James sipped his coffee as his students filled the classroom for the first hour of his Monday morning. The sound of their chattering interrupted his effort to grade papers. He stacked up the pile of papers and put them into the drawer of his desk, then set his cell phone on top of them before he closed it. The students were mostly in their seats now, but a few stragglers were still up and talking to their friends.
"Matthew! Take a seat please," he said loudly to get the attention of one of the particularly rambunctious students. As the last few students took their seats, he started to try to get things moving. "Everyone, pass up your homework to the front so I can collect it."
James stood up and moved from row to row as his students handed up their homework. He gathered stacks of papers from the students in the front and brought them back to his desk, thumbing through them to make sure that everyone had turned in what was due.
BUZZ. James felt the vibration of his phone from inside the drawer but he ignored it. He started going through the day's lesson with his class for the first twenty minutes before he gave them an assignment to work on by themselves. He walked around for a few minutes after that, taking the time to help a few individuals who needed one-on-one attention to grasp the concepts.
By the time he took his seat at his desk again, there were only a few minutes left before the bell to signal the change of classes.
BUZZ. He felt his phone vibrate again from inside the drawer. BUZZ. BUZZ. It was going off in rapid succession. He normally tried not to use his phone in class but who would be texting him this much? Was something wrong with one of his parents or with Sophie? He considered it for a moment. He better check just to make sure it wasn't anything serious.
James discretely opened his drawer and slipped his phone out to make sure that everything was okay. His students would never let him hear the end of it if they saw him using his phone during class considering how strict he was about them using them. He looked at the notification but didn't recognize the phone number that had sent the most recent text. His worry was replaced with a different emotion when he opened the conversation though. There was already a string of texts in the group conversation that he had been added to, which explained the number of messages he had received.
The name attached to the first message was the only one he had on his phone, and seeing it made his stomach flip over violently. Richard. He looked around the classroom to make sure that the students were completely engrossed in their work before he started reading through the messages.
"James, we enjoyed having you at the poker game the other day and would love to have you back at the next one. This is the group text where we organize the games." Richard's text said. The scenes from the poker game raced across his mind. Sophie in that emerald silk dress that hugged her body so tightly. The way the men watched her strut around in her lingerie. The way she had sat in their laps one after another and then... He pushed it out of his mind and focused on the messages in front of him.
The next message was from a number he didn't have, but thankfully, Clarence included his name. "Welcome, James! -- Clarence"
"To be more honest, we mostly just bullshit here," yet another number started, "This is Hank, by the way. Glad Richard added you to the group, James."
"Arthur here. Don't get too excited though. The games usually aren't that memorable," another number added.
"Yeah Saturday was one for the fucking books alright," Hank agreed.
"I certainly enjoyed my time -- Clarence," Clarence said.
"You don't have to add your fucking name every time, Clarence, we've been over this," read the next answer from Hank.
"Hey James, Cliff. Clarence, we all saw how much you enjoyed it, but I'd say you still didn't enjoy it as much as Ben, lol," another number said. That must mean that the only other number in the chat was Ben, or Mr. Miller, as Sophie called him the other night. That memory sent a shiver through him. He hoped that the man was discrete because it could blow up their social lives. Thankfully Richard had promised he would handle it and Ben had as much to lose, if not more, than Sophie did if his daughter Nora ever found out about what happened.
"Speaking of, Richard you need to do whatever it takes to get that girl back at our next game," Arthur said. James' breath caught in his throat.
That caught him up on the most current message as there wasn't any more to scroll through. "Shit," James said under his breath as he waited to see what would come next. He stared at his phone, waiting. He looked around to make sure that nobody was up to any mischief when his phone made the familiar BUZZ. He looked at the message that had come through.
"I'll have to text her and see if I can convince her," Richard said. James felt his heart beating faster. He knew it would come up again but he hadn't expected it so soon. He and Sophie had barely had time to process what happened Saturday night and now he's reading messages about trying to convince his wife to do it all again. No doubt the men hoped that next time there wouldn't be a sudden end to the evening before they had their fun. BUZZ -- another message.
"If she needs to be convinced then I better do it," Hank's message read, "I bet I can sweet-talk her in no time."
"You're such an overconfident cunt, Hank," Cliff said back to Hank a few moments later. James tried to think about what he could say to join the conversation but he was having trouble thinking straight while the men talked about Sophie.
"Hell, I'll text her right now," Hank insisted. "Send me her number." James froze as he read Hank's brazen request for his wife's number. Surely Richard would ask him before...
Before he had time to finish his thoughts, another message interrupted him. Richard had sent his wife's number to the entire group text. Shit. Fuck. FUCK, he thought. He had no idea if the men would really text her but Hank didn't seem to lack confidence. How would Sophie react to getting texts from these men in the light of day though?
"Shit," James said under his breath again, louder this time though. One of the students looked over at him and he gestured at them to continue working on the assignment. They seemed to know he wasn't in the mood because they went straight back to their paper without a word. The messages just kept rolling in.
"Speaking of Hell, you don't have a chance in it with her," Cliff said in a follow up message.
"A little southern charm can go a long way," Hank answered, adding a wink at the end of the text. James felt his mouth go dry at the idea of this man trying to seduce Sophie, and he struggled to determine whether it was anxiety or desire.
