His Model Student: A Student-Teacher Romance

6. Tense conversation

[RECAP: Sera just managed to survive her second art evening class with Mr Marek]

"Once more unto the Norfolk Arms, dear friends," Jasper announced as the class were packing up their equipment. "You'll join us, of course?" he asked the art teacher.

"By all means."

Sara was surprised that Mr Marek had accepted. Perhaps something about Jasper's gallantry made the invitation hard to refuse.

She expected to have to make her own excuses and catch the bus but Jasper managed to coerce her into accepting as well. It was his tone, she thought. It was compelling, if not compelling enough to sway Bob or Winifred who claimed to prefer an early night.

As before, Sera, Elizabeth, Jasper and Barry entered the pub and went to the same table. "You go on ahead, I have to close up," Mr Marek had told them. Jasper had ascertained his choice of drink - a half of lager - so it would be there as soon as he arrived.

The pub was quiet again this week. A guy in a leather jacket was putting coins in the fruit machine and clearly losing. Two large men with moustaches sat on the same bar stools they had done last week, obviously regulars. Sera made a mental note never to add the place to the list, the next time she and Lois went on a bar crawl. It did not look like promising pulling territory.

"A very productive session tonight, don't you think?" Jasper asked everyone while they waited for Mr Marek to arrive.

"I'm afraid I got the shoulders all wrong," Elizabeth said. "After that it was all downhill."

"Some weeks it works, some it doesn't," said Barry. He was man of few words compared to Jasper. Yet when he did speak his words had a simplicity and substance to them.

Sera found herself biting a nail and then wondering why she was nervous. She knew the reason when her stomach jolted once Mr Marek entered the room.

He nodded to Jasper and thanked him for the beer. Then he turned to Sera. "Should you be in here?" His tone wasn't rude but it was cool.

Since Sera knew she shouldn't be in there, she didn't respond. She chewed her lip.

"Sera is seventeen, and these are licensed premises," Mr Marek told the others who were observing the interaction.

"Are you indeed? I would have put you at at least twenty-one," Jasper said. "Back in my long ago, highly disreputable boyhood I was patronising our local pub from the age of twelve. The landlord had a soft spot for me, of course. I dare say it did me no harm." He launched into a somewhat salacious anecdote about his uncle, a barmaid and his uncle's irate wife.

Sera realised that Jasper was deliberately steering the conversation away from her to gloss over the issue with her age and felt grateful to him. She was only a couple of months from turning eighteen, after all. She and Lois had been nightclubbing on fake ID for years anyway.

Mr Marek said nothing more and she could tell he was trying to ignore her. But a few times his gaze flicked to her, immediately moving away again if she met his eyes.

"You're not from the area originally?" Elizabeth asked him.

"No, my parents retired here a few years ago."

"And are they enjoying it?" Elizabeth, like Sera, had lived in the area her whole life.

"They were. My mother died four years ago." Mr Marek said this in a neutral tone but a shutter fell behind his eyes, at least from what Sera could see.

Sensing his discomfort, Elizabeth murmured a polite condolence and the conversation moved on.

The art teacher only stayed for one drink then made his excuses and left. Things felt flat after he had gone, though Jasper tried to nudge conversation.

"He's an artist, you know. Exhibited. Barry recognised his name."

"What is his name?" Sera was secretly glad to hear Elizabeth ask this since she didn't like to herself.

"Tarquin Marek. Rather splendid, isn't it? English mother, Hungarian father. Exhibited at the Royal Academy no less." Barry nodded in agreement, nursing his cider. "The real mystery is what he's doing in our quiet little backwater, rather than continuing his stellar trajectory in the art world."

Tarquin Marek. Tarquin the Proud was the last King of Rome, Sera remembered. It seemed a suitable name for the art teacher. Artistic and arrogant.

Every one else left soon afterwards. Sera headed for the bus stop. It was dark but she enjoyed travelling home at night. It was peaceful. The bus stop was well lit and the short walk to her house was along a quiet suburban street. It gave her time to clear her head before having to face the stress and bustle of her family.

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Bad, beautiful and brilliant... I don't think this is going to be an easy guy to capture!

If you're enjoying this, I also have two Completed student-teacher romances: French Kissing and Tempting Her Teacher - both available to read in full on Wattpad.