“What exactly does one do during a sick day?” she asked, looking adorably confused.
“Well,” Reed said, brushing her hair back over her ear, “normally you’d spend the day sipping ginger ale and watching bad daytime television, but since we’re not actually sick, we can do whatever we want.”
“I see,” she murmured, looking thoughtful as she considered his words.
“When’s the last time you took a sick day?” he asked, watching as the furry little bastard that had attacked his feet all night jumped back onto the bed and curled up on the pillow Joey only used when she was reading and narrowed his eyes on Reed.
“I’ve never taken a sick day,” she said, making him frown as she reached over to pet the little bastard that he affectionately called, “Asshole” whenever she wasn’t around.
“Seriously?”
Nodding, she said, “Perfect attendance.”
“That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said, smiling when she mumbled, “I know.”
“Okay, then what do you want to do today?” he asked as he leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose.
“Could we sleep in?” she asked, worrying her bottom lip.
“Yes.”
“Have a late breakfast in bed?”
“I think that could be arranged,” he said, chuckling.
“And perhaps if there’s time, we could have sex?” she asked, looking so damn hopeful that all he could do was groan as he rolled her over onto her back and settled between her legs.
---
Wednesday
“The alarm’s going off.”
“I know,” she said, making sure to add a sniffle followed by a slight cough because she didn’t want to overdo it.
“Is everything okay?” the man that she’d spent an amazing day in bed with yesterday asked as he pulled her more tightly against him.
“Yes,” sniffle, cough, sniffle, “everything’s fine.”
“Are you sure?” he asked as he kissed her shoulder.
Cough.
“Positive.”
Sniffle, sniffle.
“Are you coming down with something, baby?” he asked as brushed her hair aside so that he could kiss the side of her neck.
Sniffle.
Cough.
“I might be,” Joey said, following that up with another sniffle.
“Do you want to call in sick?” Reed asked as he slid his hand down to her hip.
Sniffle. “I might have to,” she said, with a small cough that threatened to turn into a moan when he used his hold on her hip to pull her back and-
“We really might,” he said as he slid inside her and she closed her eyes on a sigh, and after a slight pause and a sniffle, because she didn’t want him thinking that she was faking it or anything.
---
Thursday
“I’m sorry to call you so early, Mr. Bradford, but I have Dr. Lawson on the other line, and I’m afraid she’s still not feeling very well,” Mrs. MacArthur said, making Reed turn around and head upstairs when a faint “Meow” caught his attention.
“I see,” he murmured as he turned back around and headed towards the kitchen.
“I wasn’t sure what the policy was for Dr. Lawson, but since you normally like to be notified when staff is out for more than two days, I thought that it would be for the best if I called.”
“That’s fine,” he said, coming to a stop in front of the hallway closet when he heard what sounded suspiciously like, “Shhhhhh.”
“You know what,” Reed said as he opened the closet door and found Joey, looking guilty as hell, kneeling on the floor with her cellphone in one hand and the furry little bastard in the other, “I meant to call you sooner, but I’m afraid that I’m not going to be able to come in today.”
“Oh, dear, I hope everything’s okay,” Mrs. MacArthur said, sounding worried as Reed stepped into the closet and waited for the cat to make his escape before he closed the door behind him.
“Everything’s fine,” he promised her as he watched the small woman that was definitely going to drive him crazy reach up and pull his zipper down.
“Do you think you’ll be in tomorrow?” she asked as he was forced to slap a hand against the wall when Joey wrapped her hand around him and-
“No, I’m afraid I’ll be out tomorrow as well,” he managed to get out as he watched Joey pull back and-
“And just in case, you might want to find a sub for Dr. Lawson tomorrow,” he managed to get out before he was forced to hang up the phone and grab onto the doorframe when Joey wrapped her hand back around him and showed him the benefits of taking another day off.
---
Friday
“What are you reading?”
“I’m not really sure,” she said, trying to make sense of the words in front of her as Reed slowly kissed his way up her spine.
“Sounds like a great book,” Reed said, chuckling as he kissed his way up to her neck.
“It is. It really is,” she readily agreed only to moan when he settled between her legs so that the very large appendage that she’d become well acquainted with over the past month and a half, brushed against her bottom.
“It looks it,” he said softly as he turned his head so that he could kiss her as he slowly ground the aforementioned appendage against her bottom and made her realize that she had plenty of time to read whatever this was later.
Much later.
Chapter 42
“This just isn’t going to work for me,” the woman that was quickly destroying what was left of his will to live said as he sat there, rubbing his temple as he willed the headache that had started seven interviews ago to go away.
“What’s not going to work?” Reed asked, immediately regretting the question as he dropped his hands away and sat back so that he could search his desk for something to get rid of this headache.
“This schedule,” the woman barely out of college said, not bothering to look up from her phone as she continued texting.
“What’s wrong with the schedule?” he absently asked as he searched his desk, hoping to find some Advil only to remember that he’d taken the last Advil after last month’s school board meeting.
“Well, for starters, it starts at seven-thirty in the morning,” she said with a heavy sigh as she shook her head with disgust while he shifted his attention to finding something, anything, with caffeine because there was no way in hell that he was going to survive this without caffeine.
“That’s when school starts,” he said, grabbing his bag with the hope that Joey packed a soda with his lunch today only to add killing the little bastard to his list when he found a sticky note with the word “Dibs” written across it sitting at the bottom of his empty lunch bag.
“I really can’t be expected to be able to teach that early,” she said with another sad shake of her head as she continued texting.
“And why’s that?” he asked, deciding to grab something from the cafeteria only to sigh when he saw what time it was and resigned himself to hitting the teacher’s lounge after the next interview instead.
“Because I won’t be able to function on less than nine hours of sleep,” the reason that he was starting to lose faith in humanity said.
“We start at seven,” he said, seriously tempted to let the school board handle the interviews only with his luck they’d end up hiring someone like the woman gawking at him.
“Seven?” she asked, only to snort in disgust as she furiously texted something on her phone.
“We start the morning meeting at seven,” he said as he shoved his bag aside and sat back in his chair with a sigh.
“Is this negotiable?” she said, shaking her head in disgust as she continued texting.
“No.”
“Then maybe we could talk about this salary?” she mumbled distractedly as she stopped texting to read something only to shake her head with a sigh and started texting again.