Page 106 of I Wish You All the Best

“Well, since Ben isn’t going to introduce us, I will.” Hannah offers her hand to Sophie. “I’m Hannah, Ben’s sister.”

“Sorry,” I say. “This is Sophie, and Meleika.”

“Hey, girls.” Thomas gives them both a wave.

“Hi, Mr. Waller.” Meleika digs around in her purse for a second. “Ready to kick this art show’s ass?” she asks.

“Totally,” I say, following them into the school.

There isn’t much you can do with a school lobby, but with the partitions and everyone’s work hanging up, it looks like a real gallery. And people are already walking around. I’m guessing it’s mostly parents, but I recognize a few faces. I even see Stephanie. Thankfully Todd seems absent.

“Where is your stuff?” Sophie asks.

“Around here.” We walk by rows and rows of different student’s paintings. They all seem to be standing to the side, ready to talk to people at a moment’s notice. When we round the corner to my spot, right at the very end of the row, I finally see Nathan.

And he’s staring at my work. More specifically, he’s staring at the portrait of him.

“And you must be Nathan!” Hannah says, holding out her hand. “Ben and my husband have talked about you quite a bit.”

“All good things, I hope.” Nathan takes her hand. A perfect gentleman, as always. “I only hope I can live up to their glowing recommendation.”

“Oh wow, Ben.” Meleika stares, her mouth wide open. “You painted this?”

Now all five of them are staring. Well, Thomas not so much, since he’s already seen these.

“Yeah,” I say, trying not to blush.

“Someone’s already asked me if I painted it,” Nathan murmurs. “Told them there’s no way I had this much talent.”

“This is so cool.” Sophie glances from one painting to another. “Oh my God, that’s Nathan!” She leans in real close.

“Hey.” Nathan pulls her back. “Don’t breathe on my gorgeous portrait, you’ll lower the value.”

Sophie rolls her eyes. “Oh God, Ben, this was a mistake. His ego’s already too big.”

“We’ll talk about it when your portrait hangs in an art gallery.”

She flips him off, but they’re both smiling.

Art shows are sort of surreal, even if it is just a student show. At least this one is. I can’t speak for the other ones.

People keep phasing in and out, a few stopping to talk to me or look at the paintings. According to Nathan, Hannah and Thomas are taking a lap around the gallery. Mrs. Liu finds us a few minutes later.

“Oh, Ben, isn’t this amazing?” She hugs me again. “The turnout is better than I hoped!”

“Yeah.” The spot I picked isn’t too busy, but people filter by, some stopping, asking me questions about how I did the paintings. But most will just smile, nod, and move on. After another ten minutes, Meleika and Sophie head off to find the food table, and Mrs. Liu gets caught up talking to someone else.

So now it’s just me and Nathan.

“Still can’t believe you did that,” he says, turning around to look at his portrait again. “I like how you can see the details of the paint, like the paint isn’t lying flat? If that makes sense.”

“It’s just the brushstrokes, nothing fancy.”

“I still like it. It makes me feel warm.”

“That’d be the yellow,” I say.

“Why did you pick yellow?” he asks.