“I was hoping we could talk more about Maya and her progress,” he said as he took a seat across from her, thankful that there was another adult-sized chair there for him. It would have been tough to have any kind of serious conversation while sitting in one of the tiny student desks.
“Of course,” Allie replied with a smile. “Maya is such a bright child, and she’s having a better time focusing now with our adjustments.”
“Adjustments?” Ash asked.
“We started doing a little more movement between lessons yesterday and today,” she explained.
“The movement stuff is for Maya?” Ash asked, amazed.
“Well, movement is beneficial for all children,” Allie said. “But yes, she’s the reason I started looking into ways to help kids with extra energy. It’s the kind of thing I wish someone had done when I was her age.”
For a moment, Ash was too blown away to know what to say.
“She’s not my only student who gets wiggly,” Allie said quickly, a worried expression in her eyes, like maybe she thought he didn’t like the idea of things being done differently just for Maya.
“It’s incredibly generous of you to adjust your routine to help Maya,” he said, fighting the urge to reach out and cover her hand with his. “And it makes me feel all the more confident that what I’m going to ask you for would be worthwhile.”
Ash suddenly found himself a little nervous, which wasn’t like him.
“What are you going to ask me for?” she asked, eyes widening.
“Well, I think maybe I should offer you something first,” he said, sitting back a little. If he just thought about this like a negotiation, he’d be fine. Ash was good at things like that.
“Well, what might that be?” she asked again, cocking her head slightly to the side in a way that almost made him smile.
“You want a greenhouse for the school,” he told her. “But the school can’t afford it. I can help.”
He expected her to lean forward and for the sparkles to light up in her eyes again.
Instead, she frowned for a moment before replying.
“The problem isn’t really fundraising for the structure or even building it, really,” she explained. “It’s more the maintenance. The school can’t cover it.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Ash said.
“I don’t suppose you can handle glass repairs and irrigation systems, can you?” she asked.
“Sure,” he said. “I could handle that.”
A school greenhouse was a small-scale project. Even if he had to pay to have the thing rebuilt every year, it would never make a dent in his finances.
“What about HVAC and deep cleaning?” she asked.
“Not a problem,” he told her.
She nodded slowly, but she still wasn’t smiling and her eyes were their usual blue, not lit up like a sunny sky the way he’dbeen hoping.
“Listen,” he told her. “I’ll handle all of that, and anything else you can think up for a greenhouse, if you’ll do something for me.”
“What’s that?” she asked, leaning forward again.
“Maya is behind in kindergarten,” he said, sighing. “I know that. I didn’t have the heart to make her go to preschool when it was so hard for her to behave. And the teacher in the city was too upset about her getting into trouble to worry about whether she had her fundamentals down.”
Allie’s eyes were so sympathetic, but she just nodded, like she understood. It made him want to cry and bury his head in her lap like a little boy.
What’s the matter with me?
“Anyway,” Ash said, trying to pull himself back into negotiation mode, “Maya could use extra help catching up, after school maybe, or on the weekend. I’d pay you, of course.”
