Chapter 165: Overexcited
Moana
After I handed the headmistress of Ella’s new school my resume, I went home with a big smile on my face.
Even if I didn’t wind up getting the job due to my lack of teaching experience, this was still a step in the right direction. After spending years being unable to get decent jobs due to my low status as a human, it seemed as though potential employers might start actually taking me seriously. I knew that most of it had to do with the fact that I was now publicly Edrick’s “fiancee”, but I didn’t care. To me, it was still a win.
As the day went on, however, I went from excited to downright nervous. Every time I started to think about it, knowing that the headmistress may have been talking to Sophia for my reference at any moment, I felt my heart start to race. I tried to stay calm, but this combination of excitement and nervousness made it incredibly difficult to focus on anything else that day.
By the evening, I still hadn’t heard back. I didn’t expect to hear back for at least another day, but it still made me feel even more worried. What if the headmistress simply never responded to my application? It was a terribly common practice for employers to never respond to applications, and despite the fact that Ella would be a student at that school in just a few weeks, I supposed that I wasn’t immune to that. I just hoped that wouldn’t be the case.
Eventually, Edrick came home from work. I was sitting on the sofa in the living room and trying to read when I heard the whir of the elevator doors opening.
“Daddy!” Ella yelled, jumping up and running over to him excitedly. I heard the sound of her kissing him on the cheek, followed by Edrick’s voice as he asked her how her day was. Ella seemed to be whispering something to him, and a few moments later, the Alpha billionaire walked into the living room with Ella in his arms.
“Ella told me that you’re waiting for something special news,” Edrick said to me, raising an eyebrow. “What is it?”
I felt my face go red. I hadn’t planned on saying anything unless I got the job, but I should have known that Ella would spill the news as soon as possible. She was only eight, after all, and it was a bit naive of me to think that she was capable of keeping a secret for more than five minutes.
“Um…” I swallowed and set down my book, then nervously fiddled with my braid. “I applied for the art teacher position this morning. The headmistress said that she would call Sophia, my reference.”
Edrick’s face went from stoic to surprised, but I couldn’t help but notice that there was a bit of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
“Oh? Did you?” he said, setting Ella down.
“I can’t wait for Moana to be my real teacher!” Ella exclaimed. “Then we can go to school together every day!”
Edrick smiled a bit, and despite my nervousness, even I couldn’t help but smile at Ella’s excitement. Edrick then sent Ella to her room to get ready for dinner, and when he turned back to me, I could sense a bit of worry in his eyes. I couldn’t tell if he was hoping that I would get the job or hoping that I wouldn’t get the job.
“Have you heard back yet?” he asked once we were alone again.
I shook my head and bit my lip. “No. Probably not until tomorrow at lea—”
Suddenly, as if on cue, my phone began to buzz on the coffee table. I fell silent, my eyes widening when I saw the unsaved number on my phone. No one except for Sophia ever called me, and I had her name saved in my phone. Unless this was a scam call, it had to be the headmistress.
“Well?” Edrick asked, noticing my hesitation. “Aren’t you going to answer it?”
I nodded sheepishly. My hand shook as I picked up my phone and tapped on the screen to answer it, and it took all of my strength not to sound nervous.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Is this Moana? It’s Headmistress Hawkins.”
My eyes widened even further and I stood involuntarily. “Yes,” I replied, eyeing Edrick as he watched me expectantly.
“Moana, I called your reference,” the headmistress said. “She was lovely, and had a lot of nice things to say about you. I’d like to offer you the position.”
I felt my heart leap into my throat. I almost let out a wild whoop of excitement, but I clamped my hand over my mouth and just stared at Edrick with wide eyes. He was leaning on the doorframe with his arms folded across his chest. Even Selina and the maids were poking their heads curiously out of the kitchen.
“U-Um… Thank you so much,” I said, hardly able to contain my excitement. “I accept. I can’t wait to start.”
As I spoke, I saw the maids begin to dance around excitedly in the background while Selina stared at me with disbelief. Edrick, however, just smiled. It seemed as though he had been confident in me getting the job.
“Good,” the headmistress replied. “You can come by anytime within the next week and sign your paperwork. Once that’s done, you can have your keys. I’be have the custodians clear out anything that’s been stored in your room.”
“T-Thank you,” I said, unable to come up with anything else amidst my shock. “I-I’ll see you soon.”
Finally, I hung up and continued to stare at Edrick in shock.
“I knew you would get it,” he said with a smile.
I didn’t know what to say. It felt as though my body was taken over with excitement, and what I did next almost felt out of my control.
Without thinking, I ran over to Edrick, cupped his face in my hands and pulled him down to my level, and kissed him.
His lips were soft and sweet, and he didn’t pull away.
When I finally pulled away, my face was red and my eyes were wide. The room was silent, and I could see Selina quietly shoving the two curious maids back into the kitchen to give Edrick and I some privacy.
“I… I… S-Sorry—”
I tried to stammer out an apology for kissing him so suddenly, but I was too embarrassed for anything coherent to come out. Part of me expected Edrick to simply storm off, just as he always did when he realized that we had gotten too close.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he just smiled down at me. His eyes were warm and bright, and he didn’t seem embarrassed by the kiss at all.
“I guess we’ll have to go school supply shopping for two now,” he said, causing me to smile.
Between the good news, my kiss with Edrick, and his kind words, that smile didn’t leave my face until I finally drifted off to sleep that night. It felt as though things were really beginning to look up now, and I couldn’t have been more excited.
In fact, my worrisome conversation with Olivia had slipped my mind entirely by that point.
