Chapter Twenty-Two

PARKER

 

“Remember I thought she had a husband and I hated that? Well it’s the dead wife I can’t compete with. A husband might have been easier,” Parker groaned.

“I don’t see how!” Nathan replied. “A dead wife is out of the picture, at least.”

Parker rolled her eyes. “At least a husband would leave his socks on the bedroom floor, not wash up the dishes, and would probably stay out too late with his mates. A dead wife is just…perfect. And that will never change.”

“You think she has rose-coloured glasses on?”

Parker shrugged. “Not really. She certainly hasn’t gone on and on about how perfect she was or anything like that, but they were clearly very much in love. The issue is that she feels she’s cheating on her.” Parker had decided that Megan sounded great—Scott and Lily both clearly felt this way—and that was probably accurate. It wasn’t so much rose-coloured glasses as a sense that Lily wasn’t going to allow anyone to get close to her. Perhaps she didn’t want to lose someone again. And then there was Scott. “I think the problem is Scott.”

“How?” Now that she had mentioned Scott, she had Nathan’s full interest.

“Just that Scott doesn’t date. I think she feels scared to disrupt their arrangement.”

Nathan frowned. “Have you found out if he’s gay?”

Parker didn’t know whether to tell Nathan. “I really don’t care. The fact is he doesn’t have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, and so now Lily won’t be my girlfriend.”

“It’s just, maybe I could help…if he was gay.”

Parker groaned and shook her head. “With all due respect, Mr Stenlake, your help would no doubt be more of a hindrance when it comes to dating her housemate!”

“Maybe I’ve changed.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it. No, I just need to move on from Lily, and you need to move on from Scott. I need to get back on the horse.”

“Dating?”

She nodded. She really didn’t want to, but she believed the ideal way to get over someone was to get distracted. Have fun. It might not be the best recommendation for a person getting over someone, and it was never nice for the rebound girl, but ultimately it was more fun than pining alone at home. Some of Parker’s greatest flings had been in rebound stage. Not great from a longevity point of view, but certainly plenty of fun. Trouble was, she only wanted fun with Lily right now—no one else.

What if Nathan felt that way about Scott? Suddenly she felt a little guilty for withholding information from Nathan. “Okay, he’s gay,” she confessed.

“I’m sorry?”

“He’s gay. He came out as a teenager.”

Nathan feigned mock horror. “Please don’t tell me you’ve known this since I first asked!” Parker blushed, and Nathan play-whacked her. “He’s gay!” He grinned. He looked thrilled.

“He’s gay, and he’s the father of one of our students, and you’ve been lecturing me about sleeping with the mother of a student, so you can’t go there either.” Parker grinned.

“I promise I won’t try anything just yet.” Nathan was scheming, and Parker didn’t want to know what he had in mind.

“Come on. Back to me. We’re talking about my plans for online dating, not your plan to try and seduce a student’s father.”

“Meh. You make it sound so awful when you put it that way.”

She rolled her eyes. “You made it sound that way when I was seeing Lily. It would be totally hypocritical for you to do the same thing.”

Nathan weighed it up. “Bodhi’s not my student though.” He had a point, but Parker still hoped he would avoid the Delaney-Jones family entirely. She needed to move on, and the sooner she stopped thinking about Lily and Scott, the better.

“For now, my relationship with the Delaney-Jones family is purely professional. Doting teacher, period. I’ll get my fun on the side.” She wished she was as committed to her plan as she sounded.

“Great. So what’s the plan?”

Parker ran through a few different sites with him, finally settling on two. “Have you got time to help me create a profile?”

Nathan nodded, then added, “Haven’t you got old profiles you can recycle? I’m sure we’ve done this before.” He yawned.

What they did worked because Parker was soon getting matches. None of them appealed to her, but then, remembering why she was doing it, she took a slightly less critical look and ended up responding to a few.

“Do I want to date another teacher?” Parker asked Nathan the next day at school. “One has asked me for coffee.” She rolled her eyes. Her heart wasn’t in it.

“Sure.” He shrugged. “Why not? Could be good. And, hey, if it works, at least you get holidays off together.”

With those words, Parker found herself on a date with Anna a few evenings later. She was a grade five teacher—a cute, short woman with cropped brunette tousled curls and big brown eyes.

“Tell me about yourself,” Anna said. “Your profile didn’t have much info in it, but I hear the community around here is fairly small, so when I saw a new member, I thought I’d catch up with you before you became jaded with online dating.” She laughed, and Parker found herself laughing too. The rapport was easy with Anna, she just didn’t sense any chemistry. It wasn’t that Anna wasn’t adorable—she was—it just—didn’t feel like someone she wanted to jump into a relationship with. She was determined to give it a go though.

“Well, I teach grade three. I used to teach older grades though. I’ve taught grade five before.”

Anna nodded. “Which do you prefer?”

Parker shrugged. “I like the variety. As long as I’m not teaching the same grade for too long, I’m happy.” She was sure she’d been asked that very question in her job interview and responded in exactly the same way.

Anna nodded. “I prefer to stick with one grade for a time due to all the prep work. I like to get familiar with the grade.”

Soon they were talking teaching styles, and while the commonality was great for breaking the ice, she couldn’t help wondering if they had anything else in common. Trying to change the topic from work, she asked Anna what she liked to do on weekends.

“I read a lot and go for long walks. I’m just out of a relationship, and I’d moved here because of that relationship, so I’m still finding my feet. Making friends and hopefully more,” Anna admitted. Parker was relieved—she liked Anna and maybe they could be friends if the dating thing didn’t work out.

Luckily, the rest of the evening got more relaxed, although Parker couldn’t quite see potential romantically. At the end of the night, as Anna leapt forward and kissed her, she realised she was definitely right—the chemistry was lacking. The old Parker wouldn’t have cared. The old Parker would have seen how things progressed, anyway, given Anna’s apparent interest. The new Parker had no interest in seeing how things progressed although she felt bad to reject someone she’d just met, so she didn’t completely. “Thanks, it was a great evening.”

“I’d love to catch up again sometime soon.”

“Sure, just let me know.” She wasn’t lying, exactly—she was happy to catch up and be Anna’s friend. She just wasn’t sure they had potential for romance.

“Well, then, you have to get back on the horse,” Nathan said.

“Ugh, the image you paint of a horse.” Parker shook her head. “I don’t think I want that!”

Nathan playfully whacked her. “I’m just saying, if Annie or Anna, or whatever her name is, isn’t the girl for you, we just need to move to the next one on the list. Cat something or other? She was number two. I think you said you’d been chatting to her?”

Parker was bemused that Nathan had taken so much interest in her internet dating when he’d been so discouraging of her pseudo-relationship with Lily. Perhaps that was why he was keen for her to internet date and was being so supportive. Parker scrolled through her phone. “Yes, CatInAHat. She seems nice enough.” She shrugged.

He nodded. “Well, come on then, chat to her. Line up a coffee.”