Free The Teacher by Meg Gray

doing here?
    She dabbed again at her nose and swiped
at her eyes, she was leaking like a faucet. She reached for the railing as the
elevator lurched to a stop at the eighteenth floor. The doors slid open and
revealed three people waiting for the elevator. A man in a suit, a little
taller than Emma, wearing wire rimmed glasses. A blond woman with long
manicured nails, also wearing a suit, but with a low cut shirt under the
blazer, again putting Emma’s meager cleavage to shame. The last of the trio was
a tall man talking on his cell phone in a hushed voice with his back to the
elevator. The man in the glasses stepped into the gap that had formed between
Emma and Stacy and the woman followed him and reached in front of Emma to press
a button, holding the door open.
    “Marcus,” the woman said. “We need to
go.”
    The man finished his call and turned to
get in the elevator. Emma’s heart stopped the moment she recognized him. His
eyes met hers as he stepped inside. The three new occupants surrounded her,
boxing her into the corner. Emma saw confusion flash across Mr. Lewis’s face
before he turned around and the doors closed.
    Silently she prayed he didn’t recognize
her and leaned back into the wall wishing she could fade into the wood-grained
veneer and become invisible. The last time she saw Mr. Lewis she’d been a
sobbing fool, barely able to form a coherent thought. She remembered little
about the ride in his car last night. Had she even thanked him for helping her?
She honestly couldn’t remember.
    When she left school last night she’d
cast Mr. Lewis as a monster. In her naïve and trusting way, she thought a
simple face-to-face talk with him would make a difference and might help set
the first stones in place along the path of helping Brayden. Instead, she
walked away repulsed by his coldness, her heart weeping for Brayden. Deep
inside the angry bristled exterior of that little boy was sweetness, starving
for love. Mr. Lewis’s reaction had shaken her to the core.
    Now she was confused. If he was such an
unfeeling and monstrous man then why did he come to her rescue and gift her with
a new umbrella this morning? Brayden made it clear his father picked out the
umbrella and that kind of thoughtfulness didn’t seem congruent with the monster
theory she’d created earlier.
    Stacy’s high cackle of laughter filled
the elevator car and the three suits looked in her direction. The elevator pinged
at the twenty-third floor and everyone filed out. Mr. Lewis and his two
companions walked ahead to the entrance of the restaurant. Stacy grabbed Emma
by the arm and pulled her toward the banquet room where a large sign outside
the door read:
    Don’t be Alone For the
Holidays
    Singles Mixer.
    All singles welcome!
    Great, Emma thought, as
if I’m not feeling desperate and pathetic enough. Now there’s a sign sharing it
with everyone who gets off this elevator.
    They were almost to the door when Emma
stopped. Stacy tugged on her arm, “C’mon Emma. It’s show time.” That’s exactly
what this was to Stacy, a show. For the next three hours, she would perform and
try to attract the attention of a man. Stacy played her part well. She was one
of the most flirtatious, fun-loving people Emma knew. Men were attracted to her
and Stacy lavished the attention. She dated scores of men and slept with most
of them, but no relationship lasted longer than a month.
    “I just need to freshen up first,” Emma
said, pulling away from her friend and heading for the narrow corridor that led
to the restroom.
    *     *     *
    Marcus’s cell phone rang again and he
excused himself from the bar to take the call. It was Brayden again. This was
the last time he would tell his son to call him anytime, he was taking it entirely
too literally. Either that or Rosa, his housekeeper, was putting Brayden up to all
the calls. Marcus paid her double to stay with Brayden tonight and still she
wasn’t happy about it. He wished the nanny agency