The M.I.L.F. Man

Bitch, please...

Revenge is sweet sometimes.

Okay, I'm just kidding. But this Tom McVeigh guy looked like Robert Redford for real. Not the older "sexy uncle" version that my ex looked like, the scary pretty younger version like in The Candidate when he sells out his lefty ideals to run for president.

Chas got all stiff and squirmy when "young Robert" shook hands with us. Not many men can make Chas feel insecure looks wise, but hot older guys can play that wisdom card, you know? It knocks him off his game a bit.

And it got worse. Or better, from my POV. This other dude who popped into the Main Office looked kind of like Maxwell—you know, the beautiful Black dude with the wild 'fro who could sing the panties off damned near any woman in the world.

His doppelganger's name was "Mateo." And he winked at us and gave us this sexy raspy little, "Hey," on his way to the teacher mailboxes in back. So I decided to rethink that first "strike" if Walther was going to be feeding me all kinds of eye candy all day...

And then Tom turned 'way up and said, "I want you to get a good look at our campus, so here's the elevator pitch. We welcome courageous conversations here. And we'd love to have you and your former students continue those conversations at Walther. Let's make it work—you game?"

"But how does the district feel about that now? After what happened at Valencia?"

He kind of leaned into it then. All earnest and intense. "Look, we're actually happy the media blew the lid off. If it takes public shaming to wake 'em up, then so be it! They could quit kowtowing to the squeaky wheels maybe, if all goes well here."

Chas gave a little shrug and said, "I'm not suggesting her course lacks substance, but...it is remedial."

"And yet she added multimodal activities—a modified Socratic method as well. That's what impressed me most. You see, we reserve that kind of rigor for students like ours most of the time. But every single student in this district deserves to be challenged that way. And for someone so new to the profession to--ah, here she comes! Mr. and Mrs. Devillier, may I present Katherine Pope! The curriculum specialist who came running when she saw those lesson plans."

This Katherine was a chubby, red-haired white lady wearing a denim dress and some pretty impressive turquoise cuffs and earrings—the cool, "pawn" kind, not the flashy rich Santa Fe bitch kind.

A massive smile narrowed her little blue starry eyes even more. "I just heard you were here! Listen, we're out back getting ready for the car show this weekend—hello husband, too! My goodness what a stunning couple!"

She did this fan girl bounce that was a wee bit weird. But some of the ladies in the office were sort of checking Chas out, too. And one of the student aides, this brown boy with an early Beatles haircut streaked in neon pink shot me such a look when I caught him at it.

Bitch.

Katherine brought me back to the business at hand. "I sent Mariah on ahead—can I have them now?"

Tom gave her a pat on the shoulder. "I'll be out in a bit—you two should come over this weekend, by the way. Annual fund raiser. Incredible turn out! We'll give you a guest parking placard so you don't wind up driving around for an hour. Good?"