Reaper's Hollow: The Complete Series

Chapter 7-1-2

“That’s great. I guess if I have any meetings like that coming up, someone will tell me?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “You’ll get a message on your calendar, and you can confirm your availability.”

“Cool.” He had a strange look on his face, and Ru wasn’t quite sure what was going on. He opened his mouth and then closed it.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, uh, can I talk to you in your room for a moment?” he asked.

“Sure,” Ru replied, wondering what this might be about. She walked into her classroom, proud that her students had cleaned up so nicely, and turned to face him. “What’s up?”

“Well, I was, uh, just wondering… if you’re not busy….”

“It’s Friday!” Candice shouted, sticking her head into Ru’s doorway. “Yeah!”

“Yeah!” Ru echoed, though not half as enthusiastically. She raised her fist in the air and pumped it a few times. Secretly, she hoped Candice would leave so Cutter could finish his sentence. What in the world was he going to ask her? It couldn’t be what she thought it was going to be when he’d first started the sentence—could it?

Candice invited herself in and began to talk about how difficult her class was this year. “I mean, I only have twenty-two, but I swear to God, they’re all the bad ones. It’s like having forty. And I’m constantly telling them to keep their hands to themselves, you know?”

Ru did know. She also knew Candice needed to get out. “Well, I actually have to hurry and get out of here today because I have… an appointment.”

“You do?” Candice asked, looking surprised.

Ru realized she couldn’t really lie to her because Candice knew everything. If she really had an appointment, she would’ve told her. “Yes… with my mom. I have to hurry home and call her. You know how she is.” She hated lying to her friend, and she hated using her mother as an excuse. But it might be the only way to get Candice out the door. And she really wanted to know what Cutter was about to ask her.

“Seriously?” Candice said, her voice squeaky. “That mother of yours. I swear to God, you’d been better off if you’d been adopted by a pack of wolves.” She started to walk toward the door.

Ru ignored her comment. Not many people knew she actually was adopted, but Candice did. She glanced at Cutter, and if the remark seemed odd to him, his face didn’t reveal it. “Have a great weekend, Candice,” she called as she stepped over to her desk and started gathering up her things, trying to make her exodus believable. She had planned on getting out the door quickly today, since they could leave as soon as the kids were gone on Fridays, but she wasn’t in quite the hurry she was pretending to be.

“You, too,” Candice called. “Come on, Cutter.”

“I’ll be right there,” he called, swiveling to look at her, though his hands were still shoved deep into the pockets of his khakis and he didn’t pick up either foot.

As soon as Candice was gone, Ru set her purse down on top of her desk. “I’m sorry. You were saying?”

“Don’t you have to go?” The way he asked the question let her know he was in on her ruse.

Shrugging, Ru said quietly, “She likes to talk about how awful her class is and how lucky I am that my kids are good. I really don’t need to hear it again.”

He chuckled. “I think your kids are good because you have routines and procedures in place, something the rest of us are still struggling with.”

“Thank you,” Ru said, emphatically. She crossed the room so she was standing a foot or so from him. The scent of his cologne wafted through the air. He smelled like sandalwood and the deep woods. It could’ve been intoxicating if she’d allowed herself to think about him as anything other than a friend—a good friend. “Anyway….” Was he ever going to finish his question?

“Right. So, uh, tomorrow night—are you busy? Do you want to have dinner or something?”

Ru felt her jaw drop open and realized she probably looked like an i***t. Every fiber of her being wanted to say yes, but he was a colleague. She couldn’t possibly go on a date with him.

“I mean, I have some things I’d like to talk to you about, and I don’t really think work is the best place for it.”

Her eyebrows shot up, and she could see his face morph, as if he wasn’t even sure what he’d just said.

“Not… I’m not… it doesn’t have to be a date. I just… wanted to get to know you better.”

Ru began to giggle. She couldn’t even imagine someone like Cutter asking her out, and now he was doing such an abysmal job of asking her—whatever he was asking her—she wasn’t sure what to say. “Uh, yeah. Of course,” Ru replied, nodding her head. “I don’t usually date coworkers, but then, until now they’ve pretty much all been women.” They both laughed at that. “But… I mean dinner and talking? Sure. I can do that. That sounds… good.” Now she was the one who sounded like a moron. She decided to close her mouth.

“Great,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I’ll call you in the morning and you can tell me what time and your address, okay?”

“Sure,” she replied. “Sounds good.”

“All right. Well, have a good night.” Cutter smiled at her, took two steps backward, spun, and headed out the door toward his own classroom as Ru called out that she hoped he had a nice evening, too.

Turning back to her desk, she couldn’t help but smile. No, it definitely wasn’t a date, but the idea of seeing Cutter outside of work, of spending the evening with him, was more than a little exciting.

“I thought you were leaving,” Candice said, walking back into the classroom.

Ru picked up her purse. “I am,” she replied.

“What is up with your face?” Candice stopped a foot away from her. “You look… happier than usual.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ru replied, pulling her keys out of her purse and picking up her lunchbox and a few other items off of her desk that needed to go home with her.

“Yes, you do,” Candice insisted. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Ru couldn’t hide her excitement, even though she was really trying.

“Is something going on with you and Cutter?” Candice’s voice was a sharp whisper, but Ru couldn’t help but shush her. His door was open, and so was hers. “Tell me everything!”

“No,” Ru replied, taking her friend by the arms. “He just asked me to have dinner with him tomorrow—to talk about a few things. It’s not a date or anything.”

“Oh, my God!” Candice squealed, and once again Ru found herself telling her friend to be quiet. “Seriously! Oh, I am so jealous of you right now!”

“It’s nothing,” Ru insisted. “Really, it’s not.”

“When? Where are you going?”

“I don’t know,” Ru admitted. “He said he’d call me tomorrow.”

“Well, I am definitely coming over to help you get ready for this. Girl, this could make or break you. He is totally hot, and you’ve got to rein him in.”

“You are ridiculous,” Ru replied, shaking her head. “It’s not a big deal.”

“It will be. When he falls in love with you.”

“All right, girl. I’ve got to go.”

“No, you don’t. You think I can’t tell when you’re lying to me?” Candice stood in front of her, her arms crossed.

“Well, I needed to get you out of here so he could finish asking me.” Ru was staring at her with wide eyes.

“Point taken,” Candice replied. “Okay. My room is a mess. I have to go clean it up before I can go.” She looked around Ru’s classroom. “Seriously, you have the best kids. It’s not fair.”

“I know,” Ru replied, following Candice to the door. “It’s because God loves me more than He loves you.”

“He must. Or Mrs. Long does, anyway. Talk to you tomorrow.” Candice stepped into her classroom, and Ru could see even from the hallway she wasn’t kidding; it was a mess.

“Take care,” Ru replied. She pondered the idea of sticking her head into Cutter’s classroom before she went out the door, but she’d already told him goodbye, and she didn’t want to give him a chance to change his mind. Despite Candice’s opinion, Ru knew this was not a date. She still wanted to have the opportunity to spend some time with him away from school and didn’t see the point in making herself seem any odder than she already was.

She walked out the door and her feet froze in place. Her car was not where she had parked it that morning. Rather than being parked in the first row, right next to the door, it was in the second row, four or five spots away. She looked down at the keys in her hand, back at her car, and then at the now unoccupied spot she was certain she’d parked in that morning. Before she could even think about what she was doing, she used her key card to re-access the building and flew down the hallway the few steps to Cutter’s classroom. His door was still open, and she rushed in, screeching to a halt in front of his desk.

“Hey, Ru. What’s up?” he asked. He had his phone in his hand and looked completely relaxed. “Something wrong?”

“How did you do that?” she asked. “That’s… impossible.”

“Do what?” he asked, setting his phone aside.

“Move my car.” She knew she was staring at him like he was an alien or some sort of a super powered freak, but she didn’t care at this point. She’d had suspicions all along that there was something… off about him. Fixing a copier or a cell phone was one thing, but this was a whole new level.

“What do you mean?” Cutter asked, leaning back in his chair and bringing his foot up to rest on his opposite knee. “I just… moved it. Like I said I would.”

“But I had the keys!” She raised them up for him to see.

“No, you didn’t,” Cutter replied, nonchalantly. “You gave them to me. In the hallway.”

“No, I didn’t.” What in the world? How could he even say that? “I had them in the meeting. I took my purse with me so I could try to find my lip gloss, and I saw them in my bag and thought it was too bad that you wouldn’t be able to move my car. I know I had them with me. The whole time.”

“Ru, I don’t know what you think you saw in your bag, but I had your keys. How else could I have moved your car?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, crossing her arms. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

He chuckled. “I think you’re tired.”

“I think you’re….” She stopped herself. She had no idea what he could be or how she had intended to finish that sentence. And since she’d been called a freak so many times for blowing up small appliances and starting electrical fires, she didn’t want to speak too soon. “I know I had my keys.”

“Okay,” he shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you, then.”

“Tell me you unlocked my car and started it without my keys.”

“How about we talk about this tomorrow—when there aren’t a bunch of our coworkers wandering around?” He looked at the door over her shoulder, and the sound of footsteps alerted her that there was at least one other teacher nearby.

With a sigh, Ru said, “Fine. But tell me I’m not crazy.”

Cutter smiled at her. “You’re not crazy, Ru. And I have a simple explanation for it, I promise. You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow. Okay?”

She nodded her head, still very unsure of what in the world might be going on. Spinning on her heel, she headed for the door, feeling a bit like a robot. Tomorrow evening couldn’t come soon enough. She needed to know Cutter’s secret; something told her once he revealed it to her, nothing would ever be the same.

As Ru remote started her car and unlocked it, she checked to make sure that it was fine—which it was. No signs of forced entry, not even a scratch. She slipped inside and stuck the key into the ignition. It turned over with no problem. Sitting in the car for a moment, she contemplated what Cutter had just said. Maybe they really were more alike than she’d ever even realized. Was he able to use whatever power she’d often felt coursing through her veins to start her car?

“That’s ridiculous,” Ru muttered, dropping her bags on the passenger seat and shifting into drive. She put her seatbelt on. “There must be a logical explanation.” As she began to pull out of her parking spot, she felt the logical world beginning to fade away. Maybe she’d been looking at things all wrong her entire life, and she wasn’t as alone as she thought she was.