Telling Rose. Easier said than done, mostly because Elise seems to have a sixth sense that lets her know that today is the day that I go from being Rose's teacher to her father's girlfriend. And Elise is not on board with that. Hell, she's not even remotely on board with me dating Nathan. She's the one who told Gracie's mother, knowing fully well that the bitch would start spreading the news immediately. It's almost funny how hard we worked to keep Annabel from doing just that. If we had known all this, we would have just let it go.
Then again, that would mean that Annabel and Aston never would have met. And that would be a shame. Because I may not spend all that much time at my own apartment aside from the days that Nathan has Rose, but those few days are enough to know that Aston is still a frequent visitor. And a loud one. For some reason, they leave the windows open more often than not, which allows their voices – and their moans – to travel across the gardens. Mr. Galf asked me a few days ago if I had any idea what those noises were, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was Annabel getting fucked into oblivion by a 28-year-old guy I had introduced her to.
Go Annabel.
And go Aston, I guess, because the few times I spotted him in the street or in the market he looked even more smug than usual. I can't help but wonder if their relationship is solely loud sex of if there's something more there. Dshawn and Shaughna think it's hilarious and I have a feeling that Dshawn knows more than he lets on, but he doesn't want to sell out his mate. It's only a matter of time before Shaughna cracks him – I hope – and then she will surely call me to tell me all about it. I'm just so damn curious.
Nathan is a little appalled at the whole Annabel thing, which is hilarious since he is older than Annabel and I am younger than Aston. He just keeps repeating that Annabel is his friend and that he can't imagine her having loud sex with anyone, let alone Aston. I taped the sounds for him so he could hear for himself, but he refuses to listen to it. I get a kick out of pretending to hit play, which causes him to cover his ears like he's a 4-year-old afraid of thunder.
When there are just two days left of the break, Elise finally runs out of excuses to keep Rose a day longer than she's supposed to. Normally, Nathan would fight her harder and keep her to the custody agreement, but no one wants to keep the peace more than he does. So, on Saturday morning, Nathan picks up Rose while I wait in his living room anxiously, praying that this won't blow up in my face.
Finally, after what feels like eons, I hear the front door open.
"Can I go in?" Rose asks, sounding excited.
"Yes," Nathan replies. "You can go in."
She rushes in, freezing three steps from the doorway, looking at me with wide eyes. I raise a hand to greet her and she reluctantly waves back before turning on her heels to shout at Nathan.
"Daddy!" she says indignantly. "You said I was going to meet someone very important to you! Someone new. This isn't someone new! This is Miss Collins. I already know her."
He laughs, but the sound is strained. "Yes, you already know her, but... she's not just Miss Collins. When she is not teaching you, Miss Collins and I sometimes..."
"Hang out," I finish for him when he remains silent. "Your dad and I are..."
"Oh!" Rose realizes, nodding. "Gracie told me that you're dating someone's dad." She looks at me searchingly and frowns. "Am I someone?"
"Yeah, I'm the dad," Nathan says, shrugging at me with a smile.
"Okay, cool. Can I have a cookie?" Rose asks, batting her long eyelashes at her father and pouting.
Nathan and I lock eyes, both not sure what to do with the sudden change of topic. I smile reluctantly and his eyes are twinkling. This is not what we expected, but at least Rose is not yelling or crying or anything.
"Sure, you can have a cookie," Nathan decided. "Only one!" he calls after her when she runs into the kitchen and grabs the cookie jar. "And bring one for me and one for Caroline."
Rose freezes, her hand in the jar as she glares at us from the kitchen. "Who the hell is Caroline?"
"Language!" Nathan and I roar at the same time. I hadn't meant to say anything, but my teacher mode kicked in. We're all a little surprised at me correcting Rose.
"I'm Caroline," I explain when Nathan is done laughing at me. "Caroline Collins."
"Oh, right," Rose says, her cheeks heating up. She comes over and hands both of us a cookie. "Are you going to live with us now?"
"No!" I say quickly. "I will just be over for a few hours sometimes, if that's okay with you."
Rose shrugs. "Just don't go in my room."
"Rose!" Nathan chastises good-naturedly. "Be nice."
"I'm very nice," she insists, looking up at him like the angel she can be at times. "Miss Collins thinks I am nice. Right, Miss Collins?"
"Sure," I laugh. "And Rose... when we're at home, you can call me Caroline. At school I'm Miss Collins, but I am not your teacher here."
"Then what are you here?" Rose asks with a frown.
"My girlfriend," Nathan replies, taking my hand in his to see how Rose will react.
Rose looks down at our hands and back up at my face. "Can you stop being a teacher?" she asks, completely confounded. "Daddy is a realtor, but when he gets home, he is still a realtor, right? Why are you not a teacher here?"
Of all the things we had prepared for, this talk was not it. That's what I love about kids. They always surprise you. Nathan tries to explain that I am still a teacher, but that I am not working right now and that I have two roles in Rose's life now, but I interrupt him when I see that Rose is only getting more confused.
"When your dad is home, he's a daddy. At work, he's a realtor. And when I'm at work, I am a teacher. At home, I am a girlfriend."
"Oh, okay." Rose nods once and finishes off her cookie. "Can I go in the garden to play on the swings?"
"Wear a coat!" Nathan bellows when Rose skids off without waiting for an answer. He looks at me with a surprised smile. "My daughter is full of surprises, isn't she?"
I laugh and give him a kiss on his cheek. "Yes, she is. Just like her father."
***
Being around Nathan when Rose is with him for the week is surprisingly easy. We take things slow the first few weeks, to let her get used to me. I only come over for an hour or so and usually for a meal. Since I'm a way better cook than he is, Rose is quite happy when she sees me walk in with arms full of groceries. She even helps me slice the vegetables sometimes, even though Nathan is with us the entire time, worried that she will chop her hand off or something. World's most overprotective father? Yes, that's my boyfriend.
I don't stay the night, of course. That is too much, too soon. Nathan makes sure to talk to Rose about how she's feeling about all this, but Rose truly doesn't seem too concerned. That is... until the kids at school start teasing her about it. She calls me Caroline at home, so of course she slips up in class from time to time, which causes the kids to laugh at her for not calling me Miss Collins. From that moment on, Rose is a little weary around me at school. She doesn't quite understand why the kids are being a little weird about me dating her dad, but she feels the change in the room when she calls me by my first name.
The first time this happens, it's Elise's week, so I call her in to tell her about the incident. Rose is playing with Gracie on the playground, under the watchful eye of the bitchy mother herself, while Elise follows me into my classroom.
"And what do you want me to do?" Elise asks me, giving me a death glare. "You're the 20-something floozy fucking her father. You figure it out."
"I don't want you to do anything, I am just informing you of what happened," I say through gritted teeth. "And you know as well as I do that I'm not just some floozy that Nathan is screwing. I'm his girlfriend. I'm not going anywhere, so you better get used to me."
Elise steps in closer, her bright red fingernails digging into my arm. "Don't flatter yourself, Caroline. You're just the slut of the month. I just hope you won't scar my daughter too much while you play house with Nathan."
Before I can reply, she turns around and exits the room in a cloud of evil. With a sigh, I sit back down and slump down in my chair just when Tiffany walks in. She gives me a sympathetic look and pats me on the head teasingly.
"It'll be fine," she assures me. "This is not nearly as bad as it was when Hillary's relationship with Gregory's mother came to light. Trust me, it would all be a lot worse."
"Thanks," I grunt with a massive eye-roll. "I feel so much better now."
Tiffany sits down on my desk. "Let me take your mind off it then. I've got another date." She shows me a picture on her phone. "Total babe, right? 31, divorced, no kids, works as a lawyer." Her eyes light up as she sums up the highlights. "We're going out for drinks tonight."
"Nice," I comment with a grin. Tiffany has been swiping left and right even since she finally decided to embrace being gay. She's had her first kiss with a girl – well, the second, I guess, since Hillary was her first – and she even confessed to me last weekend that she the last girl she went out with felt her up. She is so giddy about finally living the life she was meant to live that I can hardly believe this is the same Tiffany Green I met on my first day here.
Still, she hasn't told Hillary, even though I think that she should. Tiffany gets annoyed when I broach the subject, so I won't bring it up this time, but I won't remain silent forever.
"Have fun," I tell Tiffany, grabbing some tests from my desk. "I'm going home early today. Rose is turning 8 tomorrow and Nathan asked me to help bake muffins with them today. I can get back to grading tests later tonight when she's asleep."
Tiffany's eyes widened. "Are you staying the night at their place?"
"No, no, of course not!" Nathan and I both agree that it's still too soon. "I mean when I get back to my own place."
"Oh, okay." Tiffany nods. "It's going well, I gather?"
I shrug. "Personal life would get an A+, with an F for my work life bringing the total score to a D."
"Hey, I'm part of your work life!" Tiffany complains before growing serious again. "Yeah, I heard a few of the arguments you had with the parents. Gracie's mother is the worst, isn't she? Too bad you can't just have the argument one time with all of them and put this to bed."
"Hmm..." An idea pops into my head. "Who says I can't? Collective parent-teacher night... The same way we do it when we need to talk about big changes in the school rules or state testing and stuff like that. I could just sit all of them down and explain once and for all that me dating Nate doesn't mean that I'm a bad teacher."
Tiffany tries to tell me that she doesn't know if that's a good idea, but I'm already drafting the e-mail. I am more than eager to put this whole mess behind me. I hit send and leave the school feeling lighter already, heading to Nathan's house to make muffins with him and Rose.