Tammy hesitated. They’d just shared a moment; maybe this was the chance she’d been looking for to open up their relationship

Tammy fidgeted in her seat as she watched Sarah, one of her new Yad b’Yad tutoring clients, frowning over her English essay.

She let her eyes slide along the clean white walls of the room and settle on the window, which overlooked the front of the building.

Two girls were walking up the path. As they came closer, Tammy gave a little start: it was ZeeZee and Ilana. She strained her neck to watch them until they disappeared from her vision, then sighed as she turned back to Sarah.

“Something wrong?” the girl asked.

“No.”

While Sarah proceeded to cross out most of what she’d already written, Tammy picked up a pen and began to doodle on a blank piece of paper. She wasn’t surprised to see ZeeZee here, despite the fact that she’d been banned from coming. Banned.

She still couldn’t get over how such experienced chinuch professionals like Rabbi Freund and Mrs. Edelman could have made such a shortsighted decision. When Mrs. Edelman had told Tammy about it, she’d had to clench her teeth together to stop herself from voicing her objection. She couldn’t afford to misstep, certainly not in this case, where she was still anxiously trying to demonstrate that she’d in no way suggested, approved, or encouraged ZeeZee’s involvement with Yad b’Yad.

And what about you, Tam? She questioned now, as her pen absently sketched a girl with wide-open eyes and a ponytail. Do you always make the right decisions?

She’d regretted her reaction as soon as she’d hung up the phone with ZeeZee last night. It was beyond clear that ZeeZee had been feeding her a story about some emergency at her cousins, and she had a feeling ZeeZee also knew that Tammy saw through the tale. But the girl had to play the game by saying something, and Tammy chose to be complicit by accepting the excuse. Had ZeeZee known she would?

And did that make her a brilliant pedagogue or a criminally negligent one?

She drew the outline of a sweater as she wondered whether to confront ZeeZee now or ignore the fact she’d seen her. Surely ZeeZee needed someone to confide in if she was going through some sort of crisis; better Tammy than some OTD Yad b’Yad girl.

But if Shvilei found out when she was already in hot water with the hanhalah…

Frustrated, she balled up her paper and threw it at the wastepaper basket. She missed.

“Ouch. That was bad.” Sarah was looking up from her essay, which was now completely covered with crossed-out lines, and shook her head at Tammy’s shot. With a mischievous grin, she took her sheet, scrunched it into a ball, and arced it neatly into the basket.

“Okay, you win.” Tammy laughed. “But your essay!”

“Garbage.” Sarah eyed her. “What’re you ticked off about?”

Tammy hesitated. They’d just shared a moment; maybe this was the chance she’d been looking for to open up their relationship. But… just a few days ago Rikki had stood in this very room and warned her about boundaries.

She looked down at her hands. Her instincts had always served her well in life. Why did it feel recently that she could no longer trust them?

Tammy pasted a smile on her face. “Everything’s great with me. But your essay’s in the garbage. How about we start a new one together?”