Her Teacher's Temptation (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

“You like this
one?” I spun around so that Ollie could see the formal cream dress from every
angle. “Please tell me this one is okay.” We’d been wandering around various shops
for at least two hours now and found nothing. And there were an awful lot of
shops in Nottingham.

Ollie rubbed a
hand against his stubble as he considered it. “Spin again,” I was instructed.

I did as I was
told and smoothed out the relatively tight dress to make sure it was perfect. I
actually liked this one, I had to admit. Whilst it was tight, it was also close
to knee length and showing only the smallest amounts of cleavage. It was
classy, which couldn’t be said about the majority of dresses I owned.

“I like it,”
Ollie acknowledged critically, before grinning. “It’s really nice.”

My expression
mirrored his. “Great. And I even have some shoes that go with it, which means
I’m not going to have to drag you around more shops.”

 “That’s good,
then. It’s not too expensive, right?” He checked, pulling a sudden face. On our
journey around the various shops in the city we’d gone in a couple of boutiques
that had dresses we couldn’t afford if we piled all our money together.

I strained to
check the price tag, but couldn’t quite reach it. Ollie moved closer and pulled
back the material, fingers brushing ever so slightly against the skin of my
back and causing me to shiver. There was no way I was going to last a whole
weekend if such a simple gesture had this much of an impact on me. “It’s fine,
it’s not too expensive,” he assured me, though I’d make sure to check when I
took it off that it wasn’t anything extravagant.

“So, since
you’ve been particularly lacking in information so far, are you going to tell
me about this wedding whilst we go and get food?” I demanded teasingly. “I’m
really starving. Shopping stresses me out. Let’s get McDonald’s.”

“There’s not
really much else to tell. We’re supposed to go down on the Friday after school,
it’ll probably take the rest of the day to drive there, since it takes like
five hours,” we both groaned at the idea. And I thought driving to Newcastle
was tedious. “Then there’s just a dinner and everyone can kind of do what they
want on Saturday. The wedding is Sunday morning and we drive home in the
evening. It might end up being pretty late.” He admitted. “Most of my family
are staying Sunday night apart from my brother and us, because we have work.”

“It does sound
pretty fun,” I had to admit. “Annabel is going, right? And how well do you know
this cousin?”

“I saw her a
lot when we were growing up, but not much since I went to Oxford. I’m actually
quite looking forward to seeing her again,” He admitted as we wandered along
the streets hoping we’d come across a McDonalds. Neither of us knew our way
around Nottingham. “And yeah, Annabel is going, so at least I’m not going to be
stuck with you all weekend,” he shot me a breathtaking grin. “Just stay away
from my parents.”

I raised a
slight eyebrow. “You don’t think they’re going to be too unimpressed with me,
do you?” I checked sceptically.

Ollie shook his
head immediately. “No, it’ll be fine. I’m only messing with you. I mean, they’ll
probably be too busy with Laura anyway, I think they still see her often.”

I wasn’t
entirely sure that would be true, but then again, if we were just going as
friends then it wouldn’t really matter anyway. I was technically his date, but
he was going to assure everyone that I was filling in for the weekend. “Oh
sweet, we found it quicker than I was expecting,” I commented, pushing open the
door to the relatively quiet building. Since we’d promised not to quit shopping
until we’d found a dress, it meant we were eating in between meal times.

After getting
our food, I insisted we sit on one of the high chairs. They’d always been my
favourite, ever since I was little, but normally it was too busy to get them. I
wasn’t going to voice my reasoning, though, Ollie might decide I really was too
childish and refuse to speak to me again. “I got some more uni offers.” I made
conversation, becoming instantly paranoid about how disgusting I might be
eating in front of Ollie. “From York and Leeds.”

Ollie grinned.
“Well done,” he congratulated. It always gave me a warm fuzzy feeling when
Ollie was proud of me.  

“Whoa!” A
familiar voice greeted my ears. “Maddie! What the hell?”

My cheeks
flamed and Ollie shifted uncomfortably as Hannah materialised beside me. “Hey
Hannah,” I greeted her with a visible wince. I resisted the urge to frown when
I noticed that Mike was stood beside her. Wasn’t she supposed to have broken up
with him at least two weeks ago?

Hannah gestured
between Ollie and I wildly, demanding answers with her disbelieving splutter.
“What?” She finally managed to demand.

“Erm…” I
considered my next words carefully. More because Mike was stood right there
rather than because of Hannah. “I’m just friends with Ollie’s sister and she
invited me to this wedding and told Ollie that he had to buy me a dress and
stuff,” I explained. Maybe Hannah wouldn’t even mention the fact he was my
teacher in front of Mike.

Hannah looked
disbelieving. “When did all of this occur?” She questioned, her tone almost
amusingly condescending. This definitely wasn’t the time to laugh, though. I’d
kept this from Hannah too long for it be amusing by now.

“I met Annabel
when we went to Newcastle for the writing thing and we just kept in touch,” I
explained, which was partly true. I had added her on Facebook at least, even if
we hardly ever spoke. “Then she needed someone to come to this wedding with her
since all her other friends are going to some festival thing.” I wasn’t sure
what festivals would be going on in winter, but it was the first thing that
popped into my head.

The look Hannah
gave me made it clear I would be giving her the full story later, but I didn’t
mind that, it was what I wanted more than anything. Mike looked less than
satisfied with any of this, though. “What’s the big deal?” He butted in.

“He’s her
teacher!” Hannah exclaimed without the slightest hesitation. I wanted to whack
her round the forehead.

Mike’s eyes
widened comedically before changing into an expression that gave away just how
much he was judging me right now. “You’re involved with your teacher?” He
questioned disbelievingly.

I gawked. “I’m
pretty sure I’ve just explained how we’re barely even friends. He’s just doing
his sister a favour.”

“It looks more
than friendly.” He accused.

I found it hard
to comprehend that he was actually being serious. “In what way?” I retorted,
quickly becoming angry with his stupid assumptions. If only Hannah had bothered
to break up with him when she was supposed to.

Hannah,
thankfully, had realised just how uncomfortable she’d made everything. “It’s
fine, Mike,” She interrupted. “I was just surprised. Obviously they’re just
friends.” She waved off his suspicions easily, though it was clear to me she
was just as suspicious. “Come on, we still haven’t been to that book shop that
you wanted to show me.”

Mike brightened
at the idea. “Okay,” he agreed. “I suppose so.” They didn’t leave before he’d
sent me another look conveyed his opinion I was some kind of whore.

“See you later,
Maddie.” Hannah’s tone wasn’t convincing and I knew we’d be having a
conversation about this as soon as she was free.

I managed a
weak smile as they left and then turned warily towards Ollie. “Well, that was
awkward.” His sentence didn’t even begin to express how worried I knew he would
be. How worried we both were. “You don’t think…”

I sighed. “What
could he possibly do? There’s nothing to suggest what I said was a lie,” I was
doing my best to be convincing. It was true, but faced with even the slightest
possibility was the most unnerving thing I’d ever had to deal with. “Besides,
Hannah will tell him he’s being stupid. He’ll probably not even think about it
again. It’s not like he knows us.”

 “I suppose
there’s nothing more we can do anyway. Just wait and see what Hannah says when
you speak to her.” Our good moods had been almost completely deflated.

“Yeah. At least
it was worth it for my pretty dress,” I attempted to tease, though neither of
us even managed to smile slightly.

“It’ll work out
fine,” Ollie dismissed, as though it was that simple, running a hand through
his curls.

“I really do
like the stubble, by the way,” I added absentmindedly, picking up a now cold
chip.

Ollie shook his
head and couldn’t conceal his chuckle. “That wasn’t what you were supposed to
say,” he almost whined.

I found myself
cracking a grin at his response. “It’ll be fine,” I repeated his earlier
sentiments. “I’m sure we have nothing to worry about.” The more I thought about
it, the more I was sure I was right. “Even if he accused us, there’s certainly
no proof of anything.”

“Yeah,” Ollie
brightened slightly at the reasoning. It was going to be much easier to just
put this to the backs of our minds than to worry over potentially nothing. “Now
let’s go and get ice cream.”

***

I groaned at
the knock on the door. My feet hurt from trawling round shops all day and since
my mum had taken Lily and the dog for a walk, I had to walk all the way
downstairs to answer it. For a moment of panic, I considered that Nick might be
on the other side of the door. When I opened the door, I was greeted by a
conflicted looking Hannah, though. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

“I know.”
Hannah knew me too well to believe that I’d just made friends with Ollie’s
sister without mentioning it. There was obviously a secret lingering around the
whole situation. “Let’s go upstairs, though, in case my mum comes back.”

When we were
both seated on my bed, Hannah fixed me with an expectant expression. “So,
what’s even going on? I had no idea you and Mr. Wright were even on a first
name basis. I thought the party was just a weird situation.”

Sighing
heavily, I considered the best way to describe the situation to Hannah. I
didn’t want her to judge me too harshly, but then again, she was my friend and
she hadn’t exactly been an angel recently. “You can’t remember who Ollie is at
all, can you?” Maybe she’d just remember at that prompt.

Hannah’s look
was immediately quizzical, though. “No?”

“I slept with
him in summer, when we went out one time,” I explained, watching as the cogs
turned in Meg’s head and she attempted to remember when I was talking about.

“Oh shit,” she
breathed. “Near the beginning? I think I remember. It never clicked. Wow. I
can’t believe it! That must have been so awkward, but what happened? Why didn’t
you tell me?” Which was of course the question I knew was coming. I figured I’d
ignore it for now and answer the rest of her questions first. “How did you
sleeping together in summer lead to going to a wedding together?”

“I’m not even
sure,” I attempted not to sound too whiny about having to discuss our
relationship. It wasn’t the easiest thing right now. “I just found him
attractive still, obviously, and then Meg and I saw him in town and she went
off with some guy and so I went with Ollie and we almost slept together again.”
I was trying to condense it into as few points as possible. “Then we slept
together in Newcastle because I persuaded him to come out drinking with me.”

Hannah gawked.
“What? How did you persuade him to go out with you?”

I shifted
uncomfortably on my bed. “I don’t really know. It’s like we just were attracted
to each other and so it didn’t really feel like student and teacher from the
beginning. I happened to keep seeing him outside of school, like at the
restaurant and his girlfriend lived down the road from me and stuff.”

“He had a
girlfriend?” Hannah had obviously been far drunker than I’d realised when we
walked her home at the party. Her mind had apparently blocked it all out.

My cheeks
flamed, though Hannah couldn’t really say anything about this considering her
situation right now with Mike and Ewan. “He broke up with her after we slept
together in Newcastle.” I quickly assured her. “But yeah, I mean, we slept
together after the party too,” I sighed again. “Then we agreed that we should
stay away from each other.”

“And yet you’re
going to a wedding together?” She pressed sceptically.

“His parents
are really pushy about him finding someone to settle down with and so they’re
making him bring a date, but he doesn’t really know anyone since he broke up
with Jemma so he asked me. It’s the last time anything like that is going to
happen, though.”

Hannah shook
her head and remained silent for a moment. “You’re serious?” The whole story
was a bit unrealistic.

I nodded
slowly. “Yeah. I don’t even know how it got so messed up.” I pulled my knees to
my chest and leant my head back against the headboard.

“You really
like him, don’t you?”

“I really,
really
like him.”

Hannah sighed
and scooted properly beside me so that our shoulders were brushing together.
“That really sucks.” Guilt trickled into her voice slightly. “Mike kept going
on about how he thought it was weird and wrong,” she confessed, quickly
dissolving into rambles. “Like, how it was weird that your teacher had brought
you shopping and that it was like grooming and stuff. I kept telling him he was
being stupid and he said he believed me and I’m sure he’d tell me if he was
thinking of saying anything-”