This fic is dedicated to my guardian angel @storyofmychoices. Besides she's a wonderful a writer, she's an incredible human being whose kind and light are endless. I never could thank her enough for what she has been doing for me.
Dear Dani, I know you usually don't read Hunt's fics written by other authors, but I hope you accept this one.
I hope you enjoyed it 😊💕
Characters: Thomas Hunt, Miss Taylor (@storyofmychoices ), mentions to Jessica Massena (my RDC MC) and Matt Rodriguez.
Notes: English is not my first language. Please, excuse me any typos /or grammatical errors.
Special thanks to @alj4890 for be by beta reader.
Jessica Massena exclusive pregnancy photos - The most handsome Hollywood parents to be talk about the challenges of parenthood.
Thomas sighed and poured some more of the expensive scotch in the glass. He has no idea why he was wasting his time reading garbage press. He'll be the baby's godfather. He knew every detail about the issue. All the sacrifices she did to conceive...how the first months of nausea got her down. But now, she was radiant...healthy...happy...with Matt.
She had woken up his senses and melted his heart unlike any other woman in years. He never actually had confessed his feelings because it was clear like crystal whom her heart belonged to. For a while, it drove him crazy. Nowadays, he had made peace with his feelings and he came back to his old self. He also recognized that it was nothing more than a crush, a fever of an almost middle-aged man caused by her infectious joy. Jessica Massena was a closed chapter in his life.
He abandoned the magazine and refocused on his research. A tragic death of a beloved teacher in a shooting at a high school inspired him to approach the question of USA public schools’ problems. He had read tons of news and academic papers about it, but they were too theoretical. He needed to breath that air, step on those dirty floors, hear the sounds. So, he decided to visit some public schools in area.
Since he was invited to speak at a university conference in New York, Thomas decided to visit some schools there too.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Kids and teens. Many. Too many. It was a banal New York school. Perfect.
As he wandered through the corridors, he saw a girl crying, hidden in the corner of lockers. Thomas wanted to do something, but he didn't know what to do or even what to say to calm the girl down. He never had a good way with children.
While Thomas was still distressed in his dilemma, a brunette stopped her hurried march, stepped back, placed a giant coffee cup on the floor and knelt beside the girl.
She gently wiped the girl's tears away. Thomas couldn't hear clearly what they were talking about, but he noticed that the girl calmed down as the woman spoke to her and stroked her hair.
“After class, I promise I'll go with you to talk to the principal. They can't do that and get away with it!” the brunette promised hugging the girl tightly.
It was the last thing Thomas heard before the bell rings.
With confusion in the crowded corridors, Thomas lost sight of the girl and the brunette.
The school board recommended him to visit Miss Taylor's class, classroom no.51. It took a while, but he finally found the classroom. Before knocking on the door, Thomas suddenly felt nervous, with a knot in his stomach.
‘In the name of art, Thomas, in the name of art …' he murmured before knocking.
The door opened. Many pairs of expectant eyes looked back at him with curiosity. When the door opened a little more, it revealed the brunette he had seen with the girl.
His eyes fixed on her sweet chestnut for a moment, and, no matter how cliché and cheesy this may be, his heart literally skipped a beat. Thomas felt an inexplicable warmth come to his face. Fortunately, the beard would camouflage his rosy cheeks. Whatever happened in those seconds, it didn't seem to affect the brunette who looked away.
“Is this Miss Taylor’s class?”
“I have permission from school board to attend your class. I’m…”
“I know who you’re... please come in,” she smiled shyly, “I apologize for not having a seat for you ... the room is at its maximum capacity ... but if you want you can sit at my desk…”
“No way, Miss Taylor! Don’t worry about me. I am going to the back of the room. You won't even notice my presence. Thank you for having me.”
“Class, let me introduce you Mr. Hunt. He is a famous director…”
“We watched one of his movies a few weeks ago, didn't we, Miss Taylor?”
“Mr. Hunt, Miss Taylor is a huge a fan of you…she said she watched all your movies…”
Miss Taylor's cheeks changed to increasingly reddish tones.
“Kids let me finish, please…”
“Is it true that Jessica Massena blow you off?”
“Samantha don’t be nosy! I’m so sorry, Mr. Hunt…they’re well behaves kids. I'm sure this is the excitement speaking for them,”
“I'm not making anything up ... it's in all the magazines!” Samantha protested.
“Miss Taylor is single, and she already has a soft spot for you…You could ask her out!” another girl added.
“Children, you’re crossing the line ... one more inappropriate observation and you are grounded!”
“That’s okay, miss Taylor…they’re just kids.” Thomas said.
“Thank you for understanding, Mr. Hunt...As I was saying, Mr. Hunt will be here at school for some days and attend some classes for research proposals.”
“This is for a new movie?”
The students were even more excited.
It took some time for them to calm down, but little by little, Miss Taylor, in a sweet and serene voice, managed to calm them down and refocus their attention on her.
After correcting homework, Miss Taylor started her Math lesson. The way she explained it was truly remarkable…inspiring. She put in those numbers the same passion he had seen in the greatest actresses.
She was very affectionate with the students. One of them was having troubles in understanding an exercise. Miss Taylor explained it once, twice, three times ... always calmly and patiently.
“Very good! I knew you could do this.” Miss Taylor encouraged the student.
Jessica Massena was a consuming fire, but the brunette teacher was warming his soul, a kind of heat that settles on the skin, on the bones and makes us feel good and at peace.
From time to time, when she thought he wasn’t looking, Miss Taylor threw him a discreet shy look. When their eyes locked, she blushed, adjusted her hair nervously and looked away.
Thomas found himself completely mesmerized. In fact, he felt like he was in one of those cheesy movies where the main character is completely lost gazing at the girl, there is a pop romantic ballad playing in the background and the sun shines brighter.
He didn't notice time passing, delighted to hear and observe her. The bell woke him from the trance.
“Sorry again for the kids... and for and the indiscreet remarks.”
“No need to apologize. It's part of the children's charm ... at least that's what people say.”
“I hope you found our class useful for your research.”
“Yes...thank you for having me...”
There was an awkward silence for a few seconds. Whenever one looked, the other looked away.
“The pleasure was ours. If there is anything that kids or I can do for help...”
He barely heard her, captivated by her natural features. Her lips were two beautiful pink lines. Thomas had never thought of his life being enchanted by a nose, but Miss Taylor's nose was the cutest nose he had ever seen. The director was so distracted that he didn’t notice he was leaning against a desk, which, at some point, gave in to his weight, causing him to lose his balance.
She tried to grab his arm to hold him, but the force of gravity had no mercy and the director ended up falling on the floor dragging Miss Taylor with him who landed on top of him.
Just a couple of inches were separating their lips. “Kiss her!” a voiced shouted in a corner of his head, “Are you crazy, Thomas?” another inner voice replied, “You’ve only known her for a couple of hours ... What would she think of you?”
I must have hit my head very hard... his rational self thought.
“Oh Lord, I’m so sorry, Miss Taylor...Are you okay?”
“Yes...and you? I’m so sorry. I was trying help and my clumsiness got things worse like the usual…”
“No, it was all my fault, Miss Taylor.”
Her perfume. It was not like the expensive signature perfume the women who he usually crossed paths. Her hair smelled like honey and her perfume was soft with hints of flowers.
“Maybe we should get up?”
“Yes, of course, sorry.” Thomas babbled.
She got up first and held out her hand to help him. Thomas declined delicately. A gentleman must help the lady and not the other way around.
However, when he got up, he fell out of balance again, falling once more.
Miss Taylor smiled to avoid laughter.
“You can laugh. This is absolutely ridiculous,” Thomas said, allowing a smile to appear on his lips.
He rose from the ground with as much dignity as possible, shaking the dust and smoothing his blazer. Moved by the instinct of help, Miss Taylor helped him to clean up. At some moment, their fingers touched and grazed each other’s for some seconds. She blushed and took her hand from his arm.
“May I offer you to a coffee? I mean, offer a coffee to you…as an I’m sorry coffee,”
“You don’t have to do it, Mr. Hunt…”
“Just Thomas, please…and I insist…It’d be a pleasure for me.”
“Great! Do you recommend any place special?”
“Wait , I can’t…I’m sorry, I promised to help a student after classes…she really needs me today…I’m sorry…”
“She…your students are lucky to have you.”
Miss Taylor blushed. “I’m not that special…I just love what I do…I think you can understand me on that point…You used to be a professor too...and, you know how it is...When we love our job, we don’t just do it...we breathe it.”
Yes, he could understand that. And he was understanding that this he was feeling was something he shouldn’t ignore.
“I’ll come back tomorrow to Mr. Somerset’s classroom. Maybe, after classes tomorrow?”
Thomas gently grabbed her hand, taking it to his lips and planting a gentle kiss on it, “I’m counting the minutes. Have a lovely evening, Miss Taylor.”
He made his way out of the classroom, but not resisting to steal some glances of her along the way, which cost him a blow to the shin, courtesy of desk’s iron leg. When he threw a last glance at the doorway, she said:
“Danielle. My name is Danielle.”