Learning to Love

Chapter 5

Feeling refreshed, Kadence pulled on a pair of jeans with her black camisole under her favourite lace top. She dabbed on a quick puff of mineral powder over her face, mascara and a slick of lip gloss and made her way to find Dee sitting at the table flicking through one of the gloss magazines Amanda had crammed into her little car.

“Sorry about my nosiness but it’s been an age since I’ve been able to flick through a good bit of goss outside of Scarlett’s Rock.” Dee looked up with a smile and her eyes widened. “Va va voom, you’ll have all the men talking.” Dee winked at her and stood. “I love this fabric!”

Kadence blushed at the comment, the last thing she wanted was being noticed for all the wrong reasons. “My best friend, Amanda is a designer and made this little number for me,” she fingers the soft lace, “It’s my favourite piece of clothing.”

“How lovely, you’ll have to send my appreciation to Amanda,” Dee nodded at the top, “I’d love something like that.”

Kadence was about to offer for her to borrow it; but knew she could never part with it for fear of it being lot of damaged. Her mum always said to never lend to a friend, because that’s the fastest way to lose them.

“Right, well let’s make tracks before they send out a search party for us and find me in your wardrobe,” Dee laughed, and Kadence join in with her as they linked arms and walked out to Dearne’s little black car.

As they drove Dearne realised she’d forgot to let Kadence know about Sunday afternoon. “Oh, I forgot to tell you, Sunday mid-morning we have organised a meet the teacher session for one hour, so parents can drop the books off in the classroom and talk to you, so you don’t get ambushed your first day of school.”

“Absolutely, what a great idea.” Kadence agreed, “parents need confidence in the ones who will be watching over their pride and joy.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Dearne paused with her hand on the stereo volume dial and flicked a glance at Kadence, “Do you mind? I’m in love with this song at the moment.”

“Of course,” Kadence nodded, happily listening along to the rich tones but not recognising the country tune; as they continued the short distance to the local pub.

Walking through the door, it was everything she had expected and more. A stage with what appeared to be local talent setting up towards the back of the room, a mahogany bar stood pride of place in the middle with a wrap around bar top. The place gave off a dimly lit, intimate feeling and she was glad she hadn’t come in with Matt by her side or it would feel oddly personal and exposing.

Dearne spotted Mike, Matt and Bianca, already sitting at a table half way down the back of the close, close enough to hear the music but not too close that you couldn’t enjoy conversation with your company. Grabbing hold of Kadence’s hand, she half dragged her through the throngs of people, waving to the many locals as she passed by.

The first thing Kadence noticed when she arrived was Bianca shifting a little closer to Matt and leaning her body towards him, which seemed odd considering she was already in a relationship with Matt; threatened much? Never-the-less, she smiled at the group as Dee introduced her to Mike, Bianca and of course, she already knew Matt, then made Mike move so Kadence could sit on Matt’s other side, so she and Mike could sit together. Yeah, right, thought Kadence. Clearly Bianca was a viper and Dee wasn’t mean enough to expose her to the girls’ poisonous venom. She could already feel the heat of it from the short distance she currently sat away.

“So, Kadence, what brings a sophisticated girl like you, all the way down to Scarlett’s Rock?” Bianca ask, her voice dripping with disdain.

Kadence forced herself to remain calm and speak to her like any child who felt threatened they were going to lose their toy, “I’ve always wondered what it would be like living in a small, close-knit town, and when the position came up, I jumped on it before anyone else could get the chance.” Kadence smiled the last part at Dearne.

“And your boyfriend didn’t mind you just upping and leaving like that?” Bianca said baiting her for any sliver of information.

Kadence sat uncomfortable, not wanting to answer but not knowing a way around the question either, then a thought struck her, “Surprisingly, my mum didn’t seem all too keen on me spreading my wings, but ce la vie.” She shrugged.

Matt didn’t realise he was holding his breath and at the lack of answer regarding a boyfriend, he stood a little frustrated and unsatisfied, “Drinks anyone?”

“Oooh, yes please, Matty,” Bi practically purred and Kadence resisted rolling her eyes.

“Yup, I’ll take another,” Mike add.

“Maybe just one for me since I’m driving but we need something to celebrate Kadie’s arrival.” Dee smiled and all eyes turned around on her.

“Oh, I’ll just grab myself a glass of water in a sec,” Kadence returned looking at Matt, “I’m planning on heading over to the school early tomorrow to start setting up my room.” She looked at Dee. She knew she didn’t have to defend her decision but with Bianca sending daggers at her with her judgy eyes, she found herself spilling it out anyway.

Bianca scoffed, “Yeah, like there really that much you have to set up. Karen kept her room in tip top shape, I wish she never had to leave.”

Dearne kicked Bianca under the table and Matt chose that moment to excuse himself.

“Give it a rest Bi, you hated Karen from the moment she stepped into town.” Dee whispered to Bianca but Kadence heard her anyway and decided to excuse herself from the table so Dee could hopefully find some time to calm her friend down or give Matt a chance to get another drink in her, she wasn’t sure how that relationship had even panned out since he seemed so genuinely caring and she seemed like the devil incarnate, but she supposed opposites do attract and all that.

She tried to make an escape to the bathroom but felt someone hand grab onto her arm as she was passing; looking around she found those eagle eyes piercing her again, Edna.

“Hello Edna,” she smiled first at Edna then at the group of colourful women surrounding her.

“You must be Kadence,” the woman with the peacock blue hair jumped in with her arm outstretched.

Kadence reached out to shake the woman’s hand and felt herself being pulled down into the empty seat at their table. All Kadence could think was ‘Here w go.’

“Hello, yes I’m Kadence and I am the new Prep Teacher.” Kadence answered the question she knew was coming.

“How lovely, dear.” Peacock replied, when an internal conversation happened amongst the ladies drowning out what the peacock was saying.

“So sophisticated, I wonder if she’s married,” asked purple hair.

“No, dear, there’s no ring on her finger.” Another answered before Kadence could get a word in.

“Seems unusual, a pretty young thing like that, coming all the way out here.” Purple stated with a tisk.

“Could be looking for a man?”

“Or a woman,” purple side whispered with a laugh, when peacock smacked her hand on the table.

“Ladies, now really?” she tisked and the other women looked contrite, “Now, dear to stop this foolishness going any further and it spreading; are you a lesbian?”

Kadence was relieved she hadn’t just sucked in any drink or it would have sprayed all over the table. Did these women have no bounds? But like peacock suggested, best to just give them their answer and escape.

Thankfully before she could even open her mouth, Matt appeared behind her and cleared his throat, clearly having heard the conversation and she felt heat suddenly filling her cheeks.

“Excuse me ladies, would you mind if I interrupted your conversation and pulled Kadence away? We would like to order dinner and I don’t believe she’s had a chance to review the menu.” He smiled charmingly, and the women started clucking  and fussing that of course she should go and order dinner.

Matt placed his hand in the small of her back and she felt herself automatically stiffen, the only times Richard did that lately was to roughly shove her forward; but she quickly reminded herself this wasn’t Richard.

“Now there’s a lovely couple,” the two-troublemaking woman started again, “Oh, I agree, our Matt is mighty fine on the eyes. They’d make cute children.” “But what if she’s a lesbian?” the other whispered again and Kadence had had enough.

“To answer your question ladies, no I am not a lesbian, although I did dapple a little in college, but it didn’t cut the cake.” She scrunched up her nose and shook her head as though recalling a bad memory, “But I am also off the market. So, leave Bianca and Matt to their have their wonderful babies.” With that she turned on her heel and past a wide-eyed Matt as he stared after her. She probably just made a huge mistake and it wouldn’t do any good to make any enemies, but she’d said her piece and that was that.

Too lost in her own thoughts she didn’t hear Matt step in beside her until he placed his hand on her arm. “All good?” he said, concern in his eyes.

“Of course,” Kadence started but sagged a little under the weight of his gaze. “Not really, I should have just remained quiet, shouldn’t I?”

Matt laughed but sobered up at the look on her face, “Those women as harmless, but you did give them some juicy gossip for tomorrow morning about the dappling you did in high school.”

She palmed her hand to her face, mortified and Matt grabbed hold of her hand, removing it from her face. “The worst of it’s over now and the news will die faster than a cactus.” He said with a grin, “But the image many never leave my head.” He looked down to where their hands were still joined together, knowing he needed to let go but comforted by the fact she hadn’t shoved his hand away, small steps. Not wanting to cause any more gossip for her he reluctantly let her hand go and gestured for them to head back to the table to order.

As they arrived at the table the buzzer went off and Kadence frowned at Matt.

“Sorry we took a guess and ordered for you. It took a while to find you amongst the throngs of people and we knew Matt would be able to charm the old gals better than any of us here” Dee winked.

“Thank you,” Kadence whispered to Dee as the men carried back trays of meals.

“Hope you like meat,” Matt stated as he placed a giant rump steak in front of her, immediately making her mouth water.

“Now, this is what I call a meal!” Kadence exclaimed with eyes bulging at the shear portion size of the steak, chips and salad. She’d definitely have to take up running or something if she was staying here for the next eight months!