The No Sex Clause Read Free Page A

the sidewalk when you asked me to watch your motorbike while you popped into the 7/11 to buy cigarettes…”
    He wagged his finger. “Still that same old sense of humour, eh? Always love that in a girl.”
    And before she knew it she was sitting at close quarters – very close quarters – with the star football captain of her graduating year, his hard thighs jammed against hers and his muscular arm encircling her in ways she’d always dreamed of. Anna let herself go for a moment, let herself slide back in time to when she was 18 and Joey Henderson was her whole world. And his whole world was the homecoming queen and his buddies on the football team.
    Just then the school principal clapped his hands for silence. A low groan slithered around the room - was old Hawkbeak going to make one of his interminable speeches?
    Anna looked on with amazement - yes, this was the same Mr Hawkins - the one who’d ruled Knotting Grove High with a rod of iron when she was a teenager. Of course, the iron rod had generally landed on the backs of misfits like Anna, not on the cool kids, the valuable kids. Kids like beautiful Lindy whose Mom was on the school board, or Joey who was a shoo-in for a football scholarship….
    She was so caught up in a disturbing reverie of the past that she startled when she heard her name called. “Anna Findlay - now don’t be shy, girl. Come on up to the podium.” It was Hawkbeak. His voice dripped a combination of false humility and patronization, and Anna’s stomach clenched. The last time he’d called her into his office, his voice had dripped contempt as he’d accused her of some misdeed someone else had committed and fingered her for the rap…
    “Go on, don’t keep old Hawkbeak waiting,” Joey said, pulling her to a feet and scooting her forward with a hand a little too firmly cupping her butt. The touch started a flood of color rising in her cheeks, and she desperately tried to stem the tide and resume the cool, dignified, above-it-all manner she’d been determined to pull off.
    She cast a glance around for her escort, hoping for a last minute rescue, but the jerk was standing over by the makeshift bar, half hidden under streamers and a floppy banner upon which Welcome, Class of 99! was scrawled in shiny sparkles. Something lurched inside her chest as she saw he was deep in conversation with a predatory looking beauty - red haired, dark eyed Maria Wilson.
    Homecoming Queen, class of ‘99. Ringleader of one of the greatest humiliations in Anna’s life. I’d like to go over there and tip a drink all over her and her ‘enhanced’ boobs! And then yes, I’d slap the idiotic grin off MY escort’s face….
    Seeing Bob pander to her arch enemy made something deep in her chest quiver with hurt. I wish I’d never come here…Damn Alex! Damn Bob - and double damn Maria Wilson and her friends…
    “She always was a shy one - who’d have thought she’d write a bestselling book? Friends and former students of Knotting Grove High, I give you our own, Anna Findlay!” Hawkbeak’s voice continued to grate through the sound system.
    Anna heard muffled sniggers, but a few people clapped as she climbed the stage and walked toward the podium. Sweat was pooling below her breasts. The auditorium was too loud, and the lights too bright but thankfully, she could see nothing from the podium but darkness in the auditorium below.
    “Thank you for the welcome, Mr Hawkins,” she said, forcing herself into her professional persona. Her voice grew stronger as she continued: “I’m one of those students who always said she would never return to this school, even for a reunion. School was not good to me - some of my fellow classmates were snobs and bullies.” Anna enjoyed the muted gasps which emerged from somewhere out in the blind darkness in front of her.
    “But for that, I have to thank them. Because their loser behaviour made me want to be something more, made me determined to rise above the petty