::Thanks so much to Niqqi_6 for editing <3::
Note: story contains nonconsentual themes.
*
My wife woke me up that morning by wrapping me in her arms and kissing me awake. I opened my eyes to find her nose just brushing against mine.
"Good morning, Mr. McPherson," she whispered to me.
I smiled back at her. "Good morning, Mrs. McPherson," I said grinning back. She ran her fingers through my short, curly brown hair as I yawned out, "What time is it?"
"Five forty-five," she said.
She's a beautiful woman. Brown eyes and chestnut hair. She kissed me deeply. Her mouth wandered down to my right ear where she nibbled gently on the lobe. She knows this never fails to turn me on.
"You're frisky this morning." She giggled and continued on my ear.
I pulled the white comforter over our heads and she didn't respond. Just bit slightly harder on my ear. "What's gotten into you, babe?" The ticking of the clock on the wall was all that I could hear above the sound of her quiet breath in my right ear. "Honey?" I asked again.
With her head hovering over my own holding up the blanket like a tent above us, her grin turned into a broad smile. "What is it?" I asked more seriously.
She took a moment and then said in a loving whisper, "I want a little girl." Her words were as delicate and as tender as though her tongue were the cradle and the idea the baby.
This is what she had said to me two years ago and for an instant that happy scene replayed in my mind. Everything was bright and perfect with her in her white lacy night gown and the light of the morning sun coming in through the window. However, at the time we lived in a small apartment in another part of town. Now that time has passed and we've saved up, the room is bigger than before and the entire house is ours. It's one story and smaller than I'd like for my wife and two-year-old Mason, but it's only our first home.
"Virginia," I whispered slowly, putting my hand on her thigh. "Don't you want to wait a while so we can settle in first? A month at least? We just moved in the day before yesterday, there's still a lot of work to do."
I spoke into her beaming face. Already she was sure that it was time to have another baby and no matter what reasonable points I could make for waiting, she wouldn't listen. So I stopped and looked at her for a long moment.
"Ok," I said at last. "I can't promise a girl though."
"It'll be a girl," she said. "I know it."
* * *
I was an English teacher at Eastside High School in Patterson, New Jersey. My first love was literature before I met Virginia and teaching is my passion. I had thought about writing books of my own but I was still waiting for inspiration to come. At that point in my life, teaching worked for me and I loved my kids. I think for the most part, they loved me too. Or at least they didn't harass me which I was told meant that they liked me. In fact, I was told by several of my kids that I was their favorite teacher.
Which I guess was simply because I could relate more to them. I was 34 so it hadn't been too long since I was in high school. I had my favorites, too. I tended to appreciate the class show-offs who spoke out of turn and clowned around for the rest of the class. It kept the tone of the room informal. And on more than one occasion I had caught wind of certain rumors of crushes and the public opinion that I was "the hottest teacher in school". Nonsense, but it was all in good fun. I never passed up an opportunity to laugh along with my students.
On one morning the class was suddenly overtaken by the sound of book bags being zipped up and chatter erupting just after the bell rang for class to be dismissed.
Over the noise I yelled, "And anyone who hasn't turned in their critical essay yet should do so as soon as possible so I can grade them over the weekend. You have until 3:15 today, so let's get those papers in!"
I stood behind my desk, shuffling my papers and straightening up for the teacher of the next class. Some of her students had already started taking their seats in the room. A boy with blonde hair and bright blue eyes came up to me just then.
"Hey, Mr. McPherson, I'm going out of town for the weekend and I was wondering if I could get my paper to you after the deadline."
Usually deadlines didn't concern me that much. I remembered hating deadlines in high school and in college, so I had made an informal vow to mylsef that I wouldn't be so strict about them with my own students. But I did want to get all my critical essays in before the end of that day so I could grade them over the weekend.
"Can you turn it in before you leave?" I asked.
"Well I'm leaving right after school today. My mom's picking me up and then we're driving to Wisconsin. I have it written up on my computer though," he said.
Matthew's demeanor was subservient talking to me one-on-one. Typically in class, he'd be one of the boys I'd have to ask to quiet down several times.
"Do you have it on disc with you or can you email it to me?" I asked. The next teacher came in and greeted me with a smile.