Page 46 of The Liar in Room 5

“Oh, yeah, of course. We’re friends.”

“Dude. You are way more than friends.” Marc paused for what felt like a dramatic moment. “He is a smitten kitten.”

The phone line crackled with Marc’s laughter at his own joke. Was this what it was like to have brothers?

Marc worked to get himself under control, and it took a few tries before he composed himself enough to continue.

“So, what did you need?”

“I need someone to take Ben on his field trip. I double-checked with the school, and if you send over your information this morning, I can email you the form right now. Then they’ll be able to get it processed by Friday.”

“You want me to take your kid on a field trip?”

“Don’t worry. There’ll be teachers there. It’ll be fine. Can you do it? Please? I’m begging you. Ben has been talking about this for weeks, and he’ll be devastated if he can’t go, and it’ll be my fault, and then it’ll make me feel like a shitty dad.”

“Well, I don’t want you feeling like a shitty dad.”

“And he really liked you. And obviously you’re great with kids. So, will you do it?”

“Yeah. I mean, I guess so?”

“Oh my God, Drew, you are a lifesaver. I’m gonna text you the form and the email for the director. She’ll be expecting it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I owe you. If you want my second-born kid or, you know, tax prep, I don’t even care.”

“You don’t owe me anything. I’m happy to do it.”

“Yeah, I do. Before I called you, I double-checked with Henry about you working, and he said you were between jobs right now, which means I’m probably taking you away from a job search or interview options or something. I’m happy to pay you.”

When the words had left my mouth, I wasn’t sure if they were even true, but the more I sat with it, the more I realized they absolutely were. I didn’t know if looking forward to a field trip with preschoolers to an aquarium made me foolish or brave, but either way, I wanted to do it, and that made me inordinately happy.

I, Drew Greene, said yes because I wanted to.

If I had a diary, this would be going in it.

“All right, Cory Cats, what do we do?”

“Stay in our school!” came the shouted replies from my three charges.

I’d been a little worried when my Uber dropped me off that this would be a huge mistake—a complete disaster—but surprisingly, it had been going well. The school hadn’t lost my paperwork or forgotten that I was filling in for Marc. Instead, they had a teacher waiting for me with a shimmery Cory Cat badge that matched the ones my charges wore.

“That’s right. I’m pretty sure I’ve got the best fish in the ocean today,” I told them with a round of high-fives.

They responded by doing happy dances around me that made everything in my life feel a little bit lighter. We’d gone through the freshwater sections, and now we were headed over to the saltwater exhibits and then the mammals.

“Mr. Drew?” Addison, one of my charges, spoke like she was about to tell you the secret of the universe because she was approximately seven hundred years old. Adorable.

“Whatcha need?”

“Do you have a child?” Her clipped tone was completely at odds with her tiny body.

I had no idea how her parents kept a straight face through any conversation. Although, based on what I’d seen so far, she likely ran that family with an iron fist.

“I don’t, but Ben’s daddy let me come with you all today so I could have some fun too.”

We paused to look at the seahorses floating through their swaying plants in the exhibit. It felt a little ironic to be having this discussion while I read them the plaque explaining how the male seahorse carried the babies.

“Do you want them?” she asked.

Ben looked on like he was very interested in the answer but didn’t want to interfere with the questioning.