Moonlight streaks across their earnest faces in the darkened back seat as they laugh at the memory.
"That was embarrassing," Stef says.
"It was endearing."
"Did I give myself away?" Stef asked.
"I didn't have a clue," Lena lies.
"You still make me that nervous," Stef says brushing away a few stray curls off Lena's cheek. She kisses Lena on the corner of her mouth. Lena responds by searching for Stef's mouth and kissing her back, more passionately.
- Flashback -
The children frantically raise their hands in unison when Lena asks, "Who knows the answer?" Her student's waving hands and fluttering fingers reach higher and higher, giving the illusion of touching the wall clock on the back wall. The clock hands read, "8:46." Reflexively, Lena looks out the classroom door window. No one.
She picks a child to answer. In a fleeting moment, several eager students share their own perspectives, then the school bell rings. The children hustle noisily out of class to their next period through the door Lena holds open for them.
"I want you to think about this morning's lesson and – " Lena's sentence gets caught in her throat. Across the hall, standing near the lockers, Stef mouths the word, "Hi."
"…and come back with ideas about how you could make a difference," Lena continues saying to the children. To Stef she says, "Hi." A smile grows in Lena's eyes as Stef approaches her. Together they watch the last student skip down the hall.
"Is today good to meet for coffee?" Stef asks. "Brandon is in the after school music program. We could talk until I have to come back and pick him up."
"Perfect. I wrap up everything by 3:30 so I could meet you at 4."
"Okay, then 4 at the coffee shop on the corner of Main and Boulevard."
Walking across the parking lot to her car after school, Lena's stomach is jittery and she is short of breath. These unexplained feelings have been making a progressive crescendo over the course of the day. Now that it's 3:30, a kaleidoscope of butterflies has taken over her chest. Her steps are brisk and light, like they can't move fast enough. Her head feels like its floating or hovering above her neck.
She catches herself; not quite trusting whether her feelings are justified or if it's her own overactive wishes at play. Something in the pit of her stomach tells her that they are real. She, unfortunately, has had to resolve one too many misunderstandings to justifiably question – even doubt – what ever she's feeling between her and Officer Foster. Stef. Her name must be Stephanie, Lena thinks. Although it's a warm day, shivers descend her arms.
But then there's... She's married to a man and she has a child with him. Lena berates herself for reading this all wrong; for putting herself in a position to get hurt. Again. Is she creating something that's not there? Has it been so long since she's held someone or since she's intuitively sensed that a lover is thinking about her at a given moment? Yet, there's…just…something…
With her remote key, Lena bleep-blips her car door open. She is unexpectedly startled by the curt squawk of a loud siren blast nearby. A police cruiser slowly pulls up behind her; the window rolls down. Stef!
"Hop in, we could ride over together," Stef says.
Lena looks around self-consciously.
"What type of an example am I setting by being escorted off the school premises in a police car?" Lena says with a smile. "What would the kids think?"
"They'd think you were in good hands. C'mon."
- Flashback Ends-