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Pretending everything was normal was absolutely killing Rachel - but she concluded that there was no other option; if she confronted Adam now, she wouldn't even get a slither of opportunity to find out who 'R' is for herself. She wasn't one to take the easy option. Besides, he had hurt her terribly, she wanted to make him suffer too. So composing herself, she walked over to Adam who was sitting at the breakfast bar, and kissed him deeply, with as much meaning and love as possible - given the circumstances. She wanted him to know exactly what he was missing when she did ultimately confront him about the affair.
"Hmm what's that for?" Adam said, somewhat suspiciously, Rachel noted.
"Just thought I'd be nice for a change, think of it as a thank you for making me breakfast again," she smiled contently, trying to conceal the feelings of his betrayal that were seeping through her pores.
"It's the least I can do for my future wife."
She couldn't stand his lies anymore, so she quickly put together an excuse, "I'm going to go get ready now, I need to be at work early today, Ruby wants me to help out with the breakfast club." It wasn't a complete lie, Ruby did want Rachel to help out with the breakfast club, but she didn't need to be in as early as she was about to make out.
"Ruby?"
His reaction to this made her freeze on the spot, and she saw the letter 'R' floating around in her mind with every heartbeat. R. R. R. Ruby. It can't be Ruby. Please no. God no not Ruby, she thought to herself erratically.
"Yes you know, cooking teacher. Ruby Fry." She commented after snapping herself out of it.
"Oh yes, sorry, in my own little world," Adam said as an attempt to cover up his little mistake, "Well I guess I'll see you later then. Love you."
Now this would be sickening, Rachel thought to herself, but it had to be done, "I love you too," she managed it. Through gritted teeth, but still. Now at least she had a 'suspect', she would certainly be asking Ruby several questions, provoke her a little, see her reaction to Adam being mentioned...
….
Christopher Mead woke up in a sweat. Turns out he was probably thinking about his career threatening mistake whilst sleeping too. God he couldn't escape it. It hasn't even been 24 hours and already the thoughts were consuming him. Why had he been such an idiot? All he knew was that he couldn't last much longer before his thoughts completely swallowed him up. Maybe it's best to just resign? He thought to himself, running out of options. No he loved his job, he needed to pull himself together and try to make up for his mistake - and no more extra tutoring for Vicki, he noted.
Arriving at his classroom, he felt a wave of sickness wash over him as he saw Vicki perched on a front row seat.
"Hi Chris, was a good little bit of tuition last night, don't you think?"
"Don't call me Chris. It's Mr Mead to you. And about last night, it was a complete mistake - I can't be tutoring you anymore, and don't even think about saying anything to anyone."
"But, what?" Vicki questioned, in genuine upset. Swiftly discarding the upset - Mr Mead's actions formed a plan in her brain; must be all the extra tutoring making her think more logically.
"No, I won't have that Chris. You keep giving me extra lessons, or I'll go straight to Mason with our little secret. So which is it?"
"Vicki. Don't be stupid. She isn't going to believe you over her deputy head, and you don't even have any evidence. You can't just throw accusations around."
"Oh, you think I don't have any evidence? Well you thought wrong," Vicki stated harshly, whilst fumbling for her mobile phone in her pocket, "I have a very interesting recording on this. A recording I'm sure Miss Mason would want to hear about. Student protection n all that." Mr Mead struck his hand out in an attempt to grab the phone, but it was no use, he couldn't get it without making the situation 10x worse for himself, "not so fast Chris, you haven't heard the recording yet," Vicki laughed, pressing the ominous play button. Immediately Chris knew it was over for him. Two voices were heard - his and Vicki's - followed by kisses noises that were more than clear enough. What was he going to do? He couldn't just let Vicki blackmail him like this, if he continued her tutoring then he was sure her blackmailing would continue too. But in contrast to that; public humiliation, loss of job, loss of career, loss of respect from Rachel. Unless - his trail of thought was sharply interrupted by Vicki's manipulative tone of voice.
"So then Chris. What's it gonna be? Extra tuition? Or bye bye deputy head?"
"Neither. Get out of my classroom now."
"Clock's ticking Chris. I'll give you till tomorrow eh?" Vicki chuckled whilst marching out of his classroom, pleased with her work for the day. Oh she loved teasing him, his face was an absolute picture. No rest for the wicked.
Meanwhile, Chris really was panicking. He had concluded that there was no other option but to resign - tell Rachel a head teacher's role had come up. It was better to lose his job here than to risk losing his full career and potential. He couldn't stomach that, not at all.
…..
"Hey Ruby, how's it going? Sorry I'm a bit late, got held up with Adam, you know how it is," Rachel thought she'd kick it off with a bang, catch Ruby off guard.
"Oh no worries Rachel, the kids have been fine." Although this answer was a fairly normal one from Ruby, Rachel couldn't help but notice the discreet frown which was planted across her forehead - along with little beads of sweat dotted all over.
'Are you alright? You seem to have gone a bit pale all of a sudden.'
'Oh, do you know Rachel, I think I might be coming down with something. Do you mind if I just nip to the ladies?'
'Not at all Mrs Fry, I'll keep an eye on this lot.'
Well Ruby was certainly looking like the culprit. Somehow this made it worse for Rachel, she felt like it had been happening right under her nose this whole time - and she never noticed. Besides, Ruby was a trusted member of staff, she would never of expected this from her, ever. Rachel had always thought Ruby had far more respect for her than that. Clearly not.
Profusely vomiting in the toilet, a fresh bout of nausea crashed over Ruby. Maybe Adam didn't love her after all? He certainly hadn't called the wedding off, if Rachel was making comments like that one. Or maybe he just didn't find the right opportunity? She didn't know what to think anymore, other than worry that Steph was right - and this would only end in tears. No, she refused that outcome. Ruby would talk to Adam tonight, she was sure she could win him round.
….
After spending all day burying herself in her office, attempting to avoid Adam - Rachel almost jumped when she heard a sharp knock on the door. Surely if it was Adam he wouldn't knock?
'Come in!' Rachel shouted, as cheerfully as possible.
She didn't expect to see Chris walking through the door - with an envelope in his hand… this didn't look good, she thought as concern overcame her.
'Hi Rachel…'
'Chris? Is everything okay?' She pondered, gesturing to the envelope which looked far too similar to a letter of resignation for her liking.
'You should probably sit down,' Rachel continued when she got no reply from her deputy.
'There's no easy way to say this Rachel. I'm resigning, I've been offered a head teacher's position in a school down south - They want me to start on Monday.' Chris told a half lie, he was going to move down south, but there was certainly no head teacher's position.
'Oh Chris. On Monday? Is there nothing I can say that will change your mind?'
'I'm afraid not. Sorry Rachel, I should've let you know sooner.'
'No no Chris, don't worry. I'm not going to hold you back on an advance in your career. I'm sure Tom can hold the fort until we appoint someone. Have a good weekend.'
'You too Rachel. And thank you.'
Once Chris had left, Rachel pondered on how this day couldn't get much worse. She was sure that there was more behind Chris' departure, but she had bigger things to worry about. So grabbing her briefcase, she put on a brave face and got ready to hide her true feelings to Adam. She felt like she was getting closer to the truth, she wanted to keep digging before confronting him. Despite this, Rachel couldn't deny that it would be difficult, especially considering it was now the weekend.
