Janine; I had known her since she was a young teenager, just before I left teaching. She wasn't the brightest girl, or the prettiest, but she was honest, polite and seemed to enjoy my classes. Quiet, too, with an air about her that made her seem older than her years. After I moved on from my teaching job, I saw her around the community occasionally but there was no interaction beyond a smile or the odd 'hello'. Now, here she was, sitting opposite me in Costa Coffee, all grown up.
Actually, she didn't seem to have grown that much -- I'd say she was no more than 5' 1" or maybe 5' 2". She was still very, very slim, and wore her hair in the same long ponytail that I remembered. There was no evidence of a curvy figure, but at my age I had no right to be looking for one, so I decided to avoid being caught 'checking her out'.
I'd been in Costa for about two hours, working on my new book, when Janine appeared. I'd seen her there before but she'd always been with someone else -- usually people of her own age but sometimes with an older woman who I took to be her mum. Older? I laughed internally. Mum, if that's who she was, might have been forty; now I definitely feel old. Today, however, Janine was on her own. She'd ordered at the counter and then, to my surprise, brought her coffee to my table.
"Do you mind if I join you for a few minutes?"
"Of course not. How are you getting along?"
We made polite conversation. She told me about her job with a prestigious local hotel company. She asked what I'd been doing in the ten years since I left the school. She enquired about my wife and sympathised when I explained what had happened. She told me that she was still single -- no husband or boyfriend, no children.
"Husband? Children?" I said, with a little laugh. "I reckon you have plenty of time to think about husbands and children."
"Well, I'm twenty-two now. Mum was eighteen when I was born."
I let that hang in the air. If Mum was who I thought she was, she worked in one of the local pubs and she really did have curves. I'd sat at the bar and tried not to be caught ogling on more than one occasion. Janine waited to see if I would say something, but after a few seconds she continued.
"Dad's a fair bit older, of course. Nearly seventy now."
"Really?"
"Yes, he was mum's teacher. I reckon he'd get into trouble if it was now, but in those days apparently no-one noticed. They got together around about the time she left school and I came along soon after." I remained silent. "Were there any girls you fancied at school when you were teaching?"
"More than my life was worth," I said, truthfully. "For one thing, I was happily married to another teacher at the same school. For another thing, I'd have lost my career."
"But you left anyway."
"Yes, to go and train new teachers." Part of that, I reflected, involved explaining to young men and women about not getting involved with their students.
"I was really sad when you left. I used to like your lessons."
"That's nice to hear."
"I had a bit of a crush on you too."
That really did make me laugh, and one or two heads turned.
"Now you're definitely winding me up. There must have been younger, fitter teachers that you could have had a crush on before you got around to me."
"Younger, yes. Fitter, probably... but they had all those Year 11 airheads with impossibly big tits swarming around them. I liked you because of the way you treated people, not because of how you looked. You didn't seem to be perving over girls with big tits all the time for a start."
I could feel myself blushing -- thankfully, she couldn't read my thoughts about her mother -- so I decided to make a joke of it, and laughed.
"Well, I was properly trained -- no staring."
"Doesn't worry me -- I have nothing to stare at."
I said nothing, but still fell into the trap of looking down at Janine's chest. She was wearing a loose cotton blouse with buttons all the way down and, sure enough, there was no real evidence of a bust. I quickly looked up again. She was smiling.
"Right," she said, suddenly, "I must get on. I might come back in an hour or so. Will you still be here?"
"Probably."
"Ok. See you later then."
I sat in silence for a few minutes after she left. What was that all about? Pull yourself together you old fool, said a voice in my head -- you're forty years older than her for a start. She was just being polite and looking for someone to talk to. I ordered another flat white and got on with my work.
"Hello," said a now-familiar voice. "I'm back." Janine sat down opposite me and put a coffee cup on the table. "Did you miss me?"
"I've been a bit engrossed in my work," I replied, and it was true, but I smiled to let her know I was joking.
"I've been shopping. I bought a new top. Do you like it?" She struck a pose.
Oh, dear Lord! The new top was a denim crop top with six buttons. It was quite tight around her bosom -- for now I could see that she definitely had bosoms, albeit very small ones -- and exposed her midriff, which meant that I could now see a belly-button piercing, with a green gemstone of some kind. I forced myself to look up. Her eyes were twinkling. They, I noticed, were also green.
"It's ok," she said, "You are allowed to look. I'm twenty-one and you're not a teacher any more."
"I am, however, old enough to be your grandfather. I'll be sixty-two next birthday."
"Younger than my dad then."
"Not the point."
"You're missing the point. I want you to look. I always wanted you to look but I was just too young before, and you were married. Now things have changed."