Our Hearts Entwined (2 page)

Mia stared at him, unable to tear her eyes away. When she’d imagined the man she was going to meet this morning, she had pictured an older greying man, with wire-rimmed glasses and a beard. Not a man so young and beautiful that he could have been sculpted personally by the hands of Michelangelo himself.

Heat crept across her cheeks, flushing them pink as she caught herself staring and, with great effort, finally tore her eyes away, focusing instead on Corey and his parents.

“Er…Tamara – the principal - should be here shortly,” she said to them all brightly, before turning to Corey. “
Would you like to go and join Callie in the library? We’ll be about an hour,”
she spoke clearly and signed to him.

She watched his eyes drift over to Callie, who had stopped at the nearby water bubblers for a drink, before he nodded his head, jogging over to her before she could walk ahead of him.

Smiling to herself, she watched the two walk off together, Callie talking and signing simply for Corey to understand. A small amount of hope blossomed inside Mia as she thought that Callie may possibly be the key to getting Corey more involved.

“Never underestimate the power of a pretty girl,” Cayd commented, making eye contact with Mia as if he had somehow heard the thoughts run through her head. Something passed between them, electrifying the air, causing Mia’s body to ignite under his gaze. An embarrassing gasp burst from her lips and her cheeks flamed yet again.

“Can I offer you all tea or coffee while we wait?” Mia asked, trying her best to sound professional while admonishing her brain for flitting certain images through her mind - the kind of images that involved little clothes and were completely at odds with her current relationship status.

“That would be wonderful,” Mrs Blackburn replied, beaming as she watched her son walking away. Mia could see the hope in her eyes too and felt that this meeting was most likely to have a positive outcome after all.

***

“Thank you for your insights on Corey, they’ll be very helpful to me,” Cayd said to Mia when the meeting was over, and they had farewelled Corey’s parents.

“You’re welcome Doctor Donnelly. I'm only too happy to be of help,” she replied, her heart thumping against her chest as he looked at her, watched her. Her reaction confused her. She couldn’t figure out what was going on. She'd never responded like this around someone before.

“Cayd, please - ‘Doctor’ sounds so formal,” he told her smiling, his voice like long fingers, caressing her senses.

They stood smiling inanely at each other for a few minutes before Cayd broke the silence. “Listen, I ah… don’t normally do this, but would you like to maybe meet for coffee, or a drink sometime?” he asked, his hand floating up and raking nervously through his hair.

“I’d love that,” she said without thinking, before catching herself and adding, “But I can't. I don’t think my boyfriend would be ok with it.”

They locked eyes for a moment, the air humming around them. “I understand,” Cayd said quietly, a flash of disappointment lighting up his eyes. “It was lovely to meet you Mia,” he said, nodding courteously at her before turning to leave, politely thanking the school’s principal, Tamara O’Keefe, on his way out.

The moment the door clicked shut, Tamara stood next to Mia, who was still frozen to the spot. “Oh my, I think I almost came watching the electricity spark between the two of you. What the hell was that?”

“It was nothing,” Mia said, trying to brush it off.

“Nothing? Did you see the way he was looking at you in the meeting? Oh my, my, my,” she said, fanning her face with her hand. “I’m going to have a hard time concentrating today after that.”

“Don’t you have a school to run?” Mia asked half in jest, letting Tamara know that she wasn’t planning on indulging any further talk over the matter.

“You’re no fun,” Tamara pouted. “I’m getting old Mia and I’ve been married for nearly twenty years. You have to give me something to tide me over occasionally.”

Mia laughed, shaking her head as she said, “Yes Tamara, you are so old at forty-two I think you might need a walking frame soon.”

“Well, you never know,” Tamara joked, heading into her office, leaning over and holding her back as if she was suddenly too old to stand up straight. Mia stood alone, a smile plastered on her face as she tried to figure out how she was going to concentrate for the rest of the day also, somehow knowing that her dreams that night were going to be filled with a particular tall, dark and handsome doctor.

“This is a nice surprise. I thought you’d be getting ready for work,” Eric Dundas murmured lowly next to his girlfriend’s ear the next morning. He’d been sent into the 7-Eleven by his boss to grab a couple of meat pies and chocolate milks for them to have before they started off on their first job.

She spun around quickly, looking slightly surprised and perhaps a little cautious. It seemed to take her a moment longer than usual to respond happily to her boyfriend’s attentions.

“Um… shouldn’t
you
be at work…honey?” she replied cautiously.

Eric laughed and kissed her on the forehead, his light-brown hair falling forward to tickle softly against her skin. “Very funny Mia, I am at work – Baz is outside in the ute. I’m just getting our breakfast before we go to our first job… and since when do you call me ‘honey’?”

“Oh, uh, I’m just trying it out – do you like it?”

“I don’t know, you’ll have to try it again when I see you this weekend. I’ll call you when I’m finished.”

With that, Eric leaned in and kissed her, sucking her lower lip gently with both of his. His eyes flashed bright for a moment as he peered into his girlfriend’s eyes. A slight furrow formed on his brow as he studied her before brushing his knuckles gently against her cheek.

“You look really beautiful today,” he barely whispered before kissing her again in good bye. He walked away from her, paying for his food, then winked at her as he left the shop.

Touching her lips lightly with her fingertips she smiled to herself. When Eric kissed her she felt a bolt of energy flood through her body, it surprised her and she wanted more.

Rushing toward the automatic sliding doors in a bid to catch him, she called out. “Wait!”

Eric stopped near the door of the ute he was about to enter and looked back at her. A smile broke over his face as he watched her racing up to him.

“Come on Eric mate, get in the car!” the driver of the ute advertising Harrington’s plumbing service called through the window.

“Wait up a sec. Here, take these,” Eric said as he passed the pies and bottles of milk through the open window, turning his full attention toward his girlfriend.

“Kiss me properly,” she said a little breathlessly as she placed her hands on his firm chest and looked up at him, her eyes dancing happily.

Eric was only too happy to oblige her, cupping her face in his hands as he brought his mouth to hers and gave her the passionate kiss she was hoping for. Her head spun as he pulled away and grinned at her, slipping his arms around her waist and holding her tightly to him.

“Is that what you were after?” he asked, his voice a little husky.

She smiled as she leant against the hard planes of his body. “Don’t call me after work. Just meet me at Sofia’s at seven. We’ll have dinner – my treat.”

Eric’s eyebrows shot up slightly as he wondered what had gotten into his girlfriend. They had been together since they were in high school and while he loved her and enjoyed his time with her – she wasn’t normally this into public displays of affection, nor did she make spur of the moment dinner plans.

A smile crept over his face as his heartbeat quickened slightly. “Alright, I’ll meet you there around seven,” he conceded, giving her another kiss and risking a quick tap on her bum as he made a move to climb into the ute.

She surprised him again by letting out a little yelp but grinning at him flirtatiously as she twirled a piece of her long wavy golden blonde hair around the finger of her right hand. He didn’t take his blue eyes off her until she was out of sight. There was something different about her today – whatever it was, he sure as hell knew he liked it.

Standing in front of the classroom, at 9am that same morning, Mia flicked her long plait back over her shoulder so it hung down her back – it seemed to have a habit of always falling over her left shoulder. She waved her hands to signal to her students that they needed to look at her. All eyes fixed expectantly upon her except for one pair.

Walking toward Corey, she stood in front of his desk, waiting patiently until he finally looked up from his book. She tapped her ear, and then pointed at Corey’s when she noticed that he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids. He huffed out his breath and pulled them from his pocket, putting them in his ears as Mia waited patiently in front of him.

Thank you,
she signed, immediately moving back to the front of the class to begin. Mia spoke loud and clear as she signed, for the few students with limited hearing, but primarily, she communicated via sign.

“Corey, would you like to put your book away please?”

Corey’s response was that of a glare; however he did comply and slid his book into the still open backpack at his feet.

“Thank you,”
Mia said again, before beginning her lesson.

They were currently learning about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were forcibly taken from their families between 1909 and 1969 by the Australian Government, aptly named the ‘Stolen Generation’.

“Can anyone tell me one of the reasons the government used to justify the taking of these children?”
Mia asked her students after a quick recap of last week’s history lesson.

Quite a few hands flew up and Mia selected Callie, signing her name so that the other students knew to turn so they could watch her answer.

“Because white Australians didn’t understand Aboriginal culture and thought they were protecting them?”
she offered.

When the class turned back around Mia continued.
“That’s right. ‘Child protection’ was touted as the number one reason as to why Aboriginal children were taken away from their families.

“Anyone else?”
Mia asked, looking around the room and feeling surprised when Corey raised his hand.

“They were trying to breed them out,” he put in, not waiting to be called on.

Mia was so surprised by his participation in the class that she didn’t want to pull him up on not signing his answer, so she signed what he'd said to the class, continuing with,
“That’s correct, Corey. There are documents that tell us they felt that if they took the mixed-race children into white families, then eventually the Aboriginal race would die out entirely and become fully assimilated within the white culture.”

The rest of the lesson turned into a wonderful debate about the moral ramifications of what the government did to those children and a promise that if they could get permission, she would bring in a copy of ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ for them to watch during class next week.

When the lights flashed to signal that class was over, Mia watched Corey with hidden interest as he gathered his things and got up to leave, waiting for Callie before he started toward the door. Mia smiled to herself when she saw him sign a couple of words, feeling so glad that he was finally starting to come around.

Cayd’s voice saying, ‘Never underestimate the power of a pretty girl’, flitted through her mind and sent her heart beating wildly even now. It embarrassed her that she was still thinking about him when she had a perfectly good relationship with Eric.

Eric treated her well, and they loved and cared for one another. Their relationship worked – so why couldn’t she stop thinking about Cayd? She felt that perhaps she wasn’t spending enough time with Eric and thought that if she saw him that night then it might push the fanciful thoughts about Cayd out of her mind.

In all their time together, she had never once looked at another man the way she was looking at Cayd. There was something about him that wouldn’t leave her mind and she felt so guilty for it. She was always faithful, always caring. Her future was with Eric, she knew that. She just couldn’t seem to stop herself from daydreaming...

She checked her watch, noting that she still had a few hours left in her day before she could even think about seeing Eric. It was recess, so she made her way to the staff room, hoping that keeping her attention on her work would help to push the images of the doctor out of her mind.

At exactly seven pm, a five-foot ten woman with long flowing golden blonde hair, stood outside Sofia’s restaurant in Burwood as she waited for Eric to arrive. Butterflies flew around nervously in her stomach as she stood, increasing their flutters the moment she spied him rounding the corner of the building. It was as if today was the first day she was really seeing him, and his beauty overwhelmed her.

He was deliciously tall with firm broad shoulders, long limbs and a narrow waist. She felt that if he didn’t bother working out, he would be quite skinny - but he so obviously did work out. It was evident in his long lean muscles that seemed to ripple under his short sleeved fitted shirt as he walked.