His Model Student: A Student-Teacher Romance

7. Future concerns

[RECAP: Sera is hugely attracted to her art teacher Mr Marek, who seems to despise her.]

"You're late back."

The comment was made by Sera's stepmother, Marisa. Her tone wasn't accusatory as she had long ago given up on trying to argue with Sera about her whereabouts.

Still wearing her immaculate business suit, Marisa was heating up a pan on the stove. She was literally superwoman, Sera thought. She kept the house flawless and raised Sera's twin half-brothers as well as maintaining a high profile career in accountancy.

There was little love lost between the two of them. Years of failing to understand one another had done their damage. Marisa still couldn't understand why Sera didn't want to study business or finance, but rather "throw it all away" doing a degree in Fine Art.

Sera, who thought that doing finance would be throwing it all away, had never managed to convince her stepmother otherwise. These days they were civil to one another but simply very different people. Some days Sera regretted it, most days she didn't care.

They both adored the twins at least, which gave them some common ground.

"The people from the evening class all go down to the pub afterwards. The Norfolk Arms," Sera said. She wondered how Marisa would have reacted if she had found out about Sera's brief modelling experience in the first session.

"The Norfolk Arms?" Her father came into the kitchen, carrying a bottle of wine which he put in the fridge. "A bit of a rough spot, isn't it?"

"It was half empty," Sera told him.

"So what are your fellow students like?" her father asked. His own mother had been an illustrator so he was sympathetic to Sera's ambitions. But he ran a construction company himself and was a businessman at heart, so also understood Marisa's view. He generally tried to stay neutral between his wife and daughter, privately regretting that they had little affinity.

"There's only six of us.  A bearded bloke, a nice old lady, another woman about your age," Sera said, indicating Marisa. She was aware that Elizabeth was a good ten years older than Marisa but wasn't sure how else to describe it. "Middle aged woman" sounded impolite. "Then an elderly gay couple from the theatre. They're fun."

"And the teacher is helpful?"

"He's okay." Sera wasn't sure if she should mention that he had turned out to be the new art teacher at St Christopher's as well. She decided not to say anything. She still wasn't sure how she felt about it all.

"As long as it doesn't distract you from your other subjects," Marisa said. "Your other A-levels are just as important. You need something to fall back on if a career in art doesn't work out."

Sera mentally rolled her eyes as she set out cutlery and filled a jug with water for the table. "It's only a couple of hours per week. If I get swamped with assignments I can always skip a class." She had zero intention of skipping a class, but Marisa didn't need to know that.

Marisa looked appeased. "We do want you to do well." There was genuine concern on her face.

While her stepmother didn't know the real reason, it was true Sera was facing a major distraction that term. The very man teaching her art.

Mr Marek had got under her skin, that was for sure. That night as she lay in bed she couldn't stop thinking of him glaring at her, remembering his masculine aroma as he stood so close to her in class, and how his hand had felt touching her skin on the couch.