Claiming Carter (9 page)

“What? Did he finally give you an orgasm?” Lexy snickered.

“Shut up. He’s given me orgasms. He just doesn’t know about them yet,” I joked in response. “No, seriously, has a guy ever waited to start eating until you started to eat first?”

Lexy frowned at me as she thought. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, like, his plate was right there in front of him, and he just sat there. He didn’t touch anything on his plate until I’d cut my steak and taken my first bite. He waited for me to start eating before he touched his own food. Has that ever happened to you before?”

“Damn. Hell no, that’s never happened to me before. Hell, Mike is damn near done with his food by the time I get to the table with my plate. He wouldn’t wait for me to eat if it was Thanksgiving,” Lexy joked. At least I thought she was joking. “This guy sounds like a keeper, Lil. Then again, so did Tim when you first started dating his sorry ass. But, it’s good to know that it’s started out well. He definitely seems to have potential. Now, on to the good stuff. Tell me how it ended.”

I twisted my lips into a dissatisfied frown and Lexy quickly noticed my frustration.

“Aww, come on! Don’t tell me he ruined it with some corny line about his dick size, or admitting he still lived with his mother. Please don’t let me down. I was beginning to have hope for this one!” Lexy barked.

“No, no. It wasn’t anything like that. However, I was pretty disappointed with the way the night ended,” I complained. “We’d had this great night, full of conversation and getting to know each other, and even a little flirting. But, all of a sudden, out of the blue, the guy who drove us to the restaurant came running over to the table. He told Kelvin something about someone named Ant being at the restaurant and that we needed to go. Kelvin seemed like he was kind of spooked by something and we left pretty prematurely. I still had a quarter of my steak left to finish.

“And then, once we’d finally made it back to my place, I was waiting for at least a goodnight kiss. I tried to get close to him and brush up against him a little bit, you know, to try to let him know I was okay with it. But he just backed away, said goodnight, and left.”

Lexy raised her eyebrows as she took another sip from her White Sox travel mug. “Wow. Maybe he’s gay.”

I let out a loud chuckle that echoed throughout the small lounge. “Oh my gosh, Lex, he is not gay! Trust me. I know for a fact he isn’t gay. He was doing a lot of flirting.
Good
flirting. He knew what he was doing to me, and I think he knew he could have me if he wanted me, which is why it was so frustrating when he left without so much as a kiss goodbye.”

Just then, the door to the lounge swung open and Angela Bronson came strutting in. She was wearing her usual, completely unnecessary, teal colored hospital scrubs, and her curly black hair was pulled into a loose, messy ponytail. I shook my head in disgust as she sauntered over to the coffee machine without acknowledging Lexy and me. It had only been a month since I caught her with her lips around Tim’s dick, so the tension between us was still extremely high.

“Well,” Lexy began. I knew she was about to say something crazy. “The good news is, at least you don’t have to worry about his cock being infested by an old bitch’s gross, crusty lips. That alone makes him a standout.”

My eyes bulged in my head as I tried to stifle my laughter. Angela let out a loud sigh, and paused before pouring her coffee into a hideous Green Bay Packers mug—just another reason for us to hate her.

“Now all you need to do,” Lexy continued, “is make sure Angela here doesn’t see him, or she’d be sucking his balls for sure.”

“Holy shit, Lex,” I said as I covered my mouth with my hand.

Angela put her coffee mug down on the black countertop and turned around to face us. She sighed for a second time before finally speaking.

“I never meant to come in between you guys, Lily. I know that it was wrong, and I have already apologized. But, talking about me and making fun of me won’t change anything,” Angela said.

“I’m not trying to change anything, Angela. It is what it is. And don’t get me wrong, I blame Tim more than I blame you. All I can say is that I’m still a little pissed about the whole thing, and my good friend, Lexy here, is allowed to say whatever she wants to say. I’m not out to hurt your feelings. Believe it or not, I’m doing quite well with moving on with my life. But, that doesn’t change what you did.”

“You’re moving on with your life? Not from what I can tell. As far as I can see, you’re still hung up on Tim and mad that I was able to take him away from you. You’re obviously not over it if you’re still pissed about it. You need to
really
move on with your life, and get over it,” Angela countered just as she turned to grab her mug and began walking towards the door.

As the door closed, I looked over at Lexy with a frown. “Have I told you how much I hate that bitch?”

“Only about a million times,” Lexy quipped.

The school bell rang and Lexy and I, once again, headed down separate hallways towards our classes. Just as I approached my classroom, I couldn’t help but to peek inside Tim’s class. He was sitting at his desk with his arms folded, completely standoffish and unapproachable to his students. Just looking at him reminded me of how shitty my relationship with him was. We’d never had sex anywhere but my bedroom—besides the one time in my classroom—the entire time we were together, and never once did Tim ever ask me to give him “oral pleasure” outside of my house. Yet, I stayed with him in hopes that it would get better. Hoping that one day, he would come around and have something click inside of him that would make him want me more. Meanwhile, while I was hoping, he was shoving his cock in Angela Bronson’s mouth in the nurse’s office.

But, was it true that I hadn’t moved on? Maybe Angela had a point. If I was still mad about what she and Tim had done, did it mean that I was holding on to Tim? I hadn’t ever really thought about it that way. The way I saw it, I had every right to be pissed at my lying, cheating, ex-boyfriend and there was nothing wrong with that. I wasn’t stuck on Tim—I was a woman scorned. I needed to move past Tim and Angela completely. I didn’t want to think about everything that the two of them had made me feel, and the thought of them staying together after Tim and I had broken up only made me feel worse. I really did need something to come into my life and help me to move forward. I needed something. Maybe I needed
someone
.

I walked into my classroom and settled down my raucous students. It was seven-twenty, and it never ceased to amaze me how energized children could be so early in the morning. Luckily, there were no crying kids and no fights about to break out this morning, so I immediately began the day’s lesson on division.

Time passed quickly, and the day was moving along without a hitch. My teacher’s aide, Mrs. Butterfield, took the kids to P.E. where another one of my exes was successful with riling the children back up before sending them back to class right before lunch. As the class came filing into the room, I heard my phone’s text alert chime from inside my purse. I quickly picked it up and saw that the message was from Lexy.

Lexy:
Almost lunch time. Lounge?

Me:
You know it. I’m starving. See you soon.

Ten minutes later, I was prepping my students to go to lunch and my phone vibrated and chimed once again. I had just responded to Lexy, so I was wondering what was going on that she was texting me again. I, again, dug into my purse and pulled out my cell phone, but I quickly realized that I didn’t recognize the number, however, it looked vaguely familiar.

630-555-2319:
Hey, beautiful. How is your day going so far??

Although, I thought I recognized the number, I still wasn’t sure who the message was from, or why they decided to use two question marks at the end of the message. I usually wouldn’t respond to an unknown number, but I decided I would take the bait.

Me:
My day is going fine. It might be better if I knew who this was.

After about two minutes, my phone chimed again.

630-555-2319:
Kelvin Carter Jr.

My heart rate began to pick up speed and I gasped loudly, drawing the attention of Mrs. Butterfield.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry,” I replied with an embarrassed smile.

I wasn’t sure how to respond. The way the night ended last night, I was shocked that Kelvin had decided to call me back. We’d had a great night at the dinner table, but the ending was a gigantic cold shower. The surprise text put an immediate smile on my face. I quickly went into my contacts and changed the unknown number to Kelvin’s name.

Me:
Hi. I didn’t expect to hear from you. How are you?

Kelvin:
I’m good. About to go have a business meeting. I wanted to apologize again about the way things ended last night. I hope I didn’t scare you away.

I smiled a full, embarrassing smile that I failed to hide from Mrs. Butterfield. She scrunched her forehead and tilted her head, silently asking me what was going on. I shook my head as I smiled at her, successfully filling her with more confusion as I continued texting.

Me:
Definitely didn’t scare me off. I understand. Sometimes things come up. It’s okay.

Kelvin:
Thanks for understanding. Kind of wish I could make up for last night by seeing you again today.

I smiled another enormous smile just as the bell for lunch rang and Mrs. Butterfield began filing the kids out of the classroom and into the hallway, which was quickly filling up with hungry first, second, and third graders.

Me:
Well, I’m about to go to lunch right now. It would be cool if you came by and saw me before lunch was over. I know you’re busy though. Maybe we can set something up for later on tonight.

As I pressed
Send
on my phone, I rushed out of my classroom and speed walked down the hall towards the teacher’s lounge, where I knew Lexy would be waiting. I couldn’t stifle my excitement as I walked and I was dying to share this with her, and I knew she would be dying to hear about it.

I pushed the door to the teacher’s lounge open with a little too much force and winced when I heard the door knob slam into the wall. Lexy stood at the counter warming up her chicken pot pie in the microwave. Her white dress hung low and swayed at her ankles as she moved. When she turned around, I instantly noticed her excessive cleavage. I could only imagine what the boys in her third grade class were thinking every time she bent over.

“Excited about lunch, huh?” Lexy snipped as I rushed into the room.

“He’s texting me. Right now,” I answered with excitement. Lexy bolted over to me and basically snatched the phone out of my hand, examining the text conversation between Kelvin and I.

“He hasn’t responded yet? Do you think he’ll actually come?” Lexy seemed as eager as I was.

“I don’t know. I mean, I doubt it. He’s a busy guy, and he already said he was about to go to a meeting, so I won’t get my hopes up,” I said.

Thirty minutes quickly came and went as Lexy and I ate our lunch in the empty lounge. For one reason or another, Lexy and I were the only two teachers who ate lunch in the lounge. Most of the other teachers ate outside at the picnic tables or got in their cars and left for lunch. It was a short break, but a necessary one. The teacher’s aides were responsible for taking the children out to recess and very few teachers actually accompanied their class outside. I didn’t know the exact reasons, but I was glad that Lexy and I could get some alone time during the school day.

“I told you he was too busy to come,” I said, slouching in my chair with frustration. Lunch was almost over and I still hadn’t gotten any sort of response from Kelvin.

“Well, that sucks. I was looking forward to seeing his sexy ass again,” Lexy said.

“Yeah, well, what can you do? The kids will be back in ten minutes. I better finish up here and get ready to head—” My text alert chimed and startled both of us.

“Is that him?” Lexy chirped.

I looked down at my phone and gasped when I read the message.

“What?” Lexy said. “What is it? Is that him or not?”

I nodded my head slowly. “He said he’s outside,” I replied.

Lexy’s eyes bulged in her head. “Oh shit! He’s here? What are you going to do?”

I placed the phone in my pocket and smiled from ear to ear. “I don’t know. What should I do?”

“Go meet him. Where is he?” Lexy inquired.

“He said he’s outside by the playground, in the back. We only have a few minutes left. I’m going to go see him.”

“Well, you better believe I am coming with you!”

Lexy and I scrambled to pack away our Tupperware dishes and mugs and bolted out the door and down the hallway. The moment I pushed my way through the exit, I noticed all the teacher’s aides were staring in one direction and whispering amongst themselves. I followed their eyes and instantly saw what they were looking at. Kelvin’s Bentley was parked next to the curb adjacent to the playground.

“Holy fucking shit!” Lexy’s swearing came out like a strangled whisper as she gaped at the luxury car. I didn’t know why, but it looked as if the Bentley had just been washed every time I saw it. “Oh my gosh, Lil. That car is incredible. Only rich people drive those things.”

I didn’t say anything. Instead, I straightened out my shirt and dusted off my skirt as I began walking towards the car. Just as I reached the grass, the back door popped open and the first thing I saw was a patent leather, navy blue shoe step out onto the curb. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the vision I was about to see.

As Kelvin climbed out of the car, I couldn’t help but smile at how good he looked. Kelvin was wearing a navy blue suit, with dark gray pinstripes and a dark gray tie. His silver watch matched the silver studs he wore in his ear lobes and his teeth were as white as ever as he smiled at me.