Life, Love & A Little Coffee

Chapter Thirty-Six: Love Lost And Love Gained

Though they were all talking to him, Tom felt as if he was witness to his own funeral for the next few days. Everyone came up to Tom to share their stories of him, like they were standing up at a podium in the wake of his death.

The first few times were nice. It had been like his lunch with Ada during their road trip; her telling him how great of a teacher he'd been and telling him all the things he'd done for her throughout the years. But then it just kept happening. Over and over again.

By Wednesday, Tom felt like there was a line of people forming to shake his hand and apologize for the loss of himself. That wasn't what was happening, but the image in his mind was more than just a little unsettling.

He also felt like a hypocritical asshole. Here he'd gone condemning others for spreading a lie that later became true. Depending on which lie, at least. People spreading the bullshit of him hooking up with a student pissed him the hell off when it first started. Tom had suspicions of his feelings for Ada then, but hadn't owned up to them yet. He wondered if his anger wasn't because of the rumor itself, but his fear of the truth.

Tom was a high school teacher who'd crossed boundaries for a student he cared for, and he fell in love with her. It didn't matter if his motives for being there for her were pure. It didn't matter if he was there because she needed someone and chose him.

The fact was, the rumor that killed his career happened because he broke the rules. If Tom had the chance to do it all over again, he wouldn't change a damn thing.

The light tap of a knuckle on his door caught Tom's attention, and he glanced up from his desk to see Liz standing there, looking lovely as always.

Tom propped his elbow on the desk and dropped his cheek into the palm of his hand, giving her a small smile. "Hey."

She returned his smile and stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. "You look like hell."

Her bluntness made his smile grow. "Thank you. I was going for haggard chic."

Liz lowered her head and shook it, her dark waves catching the sun coming through the window. A laugh escaped her, one that he remembered well and with fondness. He remembered early in their relationship how he put effort into being funny in an attempt to hear it more, but she preferred a more natural amusement over his poor attempts.

When she raised her head again, the smile was much smaller and the glimmer in her blue eyes had faded. "Heard a rumor about you."

She'd have to be a hell of a lot more specific than that. "Which one?"

Liz walked into the room, dropping her oversized purse on the desk Ada sat at. "That you quit."

For a moment, Tom felt relief. But the relief disappeared when he figured out that if she'd heard about that one, there was no way in hell she didn't hear the other.

"That rumor is true."

"And the other?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Tom slouched into his seat, his assumption confirmed. "There's probably about a hundred versions of that one going around. I'm guessing at least one or two of them are a little true."

Liz pressed her red lips together, seeming to look through him rather than at him as she struggled to find the right words.

The problem with all of this was that Tom had promised to himself never to lie to Liz. He'd also promised 'from death do us part', which hadn't stuck, but they'd always been honest to one another. When she'd fallen for someone in her class, she owned up to it before anything happened between the two of them. Still, him owning up to falling for someone in his own class was a little different.