Shit. I awoke from my comfy bed on a sleepy Sunday morning with my heart beating a hundred miles per hour. Shit shit shit, my car! I realized I never took care of my car last night. How am I supposed to get to work tomorrow?! I reached across my little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Kona, to my phone to check the time. It was 8:56 am. I needed to call the Auto place where the towing guy on the phone last night said they would take it.
“Hi this is Elizabeth Hulbert, my car was brought in last night, a 1992 Honda. Its pretty broken but I wanted to know if there was any way of being fixed?”
A young boy, sounding like a college freshman answered “Yeah, sorry about this but I really don’t think there is a good chance, I’m really sorry. My boss said he would put in your name at the used car dealership down the road because he felt bad. We will probably sell it for scraps and give you the pay.”
“Alright, thank you.” I was astonished. Now I had no car! I stumbled out of bed and into my kitchen, turning on my stove to cook a cheese omelet. For about 5 months now, it has been just Kona and I in this little studio apartment a couple of towns over from my school. It got lonely, but Kona and I kept busy. I walked over to my black couch from IKEA and plopped down with my omelet and coffee and began to grade my papers.
It was 5 when I finished the tests, and I totally forgot about my car situation. How was I supposed to get to work? I thought for a while, and the only person that I could think of for a ride was Jon. All my work friends lived 40 minutes away and my brother was on vacation with his wife and daughter. Swallowing my pride, I dialed Jon’s number. A young, deep voice answered almost immediately.
“Hey Jon it’s Liz”
“Hey!”
“Ok, so I was wondering if it was possible for you to drive me to work at 7 tomorrow morning, I know its lat-”
“Say no more, I guess your car couldn’t be fixed huh? Oh well, I will see you tomorrow”
“Thank you so much! I really appreciate it and i-”
“blah blah blah... stop thanking me, I’ll see you tomorrow morning!”
And with a click I ended the call, still smiling because I knew that I would get to see him tomorrow morning.

BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP ugh I hate mondays I thought as I rolled out of bed at 6 in the morning. I basically crawled into my closet looking for something comfy, but not something my students could make fun of. I was always that fashionable teacher that everyone liked, so I had to keep my appearances up. I threw on a Lily Pulitzer frilly top, a pair of dress pants (or teacher pants as everyone calls them) and some black flats and walked off to the bathroom. As I looked in the mirror I remembered I was seeing Jon in now 30 minutes. I quickly turned on my curling iron, made some pretty loose curls, added some makeup to my pale face. Before leaving I fed Kona, put a couple of Clif bars in my bag, grabbed a Chobani from the fridge and ran out the door when I heard a small honk from Jon’s BMW.
“Hey there, you look nice.” He said cheerfully as I slid into his car. “By the way, what time does your first period start?”
“8:30 why?”
“I want to buy you some coffee if that’s okay with you...” He trailed off.
“Yeah actually, coffee sounds great but I need to get there a little early in case any students need help or something.”
“That’s fine.”
We pulled into a Dunkin Donuts, my favorite place ever, and I told him my order and he ran inside. He was wearing a pale blue dress shirt and dress pants, and looked ridiculously hot doing so. KA-CHING went Jon’s phone and I couldn’t help but sneak a peek at the black iPhone he left in the ashtray in the car.
Eric: Dude, where are you? Practice starts in like 2 hours and we always get breakfast on Mondays!
I laughed at that, he mentioned at the diner that him and Eric Gelinas, another player for the Devils, were pretty close. I guess he forgot to cancel breakfast. Jon came out of Dunkin with two coffees and held the door for a very pregnant woman, he was so sweet! He strolled over to the car and opened the door, handed me the coffees, and started the engine.
“You got a text, I think.” I said concentrating on the delicious coffee. While he stopped at a red light, he read the text and laughed
“I think Eric is gonna get french toast by himself today.” I just nodded, not wanting him to know that I saw. “Pull in here, thank you so much for taking me, I really mean it! And thanks for the coffee, text me!”
“No problem and I certainly will!” I walked out of his car and into the high school. My classroom was a little down the hallway and I practically ran there, not wanting anyone to see me smiling non stop and my rosy cheeks.

Once I got settled into my room, and first period began, about half way though it my text sound went off. I felt like I was a high school student again because the whole class was looking at me. “Sorry guys one sec, finish taking the notes on the board!” I went over to my phone and saw a text from Jon

Jon: Hey get a lunch break over at that prison you call your work?
Me: Yes, it is at 12:45 and stop texting me or else the guards will catch me :)

I didn’t realize I was smiling at my phone until one of the students called my name- how embarrassing!- and I needed to continue my powerpoint on the civil war.

Notes

Thank you guys so much for reading! Love you all, please leave comments and ideas for the story below!