Chapter 4 : First Class

Luna’s POV

I couldn’t breathe. I was completely lost in his eyes. What was he doing here? How did he know where I worked? Did he come looking for me? Maybe he felt what I felt yesterday, too.

‘Don’t be ridiculous, Luna.’ I thought to myself.

“So, you want to learn Spanish?” I said, as Lucas and his assistant Ethan made themselves comfortable in my classroom.

Ethan took a seat at one of the desks in the very back of the classroom, he pulled out his phone and started typing.

“Yes.” Lucas said in a professional tone. “It’s for work.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of work do you do?” I said.

“Well we’re actually on a hunt to find a sustainably renewable energy source for my father’s company, LB Electrics.”

“Your father owns LB Electrics?” I said, trying to hide my obvious shock.

“Yes.” He chuckled bashfully.

“So your father is the Lucas Bradford.” I said, this time my mouth agape.

“I suppose so.” He said, chuckling again. “Although, to me he’s just dad.”

“Well,” I said, trying to regain my composure. “Why don’t you tell me a little about why you’d like to learn Spanish.”

“We’ve been working with some companies in South America.” Lucas said calmly. “The deals I’m trying to make are too important to get a translator. I want to be able to communicate with them myself.”

“Alright.” I said, nodding my head. “Well, it seems you’re a pretty busy guy. How much time can you commit to study?”

“That’s the thing.” Lucas said nervously. “I have a big meeting coming up in three weeks. Do you think you can prepare me by then?”

“You want to become fluent in three weeks?” I said as my stress levels began to rise.

He nodded but said nothing. I sighed and nodded my head back at him.

“Okay.” I said. “I can’t guarantee that, but I’ll see what I can do.”

“I have some knowledge, but my Spanish is broken. I want you to help me make sense when I talk, and to express myself more confidently. You are not going to start from zero with me,” he assured me, and this made me raise my hopes.

We started with some light vocabulary. I didn’t want to give him too much on the first day. He needed a gentle beginning, especially since the rest of the course was going to be very rigorous. I wrote ten Spanish terms on the board.

“Let’s practice pronunciation.” I said, pointing to the first term with my finger. “Libreria.”

“Libreria.” Lucas repeated. It was sloppy, but I definitely wasn’t expecting perfection on the first try.

“Sorry.” He said, his accent sticking out like a sore thumb.

“That’s ok.” I said with reassurance. “Let’s try another one.”

I pointed to the next word on the board.

“Pelpícula.” I said.

“Película.” Lucas repeated.

“Better.” I said, smiling. Lucas grinned like I’d just told him he’d won the lottery, not that he needed it.

We continued to practice easy vocabulary words to make him get used to the thought of using the language. My strategy was to build confidence in him with these steps. I checked my watch, and it had already been forty-five minutes.

“Okay.” I said. “I think we’ll call it here and start back first thing tomorrow.”

“Wow.” Lucas said with a sigh of relief. “Thank god, I’m exhausted.” He chuckled and teased. I could tell he was not that tired.

“If you’re tired now just wait until we get into conjugations.” I joked. “That’ll definitely tire you out.”

“Fantastic.” Lucas said, sarcastically.

He gathered his belongings and Ethan rose from his place in the back of the room to join us at the front of the classroom.

“Would you give us a moment?” Lucas said to Ethan.

“Of course, sir.” Ethan said, excusing himself.

Lucas waited for Ethan to be all the way out of the room before continuing.

“Was something wrong with the lesson?” I asked, confused.

“No, not at all.” He said, genuinely. “I was wondering if we could expedite this process and meet on the weekends as well.”

“The institute is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.” I said, matter-of-factly.

“Perhaps we meet outside of the institute.” He smiled a debonair smile and I felt like I was sinking into him.

“Oh.” I said, picking up on the subtle flirting. “I guess that would be fine.” I said, smiling.

“Good.” He said with a passive charm. “I’ll have Ethan make the arrangements.”

After my tutoring session with Mr. Bradford I sat at my desk, mindlessly playing phone games. I had so many questions about him. How did he find my job? Was that just a coincidence? How in the world did he expect me to teach him Spanish in just three weeks?

Why was I suddenly daydreaming about this complete stranger. I was so desperate for an answer. I exited my game and decided to do a quick little web search about him.

Lucas’ father immediately popped up on several billionaire featured articles. In the last thirty years, Lucas Bradford Senior had managed to turn LB Electrics into a billion dollar conglomerate.

The Lucas I met had also laid a sizable footprint on the industry. He had made the Forbes Thirty under Thirty list twice and was well known for his innovative ideas. I was very impressed and yet filled with even more questions. My anxiety was through the roof. How was I supposed to successfully make this man bilingual in just three weeks?

I kept searching and stumbled across a few more articles. It seemed Lucas was not excluded from the tabloids and celebrity gossip. Some articles showed him clubbing with a string of new women every week and he apparently had a long list of supermodel ex-girlfriends. I’m not sure why but it immediately turned me off. I put my phone in my pocket and rose to prepare for my next class. Just then Maria walks in with a flustered look on her face.

“Hey.” I said, observing her body language as she entered.

“Hey.” She said, with a sullen tone.

“Oh no.” I said, giving the moment my full attention. “What’s wrong?”

“My insurance is blaming me for the accident yesterday.” She said, plopping down in a chair.

“Oh, honey I’m so sorry.” I said, sitting down at the desk next to hers.

“They’re raising my rates.” Maria said, shaking her head. “I’m barely cutting even now. How am I supposed to afford that?”

“Did you explain to them the situation?” I asked. “Did you tell them how he put the breaks on too suddenly?”

“Yep.” Maria said shortly. “They said it doesn’t matter because I’m the one who rear ended the other car. And to top it all off, I think my car is going to cost a fortune to fix.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“I went down to where we left it parked this morning and it wouldn’t even start.” She said, leaning over to rest her head on the desk. “What am I going to do?”

“I’m so sorry, babe.” I said. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out together, I promise.”

“Gracias.” Maria said. “Siempre me cuidas como si fuera tu hermana.” She sighed while telling me I took care of her like a sister.

“Porque somos como hermanas.” I said with a smile, because we were like sisters indeed.

She reached her hand out to me and I took it and squeezed.

“That guy was such a jerk yesterday.” Maria said in a pouty tone.

“About that.” I said, preparing to break the news.

“What?” Maria asked, sitting up in her chair.

“That guy from last night is my new student.” I said, bracing myself for her reaction.

“Que carajos?! Ese idiota es tu alumno?!” She said with rage pulsing.

“Looks like it.” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

“Why the hell does a driver need to learn spanish? What is he transferring down to Guatemala?” Maria said with extra sarcasm.

“Oh, not the driver.” I corrected her with a grin. “The gentleman he was driving. The one in the backseat who gave you his card.”

“Oh, that guy.” Maria scoffed. “I don’t care about him. I barely remember him. Just some stuck up rich guy from upper east Manhattan. Good luck with that.”

“Okay but get this.” I said, leaning in and whispering. “He’s a billionaire.”

“Go figures.” Maria said, rolling her eyes. “I knew he was just some rich guy.”

“I googled him.” I said. “Apparently he needs to learn Spanish for some fancy business deal happening in South America.”

“Oh, wow.” Maria said. “Well, can the billionaire pay for my repairs because a bitch needs to get around town.”

We both laughed really hard at that.

“Okay, there’s one more thing.” I said.

“Oh, god.” Maria said, rolling her eyes. “What?”

“He asked me if we could do private lessons on the weekends.” I said, half smiling.

Maria’s eyes widened but she said nothing.

“I know I probably shouldn’t, but I told him it was okay.” I said, surprised at myself.

“Luna, tienes que ser cuidadosa. No lo conoces.” Maria said, shaking her head in disapproval as she dug in her purse. She was right, I need to be careful because I really didn’t know him.

“I know, I know.” I said, putting my hands up in surrender. “But he’s trying to be fluent in three weeks.”

“Why?” She said, pulling a candybar from her purse and peeling off the wrapper.

“For his meeting in South America.” I said, biting my lip. “He doesn’t want a translator.”

“I guess that’s a nice touch.” Maria said, taking her first bite of her candybar. “But I still want you to be careful”

Her mouth was full of chocolate, and her words were mumbly.

“Don’t worry about me.” I said, not sure if I believed myself. “I’ll be okay.”

“Okay.” She said, “Because if he gets crazy, I’ll have to kill him.”

“Trust me.” I said with an eyebrow raised. “If he tries anything, I’ll give him the boot.”

Maria nodded. She was choosing to let it go but I could tell she had more to say. Her concern worried me a little. Was I being stupid? I had no business seeing Lucas outside of work. I promised myself right then that I wouldn’t let anything inappropriate happen.

I went through the rest of the day feeling like I was on autopilot. Between helping Maria with her car, work, and feeling guilty about promising to see Lucas on the weekends, I was spent.

The thought of Lucas sent a shiver down my spine. His shoulders were the most attractive part about him. So broad and muscular.

‘Why are you thinking about this?’ I thought to myself. I couldn’t give an answer.