Peer Pressure (15 page)

“What about it?”

“I was wondering what it meant. I wasn’t sure if it was an impulse or a ‘goodbye’ and

‘thanks but no thanks.’”

“And?”

Rob sat back down beside her.

“Well, you’re here aren’t you?”

“I guess.”

“Then let me take you out again?”

Katy sighed and then placed her hand on Rob’s arm, as if consoling him.

“Rob, listen, I know you’re just trying to be the good guy in this situation, but really, it’s okay. In this scenario, my daughter should probably come first.”

“I agree.”

Katy was getting nowhere, now. She stood up in frustration and walked over to the boardwalk barriers, before turning to face Rob again. She looked at the man sitting before her, trying to find some flaw, some tick or opinion he may have stated, anything that would give her a reason to let him go.

“God, stop being so cool about this. You’re not making this any easier.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just I’m willing to work at this. I want you to know that just because I’m teaching your daughter, I won’t let that affect what happens between you and me.”

Katy found Rob’s optimism and confidence both hugely attractive and annoyingly naïve.

“Between you and me? We’ve been out to dinner once, I’m not sure if we could call that exclusive.”

Rob then stood up and started to walk slowly backwards, as if making to leave.

“Then I’ll leave it. No hard feelings, okay?”

He turned to walk away, but Katy stopped him.

“Wait.”

Rob stopped and turned to face her gain.

“So,” Katy continued, “even with things being as they are, even with me being seven years older than you and even with a daughter that you’re teaching advanced English to, you’re still willing to give this a go?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Rob then took a few paces towards her.

“Because I think you might be worth it.”

“Worth what?”

“The complications. I mean, why does complication have to be such a negative anyway?

I’ve been doing the easy things my whole life and I’m no better off for it. Maybe I need a little complication right now.”

Katy shook her head and smiled.

“I’m not sure if that’s a romantic notion or an insult.”

Rob shrugged.

“To be honest, neither do I. It just felt like the right thing to say.”

Unable to say much else, Rob and Katy leaned against the barriers in silence. Neither was sure if the conversation had accomplished anything, but both were sure that they enjoyed each other’s company to the point where they felt comfortable to just stand there saying nothing. In the end, Katy let her instincts take over. After all, they’d been right before, why wouldn’t they be right now?

“So when do you want to take me out?”

Rob said nothing for a moment, then started to chuckle under his breath. Katy smiled and asked,

“What?”

Rob turned and leaned towards her.

“Are you really thirty-two?”

“Jodie, can I speak to you for a moment?”

The rest of the class had already started to filter out into the hallway when Rob made his request. Jodie could feel Sean’s eyes on her and gave him a slight smile as she turned back to Rob.

“Sure,” she replied.

Sean was the last to leave, closing the door as he went, feeling that perhaps, after what he had witnessed the other night, the following conversation was not for the rest of the school’s Chinese whispering.

Jodie stood up and walked slowly, almost seductively, towards Rob’s desk. She had deliberately undone the button second from the top on her blouse before class and had worn her shortest skirt that morning.

Rob noticed, but was too pre-occupied with what he was going to say to her and wasn’t picking up on her advances. That became harder when she sat on the end of his desk, displaying her legs in front of him. Rob made sure his eyes reached hers quickly, trying not to linger on her, undoubtedly impressive pins.

“Um, perhaps in the chair?”

Jodie hesitated for a moment, never taking her eyes off Rob’s, before giving an almost resigned smile and standing up to take a seat in front of Rob’s desk. Rob sat forward slightly nervous and unsure of himself. Jodie noticed his change in attitude, but put it down to what she was wearing.

“Listen,” he continued, “I don’t mean to do this in class, but I just wanted to apologize for Friday night and I wanted to make sure you were okay with everything.”

“Oh?” was all she gave him. Rob continued.

“I mean, it’s not fair on you to feel any pressure here. I’m still your teacher and that’s all you need to worry about.”

“Oh, I’m not worried.” Jodie said this with a confident tilt of the head and a smile. Rob was surprised, probably because he had expected her to be grateful for his honesty and openness on what must have been a very tricky subject. Unless finding your mother in an intimate moment with your teacher was something that happened every Friday night.

“Really?”

“No, I’m a big girl, I can deal with it. I mean, we’re all adults here aren’t we? I’m sure we can get through this situation.”

Rob sat back and considered this.

“I don’t know if I’d call it a situation just yet, but, I suppose you’re right.”

Jodie meanwhile, leaned forward.

“So, we can expect to behave like adults outside of school hours?”

There was a pause. Rob thought he knew what she was getting at. He felt she was giving him the approval he needed to see her mother again, provided that when in her home they met each other on equal terms.

Had he known that Jodie had been talking about them, he might not have been so agreeable.

“Sure, why not? I must say, you’re being incredibly mature about all this. If I was in your situation...”

Jodie raised her eyebrow, feeling as though she now had the higher ground in the situation, as if Rob was becoming putty in her hands.

“I thought this wasn’t a situation?”

Rob smirked a little, slightly embarrassed that he had caught himself out. He tried to maintain his cool as best he could.

“Well let’s just say I wouldn’t look quite as calm as you do right now.”

Jodie wilted a little inside, completely miss-reading what he had just said. He had been complimenting her on being so mature about things, but all she had heard was

‘
You look good.’

“Really?”

“Anyway,” said Rob, sitting up as if he was making to leave, “that was really all I had to say.”

Jodie nodded and got up from her seat, slowly, making sure to adjust her skirt in front of him, before grabbing for her bag.

“Good work today, by the way,” he added, almost as an afterthought, perhaps putting his teacher cap back on, “Have you been looking into colleges or universities?”

“I was thinking London, or maybe Edinburgh.”

Rob stood up as she said this, which made Jodie stop in her tracks.

“Edinburgh, really?”

“Yes.”

Rob nodded, smiling proudly.

“My old stomping ground.”

Jodie read the smile on his face and used it to her advantage, leaning forward still trying to keep an air of seduction to her proceedings.

“Well, maybe, if you don’t mind of course, we can get together and discuss my options.”

Rob found himself a little torn by now. On the one hand, here was a pupil, asking a teacher to talk her through some of her higher education prospects. All perfectly natural, surely. On the other, here was the daughter of his prospective new girlfriend, appearing to flirt. Not quite as natural, and it un-nerved him a little.

“Perhaps,” was his vague reply.

“You’ll be calling round to the house again, won’t you?”

Rob scratched his head and starting fumbling through his bag, looking for something.

“Um, well, that’s really up to your mother.”

“Oh, don’t leave it up to her, she’s useless.”

Rob tried to ignore Jodie’s dismissive attitude to her mother, putting it down to typical teenage rebellion.

“Yes, well, thanks for your time, anyway, Jodie.”

“No, thank you, sir.”

Rob closed his eyes and sighed, a little frustrated by the
‘sir’
in the sentence.

“Rob, please. Sir makes me feel so...”

“Mature?”

“I was going to say old.”

Jodie giggled and made a move for the door.

“Okay.”

“Oh and Jodie,” Rob added, making Jodie stop and turn to face him, her fingers on the door handle, “one of your buttons has come free.”

Rob pointed to her blouse, but Jodie smiled coyly and stepped through the door, replying

“Oh, I know...” adding, as she closed the door,

“...Rob.”

He hadn’t heard her, too busy looking through his bag for his mobile phone. Eventually finding it, it took him no time at all to dial Katy’s number.

“This has disaster written all over it.”

Jon was not one to mince words, something the pupils in his P.E. class knew only too well, and as Rob explained his Friday night date scenario to him over a post-work drink, his mood didn’t get any better.

“It’s not as bad as all that is it?” asked Rob, chewing on a smoky bacon crisp, “It’s a second date, nothing more.”

“Are you kidding? Have you ever heard the expression don’t shit in your own nest?”

“I’ve heard of it, sure.”

“Well, that’s you,” Jon shouted, his hands hitting the table to drive his point home, as he continued, “Except the shit from your nest has dripped down onto the nest below.”

Rob tried to decipher the meaning of this, but came up short.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means that the potential for this to turn ugly is doubled by bringing another family into the situation. Not to mention a family that you’re connected to through the fact that you teach the fucking offspring.”

Rob sat back and chuckled a little, “I think you’re being a little melodramatic, don’t you?” but the laugh was short lived, as Jon’s expression remained stern.

“Rob, I’m a P.E. teacher, okay, I’m not as academically sound as others in our profession. I read things like
‘The Da Vinci Code’
. But I know trouble when I see it. And this could be trouble.”

Perturbed by the negativity in the air, Rob tried to get his point across, desperate to win over Jon’s approval.

“I’ve already gone over this in my head, a thousand times, all right? The worst that could happen is...I lose my job.”

A long pause followed. Jon took a long, slow sip from his Fosters, keeping his eyes fixed on Rob, as if sizing him up, before putting his bottle down and stating:

“Your heart’s not really in this, is it?”

“Listen Jon, when you were fifteen, did you want to be a P.E. teacher?”

“I wanted to be David Bowie.”

This took both men by surprise. If Jon was honest, it had just slipped out, but nonetheless, it was now out there. Rob didn’t know what to make of it.

“Really?” he asked.

Jon shuffled about uncomfortably in his chair for a few seconds, like a ten year old who had been discovered drawing on the wall.

“What?” he said, defensively, “He was really cool back then, y’know?”

Rob let it go, but filed it away for future use, and continued.

“What I mean is I fell into this job because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But now, doing it, I’ve got to admit, it’s pretty great. The thought that something I tell these kids will make an impact? It’s pretty awesome. But, be that as it may, it’s...”

“It’s what?”

“Boring.”

Jon’s eyebrows ruffled in confusion as he tried to make a positive out of what he had heard to be negative.

“So, you’re seeing Katy McPhee because you’re bored?”

Rob shrugged. It wasn’t quite what he’d meant, but it was in the same ballpark.

“Kind of, I guess.”

Jon started to laugh, much to Rob’s surprise, before adding,

“That’s a great starting point for a successful relationship, Rob, good luck with that.”

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t. I’ve been married for twenty five years. I haven’t been bored in two and a half decades, so please enlighten me.”

Rob put down his pint glass and leaned towards Jon, as if about to conspire with him. In truth, it was more like a confessional, with Jon as the priest.

“I like her, okay? I really like her. She’s different, she’s cool and confident and...”

“Thirty two?”

“What does that matter? She’s fun and she’s easy to be around. I’ve been looking for someone like Katy since I left university. I just can’t see any point in stopping this just because of one little bump in the road.”

Jon said nothing. He looked Rob deep in the eyes, before nodding and sitting back in his chair again. Rob waited for some response, some words of wisdom. Jon took another drink before indulging him, but as it turned out, he needn’t have bothered.

“Well that’s all very romantic and I’m sure that there are many girls out there who would be falling over themselves to get to you if they heard that little speech, but, please be aware that that little bump in the road that you spoke of, could mean the difference between a pay slip and the dole queue.”

Rob sighed,

“This girl is worth it, I’m telling you.”

“I hope so.”

The two men sat for a few minutes, in silence, neither really sure whether to change the subject, or indeed, if they wanted to, then how they would do it. Eventually, Rob broke the pregnant pause.

“Thanks for listening, man. I needed to tell someone, so it’s appreciated.”

“That’s fine, Rob, but I’d advise you to keep this to yourself, at least until after New Year. If the Head finds out he may want your bollocks.”

“That bad?”

“We had a similar situation, a few years back, with a guy named Geoff Phillips. He was a physics teacher and a damn good one too. But he fell for a woman who was on the PTA.

The only problem was the woman was married.”

“Really?” asked Rob, sitting up, intrigued.

“That’s right, so think on that. When it all went south, he was left jobless and she was just left. Her husband filed for divorce, took her for everything she had.”