After the meeting.

When the meeting was adjourned a few minutes later, both Spencer and Darcie were set upon by well-wishers looking to congratulate the pair of them.

“I’m going to fucking **** you when you get home,” Darcie told Tony but her husband took it for good-natured posturing. Darcie could be rough around the edges but he genuinely thought forcing her to step out of her comfort zone and deal with a lot of people would be good for her.

To her credit, Loren Chapman was one of the first people to come over and wish Spencer good luck. “I’ll have everything ready to hand over to you by the middle of next week,” she said stiffly before leaving the assembly hall straight afterwards.

Spencer hadn’t been paying full attention until the moment he stood up but besides himself and Darcie, the board of the PTA was made up of, Belinda Laurie as secretary, Rita Vasquez as the treasurer and half a dozen other people in the committee that Spencer hadn’t heard of before. The Art Teacher Ashley Black was the assigned faculty liaison and Spencer’s favourite Britney was in charge of the school canteen.

Half an hour later as Spencer and Darcie were having after-meeting refreshments and they still hadn’t been left alone, Tony Collins came up to Spencer with an offer. “It looks like you two are going to be a while. If you like Spencer, I could take Amy with me now and she could spend the night with Kimberly? That way there’s no rush or anything and the girls can still get to bed on time.”

“That sounds fantastic Tony. Thank you,” Spencer said gratefully. If his nights were going to be taken up with PTA meetings now, he would have to look at getting a sitter for Amy occasionally.

“He just wanted to get out home and hide before I do. You better be sleeping in the spare room when I get home,” Darcie warned him before kissing her husband on the cheek and saying goodbye to the kids.

Another half an hour later when it still didn’t look like ending any time soon Spencer found Darcie rubbing the temples on her face. “I need a fucking drink,” she told him.

Spencer nodded me too.

Darcie shouted for everyone to shut up for a minute. “Anyone that wants to keep talking PTA business can meet back at McClaren’s in 15 minutes.”

There was a burst of general laughter at Darcie’s straight-shooting but it did the trick. People started to drift off. By the time Spencer arrived at the bar after driving Darcie there, the crowd had dwindled down to between 20 and 30 people.

Spencer was pleased to see Jasmine Hong working behind the bar when he walked in. She looked up when he arrived giving him a happy to see him smile.

Turning to Darcie, Spencer asked, “before anyone gets here, what will you have? My shout.”

Darcie shook her head at the offer of a drink. Spencer wasn’t going to get away with buying a single drink so cheaply. “Ah-uh. The new President picks up the entire tab.”

Darcie was correct. It only seemed right. He went to the counter where Jasmine was to grab them each a beer and to set up an account for the evening.

“What’s this? Another date already?” Jasmine teased him as she climbed up on some racking to be able to reach over the bar and hug him.

“No, worse than that. I’m the new President of the PTA,” Spencer informed Jasmine as he fished a credit card out of his wallet.

“Oh, well congratulations Mister President,” Jasmine laughed.

Spencer rolled his eyes. “There’s probably a bunch of people coming behind us. I’m going to need to set up a tab.”

“There goes my early night,” Jasmine shrugged, “just as long as they’re tippers.”

“Just add what’s right to the card and I’ll pick it up tomorrow,” Spencer told her as Jasmine started to pour their drinks.

The change of location worked another way in that it got people to stop talking about boring school stuff that could wait for a much more opportune time and everyone seemed to just want to have a nice time and enjoy each other’s company. The informal setting helping to relax both Spencer and Darcie as Spencer slowly made his introductions to the people he hadn’t met before. Ashley Black had followed them to McClaren’s as her role as school liaison with Jessica Wolfe following to nominally keep her company as a fellow teacher. With Darcie Collins next to him, Spencer was able to avoid any further massages from the dark-skinned sensation.

When Jasmine called last drinks just before 10 o’clock Spencer was more than ready to go home and call it a night. Darcie wasn’t as keen to put the night to rest just yet.

“Did you want to take this back to your farmhouse?” She asked him when they had a fleeting moment to themselves. “The girls are with Tony and he said to come home late.”

“Does that mean what I think it does?” he asked. Spencer was more than surprised to hear Darcie suggesting what he thought she was so quickly after she had called it quits with him.

“Maybe I just want to get fucked by the new President. You know what they say about women and men in power.” Darcie was being incredibly forward.

Spencer was standing on the edge of the moral dilemma he’d been wrestling in the shower just a few days ago…

“Thank you, Darcie but no. I really can’t. I can give you a lift home and I’ll see you on the weekend for Kimberly's party?”

“That’s right. Your new girlfriend is coming,” Darcie said raising her eyebrows as she mentioned Danielle. “It’s fine. Thank you though, I think I’ll just walk home. It will give me a chance to cool off.”

Spencer said goodbye as Darcie left then and went to say farewell to Jasmine too. She was thinking whether 20-25% would be a good enough tip to put down for herself or should she go somewhere around 30-35% with Spencer’s card. With the bar shut off now, Jasmine came around the bar and was able to hop herself up to give Spencer a proper hug this time.

As she held Spencer, she told him, “give me a call this week. I enjoyed the other day. Maybe we could hang out for longer next time?”

Spencer nodded that he would. Jasmines petite Asian body was so small in his arms, he felt he could just pick her up and carry her off. Putting her back down, Spencer said goodnight to his old friend and beat a hasty exit before anyone else could suggest something to him.

On the very last road, before he turned into his driveway, Spencer let out a tired groan of annoyance as flashing red and blue lights lit up in his rear-view mirror. Deputy Malone lying in wait for him outside his property was the very last thing he needed in his life. As he pulled over Spencer was relieved when it was her partner Deputy Stockton and a twenty-minute field sobriety test he made Spencer do.

{Author’s Note: I was have a discussion with another writer on here who suggested my chapters might be too long and I could be missing out on likes due to the attention span of reader not being able to concentrate through big walls of text. This chapter was just a little shorter than normal at around 1200 words to see if people like it more. Would you all prefer shorter punchier chapters like this one {≈1000 words}, ones around the normal length like before {≈2000 words} or should I even push it out further {≈3000= words}?

Dacia xoxo}