked, waggling her eyebrows at me expectantly. “What happened with Holden and the date you set him up on?”

I took a deep breath. I hadn’t told Zoe what had happened between the two of us yet. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her or anything, only that I wanted to keep it between us for a little longer. There was something about putting it out there to the world at large that made it seem like it wasn’t ours any longer, even though I was going to have to tell everyone eventually. And it would be fun to share it with Zoe, to get her in on the action. How long had she been friends with me, and exactly how much juicy gossip had I delivered to her in that time? I owed her this one, obviously.

“He actually didn’t go on the date,” I confessed to her, and she cocked her head at me.

“What, like, he stood her up?”

“He canceled with her.” I paused for a moment for dramatic effect. “And he came to see me instead.”

“No way!” she exclaimed, glancing around to make sure none of our students were hanging out nearby to catch what we were talking about. “He came to your place? What happened?”

“Well, he told me he didn’t want to go on that date. He wanted to be with me.” I bit my lip, unable to believe those words were coming out of my mouth describing anything other than a fantasy. “And then he came in, and he… uh, he spent the night.”

That seemed like an overly careful way of describing what had happened between us. The sex had been pretty much the hottest thing that had ever happened to me, but I couldn’t go into details while there were kids drifting around who might have caught what I was saying.

“Oh, did he now?” Zoe’s eyebrows practically vanished into her hairline. “And what about the morning after?”

“We had breakfast together, and he said he was going to take me out again next Saturday,” I replied, biting my lip. “I’m looking forward to it. I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Me neither.” Zoe shook her head “Can’t believe you both finally pulled your shit together and admitted you’re meant to be together.”

“I wouldn’t go that far quite yet,” I warned her. “I mean, we only hooked up. Nothing’s happened between us yet.”

“Yeah, but the two of you have been dancing around this point for, like, six weeks?” she reminded me. “If you haven’t gotten sick of each other by now, I’d say you’re pretty set for life.”

“Well, we’ll see.” I held my hands up. “Hopefully, this date’s going to be a little more successful than the first one I went on with him.”

“I’m sure it will be,” she promised me, and then she sat down at the desk opposite me, wrinkling her nose up, a look of concern crossing her face.

“Zoe? What’s going on?” I asked nervously. I felt as though every single emotion in my body had been racked up to eleven, and I was noticing every little detail of everything people did around me. It wasn’t serving me too well.

“I’m just…” She looked up at me. “I’m worried, that’s all.”

“But you were the one pushing for something to happen between the two of us!” I reminded her. “I thought you’d be happy we finally bit the bullet and did something.”

“Trust me, I am,” she promised me. “And I hope things work out between you. I do. It’s just that…”

She searched for the best way to phrase her concerns that wasn’t going to offend or upset me.

“He’s got a whole lot of money, right?” she confirmed, and I nodded.

“And men like that, when they come with a whole lot of money, there’s some… complications that can run alongside that,” she continued, delicately teasing out her actual meaning. “I’m sure he’s great, but just… be careful, all right?”

“I will.” I furrowed my brow. I wasn’t even sure I knew precisely what she was saying, but she was looking out for me, and that was all that mattered. “I appreciate the concern, Zo, but I’m sure I can handle myself.”

“I’m sure you can too.” She smiled at me. “He won’t know what hit him.”

She stood up again, glancing at the large clock with the bright red hands above my desk.

“I should get back to class.” She tapped my desk a couple of times. “I’ll see you at lunch, though, right? And I expect all the gory details.”

“I promise there was nothing gory about what happened,” I called after her, but she was already gone. The bell rang, and I heard the shuffle of the kids forming a line outside my door. I got to my feet, brushed down my skirt, adjusted my blouse, and went to let them in. It was difficult, sometimes, switching over from weekend mode into work mode, but I would have to find a way to do it. I didn’t want anyone, least of all Hunter, catching on to what had happened this weekend.

They were all chatting amongst themselves when they entered, and I noticed Hunter looking at me. For a moment, I panicked, wondering if his dad had filled him in on some of the stuff that had happened that weekend, but he couldn’t have been that stupid, could he? Holden and I were still in the very early stages of whatever the hell it was we were doing, and he would’ve been nuts to go ahead and tell his son all about that. It would have caused chaos for him. I calmed myself as Hunter got closer and offered him a smile.

“How was your weekend, Hunter?” I asked him, and he nodded.

“It was good,” he replied, but he was clearly distracted and a little nervous.

“Something you want to ask me?” I wondered aloud, and he nodded, scuffing his foot back and forth on the floor before him.

“I was wondering—” He took a deep breath, as though he had been carefully rehearsing these words since he had gotten out of bed that morning. “—what are you… when do the afterschool clubs start?”

“Next week,” I replied. “The gaming one will have the sign-up sheet out soon, and I’ll make sure to put your name on it.”

“Awesome.” He beamed. “Thank you.”

I smiled as I watched him head back to his seat. It was so good to see him engaging with something. Yeah, the gaming club might mostly be kids staring at computer screens, but anything that made him feel like he belonged to a group of people was surely a good thing. I was going to get Hunter feeling more comfortable around the rest of the kids in his class before he graduated my year. I was sure of it.

“All right, all right, settle down, everyone.” I clapped my hands together at the front of the class. “Take your seats, please.”

The kids broke off from their groups and hurried to take their spots at the seats scattered through the room, and there was the shuffle of them grabbing everything they needed out of their bags and lay it in front of them. As I waited, I found my mind drifting back in the direction of Holden, of that night, of how amazing it had been—and the fact that I got to do it all again so soon. That was going to be a hell of a lot of fun. What had he planned for us? Something romantic, no doubt. And probably expensive. I was pretty sure I had run down the list of luxury vehicles that I wanted nothing to do with, but what if he turned up in, like, a tank or something? I giggled at the thought.

And then, I realized I was standing there in front of a room full of kids, all of whom were waiting for me to start their lessons, and I was grinning away like an idiot thinking about something else entirely. I blinked and quickly grabbed my lesson plan, glancing over the words in front of me in the hopes of reminding myself what the hell I was supposed to be doing that day.

“All right.” I straightened up and cast my eye around the room, hoping none of them would have picked up on my stutter start right there. “Take out your workbooks and turn to a fresh page.”

All of them did as they were told, and I tried to keep my head in the game. I had five days till my date with Holden, and I wasn’t going to be able to spend every moment of that time daydreaming about what that night was going to bring. I had to stay focused, and that meant casting him out of my brain for the time being, no matter how hard it was going to be to stop myself from thinking about what we had already shared—and more importantly, what was yet to come.