Page 28 of That’s My Orc, Tusk Off

“A human called from the local school district on Monday,” I said. “Erika Collins. She wants to bring children here to learn about the creatures.”

Willa’s full attention fell on me now. “Really?”

“I wrote out how it could work. The structure. What we’d teach them. How we’d keep everyone safe.” I turned the tablet toward her. “Brovish approved it this morning.”

She pulled it closer and skimmed through a few pages. Her eyebrows lifted. “You wrote all this overnight?”

“It required planning.”

“Traig, this is…” She scrolled through another few pages. “This is really detailed.”

Detailed. Not excessive. Not too much.

“I wanted it to be as complete as possible,” I said.

“It’s all that and more.” She looked up at me, tucking her hair behind her ear again. “I assume you want me to help with the parent parts?”

This was the moment I was supposed to explain the role structure. The division of responsibilities.

“Brovish suggested you should lead this project with me,” I said. “Not under me. Beside me.”

She sucked in a breath. “Beside you?”

“Yes. Making decisions together. I’ll handle the lesson planning and schedules. You’ll handle the people parts, such as the parents and the coordination with the school, among other tasks.” I paused. “If you want to.”

“If I want to?” She was fully smiling now, the kind that made her rich brown eyes brighter. “Traig, of course I want to. This sounds amazing.”

My chest felt too tight and too full at the same time.

“We’d need to meet regularly,” I said, pulling up the schedule I’d drafted at two in the morning. “Three times per week. Ninety minutes per session unless we need longer.”

“For the whole school year?”

“Yes.”

She was quiet for a moment, still looking at the tablet, then at me.

“You wrote a complete proposal for a plan that’ll run for…nine months or so?”

“I wrote it because the school partnership is good for the facility,” I said. “The fact that we’ll be working together is simply necessary. For the project.”

Fred grumbled from the ceiling and floated down to hover between us, his black and white fur rippling as Willa scratched between his ears. His grumbles grew louder.

Willa’s attention remained on me, however.

“I’ll send you the meeting schedule,” I said, picking up my tablet. “We can meet tomorrow to start going through things.”

“Traig?”

I stopped.

“I’m really looking forward to this,” she said. “Working with you, I mean.”

With me. Not for me. With me.

“Good,” I strangled out. “That’s…good.”

I left before my brain could come up with more articulate responses and made it halfway down the hall before I had to stop and lean against the wall, my tablet pressed against my chest.