Free London Harmony: Water Gypsy by Erik Schubach

being so.”
    I smiled and replied through a cheesy toothy grin, “I loves me some sweet caramel.”
    She walked away with a smug and smiling look on her face, saying, “As you should Tabs, as you should.” I chased down the hall after her, dragging the bucking beast of a buffer.
    At the end of the double shift, every muscle ached but we had successfully moved all the furniture, waxed the floors in the classrooms and hallway then moved all of the furniture back. It was dark out when we exited. I had noted that the light was still on in Teresa's office when we exited through the alley door and Paya locked it.
    I voiced the observation as a familiar silver truck idled down the alleyway toward us, “The headmistress was still there.”
    My Indian friend said, “She has to set the alarms after we leave. She is always there before we arrive in the morning and is the last person to leave.” We slid into the bench seat in the truck and buckled up.
    I smiled for reasons I didn't know. Then I said to our chauffeur, “Hey Harry,” He insisted that neither of us takes the coaches this late at night, too many unsavories around.
    He brought a finger to his forehead in a mini salute and asked my bestie, “Where to milady?”
    She smiled and looked at me. “See? I got this one all trained up.” Then she grabbed his free hand and laced their fingers. She shot me an evil squinty glare. “Since I know for a fact that this one here only had half of an apple for supper, the nearest drive-thru if you would sweetie.”
    I tried to argue, “Hey now...” She held up a finger and her squint deepened and I hung my head in mock shame. “Yes ma'am.”
    She bobbled her head in a silly manner with a cute grin as she said, “There's a good girl. I'm not saving for a new flat so it's my treat. I'm not going to let you wither away to nothing because you're afraid to spend lolly on food.”
    Harry chimed in without even looking, “You can't argue with this one Tabs, I know, I have tried.”
    We all shared a laugh as I inclined my head slightly in thanks to the far too smug looking woman beside me.
    I'd be lying if I said I didn't inhale the two cheeseburgers and chips as Harry steered us toward my home. The two seemed quite pleased with themselves as they watched me make a right pig of myself while they just split a burger and shared a fizzy pop. I'll have to plot their doom after I finish this divine double espresso.
    As I trudged through the trees along the bank of the river to the Persephone, a text buzzed on my mobile. I glanced at it as I was using the screen to light my way. Ronnie confirmed I was on Saturday. I smiled then boarded the boat. I looked to the road and exchanged waves with my friends before they drove off down the lane.
    I sighed as I looked at the lights of the city reflected off the water. Yes... I actually did enjoy living on the water, I would miss it after I got my flat. I ducked into my cabin then huddled near the stove pipe as I started working on the lessons. I still had a bit before I needed to get to sleep and I wanted so much to please Marj's daughter. I bit my lower lip as I thought of how bloody sexy she looked today. Then I closed my eyes and reprimanded myself, yeah, right before you exploded on her like a petulant child.

Chapter 7 – Teresa?
    The rest of the week went pretty much the same. Working interspersed with demands from the woman I felt had an endless supply of sexy looking, solid color business dresses. She was working me hard on the lessons. It was relentless and I was feeling physically beat down. I had perfected the first lesson and was well on the way to getting through the second without looking like a bloody git.
    Then she went and piled on the lesson from the final chapter in the book. I had blinked at it and whispered out hoarsely, “I... I can't do this. This is impossible, nobody can do this one.”
    Her simple almost sad response was, “One person did.” It was almost remorseful.