The word had spread like wildfire once she started hooking kids up right and left. Her best advertising was all the happy couples roaming the halls holding hands and stealing kisses. But she had checked with the supreme authority on all things school related, Tara Reynolds, and she had told her that there was nothing the school could do, just as long as she didn’t disrupt classes or do any soliciting on school grounds. Only problem was, kids didn’t wait until they were off school grounds most times to hand over their money and make their requests. Janet braced herself. She may very well be doing time in detention for a good long time or perhaps even suspension.
“Janet, I don’t know what to say?” he finally said after a few tense minutes while she thought of how to get out of this.
She abruptly stood up and started back-peddling. “I’m not disrupting any classes, Mr. McIntyre. I swear. You can ask all my teachers. I never talk business while lessons are going on and---” She stopped mid-sentence when he enfolded her in his arms and gave her a warm hug. She knew that was definitely against school rules.
As if reading her mind he mumbled in an emotion filled voice, “School rules be damned.”
Stunned, Janet stood stiffly. What in the world was going on? “Uh, does this mean I’m kicked out of school and you feel bad about doing it?” she asked, utterly confused.
He chuckled and shook his head as he pulled away from her still misty eyed. “You made a miracle come true for me, Janet. I never thought I could find someone as good as my wife, Whitney. I never would have thought about Kimberly if it hadn’t been for you opening my eyes. My kids love her, Janet. I love her and best of all she loves us. We haven’t been so happy in so long but now, because of you, we are. I have something for you,” he said excitedly.
He then went to his desk and opened the top drawer pulling out an ivory colored envelope addressed to her in golden ink. She took it from him, her large eyes wide in astonishment as she guessed what it must contain.
“You and Mrs. Palmer? You’re getting married?” she exclaimed happily. “Omigosh, that’s great!”
“It is,” he replied a bit sheepishly. “What can I do to repay you?”
“Just to see you and Mrs. Palmer happy is payment enough but do remember this if I ever get in trouble,” she said brightly.
“Oh, I do have something else for you,” he said pulling out his wallet. He handed her a fifty dollar bill.
“What’s this for?” she asked confusedly.
“Isn’t that the going rate for your Yenta services?” he said grinning broadly.
“No, it’s just ten but you and Miss Kim are free of charge,” she said giggling delightedly. “So, you know about my Yenta stuff?”
“It’s all over the school. You know you can’t keep anything a secret in this place,” he retorted with a shrug. “But take it. I owe it to you, much more if truth be told. How much is eternal bliss worth?”
She giggled but shook her head adamantly. “I didn’t have my Yenta business up and running then. You were just practice. I am so happy for you, Mr. McIntyre. I’ll see you at the wedding.”
“I think Kimberly’s invited half the school. I don’t know where we’ll hold the reception with all these people but there you go. That’s the price for eternal bliss, I guess.”
“I’ll see if I can come up with something,” Janet said thoughtfully.
He raised his eyebrows. “Is that part of the Yenta service?” he asked jokingly.
“I may branch out,” she retorted with a defiant flip of her hand and left.
“Ms. Fummel, could you put that lap top away, please? Class has begun.” Mr. Thorton, the English teacher, said loudly. She swiftly came back to the present.
“But I take notes for the class on this. It’s my notebook...get it? Note book. I think that’s why they call it that,” she answered brightly. She had not really been taking down notes. Instead she had been matching up her clientele but now she quickly switched this off to get to English and the Shakespear sonnet they were cruelly dissecting. It was bad enough to hear the whining of an ancient poet about his lost love but to have to tear the poem apart word for word only made her wish she had been around to make a match for the old bard. It might have saved herself from listening to this drivel.
“I see, well then you won’t mind reading and explaining the next line for us,” Mr. Thorton said sternly.
She was stuck. She had not a clue where they were in the poem until a voice behind her whispered “Oh, no, it is an ever fixed mark....” She quickly found it and read without missing a beat.
At the end of the class she turned around to thank her savior and found a rather smug-looking guy gazing at her from dark, dancing eyes. She somehow simultaneously found them familiar and foreign. She stared back at him fascinated. He was very cute with black curly hair both neat and in charming disarray at the same time. His eyelashes too were curly and thick and framed his eyes perfectly making him look ready for both a joke and serious talk. He had a sensuous mouth but she could imagine any minute a smirk emerging. He was a total contradiction, this guy.
“Thanks for the life-preserver. I owe you one. Here,” she said handing him her card. “Half off just cuz you’re an okay guy,” she said sweetly.
He smirked and she could have sworn she had seen that smile before. “And what makes you think I need this?” he asked sounding amused.
“I don’t, but one can never tell. You can give it to a friend. Whatever,” she said dismissively. She got up and left the classroom with the boy following close behind.
“You know, I could help you with this entrepreneurial endeavor of yours. I feel compelled to help a fellow small business owner,” he said matching her quick steps easily with his long strides.
“Uh, I don’t mean to be rude, but do I know you?” she said caustically.
“You should, I’ve been sitting behind you in English all year but besides that you just gave me your card, remember?” he replied readily.
“Doesn’t mean I know you,” she countered belligerently as she stopped at her locker and much to her consternation this person did too. He leaned on them as he stared at her looking thoroughly amused.
“May I help you?” she asked frowning at him.
“Actually, it is I that could help you,” he told her calmly. “You may think you are doing well but you could be doing so much better. I could set up a website for you and with just a few minor adjustments to your almost flawless system you could be--”
She bristled. “Almost flawless? I only just started and I’ve already amassed several hundred dollars and have numerous happy clients with incredible word-of-mouth advertising,” she informed this pompous ass.
He merely smirked. “And you could have double that if you raised your initial fee to twenty dollars instead of cheapening your service by making it only ten. It’s what the market will bare. You obviously are good at what you do so people will pay twenty and I dare say even upwards of fifty for those that are truly desperate.”
“I don’t want to take advantage of them. They’re pathetic enough as it is. Besides, some of these kids don’t have money to buy a stick of gum so at least I should offer this at a price accessible to all, not just the rich kids. But they usually can get their own dates what with all their fancy clothes and cars and stuff. I offer my services to the masses and I earn my dollar through quantity of clients. I hope that doesn’t offend you nor Donald Trump,” she added sarcastically.
He laughed which only annoyed her more. “I say you and I get together and discuss this further over dinner, Friday night about six. You might be surprised with all the helpful suggestions I can make. I want to go to that seafood restaurant down by the pier. It looks good and I know the owner. He’s a client of mine.”
“And what exactly do you do?” she asked curiously, completely ignoring he had just asked her out on a date.
“Can’t you tell? I’m a computer nerd,” he retorted.
Janet raised an eyebrow and looked him up and down. He most certainly didn’t look the part. She could almost hear Jasmine’s description of this guy. “A yummy Stud-muffin supreme.”
She scoffed and said, “I very much doubt that. Try again.”
He laughed. “It’s true. I save people from themselves mostly. It’s quite amazing how easily you can ruin your computer with a mere click of a button. A deadly virus and your whole system goes down. I’d hate for that to happen to you. You have everything on your laptop, don’t you? Should have back up, just in case. I can help you with that, too,” he said arrogantly. He then pulled out a card from his back jeans pocket and handed it to her.
She stared up at him with a menacing expression on her face. “I very much doubt you can help me with anything. I have fire-walls, top notch security systems and there’s no way anything can happen to my laptop. I ain’t no idiot. I can work a computer,” she stated adamantly.
“Excellent. Then we’ll merely focus on your enterprise on Friday, at six. See you then,” he said giving her a devastating smile before turning and leaving.
“So, you want my services?” she called after him.
He turned around and continued walking backwards up the hallway and grinning. “We’ll see about that, Friday, at six.”
“What the heck does that mean?” she shouted to him but he had disappeared around a corner. She looked at the card she still held in her hand. It read:
Wes Sebastian, Esquire
Computer Genius and
Website designer supreme
Exterminator of bugs, viruses and human error
Don’t wait until you can’t reach me by email.
It may be too late by then.
Janet rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right, genius my foot. He doesn’t look anything like a nerd. He looks like a soccer player just like Troy. And we all know how bright Troy is. Probably doesn’t know a mouse from a mole,” she muttered to herself. She tossed the card to the bottom of her locker and slammed it shut. She didn’t take three steps before she was accosted.
“Janet, you are amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Becky Kilmer shouted gleefully. “Hank and I are going out on Friday and it’s all because of you. I am so excited! I wish there was something I could do for you.” She was almost jumping on the balls of her feet.
“You paid the fee and that’s all the thanks I need,” Janet said casually. The computer guy’s words came back to her unbidden. “It’s what the market will bear.”
“That’s just not enough. I could bake you some cookies or knit you a sweater or take you shopping, or I could take you out to a fancy dinner, something, anything! You got me Hank! I’ve loved him since forever and he always liked me, too, but we just never knew. That’s more than anyone’s ever done for me,” Becky said before hugging the stuffing out of Janet and quickly rushing off with a look of pure elation on her face.
“The things that thrill some people,” she mumbled as she pulled out her jacket, put it on and heading for the bus.
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