It was nearing two o'clock and Tom could not recall the last time he was drunk this early. More than that, he was already on his way back down, having hit shit faced about an hour ago.

By noon, he was behind Jeff's workshop, breaking all his unsellable pottery against the wall. Half an hour after that, they'd reached the volume of drunk that comprised a round of baseball with the pottery that would lead to about a dozen bruises between the two of them come morning.

As the new hour rolled around the corner, Tom was still discouraged, but not as hotheaded as he was when the drinking first began. He achieved a small measure of acceptance. Tom was aware of the risks. He knew Ada would not turn him in for their friendship, but the odds weren't in his favor. It was a small town where nothing ever remained hidden for long.

"Ada just texted. Wants to know what we want for dinner," Jeff told him.

They'd reached the stage of drunk that had a tranquility to it, a stage Tom preferred to be in. Now he roamed around the open shop that had no customers in it all day. Someone pulled up during the baseball game, but he guessed they'd scared them off when they hit reverse before ever getting out of the vehicle.

They weren't the only ones who'd kept their distance today. He hadn't seen Ada since he first arrived. She still blamed herself for what happened. He felt it in the dismal look she gave from the porch before going inside. Tom didn't know how to reassure her anymore than he already had, so he accepted she needed some time to come to terms with everything just like he did.

Truth was, he'd hate himself if she saw him like this. He'd kept out of view of their house for just that reason. Until he gained a grip on his sanity, he would stay put. He cared for her too much to make her worry more than she already was. That's why he'd kept his calm at the school the best he could and why he didn't flip out until her dad took him to his workshop.

Ada saw the best in him, and Tom wanted to keep in that way.

"I'm not hungry," Tom said before taking a swig of his beer.

"Good, cause it ain't dinner yet. You know Ada. She likes to plan."

Tom rubbed at his eyes. The man had a point. "Burgers, I guess. Something that doesn't suck too bad coming back up."

"I'll let her know to stay away from the pasta salad and deviled eggs."

As Jeff replied to his daughters message, Tom made his way to a back room by the office that he was already a frequent visitor of because it had a bean bag chair in it.

He plopped down as Jeff joined him, taking a seat on a stool. "How did Ada become... who she is, I guess?"

Jeff chuckled and scratched his temple. "God only knows the answer to that one, 'cause I sure as hell don't."

It was something he'd asked himself ever since he first met Jeff and his wife. He'd imagined something different for Ada. Maybe a wealthy family full of lawyers or something. It was surprising to find out that his straight 'A', straight laced student came from two hippies. "She's special, isn't she?" Tom said with a smile before taking another chug of beer.

"Nice way to put it. I just call her a weirdo. Truth is, Rebecca and I wondered a few times if we took the wrong kid home from the hospital. I never finished high school and Becc's is a college dropout. I finally just accepted that my wife gave birth to a middle aged school teacher, no offense."

"None taken."

Jeff rubbed at his long, dark beard and shifted on the stool. "That kid used to hate herself so much. She'd ask why she wasn't as pretty as her momma or as popular as Britt or as artistic as me. Why she couldn't fit in like her sister.

"She's the smartest person I know. The most honest and the kindest. Took her a long time before she could see any of that."

"Sometimes she still has trouble seeing it. But I guess that's how things go. Some people can't see how incredible they are, and other people think they're more incredible than they are." Tom looked at his near empty beer bottle. They'd started with Bloody Mary's. Jeff's wife insisted on it. She considered it the only acceptable drink, minus mimosas, for the morning hours. They had three each before switching to beer and ever since that switch, Tom could feel his drunk slipping away.

"Ada says the burgers are a bullshit dinner you can make yourself," Jeff read from his phone with a laugh. "She says she wants to make you a real dinner, so think about it."

Tom thought for a moment. "Meatloaf, I guess?"

Jeff shook his head. "You don't wanna say that word around Ada. Trust me on that."

"Just tell her to surprise me."

"You gotta at least give her a meat to focus on or she ain't gonna leave us alone."

Tom shouldn't have been surprised by any of this. "Beef?"

Jeff began texting away.

"We could do steaks on the grill."

"Now you're talking," Jeff said with a smile as he continued to text.

**************************

Ada read her father's text before setting down her phone and moving to the living room for a better view of her father's workshop. There was no sign of either of them, hadn't been most of the day. Ada wasn't sure if he didn't want her to see how angry he was or if he blamed her as much as she blamed herself.

Knowing him, it was the former.

Still, having him at her house all day without being able to talk with him about what happened was killing her. Maybe he just needed someone to get drunk and angry with, needed to lose his cool around someone who wouldn't be fazed by it.

Having that person be her father when they'd spent the night before trying to intimidate the other didn't sit well with Ada. It was a relief they were getting along, but getting along to this extent wasn't something she planned on. It was almost as if she was being replaced. Her thoughts were selfish, but she enjoyed being the only friend he had that wasn't connected to his ending marriage.

She went back to the kitchen to text her father, asking if Tom was okay.

He's fine. He's sobering up a little, so I'm gonna get him stoned to keep him calm. Don't worry. I got this.

"What the hell is wrong with this family?" Ada couldn't help but ask aloud.

Her mother walked into the kitchen. "Why? What has your father done now?"

Ada read the message again, hoping beyond hope that she'd somehow read it wrong the first time. "He's going to get Tom stoned," Ada answered, still in disbelief.

"Yeah, that's for the best."

Ada dropped her phone on the counter in front of her. "I repeat. What the hell is wrong with this family?"

Her mother smiled and collected her long hair, putting it back with a clip. "I think I have a joint in my dresser. It would do you some good too. You worry too much, kid."

"I worry too much?" She repeated her mother's words. "I think I'm worrying the right amount. Did you forget that the entire school thinks I slept with my teacher? Soon it's going to be all over town."

Her mother waved the comment off. "I'm sure it's already made its way through town, Ada. Besides, there are worse teachers they could accuse you of sleeping with."

It was a backwards way of thinking of it, and Ada scolded herself for taking even a moment of pleasure in it.

"That isn't the point, mom."

She shrugged. "That's my point. The man's hot as hell, and he doesn't even realize it, which makes him even more good looking. That doesn't mean I want you to actually sleep with him. Trust me, I don't. But if there's going to be a rumor going around about you sleeping with someone, it's better for people to believe it was with someone hot than some middle-aged guy who's only hair is on his back. Do you have any idea how many people are jealous of you right now?"

After thinking about it for a moment, Ada realized she didn't want to think about it at all. But there was something that she couldn't help but think about; something that had weighed on her mind since that morning. "Why do you think dad stood up for Tom today?"

Her mom was quiet for a while, taking her time to come up with the answer. "I think because Tom stood up for you," she said. "When your dad confronted him about spending time with you, which I also wasn't a fan of by the way, the simple thing would have been to apologize and promise to stay away from you.

"But he didn't. He stood his ground, showed no fear, and let your dad know that he was there for you because you needed him. Your dad respected that."

Ada watched as her mom brushed passed her toward the fridge, taking a chilled bottle of Champagne out. "A joint or a drink, Ada. Your choice."

Her green eyes narrowed on her mother. "How have you not had a single child taken away by social services?"

"Shows what you know," her mother said with a smile as she freed the cork from the bottle. "There used to be two more of you kids."

"I'll get the mint," Ada relented once she saw her mother grabbing fruit for her signature drink.

"Good girl."

Ada went outside and to the garden and cut a few sprigs of mint, noticing Tom making his way toward her as she stood from the ground.

"Hey," he said. "Whatcha up to?"

Ada looked at her handful of mint. "My mother is forcing me to drink. Apparently, I need to learn how to relax. It was that, or toke up with her."

A bright smile took over Tom's face as he shook his head in pure amusement. "Your parents are some lot of special, aren't they?"

Ada ran her free hand through her hair. "That's one way to put it." She watched as his smile tamed. "How you doing?"

"I'm..." he sang in a slow, melodic tone as he rubbed the back of his neck, "adjusting, I guess? I have faith that it'll work itself out. The whole point of an investigation is to see if the rumor is valid, and it isn't. This whole damn thing is surreal."

Tom sat on the stone bench next to the garden. "I'm just pissed that people would believe I'd do something like this."

Ada sat next to him, wiping the dirt away from her knees. "I think people just want something to gossip about, but I doubt anyone believes it. I mean, come on. You and me?"

"What do you mean?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

A blush took over Ada's face. "Please don't make me say it."

Tom clasped his hands together and leaned against his legs. "I think I have to."

She expected him to smile, to show his amusement, but there was no smile. Only genuine confusion.

"Um..." Ada tucked her hair behind her ear before dusting off more dirt on her shirt, twisting it around her finger. "So yeah, I'm gonna get this mint inside."

Ada raised herself about an inch before Tom lowered her back down by her shoulders and forced her body to turn and face him.

"I guess I just don't find it very believable," she blurted before she could lose the courage.

"Cause I'm older? What?"

She gaped at him. "Seriously?" By the dumbfounded look on his face, he was serious. "No, because you're damn gorgeous." Her explanation came out differently than what she'd imagined in her head, and Ada covered her mouth in a lost attempt to take it back.

Ada turned a shade of red that she didn't think was possible for the human skin to turn. "I didn't mean that."

"Yeah, you did," Tom said with the biggest smile imaginable.

There was no way out of this, Ada realized. She'd just called Tom, her teacher and mentor of the last four years, attractive... to his face. As there was no way around what she'd said, Ada tried a different route. "At least I assume you were in your younger years. It's a little harder to tell now, what with all the grays and the ear hair and the age lines."

"You think I'm pretty," he said with that unwavering smile.

Ada shook her head, having no clever retort this time. If the man had any mirror at all at any point in his life, he knew he was a higher number on the sexy scale.

"Ada!" Her mother yelled from the open kitchen window. "Bring that mint in here, will you?"

"Oh, thank god."

She heard his chuckle as she fled the scene of the crime.