Silently Falling in Love: Again (Edited)

Chapter 25 - PTA meeting

Anjali February 2007

It was the monthly PTA meeting, and we lingered around having coffee and pastries until the meeting started. Why did they start the meeting at 9:30 when drop off for school was at 8:30? It's not like you had enough time to go home or do anything else. It added to the list of irritations I had with the school.

I saw Alex and I couldn't help but smile. At least I'd have someone decent to chat with until the meeting started.

"Good morning," Alex said as he walked over to me with a plate full of pastries and a cup of coffee.

I grabbed an apple fritter off the top of his plate. "Good morning to you, too. Thanks for the apple fritter. How did you know it's my favorite?" I teased.

"Lucky guess," he smiled. "Shall we grab a seat in the back where the parents with the bad attitude sit?"

I laughed. "Is that what we're calling ourselves these days, parents with a bad attitude?"

We filtered towards a part of the room where there were no moms mingling. We chatted about nothing, but only for a few minutes before I saw Andrea eyeing us from across the room.

"Oh no, you've been discovered," I said.

"By who?" Alex asked with curiosity.

I nodded towards the red-headed woman across the hall looking at Alex.

"Who is she?" Alex asked innocently.

"You don't know her?" I asked unbelievingly.

"I don't know her well. Yesterday she asked if my kids would like to come over for a play date."

I smiled. "Well, she's lusting after you and your her next victim."

Alex stopped mid-bite into his cheese Danish. "What do you mean next victim?"

"Last year she had an affair with the gym teacher, who unfortunately was fired. This year she's set her eyes on you."

I watched Alex look back at Andrea; he took his coffee cup to his mouth, but his eyes were still on Andrea. To me it looked like he was checking out the busty red head wearing a brown wrap dress with bright red heels and manicured nails.

"I'm not judging you if you're interested," I said as I watched him check out Andrea.

"Bullshit."

"No, really, she had an affair, you can ask around."

Alex moved his coffee cup away and turned his body towards me and looked me straight in the eyes. "Bullshit you wouldn't judge me."

I was quiet; I avoided confrontations.

"And you should judge me. I'd judge you if you had an affair."

"Be careful she's coming this way. Heard you're going over to her place for a "Play date.""

"Help me," Alex said with puppy dog eyes.

"Nope, I'm too scared."

"What kind of friend are you?"

"A scared one." I said as I got up out of my seat as Andrea headed over. "Do you need more coffee or pastries?" I asked, trying to make a run for it before Andrea reached us.

Alex gave me the sexiest smile I'd ever seen on him as I turned to walk away, but his hand grabbed mine and pulled me down.

I tried to protest, but by then Andrea had reached us.

"Hi, Anjali, how are you?" Andrea said with her fake smile as she took a seat on the other side of Alex.

"I'm doing well, Andrea. How are you?"

"I'm well. I didn't realize you and Alex were friends," she said as she threw those green-eyed daggers my way.

"She's my one Indian friend here," Alex said, trying to break the tension between us. "She's the only one I can practice my Hindi on," Alex added as his eyes twinkled at me.

"You're Indian?" Andrea asked, surprised.

"Half-Indian."

"I thought maybe you were Greek or Italian with your coloring," Andrea commented as she slid her hands up and down her arms in a slow seductive motion.

"Just a mix of English and Indian."

"Does tomorrow work for you? We could have a cup of coffee while the kids play," Andrea offered as her eyes roamed from his coffee cup up to his lips.

"I'll have to check my schedule. I may have a client meeting," Alex said before gulping his coffee.

"You work?" Andrea asked, surprised again.

"Yes. I do."

"Oh, I thought you were a stay at home dad since you volunteer at the school so much," she said slightly disappointed.

"I have my own consulting business," Alex responded with a smile.

"Doing what?" Andrea asked as she placed her elbow on her knee and her chin on her fist as she leaned closer to Alex.

"I'm a programmer."

"Maybe you can help me."

Alex nodded but said nothing.

"Well, I know my kids are looking forward to a play date tomorrow. I hope to see you then," Andrea said and waved her long-painted nails at Alex before leaving to take a seat up front with the parents with a good attitude.

I watched Alex out of the corner of my eye while sipping my coffee. I laughed to myself. Poor guy had no idea what kind of trouble he was in. Several of the moms had asked me about him. They were going crazy over how handsome he was.

I watched as he blew out a huge breath of air and then turned those gorgeous blue eyes at me. He took his hand and ran it through his dark hair, making it messy. Like he just woke up out of bed after a night of sex. For the first time, I noticed how olive his skin was and how he looked more Greek or Italian than Indian. Andrea had been right.

"You were about to abandon me," Alex accused me. "That's not very nice. To make it up, you need to find an excuse for me, so I don't have to go over there. Maybe you can drop off my kids at her house for a play date."

I laughed so hard, "Oh my god, she would kill me. Can you imagine her face if I turned up at the door tomorrow instead of you?"

"I'm not going," Alex said, somewhat scared now. "I can't go over there after what you told me. Plus, she's sleazy. What does her husband say about all of this?"

"Her husband is about twenty years older than her; I doubt he even notices."

"Oh, it's one of those marriages," Alex said with everything falling into place.

"A stay at home, young good-looking dad like you is just her prey," I teased.

"Are there more of her?" Alex asked concerned, "because I've had a lot of requests for play dates."

"You've caused a few moms to turn their heads," I confessed.

"I wish you had told me that before yesterday," Alex said.

"Why?"

"I agreed to coach the boy's baseball team for the fourth graders."

"How did you get roped into that?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "Some moms asked me to coach because the other dads are all too busy..."

"Oh, shit!" he realized they had played him.

"The moms wanted you to coach," I whispered. I elbowed him, "One benefit of being one of the few dads involved."

"Not the benefit I'm looking for. Karan's joining right? He's athletic and we'll need him on the team. Hell, I might need him to protect me from these crazy women."

"Yes, he'll play. He loves baseball."

"Good, that means you'll be there too to protect me too," he smiled.

I held up my hands in a boxing position, and we both laughed.