Page 56 of The Write Place

“You gonna actually read it?” Justin shouts across the room at him, and the class laughs.

Christian grumbles something I don’t hear, but I assume it’s inappropriate, so I glare at him in warning. He frowns. “Maybe,” he says a little louder, and Daniel chuckles.

“I did finish a draft.” He looks at me, the gratitude plain on his face. I smile back, though I knew he had finished his draft already. We had celebrated with wine and takeout a few nights ago. “I just need to revise it a little before anyone sees it.”

“Are we in it?” Warren wants to know. The side conversations stop at that, indicating that everyone in the class is curious to hear the answer.

“Not exactly,” Daniel assures them. “I’ve taken pieces of what I’ve seen here as a jumping off point, but I didn’t include anything exactly as it happened.”

Aimee pipes up next, her eyes starry. “Is it a love story?”

“Not everything needs to be a love story,” Neve responds, rolling her eyes. Aimee scoffs.

“I guess you’ll all just have to read it to find out.” Daniel winks in Aimee’s direction, and apparently satisfied, she takes a large bite of her cupcake.

“It was fun having you here,” Haze offers.

Daniel swallows hard, and he is definitely feeling more emotion than he’s letting on. “It was fun being here,” he says, his voice solid. “I cannot thank all of you enough for allowing me to be a part of your class. And thank you especially to Miss Mac for putting up with me back here for so long.” At this, he bows a little to me and starts clapping, and the students join him in his applause. I feel my face heat, and I wave it all away as if it were nothing, but I’m touched.

The applause dies down, and the students resume their side conversations quietly over the music still playing in the background. Toward the end of the period, we start cleaning up. Daniel makes his way around the room to say goodbye to everyone personally, and I expect to see him exhausted from all the talking he’s been doing, but he seems completely relaxed, as if he could do this all day.

Isabel lingers to hand Daniel a revised—and much longer, judging from the stack of pages she’s holding—copy of her story. He rips a piece of paper out of his notebook and writes something on it.

“Here’s my email, Isabel. I hope we can continue this conversation about your writing, even though I’ll no longer be in the building.”

She is shaking slightly with excitement as she pulls out a piece of paper and writes her email address down for him.

“See you in the auditorium, Miss Mac!” She beams at me as she leaves.

“They’re going to miss you,” I say fondly as we gather our things to make the walk down to the auditorium.

“I’ll miss them.” He taps his fingers lightly against his leg. “Aside from you, the most surprising part of this entire experience was how much I truly came to care about them.”

“They do have a way of worming their way into your heart,” I agree. “Every year I fall in love with a new group of students, and every year, saying goodbye is hard.”

He nods, but I can tell his mind is a mile away now. He is quietly looking off into the distance, his fingers still drumming quickly at his sides. We make the rest of the walk to the auditorium in silence.

I open the door to enter the backstage area since we will be expected to participate on the stage itself. The seats are empty, but they will soon be filled with school district officials, students and their families who have been invited, most of the English department, and a few local reporters.

As soon as we walk in, Daniel goes completely stiff beside me. His eyes are glued to the woman talking to Ken. I don’t recognize her, but she is New York personified. She is wearing a navy blue, perfectly tailored, size zero power suit with straight-leg pants pressed to a crisp and a blazer that is fitted in the bust and flairs slightly at the waist. Her pale pink shirt under her blazer is topped with a string of elegant pearls and she wears pearl studs in her ears. Her black hair is sleek and pulled into a tight bun at the top of her head. She’s probably not much taller than me, but she wears very clean, very high-heeled pumps that are the same color pink as her shirt. But that’s not the most striking thing about her ensemble. On the ring finger of her left hand, she is wearing the biggest diamond ring I have ever seen. It’s almost blinding in the pin lights of the auditorium stage.

When she sees Daniel, she smiles in a way that I assume she thinks is probably welcoming but looks positively sinister. Daniel stops in his tracks, and for a second, it seems like he’s going to turn around and walk out of the auditorium, but she crosses the stage quickly in a few long steps.

“Surprise!” she chirps at Daniel, her voice clear and commanding. She is assuredly the kind of woman who is used to having control over every room she’s in.

Daniel clears his throat, then wets his lips as if he’s stalling. Finally, he responds, his voice colder than I’ve ever heard it. “Yes. Surprise.”

They both stare at each other for long enough that I start to feel really uncomfortable, and I don’t see how I can exit this staring contest gracefully since they are blocking the way to the stage, where I can see Ken and Jenny now talking. I extend my hand to the woman in greeting.

“Hi. You must be the representative from Daniel’s publisher. I’m Mac, the teacher he has been shadowing.”

She looks down her nose at me and smiles that accidentally sinister grin again. “I’m sorry, Mac, was it?”

“Yes.” My hand is still extended in the air in front of us. She glances down at it with an expression that would suggest she’d rather die than touch me, but she takes my hand and shakes it limply. When she lets go, I’m left feeling as if I just touched a slimy fish and it takes effort not to wipe my hands on my pants.

“Sorry, Mac. This is Alison West, my editor,” Daniel offers quickly, almost as if he’s trying to speak before she can say anything.

Alison. The name rattles in my brain for a second before I place it. That’s the name Joey used to reference Daniel’s ex. My editor. As in, current editor. As in, the person who has been incessantly texting and calling him for weeks. Before I can stop myself, my eyes fall to her massive engagement ring, and when I drag my eyes to Daniel, I could swear he looks apologetic.