"You called him what?" Lima screeched over the crackly FaceTime connection all the way from Dubai.

It was eight am in the morning there and she was already up and at work with bundles of energy. Meanwhile, due to the time difference between Texas and Dubai, Natalia was winding down after a day of work.

"I called him a racist, okay," Natalia admitted to fresh peals of Lima's great guffawing laughs.

Lima was a pretty, overtly feminine woman but nothing about her laugh was cute and dainty, "Hold on, let me close my office door, the kids have Islamic studies class, I don't want to explain why I'm laughing like the devil himself."

"Lima!" Natalia shouted exasperated, "Can you sympathise with me, a little bit?"

"You have my sympathy," Lima said and then continued laughing until tears spilt from the corners of her eyes.

"Bitch, I'm gonna go to bed if you keep making fun of me," Natalia grumbled.

"Okay, okay," Lima cleared her throat, breathing in deeply, "I'm good now."

"Are you saying what he said wasn't lowkey racist?"

"It probably was, but you're in the South. Didn't they used to lynch people there not so long ago."

"Lima, come on, that's a stereotype. Austin is actually quite woke and hipster-y. It would out-hipster, Shoreditch." Natalia referenced an area in East London, where hipsters ran amok gentrifying and ruining everything from traditional East End curries to Yoga.

"You what? Swear down?" Lima asked incredulously, her boisterous laugh starting up again.

"I swear, Lima, Austin is so weird, even weirder than Dubai."

"Rah, I can't imagine that. So, tell me what happened after," Lima pressed.

"He snitched to the Head, grown man snitching, you know." Natalia's accent always became distinctively North London whenever she spoke to Lima.

Lima let out a noise of disgust in sympathy. "What did she say?"

"Nothing to me yet. But we've got a meeting tomorrow. All of us."

"Bitch, relax and don't call anyone the KKK just yet, it's literally your first week."

"I'll call it as I see it, I don't care." Natalia huffed.

"No doubt," Lima agreed. "Anyways, I gotta go the brats are done with class. I hope to Allah they got some divine guidance because I can't deal with them anymore."

In the morning, Natalia was once again sneaking around her own home and street. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realised his truck was gone and he must have left earlier for work than she had. She had no desire to run into him after their argument.

Who would have thought that Gabe Mercier was the school's football coach? It made no sense to her how she had missed that. He had picked her up from the airport, Natalia had assumed he was some sort of Uber driver or a friend of Ella's owing her a favour. That woman had an uncanny talent for making people do her bidding.

He had been at the staff barbecue, that should have been a signal to Natalia that he was the football coach or at least a member of the school faculty, she had missed that obvious clue. But he didn't look at all like a football coach.

Admittedly, Natalia had no idea what a football coach looked like, she could only compare him to the ageing PE teachers she had come across in the UK. Usually red-faced, wrinkly with an overhanging pouch, skinny legs with more varicose veins than a roadmap and prone to wearing ill-fitting sports clothes.

Gabe was the exact opposite of that. None of his clothes were ill-fitting. Yesterday, he had worn a perfectly fitting white polo embroidered with the school logo over his pecs and grey skinny fit joggers that clung to his well formed thighs and calves. She had no idea how she kept her composure, her anger probably had a lot to do with it but grey joggers were the weakness of women everywhere and she was no exception.

He was tall, looming over her, at over six feet with muscles that said he was no stranger to hard work but he also didn't live in the gym. Broad-shouldered, with sculpted biceps and thick arms. He had the type of physique that made Natalia feel small and fragile next to him; instead of voluptuous and 'too much' as one of her ex-boyfriends had put it.

She was of average height but with a curvy build. She had always struggled to feel feminine next to the men she was dating. Some men genuinely felt intimidated by her figure coupled with her outspoken and opinionated personality, but not Gabe. He had used his size to subtly assert himself and didn't back down from her accusations.

She didn't think he was a racist — well not entirely, Natalia was a firm believer that everyone had to actively unlearn their conscious biases in a society that was built on the supremacy of one skin colour over another. At the meeting today, she'd find out exactly what kind of attitude, Gabe and the school had towards unlearning biases.

As she pulled into the parking lot, Natalia cursed her luck. The last parking space was right next to a certain jewel green truck. 'Of course,' Natalia grumbled to herself.

Her first class of the day was with the same AP Biology class from yesterday. Nobody was late, and the clique of five athletic boys that had given her attitude, constant chatter and other low-level disruptions on her first day were behaving like angels. Like they had been taken over by alien beings who were wearing their bodies as a costume.

They took notes, engaged in class and even volunteered answers to their homework. With the class delinquents acting like prefects, the rest of the class fell in line and Natalia had one of the best lessons of her teaching career. Natalia was shook for lack of a better word.

She was going to journal and self-reflect about this lesson so she didn't forget the feeling because it genuinely didn't come around too often.

What surprised her, even more, was, after class when all five of the reformed delinquents lined up and one of them stepped forward to offer an apology on behalf of them all. Talking about how sorry they were and that arriving at her lesson on time was their responsibility and that they would do better.

Natalia had stood still and nodded mutely. Maybe they were possessed. Maybe she should call an Imam, Rabbi, Priest and a Pastor because something was not right with those boys.

After lunch during her free period, Natalia met Porsha, the guidance counsellor. They had met at the staff barbecue and had immediately hit it off in the magical way that Black people, particularly Black women did in all-white spaces. Porsha reminded her of all her South London girlfriends growing up; she oozed confidence and wasn't afraid to speak her mind no matter whose feathers that ruffled.

"Girl, let me tell you about the biology class I've just had..." Natalia started and relayed her experience.

"You telling me Shawn, Da'Vone and Julius had homework done for your class?" Porsha asked as equally shocked as Natalia had been.

"Yes, that's what I've been trying to tell you." Natalia waved her arms in emphasis.

"Do you think they're possessed? Because they have been getting away with not doing any homework since the football team was set up two years ago."

"I thought that too," Natalia laughed. But then her eyes narrowed and she stopped laughing abruptly, "Do you think it's a prank? Do you think he put them up to this?"

"Girl, you're spiralling right now. What you think this is? A high school Rom-Com?"

"Fair, you have a point," Natalia sniffed. "I still wouldn't put it past him."

"Anyway, don't you have that meeting now? You're gonna be late," Porsha reminded her.

"Oh shit, yes." Natalia jumped to her feet brushing crumbs off her pea-green satin shirt and black pencil skirt and fixing her hair. She ran the back of her hand over her face in a makeshift attempt to get rid of any shine on her face and checked her reflection on the glass of the cabinet door behind Porsha's desk.

"Uh-hmm." Porsha made that universal Black woman noise that could have a variety of meanings depending on the context.

"What?" Natalia asked feigning ignorance.

"Girl, bye." Porsha waved her off with a side-eye.

Natalia ignored her and her insinuations and went to the meeting in Ella's office. She had borrowed a pad and a pen from Porsha in case she wanted to document the minutes of the meeting depending on the tone and agenda.

He was sitting there already when she walked in, she was running later than she had thought. He was relaxed with his long legs splayed out and crossed at the ankles. He was dressed less casual today, in beige skinny fit chinos that were rolled up and white polo and trainers. He wore a chunky sports watch on his sizable wrist.

Natalia took a seat next to him, they were both facing Ella at her desk, who had an easy smile on her face. It wasn't going to be one of those meetings, Natalia realised with relief.

"Hey, Nat how are you doing?" Ella greeted.

"I'm quite alright, how are you?" Natalia replied, it couldn't hurt to turn up her Englishness either.

"Don't you sound so darling," Ella cried, clapping her hands, "Doesn't she, Gabe?"

Natalia gave him a sideways look from the corner of her eyes. He didn't say anything; just looked straight ahead at Ella. She couldn't make out his expression.

"So Natalia, I wanted to call this meeting because you had raised some concerns about the athletic programme's impact on your lessons, and rightly so. I want to work on establishing boundaries so that doesn't happen again. I also want to look at how both the athletic and academic programmes can support each other to help our students achieve their goals." Her rapid change from cute Southern Belle to Boss Bitch was scary and inspirational.

Natalia sat up and paid attention, "Okay, sounds good," Natalia agreed, "How can I help?"

"I want you and Gabe to work on putting together a strategy and proposal for a student-athlete programme. I can use this to get more funding for the athletic programme but also for enrichment activities that will help students with their college applications."

"That's fine by me," Natalia said and looked expectantly at Gabe.

"Me too," he said softly.

"Great, I'm going to leave this with you both but I need it before my next school district meeting."

With that, they were dismissed. Natalia walked out feeling like it had been a good, productive meeting. Ella had addressed her concerns and had come up with a viable solution that Natalia had been more than onboard with. She was passionate about widening participation and access to education, especially for underrepresented groups.

Natalia didn't have much to do, so she went home early after the school bell had gone for the end of the day. She headed to her car, groaning at the sight of the person entering their car right next to hers. The universe was definitely working against her today. She hoped if she held her breath, they could both ignore each other and be on their merry way.

"Natalia." She froze at the mention of her name. The syllables sounding foreign coming from him.

She turned towards him, not saying a word, conveying with her facial expression and her body language that he had her attention.

"When do you want to start working on the proposal?" he asked.

"Let's just get it out of the way. I'll send you a calendar invite for a meeting and we can discuss our approach then."

"Great. I also think it's a good idea for you to come to the game on Friday," Gabe said, opening his car door. He was halfway in as he waited for her answer.

"I'm not really one for sports," Natalia hedged.

"Really, you don't watch any sports?"

"Nope, and watching Arsenal doesn't count, that seems more like self-flagellation," Natalia wrinkled her nose at the mention of one of North-London's ever suffering football teams.

He laughed heartily at her joke, much to Natalia's surprise; green eyes shining with amusement and deep dimples on both sides of his cheeks showing.

Why had she never noticed them before? He looked almost boyish and disarmingly good-looking.

"I can't promise you we'll be kinder to you than the Arsenal," Gabe replied.

"Wow, that bad?" Natalia said surprised. She had no idea what was going on with the football team but Gabe carried himself with the energy of a winner. Arrogance and pure self-belief. How could his team be in a losing streak worse than the Arsenal?

Gabe gave her a pained sideways nod. Natalia winced in sympathy.

"Okay, but I know nothing about American Football."

"That's fine, you'll pick it up."

"Cool."

"Cool."

They both agreed and drove off in the same direction.

They had reached somewhat of a professional truce. Natalia was relieved she no longer had to actively avoid him. It had been taking more energy than she had thought it was.

There was the little problem of being in a confined meeting with him.

Alone.

With no buffer, especially after that kiss.

But she was going to worry about that later. Much later.