My Office: A Lloyd Hansen Story

3.

I walked into class with my mug and purse the next day. The one thing that made me happy through the day. A good drink.

But as I turned on the lights to my room, I saw Mr. Hansen sitting at my desk.

"Good morning Ms. Martin."

"You're just obsessed aren't you."

"What can I say? You're a pretty girl."

"Yeah that's nice."

"I have thought things over, and I feel as though I should apologize for my behavior. That isn't professional. We good to start over?"

I stared at him. I was so confused.

He sniffed lightly. He was rubbing his nose. His pupils were huge.

"Are you on drugs Mr. Hansen?"

"No." He lied.

"Mmm."

"Okay. Well-"

"Not very professional."

"You use a sugar filled coffee to get through the day. What's the difference? Okay. Let me be honest. My seller was out of town and I was pissed, so why not take it out on the new girl right? Look I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. So let's start new."

"You're only gonna start over because you're high?"

"Well..."

"Oh my god. What am I getting myself into?"

"Okay. Look. I didn't want to be mean. And this is not what I wanted to do with my life. So why not make it a little fun?"

"By hitting on your employees?"

"Most girls would be flattered."

"No..they wouldn't." I said. I moved him over in the swivel chair to hang up my purse.

"You're not flattered at all that I think you're pretty."

"If you had taken it in a different way, maybe. But you were stalky and weird. So no, I'm not flattered."

He sighed, moving my Starbucks cup to read my order. "Hmm. You're not even a coffee girl."

Tea.

"Nope." I whispered.

I grabbed my whiteboard marker and wrote out the date and agenda for the day.

Lloyd just continued sniffing softly.

"Do you need a tissue?"

"Nope."

"Okay. Well politely, my students are coming in. So I'll see you later."

"Truly, how did your first day go?"

"Fine. I just hate working with teenagers."

"Well why did you take this job then?"

"Because id be homeless."

"It's a private school. You have the option to live on campus."

"Do you live on campus?"

"Ha! No."

"Okay. I don't wanna live on campus either. Thank you for the offer. I'll be fine with money if I stick with this job. So that money matters more than pervert boys."

"Mm. If you don't like them, just send them down to me or Carmichael."

Dennis Carmichael was the vice principal.

I nodded. He got up and stared at me for a second. His eyes weren't as angry as usual.

"Keep this meeting between us."

"Who am I gonna tell?"

He shrugged. "Have a good day."

"Mhm."

•••

I glanced at the clock as I graded. My prep was almost up.

I heard a knock at the door, before a head popped in.

"Hi."

There was a woman with shorter hair. I smiled.

"Hello. Come on in."

"Sorry. I don't think we've met. My name is Suzanne Brewer."

"Hi. I'm Caroline Martin."

"Yeah. My fiancé Denny was telling me about you. He told me to come introduce myself."

"Oh? Fiancé?"

"Mhm. We met in college."

"Ahh nice." I said.

"How are you settling in so far? By the way the room is very cute."

"Thank you. It's been alright. The boss is a little creepy but other than that we're pretty good."

"Yeah. Went to college with him."

"What?"

"We all went to Harvard."

"You're kidding."

"Yeah. He's an asshole. Don't let him bring you down."

"Thanks..yeah."

"Umm. I was gonna go out for a drink. You wanna come?"

"Ooo. That sounds nice."

"Yeah? Let's get to know each other."

•••

I sat with Suzanne at the bar. We were a few drinks in.

"So what makes you think Lloyd is creepy?" Suzanne asked.

I smiled. "You gonna go and tell him?"

"Fuck no. I hate his guts."

I sighed. "He's just weirdly flirty. And like possessive already. It was creepy. And then he was in my room and apologized because he didn't have..drugs? I don't know. It was weird."

"Oh yeah. He's addicted to cocaine and he gets so mean when he doesn't have it."

"He wasn't mean. Just weird."

"Like he wants to fuck you."

"That."

"He probably does. He gets around. He has for a long time."

"Yikes. Not looking."

"I mean. Okay..he could give you a good night. Maybe. He overhypes his sex talk. But from what he says, he's good. So if you ever need like a night...I'm sure he'd give it to you."

"But that adds strings. I'm just trying to make an income. I mean I got laid off from my dream job. I can't lose this one."

"Well he's desperate. I'm pretty sure he'd give you a raise if you complied."

I glanced at her, smirking.

"Really?"

I would have sex with him all the time if I could pay my bills without having to worry about what I feed myself. I mean this night out is like a weeks worth of meals.

"Is that prostitution?"

"Hmm. No."

"Is it bad if I do it?"

"It's our little secret."

I smiled. "Well, I've got a dog at home that I should let out. But thank you for this. Truly, I needed a friend at work."

"No problem. Let me know if you get that raise."

I laughed and nodded.