My Ten-Year Crush by Olivia Spring

Chapter Thirteen

Sometimes clouds really did have silver linings. On the way home yesterday, I’d still felt embarrassed. But after I had my shower, grabbed a bar of chocolate and started going through my notes from the course and the schedule, I realised I’d dodged a bullet.

Mike wasn’t joking about the amount of work we needed to do in our spare time. So him not being able to come out last night was actually a godsend. It meant I was able to spend the whole evening getting a head start on the planning and research I needed to do for the first assignment, which was due by the end of the week. Apart from taking a break to make a salad for dinner, I didn’t stop. Before I knew it, it was past midnight.

Throwing myself into the course was for the best. Otherwise I would have spent the whole night replaying what had happened. Today I felt much better. I’d woken up early and given myself a pep talk. I’d committed to the course and Mike was one of the tutors. There was nothing I could do about that now. I had to get over whatever minor attraction I was feeling and focus on what was important, and that was passing this course. My emotions would have to take a back seat.

As I walked into the classroom, I saw Mike was already there, chatting with Faye and two of the other students. A guy who I think I remembered was called Craig and Petra—the woman who’d commented on Mike’s bottom yesterday. Whilst Craig seemed nice, I wasn’t keen on Petra. Not because she was perving over Mike. There was just something about her that my gut didn’t like.

‘Good morning.’ I pulled out my chair and sat down.

‘Morning, Bella.’ Mike smiled.

Every. Single. Time.

My insides melted like an ice cream under forty-degree sunshine. Saying I was going to focus and not be distracted by Mike was fine in theory, but now I was here, watching him at the front of the classroom, flashing that smile, it was hard to know how I could.

It was still weird seeing Mike in a shirt and tie, but he totally owned it. He didn’t look corporate and stiff like that Edwin guy. He had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and was wearing a colourful red, yellow and orange tie, which reflected his sunny personality.

I wondered how things had gone with Rebecca last night. If that gossip Melody had heard was true, Rebecca planned to win Mike back. Had it worked?

Stop. Thinking. About. Him.

I turned away from Mike. After saying hi to the others and chatting to Faye about her evening, which mainly involved fretting about the assignments, the lesson began.

The day was flying by. We’d learnt a lot about different strategies and approaches for developing learners’ language awareness. As part of our preparation for the assessed teaching practice, Mike had given us some lesson objectives which he wanted us to take home and use to work on our own lesson plans. We’d then discuss them with him and the other trainees tomorrow.

I’d done much better in terms of focusing today. Partly because Graham did a lot of the teaching in the afternoon, but Mike was still in the room.

And I hadn’t even entertained the idea of suggesting that Mike and I meet or chat or do anything at lunchtime. So, whilst Mike was chatting to Petra, I’d slipped out of the classroom, grabbed a sandwich, then gone straight to the library to get a head start on my lesson planning.

I’d thought I’d be able to get a lot of it done during lunch—after all, I’d been planning lessons for years—but I was wrong. It was a lot more challenging than I’d thought, so I’d need to dedicate time to it tonight.

It felt like I’d barely got back from lunch when Mike announced it was the end of the lesson. It’d caught me by surprise again. I was really enjoying the challenge of learning new things, and even though it was only the second day, despite having Mike as a tutor, I was glad Sophia had signed me up.

Everyone had left the room before I’d managed to pack up my stuff. Graham rushed off to take an evening class, so Mike and I were alone. My heart beat faster.

‘Great lesson today.’ I quickly headed towards the door. Best if I left before I did or said something to embarrass myself again. ‘See you tomorrow.’

‘Wait!’ Mike called out. I turned around and looked over at my desk to see if I’d forgotten something that he’d spotted, but there was nothing there.

‘What’s up?’

‘Have you got plans for this evening? If you’re free, I thought we could go for a quick drink.’

Whoa. I wasn’t expecting that. I tried to hide the surprise in my eyes. I knew he’d said to take a rain check yesterday, but I didn’t think he’d actually meant it.

My first instinct was to accept because despite trying my best not to be, I was still really attracted to him.

But whilst my heart was throbbing with excitement at the prospect of gazing into his beautiful eyes, the principled, logical side of me was screaming:

Walk away. Right now. Nothing good can come of this. Spending more time with Mike is only going to make you like him again. Just go home and study. Focus on the course.

And what about Rebecca? You don’t know what happened last night. For all you know, she could have got her wish and rekindled things with him. Should you really be going out for drinks with someone else’s boyfriend?

All valid points. Especially the studying part. Just seconds ago I was telling myself I needed to go home and plan the lesson. I had other stuff to do too. This course involved at least thirty hours of home study a week, which worked out at five extra hours every day if I worked six days a week (I thought it was important to give myself at least one day off to rest). That was a lot. I couldn’t afford to go out socialising. Especially on a weekday.

Mike had even said himself that we needed to curb our social activities, and now here he was, tempting me…

Then again, he did say a quick drink. So I’d only be out for half an hour. Thirty minutes wouldn’t make much difference. I’d spent more than that in the library, so it would balance out.

And I’d said yesterday that I’d wanted to resolve any awkwardness to get the most out of the course. That was still true, so this would be a chance to do that.

Actually, our drink could be like an extension of the lesson. I was going home to study, so would it really matter if I did it in a pub instead? Okay, maybe that was stretching it a bit. I couldn’t exactly get my notes out and start writing, but I could discuss what I had in mind or something and get his thoughts. That way, technically I’d be getting a bonus lesson for free, right?

If we spoke about the course, which hopefully wouldn’t be breaking any rules, then our drink would be legit. All above board. Totally, completely fine. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

‘On one condition…’

‘What’s that, then?’ Mike raised his eyebrow.

‘That if I have more than one glass of wine, you remind me that I have to go home and plan a lesson, and for that I’ll need a clear head.’

‘Deal. In fact I’ll insist on it. I saw you in the library earlier, so knowing you, you’ve already started working on the plan, and with all of your experience, I reckon you’ll be able to finish it quickly tonight. Otherwise I wouldn’t have suggested it. Don’t want to lead you astray. It’ll just be a quick one. I’ve just got to get some stuff from the staff room, so I’ll meet you outside in ten, okay?’

‘Okay.’ I smiled. ‘See you in a bit.’

‘So, teaching in Asia, South America and Europe. Sounds like you’ve done a lot in the last ten years.’ We were in a pub in Covent Garden, not too far away from the school, and had just sat down with our drinks. It was more modern than a traditional pub, with cream walls and light pine furniture. I shifted my chair to the left a little to make sure I wasn’t too close to Mike. I had to say focused.

‘I’ve done okay.’ Mike shrugged his shoulders. Still as modest as ever. He was so relaxed about everything. Top of the class? No big deal. First-class degree? Standard stuff. Even though he was the most intelligent guy I’d met by a clear hundred miles, he had never been boastful about it. That was one of the things I’d always loved—I mean, liked—about him.

‘Okay? Sounds like you’re doing more than okay.’

‘I was just lucky. I tried coming back to London so many times, but I always ended up getting itchy feet after a week, so I just went travelling again. Obviously I needed to survive, though, so after spending a few months in Australia, I came back, got my PEFLITC, then started applying for jobs.’

‘So you didn’t do your master’s in the end?’

‘Nah. I just wanted to get stuck in with working, you know? And I had the bug. I needed to be somewhere different. I landed my first gig in Bangkok. It was amazing—waking up every morning and seeing banana trees from my window, the tuk-tuks, the delicious street food and all the colours. I loved experiencing a new culture. The school was great too. I think the guy that was there before me was pretty terrible, so they thought I was some sort of English Jedi and kept asking me to stay. Whilst I was there, I made friends with a bunch of other teachers who ended up in different countries, and whenever a position came up, they’d recommend me. That’s how I got to go to so many different places.’

‘You always were good at networking.’

‘I just like meeting different people.’ He shrugged his shoulders again. ‘This year, though, something pulled me back to London. I saw that there was a temporary position available to teach this course, so I thought I’d give it a go and, well, here I am. Anyway, what about you? You said before you’d been teaching at a comprehensive?’

‘Yeah…’ My voice trailed off. ‘Started when I qualified and been there for nine years.’

My life seemed so dull compared to Mike’s. Once again I didn’t elaborate and tell him I was teaching at the same school I went to as a teenager and that my dad was the head teacher. It sounded too lame. Plus, to say he was not a fan of my father was putting it politely…

‘Wow. That’s a long time. Longest job I ever had was two years. And that was a stretch.’

‘You were never one for commitment…’ I laughed, wondering if he knew I meant not just professionally, but in his personal life too.

‘Bull! I went to school for a whole eleven years, college for two and uni for another three. If that isn’t commitment, I don’t know what is!’ He laughed. I’d missed that laugh. Deep, loud and totally infectious.

I was actually enjoying talking to Mike. Whilst I’d waited outside for him earlier, I’d wondered whether this evening would be awkward, but it wasn’t at all. The conversation just flowed easily. Like it always did. It was like no time had passed. Speaking of time, I’d been here way longer than half an hour, but even though I knew I’d regret it later, I couldn’t bring myself to leave.

‘How’s your mum?’ He leaned in. ‘She still child-minding? Oh, and does she still cook the fried plantain, or—oooh… those delicious fried bake things. What were they called again? The round things that are like doughnuts, but without the hole in the middle?’

‘You can call them fried bakes.’

‘I used to love those. They were always so light and fluffy and had the perfect balance of sweet and salty. I liked when she used to stuff them with the salt fish too.’

One day Mike had come round when Dad was out and Mum had just finished making some St Lucian dishes and asked if he wanted to try them. He did and he’d loved it all. So whenever I went home to visit, she always gave me Tupperware containers filled with food to take back to uni and share with him.

‘She’s well—on holiday with Dad at the moment…’ Mike’s face fell. Just like I’d thought it would. They hated each other. ‘She does still make those dishes, and she’s retired from child-minding now,’ I said quickly. His shoulders relaxed again. ‘Not sure if you remember that little girl that used to be there whenever you came round—the one who used to speak at a million miles an hour? Judy? Anyway, she’s all grown up now and is getting married next month. Madly in love, apparently.’

‘Oh, wow! I remember her. She was full of beans. Always smiling.’

‘Yep, that’s her. Speaking of love, how did it go with Rebecca last night?’ That transition was about as smooth as an old car driving over speed bumps, but it was the best I could think of. I was digging and he probably knew it.

‘It was fine. We hadn’t really spoken since we broke up… not long after we came back from Bali.’

I remembered that they’d separated, but they were always so on and off that I just thought maybe they’d got back together a few more times before she got married or something.

Actually, now I thought about it, it made sense that Mike would have wanted to be free and single to enjoy himself whilst he was travelling.

His answer hadn’t really told me whether some sort of reunion between them was on the cards, but I couldn’t ask him outright.

‘Good that you’re still on speaking terms,’ I said diplomatically.

‘Yeah, even though things didn’t work between us, it was nice to catch up. It was her grandma’s ninetieth birthday last night, so she invited me round to see her. I always adored her gran and she’s not very well, so I thought it would be nice.’

Oh…

So he’d only gone to Rebecca’s to see her grandma? Not to rekindle things like Melody said Heather had told her? Interesting… Clearly a case of Chinese whispers.

‘She must have been happy to see you.’

‘Yeah. I bought her some flowers and she cried. Said a man hadn’t given her flowers for twenty years, which was when her husband passed.’

‘Awww.’ My heart melted.

‘You know how I hate seeing women crying, so I gave her a hug. Then she wouldn’t let me go. Think she kept me there for a good ten minutes,’ he chuckled.

Lucky lady. It didn’t surprise me. Whenever Mike wrapped his arms around me, I remembered feeling that I just wanted to stay there forever.

‘You always were the king of hugs.’

‘Thanks! Afterwards, she did seem much brighter. When I arrived, I think she was still holding out hope of some sort of reconciliation with Rebecca, but I told her that was never going to happen.’ I caught myself doing a mental fist pump, then reminded myself that whether he was with her or not made no difference. We were just here as friends. ‘And after her hug, she said that seeing as I wasn’t interested in Rebecca, maybe I’d consider courting her instead.’

‘She didn’t?!’ I burst out laughing.

‘Yep. Even squeezed my bum when I was leaving. I felt so objectified!’ He chuckled.

‘Ordinarily I would be against any form of sexual harassment, but hopefully in this case you made an exception.’

‘I promised her I wouldn’t press charges. This time anyway.’ Mike smiled.

‘That was very understanding of you. I reckon you made an old woman very happy. You were always good at doing that.’ I felt a tingle race through my body.

‘What, titillating pensioners?’

‘You know what I mean, Casanova. The rumours that were always going around about you at uni.’

There were so many stories of Mike’s prowess in bed. The women who claimed to have slept with him all gave stellar reviews. Said he was the best they’d ever had.

‘I don’t know what you mean…’ He smirked. ‘Anyway, my super shagging days are over. I’ve grown up.’

‘Yeah, right.’ I rolled my eyes. ‘I was there on Friday, you know. I saw all the women pawing you.’

‘They weren’t pawing me, they were just being friendly.’

‘Ursula told me point-blank what she wanted to do with you, and it wasn’t something that friends did…’

Saying that out loud stung a little. Given our history, it was too close to home… maybe I needed to get off this subject. I didn’t want him to think I was jealous.

‘Just because a woman offers you a jar of something sweet doesn’t mean you have to take it,’ he said. Ouch. That stung too—knowing that I’d offered myself like dessert on a plate and he’d turned me down. ‘I’m not saying she didn’t try, but I politely declined and went home. Alone. My days of one-night stands were over a long time ago.’

Oh really?

So Mike was no longer into bedding different women? Hmmm. I never thought I’d see the day that he would turn down the opportunity to get his leg over when he was single. I wondered if it was really true.

Whether it was or whether it wasn’t, it didn’t change the situation, though. In fact, if anything, it just confirmed what I’d thought. If he wasn’t interested in adventurous women like Ursula and Rebecca who had probably done a lot more exciting things in one year than I’d done in the last decade, he definitely wouldn’t be interested in me.

Nope. We were just old friends, and for the next month he was my tutor too. Which was even more reason to avoid adding any extra complications.