His Model Student: A Student-Teacher Romance

3. School starts

[RECAP: Sera had a stormy start to her new evening class when she ended up being ordered to pose naked by the angry but very attractive art teacher Mr Marek. Now the new school term has started.]

"You what?!"

Lois was half shocked, half laughing when Sera finally managed to tell her about the impromptu modelling session. It was the first day of the new school term and they were on their way to the art room.

"It was no big deal. Only for a few minutes," Sera said.

Her best friend couldn't stop laughing. "Only you, Sera, would deal with some rude idiot by taking your clothes off. For god's sake don't try that here."

Sera could hardly imaging doing so before Mr Billings, who taught art and history of art. He was a very conservative man who suffered agonies over works featuring scantily-clad nymphs or the Virgin nursing. From what they could work out he'd spent three years at art school painting nothing but bowls of fruit and vases of flowers.

"I can just about manage to keep my clothes on in front of Billy," Sera said.

"No one would be more relieved to hear that than him. So what was it like?"

"What was what like?"

Lois rolled her eyes. "Posing nude in front of people. Weren't you embarrassed? Weren't you cold?"

Sera actually had to think about it. Had she been cold? "No, there was a small electric heater there." Now she remembered that the teacher had switched it on and positioned it towards her just before she slipped the kimono off. He had been capable of some small consideration at least.

"And the nude thing?"

"Weirdly it was okay," Sera told her.

Lois tossed her curls. Their chestnut was currently streaked with strands of purple, blue and maroon. Lois's elder sister was a hair stylist so Lois often played guinea pig for her more experimental design. "I hardly see how. You get embarrassed just wearing a swimming costume to the pool. I don't see how you managed to flash your fanny at a roomful of perfect strangers."

Put like that, nor did Sera. "It was weird. It wasn't like being naked normally: exposed in a vulnerable way, with people judging your body. It felt more like being a shop dummy or a statue. Anyway, they were all gay or women. Except for one bearded bloke, who looked like Mr Billings."

Thinking about it, there was only one man in the room who had seemed fully red-blooded and capable of that kind of attention.

The art teacher himself.

Sera remembered how the look in his eye had changed the moment he realised she wasn't a model. Suddenly he had seen her as human again, and female. She tried to explain this to Lois. "It's like the gender dynamic suddenly returned."

"You mean he eyed you up?" Lois asked.

Nothing quite that blatant. "It was more of an awareness. I probably read too much into it because I was so aware of him. Honestly Lo, if he hadn't been such a horrible, rude, angry idiot he would have been incredibly attractive."

Lois gave her a knowing grin. "You mean he was both, don't you? Admit it."

Sera hated to admit it but Lois was right. "Maybe."

"I wish I'd signed up for the course now. If he ever goes out to that pub with you, you'll have to invite me along," Lois said.

It didn't seem likely. He had appeared more like the kind of teacher who kept his distance and didn't become over friendly with his students.