Her Imaginary Husband (Contemporary Romance) (10 page)

The roosters approached, so she launched into another round with a ferocious yell. They quickly diverted their path and went to drain the water cooler instead.

“Hello?” croaked Nikki.
Who is calling this early on a Saturday?!

“You forgot to sign up to bring something.”

“Gayle? Is that you?”

“Of course. You’re coming to the barbecue, right?”

“I…uh, sure. Wait, when is it?” She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

“One o’clock at the Eastmont City Park. Can you bring some kind of pasta salad or something savory and cold?”

Nikki yawned and thought how much she didn’t feel like cooking today. “How about tortilla chips and homemade salsa?” She had several jars in her cupboard already.

“Perfect,” said Gayle cheerfully. “And you’re bringing your husband, right?”

Nikki jerked awake and glanced at the empty space beside her on the bed. The space that had always been empty.

“Uh, I don’t think so. I kinda need to talk to you about that.” Nikki opened and closed her mouth like a fish.
This needs to be a face-to-face discussion.
I’m lying to the woman who gave me the nice job. I hate this. I hate this!!
“Where is the park?” asked Nikki, eager to change the subject.

“Got something to write with? I’ll give you the address.”

Nikki reached for the pencil that she kept with a pad of paper beside her bed in case inspiration for anything struck in the middle of the night. The moment she lifted the pencil, Meriwether, curled there for the night, stretched and swiped after the eraser. “Hang on, I gotta find…” she said, trying to shift the cat. Meriwether, however, thought it was a game, and slashed again, catching Nikki’s finger. “Ow! Stupid shaboobaloo!”

Gayle’s laughter burst through the receiver. “Was that you? What happened?”

“My cat won’t let me get at my notepad—ow!” She sucked her scratched finger and scowled at the kitty.

“Its name is Shaboobaloo?”

“Uh… No, that’s me swearing.”

Gayle wheezed. “Are you sure you don’t teach kindergarten?”

Distracted, Nikki hissed at Meriwether, who finally stood to stretch in Halloween arch style. Nikki snatched the notepad free and said, “Okay, shoot.” There was a pause. “Gayle, you there?”

“Yes, are you swearing some more?”

“Nope, I’m all done for now.” She eyed the cat with an exaggerated squint, and Meriwether returned the look.

Gayle gave her the address of the Eastmont City Park, and they promised to sit together at the barbecue. When she hung up, she glared at the cat. “I
should
call you Shaboobaloo.”



At a few minutes after one, Nikki made her way across the grassy field to the pavilion decorated for the barbecue. She felt much more comfortable wearing tennis shoes and jeans, and she’d carefully selected a multi-colored cotton blouse that would hide any food spills she might incur. Today, she would not fall down, climb on furniture, or do anything weird to attract attention to herself. She’d just schmooze and make some connections with the staff.

And try to avoid Will. David had flunked a quiz on Friday, and she really didn’t know what she could do about it.

That proved easy because he was running the grill along with Mr. Geoffreys. She made sure to declare that the smoke bothered her eyes, so she could keep her distance without offending her boss. She placed two jars of her salsa on the buffet picnic table and tugged open the bag of tortilla chips with difficulty, spilling almost a third of the bag all over the table. Ms. Nyman laughed unpleasantly, but two men from the math department cheered.

Nikki frowned at them playfully. “Gee, I don’t usually get that kind of response. Am I secretly on
The Klutz Factor
?”

One of the men, concave-chested with the traditional fringe of nondescript hair around his bald head, affected an accent like Simon Cowell, and said, “I’m actually quite surprised. I expected you to be awful, but that was very nicely done. How long have you been tossing your tortillas?”

Nikki laughed. “Okay, I didn’t see that one coming. You’re good!”

The other math teacher, an egg-shaped man with a buzz cut, shook his head and smiled. “His algebra students don’t like it much.”

“What do you mean?” asked Nikki, looking back at the Simon imitator.

He folded his arms and sneered, doing another impersonation. “That formula was abysmal. I’ve never seen a quadratic equation cry before, but you are miraculously stupid.”

Nikki’s eyes-widened. “You do
not!
Tell me you don’t say things like that to your kids.”

Normal again, he shrugged. “To
my
kids, no. To my students…eh, I’m tempted.”

Egg-shaped man glanced at the salsa. “You really only brought one bag of tortilla chips for all that salsa? That’s an unbalanced equation for you.”

Nikki eyed his waistline, but held back a snarky comment. “Actually, no. I’ve got more bags in the car, but I forgot and only grabbed the one grocery bag. I’ll go get them now.”

As she jogged back across the field, she was intercepted by Will, who caught up with her easily. “Hey, leaving already?”

“No, just getting the rest of the chips,” she said, halting and indicating her car twenty yards away.

“I can help.”

Nikki looked at him with heavy eyelids. “I’m pretty sure I can carry a bag of chips all by myself. I work out, you know.”

He breathed out a laugh. “I’ll grant you that.”

Nikki resumed walking and pulled out her keys in readiness to unlock the car.

The screech of tires tore their attention to the perimeter where her car was parked facing them. Behind her car, a side street stretched through a peaceful residential area, except that a beater pick-up truck was careening towards them. Nikki watched as if in slow motion horror as the truck, laden with shouting young men, careened out of control and slammed into the back of her car. Her car, propelled by the sudden impact from behind, lurched forward across the sidewalk and onto the grass, stopping only a few feet from where she and Will stood.

For a moment, the world stopped, and she stared in silence.
If Will hadn’t stopped me to talk, I’d be—
Nikki’s knees buckled and she started to fall, but Will caught her and held her tightly. She didn’t resist because she didn’t think she could stand without help at the moment. Her voice came out as a hoarse whisper. “My car!”

“
Your
car? That’s your car they just hit?” He began swearing at the men in the truck before he caught himself. “Nikki, are you all right? You look a little pale.”

“Shaboobaloo.”

“Huh?”

“I think I need to sit down.”

“Want to go back to the pavilion?”

“I’m too shaky to walk right now.” Nikki lowered herself to the ground slowly. “I think I’ll just sit here.” She sat, unblinking, with her legs stretched towards the crash scene, staring at her car.

“Uh…Should you call your husband about the car?”

Her eyes welled with tears. “No.”

Will’s face darkened. “I’ll call the police and go get the info from those guys,” he said.

“Make sure they’re not hurt,” said Nikki, feeling dazed.

“Right, I will.” Will looked at her with compassion. “I’m so glad you’re not hurt. A car is one thing, but you…” He ran off in the direction of the pick-up truck. Nikki uttered a prayer of thanks that Will was level-headed enough to deal with this.
Maybe he’s a knight in shining armor?

Mr. Geoffreys and Gayle ran up beside Nikki. “Are you hurt?” asked Geoffreys.

“Do you need us to call an ambulance?” asked Gayle. “What happened? We just heard the crash.”

Nikki couldn’t speak, but pointed.

“Yeah, that came close. Did it hit you?” Mr. Geoffreys looked down at her legs as if he expected them to be broken.

Gayle shook her head. “I wonder whose car it is. It’s totaled!”

Nikki found her voice in a wail. “It was mine!”

Mr. Geoffreys swore sympathetically. “Hey, look! Ross just got here. Maybe he can help. You got your insurance info with you?”

Nikki numbly retrieved her wallet from her purse. “It’s in there somewhere,” she said.

Gayle patted her shoulder. “We’ll take care of this for you. Just rest.” She stood and waved back at the pavilion. “Hey, someone bring some water and get over here. She might be going into shock!”

Nikki didn’t remember much of the next hour, but somehow she ate lunch, the car was towed, and the accident reports were given to the police. Will gave her a ride back to her apartment in Rakefield and didn’t even make a single sly comment.



Nikki had mixed emotions. Between what Katie had said and how Will had acted at the picnic, she was starting to doubt Gayle’s assessment of the man. Maybe he
had
been a player, but was changing?

She thunked her forehead onto the desk.
Or am I just being some dumb damsel in distress?

“Hey, Ms. F. You okay? You dizzy from your concussion?”

“My what, Sammi? Do you know something I don’t?”

“From the car accident,” said Robert. “Sometimes the symptoms can be delayed.”

“You
know
about the car accident?”

The students, now totally distracted, peppered her with questions. “You were in a car accident?”

“Did a truck hit you?”

“Was there a lot of blood?”

“Did you have to go to the hospital?”

“Can we see the stitches?”

“Is it true Coach Carlin swept you up in his arms and carried you home?”

Nikki’s eyes and mouth both popped wide open.

“
Oooooh!
It’s true! She’s blushing!”

The class went wild with speculation.

Nikki pressed fingers to her eyelids, massaging gently. “I am
not
dating Coach.”

“Bummer,” said Sammi. “You’d make a cute couple.”

“Nah, he’s too old for her,” said Robert.

Nikki feigned pulling out her hair. “Gaaaah!”

The room rippled with laughter, and someone in the back wondered aloud, “What brought that on?”

Sammi clutched her hands at her bosom and fluttered her eyelashes. “Love is a many splendored thing.”

“Get back to your tests!”

Everyone fell silent, but continued to exchange animated facial expressions. Sammi came over to Nikki’s desk to use the electric pencil sharpener. “Coach dated my aunt once. She said he was a smokin’ hot kisser.”

“I don’t need to know that,” said Nikki.

“Just sayin’.”

“Sammi!”

Trotting back to her seat with a mischievous grin, Sammi said, “Yes, ma’am. I’ll return to the important task of measuring myself against all the other freshmen girls in America who ever wielded a #2 pencil.”

Nikki tossed the closest thing she could find at Sammi’s head, making contact to much applause. Fortunately, it had only been a small, pink rubber eraser.

“Yeah, you’re right. They must be dating now,” whispered one of the kids next to Sammi.

“Sh,” she warned. “She’ll throw the stapler next.”

Nikki put her head back down and shook with silent laughter, grateful for the silliness and how it brightened her mood. Composing herself, she pulled a stack of papers to grade from her inbox and opened a green pen. She gauged she’d be able to get through them at a rate of about five an hour. She had never imagined that grading took so long. She snorted at herself.
Oh, what would I do with free time, anyway?
Her eyes fell on her left hand. Janna had found her a brassy ring with a bajillion carat cubic zirconium in it. The monstrosity had already been the ruin of three pairs of panty hose and one silk scarf. She had also scratched herself repeatedly with it.
When I get married, I want a plain, flat band.
She frowned at the ring, imagining the future.
How am I going to get married for real if I’m already married for fake?
I’ve got to get out of this. How have I not told Will yet? What am I afraid of?

Nikki dropped her face into her hands. “Shaboobaloo!”



Nikki decided to take lunch in the cafeteria and walk around. She was surprised at the chaotic noise until she realized that the first real rain of the season poured outside, making the courtyard eating area a chilly wading pool.

“Hello, stranger. Enjoying the rain?”

“Oh, hey, Officer Ross. No parking lot duty today?”

“I’m not deep sea certified,” he said, waving at a passing student.

Nikki tossed her chin in the direction of the burrito line. “Is that stuff edible?”

“It’s not authentic,” he said. “And you can expect gaseous expulsions within twenty minutes of consuming it.”