Chapter 12
The longer that Gail thought about her rebuff of Jimmy, the more rattled she became.
Every time she saw the young man, she thought about the beautiful sex experience they had enjoyed together, and she wanted badly to engage in sex with him again. But her fears overrode her desires, and as a result she did her best to steer clear of him.
Even though Jimmy was highly frustrated, he kept his cool at school, realizing that he could get both himself and Gail in a good deal of difficulty if the truth ever came to light.
Weeks later, Gail was summoned to Dave Clark's office for her first evaluation. The principal would reveal to her how she had been evaluated by both he and her peers.
She arrived in his office after school came to a close. As she entered the office, she felt a bit squeamish.
Gail felt as if she had been on a tightrope during the last few weeks, and she did not know how the evaluation would go.
"Please sit down, my dear." Dave Clark grinned. "I have something to tell you."
She sat down, feeling a little more at ease as a result of his smile.
"How do you like it here at Pearsall?" Clark asked.
"Oh, I like it fine. It's very challenging. Just the way I expected it to be."
"You mean things are going just about the way you figured they would ? "
"Oh yes. In just about that way."
"That's truly strange." Clark looked at her and said. "Generally when a new instructor teaches here, the first response after several weeks, a month, or whatever, is that it was either tougher or at least in some way a little bit different than what they had anticipated. But you really haven't found that to be the case?"
"Oh, I can't say I anticipated anything that has happened," Gail explained, "but I truly can say it was just about the way I expected."
"That is fascinating."
"You see, before I even decided to go into teaching, I asked a lot of questions of people that I knew. And it got to a point at times where I was bugging them, but I wanted to know about every facet of teaching. As a result of those inquiries, Dave, I came into this profession knowing quite a bit about it."
"You really are a perceptive young lady." Dave laughed. "It's good that you made all those inquiries. That way, as you say, you are fully aware of the circumstances involved. All too infrequently few people think like you. Generally a person will just go out and start something, whether it be a profession or whatever, without really having the proper facts. They have to learn just like any other job. But you have provided yourself with a little bit of preparation. That's good. That's very good."
"I hope that it has helped me a little on the job." She smiled. "I believe that it has."
"All I can say is that something has apparently helped you. My reports show that you have made a successful transition to teaching. As a matter-of-fact, it has been so smooth that some of the other faculty members have registered great surprise. They could hardly believe a person could make such a successful adjustment this fast, particularly with the complexities of today's educational picture, such as those I outlined to you your first day here."
"I'm very pleased at such an evaluation," Gail said.
"I haven't added my evaluation to it yet," Clark cautioned her. "But you have nothing to worry about on that score either. I'm very pleased over what you have done, my dear. You've been an excellent instructor, a good example to the students that you've been teaching."
"Why, thank you," Gail replied.
"I mean that sincerely. I have given you the highest possible evaluation that I could."
"I'm-flattered, Dave."
"As a matter-of-fact, why don't we go out and celebrate a little? There's a bar just down the street from here. I'd like to treat you to a cocktail. You see, my dear, sometimes after school is out, I stop there on my way home to have a drink or two. I'd like to treat you tonight."
"Gosh, that's real nice of you, Dave."
"You are really a comer, Gail. You've been doing such a brilliant job here. I'm impressed, very impressed."
"All I can say is that I'm overjoyed, Dave. I never thought that things would go quite this smoothly."
"Oh, so you didn't know precisely how things would come out?" he looked at her and laughed.
"Well, let's say I had certain ideas. But about the evaluations, I didn't even attempt to prejudge what they might be."
"That was very shrewd of you." Dave laughed. "If there's one thing that a teacher knows, it's that he can't very well determine what other teachers are going to be saying or thinking."
"That's exactly what I thought."
"Then you were right there, too." Dave smiled, getting up slowly from his chair.
They went out of Dave Clark's office together, walking down the hall and out the back door.
"That's my car over there," he pointed toward an LTD.
"I'll tell you what, Dave. I'll meet you at this place. My car is over there."
"That will be fine."
"Okay, why don't you just follow me?"
She got into her car and followed Dave Clark to the bar a few blocks away.
Gail did think it was a little strange that he was asking her to have a drink with him, although she was convinced that nothing improper would take place. If she had been a man, she wouldn't have thought anything of it, but being a woman, she was always on the look-out for anything out of the ordinary.
But Dave Clark was a completely proper man, and was a proven professional administrator. Actually, Gail would enjoy the idea of sitting down and having a drink with him. He was a fine man, and she admired him a great deal. She thought of him in the same terms that she thought of her father, who also had spent his life in an administrative capacity, working for a local government entity. He was very much like Dave, she couldn't help but think, always on top of the situation, always polite, always very proper.
She watched as Dave glided his car into the parking lot outside the bar, and she too swung her car into the same lot.
Dave was waiting for her at the entrance to the bar, and seconds later she was walking toward him, joining him at that front entrance.
"Shall we go inside?" he smiled.
"I don't see why not."
"I think that the occasion demands a little celebration," he laughed. "I always feel good when an instructor is doing a good job. You know, we're very much like parents with children. We want our teachers to succeed in the worst possible way, but still we wait till they've tested themselves under fire a little, otherwise we have no way of telling."
"I know what you mean." They walked into the bar and sat down at a booth toward the rear.
Seconds later a cocktail waitress materialized to take their order.
"I'll have a daiquiri," Gail said. "I'll have a vodka collins," Dave said. The drinks arrived moments later, and Dave looked toward Gail and smiled.
"This is a toast to you, Gail," he said, picking up the glass. "To you and to the hope that you enjoy the successful teaching career that you want so badly."
"I'll certainly drink to that," she smiled. "And thank you very much."
"You're quite welcome."
"You've been so kind to me at Pearsall."
"You deserved every bit of kindness. As I said your first day on the job, you're an idealist. It was just a question of whether your ideals would remain intact. Well, I see that they have, and I'm very happy about it."
Dave lifted the glass to his lips and took a long sip. Gail did the same thing with her glass.
They chatted amiably and finished the drink, after which Dave made a suggestion that surprised her.
"Let's have another round," he suggested.
"Oh, I should be getting back to the apartment. You know, I'm not that much of a drinker."
"Oh, come on now," Dave laughed. "Didn't we say that this was a special occasion?"
"Oh, I know it is. But, as I said, I'm not much of a drinker."
"Come on now and just have one more drink."
"Well, maybe just one more."
"That's the girl."
He lifted his right hand, motioning for the waitress to appear.
The waitress supplied them with another round of drinks, after which Dave loosened up a little more than before.
Now Gail was observing a different man emerging. With a little alcohol under his belt, and being away from the confines of school, Dave Clark was talking to Gail in a more familiar manner than he had previously.
Gone was the professional reserve that the principal had exemplified in conversations with her before. Now he was grinning a little more broadly each time that he said something, and Gail was becoming a little uncomfortable about the fact that he would lean over and place his hand on top of her hand every now and then.
Gail kept telling herself that it was only her vivid imagination, and that Dave wasn't really acting out of line. But the longer that they talked, the more it appeared that he was coming on like any one of a number of men had in her life.
"You're such a beautiful young woman, Gail,"
Dave said. "As a matter-of-fact, you remind me of the gal who was homecoming queen my senior year of college. You know, I was lucky enough to take that gorgeous gal to the homecoming dance, and I'll never forget it. Damned, I felt like I was ten feet tall. I think I was too, and didn't even have to wear elevator shoes."
Gail laughed uncomfortably, hoping to humor Dave along without encouraging him.
"I really like your looks, Gail," he said with more intensity than before. "As a matter-of-fact, you've got to be the best looking instructor we've ever had at Pearsall."
"I appreciate your saying that."
"It's the truth, baby. If you only knew what you do to me just getting to see you around the campus."
"I really think I'd better be going now, Dave," she said uncomfortably.
"Come on, now. I'm just starting to enjoy myself. We're not in a hurry."
"I am."
"Why the sudden hurry?"
"If you'll recall, I said that I wasn't behind the idea of having the second drink. I just decided to join you because that was what you wanted."
"I don't like the way you're acting, honey. You're getting too uptight. Now just sit back there and relax."
Dave was reaching out with his right hand, letting it move up and down her arm.
"Just relax, honey," he said.
"Dave, I don't like the looks of this thing."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not a pick-up. I'm a teacher at the school you're the principal of. I consented to have a drink with you because I thought that was all it was going to be. I don't like what's happening here."
"Oh, come on, now," he laughed. "You take things too seriously."
"I thought you said that was one of my virtues."
"It is when you're in the classroom, but not when you're out of it. As a matter-of-fact, as far as I'm concerned, it has become a vice."
"Oh no. I think I'm just starting to see things clearly."
"Look, honey, I'll admit it!" He leaned over and said softly. "I dig you, I dig you an awful lot. Now why don't we just go to a motel and have a little fun? I mean, we don't have to take any longer than an hour. I can get my satisfaction in that length of time."
"I don't believe what I'm hearing," Gail said in an astonished tone. "As a matter-of-fact, I'm going to just pretend I didn't hear that."
"Now what's getting you all bent out of shape?"
"Your whole manner, Dave. I came with perfectly sincere intentions, to have one drink with you and then leave. I'm not your mistress, Dave, I'm just a teacher who works at the school you're principal of."
"Nobody mentioned anything about a mistress," Dave said disgustedly. "I just want to have some fun."
"I'm really disappointed. Shall I resign from the faculty? "For what reason?"
"I was too much of a temptation for you."
"Hell no," Dave snapped. "I just wanted to have a little fun with you. You're such a beautiful gal, and I think that in time you could adjust to me. I don't get the kind of action from my wife that I like. I like a little extra-curricular sex from a beautiful young girl. We could handle things very discreetly so that nobody else would know. Believe me, baby, I have a lot to lose being discovered. But if nobody tells anything, then no harm can be done, can it?"
"I don't want to even talk about this."
"Come on now, honey. Just relax."
Gail quickly got up from the table and began to walk toward the door.
"Come on now, don't walk out on me like that," Dave said, shaking his head sadly.
"I'm sorry, Dave, but I can't take any more," Gail replied.
She noticed her whole body was shaking by the time she got back into the parking lot.
Gail remembered having those same feelings when her relationship with Jimmy had come to a tragic end.
As she got into the car and began to drive to her apartment, she couldn't help but feel a tremendous measure of sadness. After all, she had had a profound admiration for Dave, and now that he had made a blunt pass at her, she had completely lost her respect for him.
What hurt the most was the way he had come on so fast, taking it for granted that she would go to bed with him.
If there was one thing that insulted Gail, it was being construed as an easy mark, particularly by a man like Dave whom she had had a high admiration for.
She kept thinking about how tragic it was to have a man throw a pass at her in the blunt fashion that Dave had. The thought continued haunting her all during the ride home.