Page 48 of Bad Daddy

One of those involved sitting down with his colored pencils again. It helped that Haru was at work, because Danny could draw out in the open.

By the time the comic was done, it wasn't so little anymore. Danny had been working on it on and off for almost five months, and it had gotten a full plotline, conveyed as best as he could with the picture speech/thought bubbles. He had put a lot of effort into making a really nice cover, and even went back and redrew some of the original pages, so that there was a more uniform look from the beginning to the end as he’d gotten better at drawing.

He swore Lily to secrecy, then drafted her into helping him with figuring out how to make it nice. Partially because he could count on Lily to know what to do or to figure out how to do it, partially because she had resources, and partially because his in-person time with Lily was dwindling—she’d be leaving in August to go to MIT.

Lily had been loud about the fact that she refused to let that get in the way of spending time with her local friends, and continually reminded Danny that her family lived here so she’d be back all the time. Danny wasn’t going to hold his breath, but was also trying to not be obvious with his doubt. He liked Lily. He really did hope she’d stay in touch. In the meantime, he was going to try to spend time with her over the summer.

Lily read the entire comic while Danny sweated and tried to distract himself by playing with his phone. When she was done, she looked at him and adjusted her glasses. “Doesn’t Manuel have an aunt or something that works in publishing?”

Danny squinted at her. Lily and Manuel had hit it off during the packing-up of Danny’s apartment, and had become fast friends. He didn’t know why she was bringing up his aunt though. “I think so? Or she was a family friend? Why?”

“Well she’d probably be able to help you better than I can,” Lily said. “Unless you want me to go ask Jacob—”

“No Jacob,” Danny said quickly. Jacob, he had learned, was terrible at keeping secrets and had no poker face whatsoever. He’d spill to Haru in thirty seconds flat.

“Didn’t think so,” Lily said, looking smug. For some reason. “So let’s ask Manuel.”

“But why?” Danny asked again. “I thought you could just, I don’t know, help me find a place to bind it nicely.”

Lily crossed her arms and tilted her chin, radiating stubbornness.

“Fine,” Danny huffed. “We can ask Manuel. But I don’t see why.”

***

Manuel read the comic with clear excitement, and his face went through a myriad of complicated expressions as he did so while Danny got more and more self-conscious. He was near the point of snatching the pages back and calling the whole thing off when Lily, who had been rereading the comic next to Manuel, squished into his side, said, “See?”

“Yeah,” Manuel said, nodding as he turned another page. “Yeah, wow.”

“What?” Danny bit out. “Look, it was just some stupid scribbles, you don’t have to—”

Lily glared at him. “Don’t call them stupid!”

“Excuse me?” Danny asked.

“You heard me,” Lily sniffed.

Danny looked to Manuel for help, who scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Okay so, uh, could I maybe like, take a couple pictures to send to Dorit?”

“Why?” Danny asked incredulously.

Manuel flapped a hand. “I just think it’d be a good idea for her to see them.”

Danny sighed as Lily and Manuel pinned him with twin pleading looks. “Fine. But someone tell me why.”

Manuel patted Danny on the back. “Because this is good stuff,” he said. “I just wanna see what she says.”

***

As it turned out, Manuel’s not!Aunt Dorit worked for Scholastic. She was apparently impressed enough by the concept of Danny’s comic to ask for more pages. She liked the fact that it wasn't a words-based comic, so readers of all ages and backgrounds and languages could appreciate it.

She wanted Danny’s permission to pitch the comic for publication.

Danny said thank you very carefully, told her that he was okay with that, sure, he appreciated her time, and hung up the phone.

He wasn't sure if he was excited or about to be sick.

He still hadn’t decided which reaction made the most sense by the time Haru got home from work. Danny had stress-made a lasagna, so dinner was sorted for whenever they were ready to eat. He had been getting better at cooking and found he actually liked to do it, when he wasn't worrying over wasting food or money or time.

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