“What? No! You said—” Lauren broke off. “Aaron,yousaid this was going to be over after the holidays.”
“It doesn’t make it meaningless. Not to him. Or to me.”
Lauren’s head tilted. “Okay? I’m sorry? I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“It’snotmeaningless sex.” His gut churned at the thought that what he’d done with RJ, what they shared could be considered meaningless by anyone at all. Much less RJ. God.
“Okay, I believe you. And isn’t that why this is a problem?”
“No.” Aaron wasn’t hearing anymore. He was done with this conversation. He glanced at the clock, willing his free hour to be done. “I have some grading I need to finish. We’ll discuss this more another day.”
“Aaron, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I never want to hurt you.” Lauren’s voice had gone soft and tender.
“I know.”
“It’s just that I don’t understand. You made it out like a hookup, then you said it was going to be, I don’t know, a fling? Something with an expiration date. But now…” She took hold of his hand and he met her gaze again. “Please. I know I said the wrong thing. Just explain it to me. I want to have your back when the shit hits the fan. Because, hon, if this gets out, and you know that it will, it’s going to be a zinger. With your mother if no one else.”
Aaron pulled his hand away, the dull angry panic still racing inside him at the suggestion that his hours with RJ had no meaning. “I don’t want to talk about it now. I have these papers.” He indicated the stack he was only halfway through. The sooner he finished them, the sooner he could submit the grades, and the sooner he could climb into RJ’s lap and be held again. The sooner he could prove it meant something even if it wasn’t going to last.
“Don’t see him again,” Lauren urged as she stood up to leave.
“Are you serious?” Aaron didn’t have the willpower for that.
“Get yourself a nice stranger from Grindr tonight to blot out the memories and move on from this. He’s not worth it.”
“Not worth—”
The speaker crackled. “Aaron Danvers, please report to the principal’s office. Aaron Danvers, report to Principal Shock’s office.”
“You’d think I was an actual child,” Aaron said, shoving back his chair. “Summoning me the way she would a sixth grader she wanted to humiliate.”
Lauren followed him out of the room, her mug gripped in both hands. “I know you’re mad at me right now, but I’ll be here for you. After.” Lauren squeezed his shoulder with sympathetic eyes. “Go on.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Carter Ward wasin my office earlier this morning.”
Aaron blinked at his mother, his stomach knotting up at her severe and uncompromising expression. He took the seat across from her desk. It didn’t have any fresh stains as far as he could tell, but he didn’t look too closely. He’d expected her to start in on him about their “discussion” at the dance the other night, and maybe she was warming up to it by mentioning Carter’s visit to her office, but maybe not.
Swallowing hard, he asked, “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. But he had some interesting news for me.”
Aaron wiped his palms on his pant legs. “What’s that?”
“He said you’re sleeping with his brother? A former student of yours, no less.”
“Wait, what? Carter Ward’s brother…” In a flash, pieces of his conversations with Carter, Carter’s dad, and RJ all came together. “Oh, my God.” Aaron choked on his own spit.
By the time he finished coughing and sputtering, his mother had stood up, put both hands on her desk, and leaned toward him, eyes radiating fury. “What did I tell you, Aaron, when you started here?”
“Not to embarrass you.”
“And what have you done?”
Aaron stood. There was no way he was giving her the higher ground. This way, they had to look at each other face-to-face.
“What have I done, Mom? First off, what I’ve done is none of your business as the principal of this school.”
