Chapter 38

I was tucking into a full Scottish breakfast when Alison turned up. She sat down and said hello to the table before focusing on me.

She knew I had been out the night before; I sensed anger in her voice. She didn’t make a fuss at the table, but when I had eaten, we walked out to the garden together.

She asked me why I had gone into the village for drinks, and I just lied; I told her someone had mentioned that she would be there. In a couple of weeks, I will be leaving the school. There would be no room in my life for Alison, whether she knew it or not.

We arranged to meet up later that day to go for something to eat. She said we should meet outside at 5 o’clock, as she would order a taxi.

There was no rugby that day, so I went back to my room, had a mug of coffee and watched some rugby I had recorded. Around midday, I went to bed with my Kindle.

I set my alarm and then rolled over and had a good sleep. I woke as the alarm pinged.

I put the kettle on, shaved and had a long, slow, hot shower. Then I made coffee and ate a packet of Tunnocks tea cakes. Then I got dressed, brushed my teeth, and splashed on a bit of aftershave.

When I got outside, Alison was already outside. She smiled, and we exchanged hellos.

I could tell she would have loved to kiss me, but the school had rules in place. The taxi pulled up and we jumped in. She held my hand in the back of the cab and chatted about the rugby and school stuff.

The driver dropped us off outside the pub. I paid him, and we headed in. Alison found us a table and I got the drinks, a pint of Belhaven 80 Shilling ale for me and a G&T for Alison.

We chatted as we looked at the menu. One of the waitresses took our order, and I went for the Gammon, egg, and chips. Alison went for the Caesar salad. We chatted about life and stuff as we waited for the food.

We had been chatting for around five minutes when the Professor came in with Miss Green. They walked up to the bar, and as they waited to get served, the Professor saw us. He nodded, and I returned the gesture. He said something into Miss Green’s ear, and she turned to look at us. She waved, and I returned the wave, as did Alison. I wondered if the Professor’s retirement had made them more open about their relationship.

Once they had been served, they wandered off to a quiet corner of the bar.

“Well, I wonder what they are doing out together?” Alison asked.

“They are an item everyone at school knows,” I told her.

“No, are you pulling my leg?” she said, “I thought she and Brian were an item.”

“Yes, it seems she is a greedy girl!” I said with a cheeky wink.

“It might just be rumours, I mean rumours are flying around all the time, I heard that you are seeing Natalie and that you and Jo were an item!” she said.

“Where did you hear that?” I asked. At the same time, I was thinking about how hard it was to keep secrets in a school environment. Well, at least she hadn’t mentioned Marcia or Isabella.

“There was some chat about you and Natalie in the staff room last week,” Alison said, “They will all be surprised when we announce that we are an item, won’t they?”

Here we go again, I thought, maybe she was a bunny boiler. It was time to ditch her as soon as possible. Yes, the sex was good, but this was all getting too much for me.

I nodded, and at the same time, I was saved from having to say anything by a waitress coming over with our food. We tucked into the food, and all I could think about was when we had become an item and how to get out of this situation.

I moved the chat on, and we started to talk about the media club and the work they had done around the matches on Saturday. I had seen some of the pictures they had taken, which had been posted on Facebook, Twitter, and the school’s own website. She told me she was working on my clips, and then she would edit the match for the school library.