I mean he did but it was silly and more embarrassing really. But now I know I should be upset with you and not him for signing me up.
Haha, girl. Idk how to tell you this but you need to stop being shy. Idk how a public school teacher can be so shy, but that man likes you and you’re gonna end up losing out on him.
I let out a gasp as I read her text. She had a point but it didn’t feel any better for her to call me out. I also couldn’t help but smile as my mind jumped to the right conclusion. So Caleb was interested in me? And he had asked my best friend for advice? There was something oddly cute about it all, that someone who clearly wasn’t shy would go and look for help about approaching me. With a smile, I typed out my last response to Michelle and made up my mind on what to do next.
Rude.
With that, I switched over to Caleb’s message and saw that he was in the middle of typing a response.
Hey, yeah I’m free, wassup?
Immediately, I hit call and pressed the phone to my ear. I don’t know what it was, but seeing Michelle say he liked me made me want to hear his voice. The phone only rang once before his voice came through on the other end.
“Hi Miss Reyes.” He answered.
“Ugh, for the last time, call me Angela!” I groaned dramatically. I heard him laugh on the other end and stood up onto my feet.
“Will Miss Angela work?” He asked. “You’re still my boss, it’s strange without the Miss.”
“Well as your boss, I’m ordering you to drop the Miss and call me Angela.” I heard him let out an exaggerated sigh and chuckled. I wasn’t sure where I had acquired this newfound confidence, but I was enjoying the feeling.
“I can try.” He stated. I walked through the hallway and entered my bedroom.
“I just wanted to apologize for the silent treatment earlier. It wasn’t intentional, I was just focused.” Hopefully that was enough, because I definitely did not want to explain why I was upset.
“Please, I’m not worried, but thanks.” Caleb responded.
“Good,” I flopped down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. “So what are you up to? I’m not interrupting a talk with my best friend am I?” Caleb laughed on the other end at my sarcasm and I smiled.
“No actually, I just got back from taking my daughter out to get ice cream.” I immediately sat up on my bed.
“Oh, I’ll let you go. Didn’t realize you were busy. I don’t want to interrupt.” I spoke quickly, a little too quickly and ended up stumbling over my words. Michelle was right. How was it that I could be a teacher, but also be so bad at talking to a guy?
“What? You’re not interrupting anything. Lana is doing her homework right now so we’ve got time.” I smiled at the sound of his voice as he reassured me and I laid back down on my bed.
After reading what Michelle had said, I finally decided to take the initiative.
“Um, I just want to say thanks for signing me up.” I started. “I know Michelle told you to do it, but I needed it.” Caleb chuckled on the other end.
“So you really did talk to her, huh?” I nodded in response to his question, not realizing he obviously couldn’t see me.
“Mhmm.” I commented after a few more seconds of awkward silence. “I did and she told me everything.”
“Oh jeeze.” I could hear the embarrasment in Caleb’s voice. “I knew I shouldn’t have done anything.”
“Oh no, it’s…” I paused and sighed as I thought about how to say the words out loud. Finally, after a moment of internal debating with myself, I opted to just be blunt. We weren’t high schoolers who were awkward in everything we did anymore, it was time to just say how we felt.
“I do like you, Miss Reyes, but you’re technically my boss so I was never going to act on it.”
“Maybe you should,” I said it so quickly that I didn’t even have time to consider the innuendo. “I like you too, I mean. And we’re adults so…”
“So long as it doesn’t interfere with work?” Caleb interjected.
“Right.”
There was a pause and the silence felt deafening. I realized that my heart was pumping fast, and my stomach was abuzz with butterflies. I hadn’t felt like this in years, not since my first, almost-husband. It was strange and somewhat foreign to me, but I liked it.
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