Really Something Good(Sean)

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean smiled and then lifted his coffee mug as though in toast. “I’ve yet to be disappointed with any pie from here, so I’d say that your best is something to aspire to.” There was a reason that this diner was among his favorite places to eat.

“Good,” the telepath said, offering her another smile. He could hear the relief in her tone, and so he was happy for her that her shift would end soon. Surely, she could use the break and would appreciate going home.

He took another bite of pie, chewed thoroughly and then swallowed before answering, as he never spoke with a full mouth. He offered a theatrical but good-natured sigh. “You know how it is.” This was true, as Angie was an alumna of Hammel and had spent several years there. She knew precisely how the students could behave, even if, as someone who had never worked there, she had been shielded from the additional pressures of staffing. “We have only a month before graduation, and so everything is getting hectic. Between the seniors and then the summer recess.”

Finals were on the horizon. The telepath had to do his final evaluations. He also had to write new scripts over the next few weeks, to make sure that every student who needed medication would have enough to see them through the summer recess.

[Deleted]

Sean’s compliments were enough have Angie’s already beaming smile become positively blinding. So innocent a phrase as it was, but it was sometimes the smallest phrases which made all the difference and picked up a person from a bad day. In this case, it was her bad day, though Angie would never go as far as to call any of her days bad. Especially not when compared to a typical “bad day” for her back in Savannah.

Sean knew well about those days. After all, it was hard to hide much from a telepath. And Angie found she didn’t half mind it, though they were things she’d use every trick in the book to avoid talking about. Life was much happier when she didn’t have to think about those days.

“Sounds like you have quite a bit on your plate, not a lick of it being as delightful as pie, I’d say.” Children would be children, however. She remembered well of her own time at Hammel and how hectic things could get. She hardly thought that much had changed in the 12 years since she graduated herself. Angie gave him another smile. “You’re going to do fine,” she encouraged the older man. “You always do.” Though this impression might half be because Angie idolized the doctor just the tiniest bit. Was it terrible that she’d had a girlish crush on him back in high school? And aged up a little more only made Sean more attractive to her….but she shouldn’t dwell on that. Angie was certain that Dr. Neville didn’t want such attention. Besides, he already had a partner, didn’t he?

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean nudged his dish in her direction, gesturing with his fork. “Would you like some?” He was perfectly capable of eating an entire slice of pie by himself, even with the coffee and the farro salad. However, if she wanted to share in the delicious treat – particularly since she had baked it – he was more than willing to share with her.

He then smiled at the compliment. “Thank you.” In truth, he wasn’t particularly worried about his role in the end of the semester; he had done twenty-three of them before, and he could do a twenty-fourth. Still, it proved chaotic at Hammel, with the final exams, with the students preparing for college, graduation, work, travel, occasional military service, and the great unknown that they collectively called adulthood. He simply had to help prepare the students emotionally, before graduation and summer recess.

At which point they would hit the ground running with his annual sexual education lecture.

He heard her thoughts about her former schoolgirl crush, which came as no surprise to him. He had been aware at the time, and he had done nothing to mention it and embarrass her, nor had he encouraged it. As with whatever few crushes that students had on him, he ignored them until they dissipated, as a matter of ethics and student personal privacy.

However, her thought provided a nice segue, and he sipped his coffee, before saying, “This weekend, if the weather is nice, Josh and I want to go sailing.”