Principal Daddy Page 4

  "Are you okay putting all the food in the middle and sharing?" He asked me and I nodded, almost as if this didn't need to be asked, but I appreciated him asking anyway.

  "No worries." He said before ordering two dishes and I ordered one for me. Two curries and some rice. Easy.

  "Would you like some nan bread?" The waiter asked and I laughed at the fact I had forgotten something so important to Indian food.

  "Of course!" I said at the same time that Rick said, "yes, please!" We both looked at one another and giggled like teenagers as the waiter nodded at the two of us like he was bored after seeing this all before and walked away. I guessed he'd seen a lot of first and early dates, working at one of the best restaurants in town.

  "I can't believe we almost forgot the nan!" I said, my voice scandalized.

  "I know!" Rick said, his eyes wide in mock-horror, "I can't believe you did that either!"

  I laughed, "hey, you did it too buddy!"

  "Huh, yeah, I did." Rick agreed.

  Our drinks arrived then and internally I thanked the wait staff for being quick. I would need the quick service today. While it's fine to sit in a place and eat slowly because your food got to you quickly, it's not fine to sit in a place and be constantly looking at your watch, wondering if the food will ever arrive so you may enjoy it with your company before you have to rush off and do the other ten thousand things with your weekend.

  "It's funny, actually, Rick." I started, "Whenever you drop by the cafe, young Sophie calls you Mr. Calder. Do you get a lot of that in this town?"

  Rick smile at my question before telling me, "my job means a lot to a good many people. Most of my ex-students from when I was a teacher will want to talk to me if they see me in the street, but, I think Sophie is the only one who still calls me by my last name."

  "She's sweet." I offered.

  "She is sweet." He agreed. "Is she training up well?"

  I made a 'so-so' signal with my hand, tilting it back and forth.

  "I think she's getting the hang of it, but I really wish she'd stayed in school and worked towards another job." I told him.

  "Yeah? You don't think working in a cafe is a good job?" He asked me and I shrugged.

  "It's alright." I said, "it works for me, with Chris. But it's not what I'd want for Chris to do, you know."

  He nodded. "It is hard work." He agreed.

  "It is. When Chris is a bit older, I would like to go back and study." I told him.

  "What would you study?" He asked, taking a sip of his drink for the first time, and prompting me to do the same. "It's really good, try it!" He said.

  I didn't need him to tell me it was a good drink as I had had them before quite a lot, but still I took a sip to humor him - and because it was too tempting not to - the sweetness hit my pallet right away and I smiled as I took the drink away from my lips.

  "I still want to do something with food." I told him, "just something that pays better than now. Perhaps I could do food science, and work for some big food manufacturer."

  Rick's eyes were on me, studying me, and as if he'd found the answer somewhere on my face he told me, "I could see you doing that actually."

  "Yeah?" I asked.

  "Yeah. Well, you love food, and you're very clever. You could do that in your sleep." He told me.

  I was taken aback by the compliment about my being clever, but smiled and took it graciously anyway.

  "How about you?" I asked, "why did you get into teaching to start?"

  "Well, I always wanted to be a school principal." He told me, "so it sort of just made sense that I would need to be a teacher first."

  I laughed, "yes, it does make sense. How else can you do it?"

  Rick shrugged and just then our food arrived. It looked so good and smelt even better than it looked. The restaurant was half-full and I hadn't noticed how hungry the smells from everyone else's food had made me until the food arrived and Rick told me to serve myself first. I served myself a generous helping of food then struggled to wait patiently as Rick served himself, chatting to me all the while.

  Ravenous, I felt frustrated with how long it was taking him to serve his food, but knew better than to nudge him to hurry up. I had to appear the lady right now, I was on a date after all. He was telling me more about his work and his journey. I'd normally listen to him talking about these things - it was pretty damn hot to me to be dating the school principal, almost as hot as it would be for other women to date a cop - I struggled to stop my ravenous self from consuming everything in sight.

  When Rick put down the spoon from serving himself curry, I wasted no time picking up my own fork and eating a bit of curry from my plate as he sat there, talking to me politely, hardly touching his food.

  I got through the first plate, then wanted to move on to the next. I served myself, only this time a little more slowly.

  Rick kept asking me questions as we ate about myself, my life. The one thing he didn't ask, which I was tired of being asked about since the divorce, was about my ex husband and why he was no longer in the picture.

  I think because he didn't ask the question though, I felt like I should be talking about it. Which I dismissed every chance there was an opportunity to bring it up.

  Instead, we talked about ourselves, and Rick seemed as if he was interested in every word I said, as if every little thought I had was amazing. He hung on every word, and asked for more. I was surprised both by how much he knew about me from my being one of the school mums and having all these people gossip about me, and also how little he knew about me personally, about the woman who existed behind closed doors, the woman who was left when you took the hard working single parent away.

  It's always interesting to know what other people think about you, and what their impression is of you. Especially when they've only seen one aspect of you and they so keenly want more.

  Rick obviously wanted more, too. I could tell by the way he would hold his head, or the way he would smile at me. I could tell by how he would egg me on, eating up every word and phrase. I could tell by all the compliments that came thick and fast, not least the ones that were unsolicited about how clever, or creative, or cute I was.

  Rick made me feel like I was gorgeous, just by the compliments - sincere and heartfelt - that he would give me, and by the way he would hang on every word. By the fact he was so interested.

  Our lunch date felt like it came to a premature end when we finished all our food. Or, at least it could have.

  "Do you have a little more time?" Rick asked me, "Or do you need to go pick Chris up?"

  I shook my head, "I don't have to pick him up so soon." I told Rick, "I have some time.

  "Excellent." He told me, "I have something to show you. I'll just pay up here then we'll go for a walk?"

  I nodded, "Of course." I answered, as if I would say anything else when it came to spending time with this guy. I wanted to go out there with him. I wanted nothing more than to spend more time with this man who not only made me feel good about myself, but was also someone who I felt pretty good about.

  All the things he said about me being the smart and funny one were true of him. He was great to be around, really great.

  He asked for the bill and gave them his card, then after he'd paid, we went out into the street, arm-in-arm again.

  "Are you sure this is okay?" I asked him after we had taken a few paces down the street, motioning at our locked arms.

  "Why wouldn't it be okay?" He asked, sounding genuinely confused.

  "Well, I guess because you're the school principal at my child's school-" I began, but he cut me off.

  "-Let me worry about that." He said, "I don't think anyone would make a big deal of it if they saw us together anyway."

  "You don't think so?" I asked.

  "No. I don't think so." He told me, "I think most people are too absorbed in their own lives. Besides, the school board would only have a problem if they thought there was favoritism towards your son."

  "Maybe there is?" I teased and he shook his head.

  "I've never even dealt with your son, besides that time recently when, well, you remember." He told me, and I could have sworn I saw his cheeks redden, just a little bit.

  "Yeah, I remember." I told him, before realizing I had no idea where we were going. "So, where are you taking me?" I asked.

  Rick gave a little smile then told me, "you'll see."

  "That's ominous." I told him, feeling frustrated, wanting to know more.

  "That ominousness is intentional." He told me.

  "Okay." I agreed, "Will I like it though? This place you're taking me?"

  "Sure you will." He told me.

  We crossed the river then Rick steered me into the park. I had been here before, to the park on the left hand side of the road. Mostly I went to the one on the right because it was a better park. This park ran along the side of a river and had an Australian rules football oval which doubled as a cricket ground in the summer. There was also the public pool which encroached on the park land and a duck pond.

  Where was he taking me I thought as Rick steered me not towards the duck pond where it would make sense to take a date but in the other direction, towards the walkway along the river.

  "Where are we going?" I asked again, frustrated at not knowing. I wasn't sure I wanted a surprise right now.

  "You'll see!" He said, this time he was smiling bigger than he had been before. He was enjoying the tease.

  "Will I?" I asked, annoyed and a little over it.

  "Yes, you will." He assured me, looking over at me. "Just be patient. It's worth the wait."

  I nodded, not wanting to be patient, but not wanting to upset my date either. "Okay." I finally agreed.

  Rick distracted me by asking a few inane
questions about the last time I had been here and if Chris liked this park.

  "Chris and I both like the park on the other side of the road." I told him.

  "The one with the dog park?" He asked.

  "Yeah, although we don't have a dog anymore." I told him.

  "That's a shame." He told me and I nodded. It was a shame. Life was better with a dog in it, I had always thought. My son seemed to be in the same boat. I had had to tell Chris that the dog ran away, as I wasn't sure he was ready to hear about death and mortality when he was four.

  "Worse things happen." I said, "he was a good dog, while we had him."

  Rick was quiet for a moment, then he stopped. It took me a few steps to stop too as he had stopped so unexpectedly, and standing in the middle of the path I felt a little out of place.

  "Why have we stopped here?" I asked, not moving back towards him. Just standing where I had stopped, feeling rather awkward.

  "Because, he's up there." He told me, motioning towards one of the trees. I looked in the direction he was motioning and sure enough a large male koala was eating eucalyptus leaves, looking down at us from the tree.

  "You're kidding!" I declared, unable to keep my voice from raising in excitement. "Why didn't you tell me?" I was so happy I was almost laughing, all signs of being frustrated were gone. Rick just shrugged his shoulders.

  "I wanted you to see for yourself, to get the surprise." He told me as I smiled like an idiot up at the koala.

  "I didn't think we got these guys in Emerald Creek!" I told Rick, "no-one had mentioned him to me. Not at work or anything."

  "Maybe they don't know he's here." Rick told me, "one of the kids told his teacher the other day and she told everyone in the staff room. He's one of the rare ones apparently. The boy's father knows his koala species. A local farmer."

  I looked from Rick up and the koala.

  "They're endangered, aren't they? Koalas?" I asked.

  Rick nodded, "in some places they are. In other places they're over-run, eating all the trees then starving when there is no food left."

  "Oh." I said, looking up at the koala, "that's really sad."

  "It is. They either starve or get hit by cars. They're not very road savvy, koalas." He told me.

  "I guess because cars are only new, and they've been here a long time?" I ventured. Remembering how this same pattern of animals being over-abundant in some places, eating themselves out of house and home and endangered in other places was a problem here. The city was growing, all the cities were growing. Australia's population is mostly urban and everyone wants a nice house with some land under it. All those people and all those houses means roads and schools and hospitals and shops and whole communities moving into places that they weren't before, messing everything up for the animals that lived there and didn't get an eviction notice in time.

  "But, how did he get here?" I asked Rick as the thread of poor urban planning weaved its way through my mind.

  Rick shrugged. "Maybe he's from nearby and migrated himself. But, I don't think so. He's probably from somewhere else and someone caught him and bought him here."

  I looked at Rick with a look that I am sure was laced with all sorts of disapproval. He just shrugged his shoulders when he saw it, "yeah, I don't get it either."

  "Hey, come here." He said as he motioned for me to stand beside him while he took a photo of the two of us with the koala in the background.

  The first few photos, we were standing together smiling, then, cheekily and so quickly that I didn't have time to react, Rick kissed my cheek and snapped a photo.

  "Hey! Ease up!" I said, rolling my eyes at him when he took a step back.

  "Three for social media, and one for me." He offered by way of explanation. I simply rolled my eyes and told him, "whatever you say."

  Checking the time, I realized that I only had half an hour left, and it would take me about twenty minutes to walk back.

  "I have to go soon, okay?" I offered, and Rick nodded. Although his face was a little sad he offered me his arm.

  "May I have the pleasure of walking you home?" He asked.

  I nodded and took his arm. Together we walked out of the park and up the main street. His grin seemed involuntary as he told me about how much he had enjoyed our date, and how much he had enjoyed my company. He told me about how great it had been and how he would love to do it again sometime.

  "I would too." I told him honestly. "It's been really nice." And I meant it.

  Rick walked me all the way home and as we stood beside my car, he gave me another goodbye kiss to remember. Only this one felt like it had been built on the last one. Like the last one was only the foundations of the house. His kiss was sweet and soft. It felt wonderful to have this man kissing me. To feel his soft lips on mine, setting a fire in my belly.

  He ended the kiss and told me he would see me again soon, then he was gone. Walking back in the direction we had come without looking back. For a long time I stared after him before I got enough composure to get in my car and drive.

  The drive to my parents house wasn't a long one, but I had agreed to go there for dinner on the insistence of Chris, who always enjoyed having dinner with more people as the novelty was pretty big for someone who grows up with only one parent and no siblings.

  When I arrived at my parents place, I was still feeling floaty and happy after the kisses, but was quickly bought back to earth by my family, and by the question my mother asked me when I had walked in the door, perceptive as she was.

  "So, who is he?" She asked, when I had been in her home for less than a minute.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Luckily my son was in the other room with his grandfather playing with a model train my parents had bought him for Christmas but which they insisted on being at their house so he would have something to do when he was there - and which I thought maybe they secretly kept there because my grandfather loved it too.

  "What do you mean?" I asked, feeling immediately guilty, as if I had done something very wrong, not as if I had just gone on a wonderful date at all.

  "What do I mean?" She asked, "You know what I mean. Who have you been out with?"

  "How do you know I have been out with anyone?" I asked, and she looked me over, then looked me in the eyes for a long moment without speaking.

  "You just get this look about you when there's a man." She told me, "I know it."

  "How do you know it?" I asked, wanting to throw off the feeling of guilt the looks my mother was giving me were simultaneously creating and intensifying.

  She was grinning at me, "is it new? Is that why you don't want to tell me about it? A first date? Or a second one?" My mother asked.

  "No, I mean yes, I mean - where is Chris?" I asked and my mother shook her head at me.

  "He's playing with his trains, dear. You can hear him from here."

  Then, as if my father and my son knew that I was here and wanted to make a point that they were nearby, I heard the trains whistle sound then an excited yelp from my father, "all aboard! This train is traveling express to Flinders Street!"

  "Stopping all stations!" My son called a moment later, making me laugh as I looked at my mother. He didn't understand that express meant it couldn't stop all stations, Oh, to be young!

  I turned and walked away from the conversation I had been having with my mother, and she followed behind, updating me on how good my son had been.

  "He's had a terrific time! He and his grandfather have been playing with that since lunch!" She told me and I nodded.

  "He told me again that I had to be here for dinner." I told her, and we were standing outside the room where the train was set up. "Isn't he sweet? Brining us all together?"

  My mother nodded and I opened the door to find my son and father sharing the trains controller.

  "Hi mum!" Called my son and I gave him a little wave.

  "Having fun?" I asked, almost redundantly as he was obviously having the time of his life between the train - one of his favorite things - and spending time with his grandparents who were two of his favorite people in the whole world.

  "Yes!" He told me, before launching into a blow-by-blow of what the train had been doing. I simply smiled at him and let him talk. He seemed to be having such a great time telling me all the things he had been doing that I didn't want to take away from that by asking any questions.