Her Teacher's Temptation (23 page)

Epilogue

“Please don’t
be too weird about it,” I begged my mum, already feeling the nerves swirling in
my stomach. “Just give him a chance.”

“I didn’t think
I was ever going to have to see him again.”

I’d done a pretty
good job of convincing her that Ollie and I really were nothing more than
friends, to be fair. The entire year I’d not mentioned him to her, not been
caught speaking to him – not even been caught that one time we gave in and
spent a hot night breaking our promises to stay away from each other.

It was really
no wonder she’d been surprised by my revelation that I was dating Ollie the day
after I graduated.

And I’d
practically made her invite him to dinner. I loved him and so my mum was going
to have to love him too, one way or another. Our arguments about Ollie had
fizzled out relatively quickly after the Nick issue had been resolved – I’d
convinced her there was nothing to worry about and let her confiscate my fake
ID.

As much as I’d
expected things to calm down, the three of us had still been out nearly every
weekend after we all turned eighteen. We’d just stayed well away from the drugs
after the scare. Meg, Hannah and I talking about our problems had ended up
being incredibly refreshing. The angst had been mainly taken out of mine and
Ollie’s relationship following our end of year agreement.

And now my mum
was going to realise what a great guy he was.

I opened the
door with a big grin, eyeing up Ollie in his shirt and tie and revelling in the
awkward half-smile on his face. “Am I allowed to kiss you? Or should I be
trying to just avoid eye-contact with everyone?”

I pressed a
peck to his lips, unable to hold back the grin. “I think you’re probably going
to wish you’d not accepted my invite.”

He passed the
bottle of wine he’d brought to my mum and then folded his hands behind his
back, quite clearly resisting the urge to run. “Hello, Ollie,” there was
nothing to hide her distaste. “It’s nice to officially meet you.”

Parents evening
hadn’t been the most pleasant experience. I’d tried my absolute hardest to get
out of it, but luckily both parties had stayed professional. My mother had just
glared at him a lot.

“You too.” They
shook hands, which was awkward enough by itself, before I gestured for him to
sit down at the table. We were having pizza, as per my request, so at least the
food couldn’t go wrong. My mum disappeared back into the kitchen.

“I can’t
believe you’re making me do this. Your mum hates me.” She was unimpressed both
by how I’d met him, the age difference, and the entire student-teacher debacle.
It was just bad all round, as far as she was concerned.

There was no
denying the almost permanent grin on my face since graduation, though.

Ollie just made
me happy.

And I was eighteen
now, so there was no real argument my mum could put forward. She just needed to
get to know him, and realise that there were only things to like.

When the smell
of perfectly cooked pizza wafted to my nose, my stomach rumbled. “It’s
impossible not to like you,” I squeezed his hand under the table and resisted
the urge to kiss him once more. I wondered if that urge would ever go away.
“It’s going to be a good night, trust me.”

Maybe once we’d
opened the bottle of wine he’d brought it would all get a bit easier.

“So, you’re a
teacher, I already know that. Where did you go to university?”

The whole topic
had been a difficult talking point for us lately, but Ollie was looking for
jobs up north and I knew he’d enjoy living in Newcastle, both because of me and
his sister. It was just dependent on whether there was a job up there for him.

I knew he’d get
a sterling reference from our head teacher, anyway.

Ollie cleared
his throat. “I went to Oxford. I studied English Literature.”

My mother
raised an eyebrow, folding her hands underneath her chin and ignoring the pizza
completely. “Impressive, I suppose I’ll give you that.”

Ollie’s cheeks
tinged pink and he took a long sip of his wine. “Thank you.”

“And as for my
daughter…” she trailed off and stared Ollie down, before smirking. “I suppose
I’ll have to accept it. As long as you don’t turn out to be a real creeper I’m
just glad she’s happy. I don’t think I can really judge, anyway,” she rolled
her eyes, all of us glad to have the Nick situation behind us. “Just don’t turn
out to be a dickhead, please, otherwise I’m going to have to bring my
ex-husband in for another performance.”

I grinned, eyes
sparkling as Ollie let out the smallest of sighs. “Thanks, mum.”

“I’m just glad
you waited until school was finished and you were eighteen,” she narrowed her
eyes. “And I’m going to assume that you did, out of the goodness of my heart.”

“Hey! We
actually did, you have no idea how miserable that was.” Both of our faces
flamed at that, but my grin was persistent.

I linked my
pinkie with Ollie’s under the table, munching on my pizza and enjoying the
general chit chat that flowed after the more serious stuff had been gotten out
of the way.

My mum had
nothing to worry about, though. If we’d made it this far, we could take on
anything.

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Coming Soon: A Forbidden Finale

Carly has won a scholarship to another
world – a private ballet Academy for the elite. What she isn’t expecting is to
find love whilst she’s there… especially not with her teacher.

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