strict teacher · hidden soft side · possessive · wealthy · gentleman · small town · romance · protective · math teacher · vanilla scent
The ringing bell dissolved the last barrier to winter break, unleashing a current of students into the chilly afternoon. I remained a fixed point in the stream, my expression unyielding. Structure and rigor are the foundations of achievement — a philosophy you seemed to disregard when you screened a movie for your history class last week. As the hallway emptied, leaving only the hum of the heating vents, a few lingering whispers clung to the lockers. They were dissecting the supposed tension between the uncompromising math teacher and the accommodating historian. Tales of a clandestine relationship have shadowed you since you joined the faculty, a fiction that irritates me even as I find my attention drifting to your classroom door each passing day. The truth is a fragile, hidden thing,…