Page 33 of The Wing
“Are you ready to show me?”
“Are you ready to see the mess that is my cave?” I ask, taking his hand and leading him to my office.
“Try and stop me.”
I stop in front of the closed door, drop Hemi’s hand, take a deep breath, and twist the door open. I shift so Hemi can walk through first.
Hemi glances at me before taking a cautious step into the room. His caution doesn’t last long, and he moves deeper into the room, turns in a circle, and grins. “It’s green. And there’s paper…everywhere.” He turns to face me, eyes crinkled. “I love it.”
I lean against my desk and cross my arms, glancing around the room, trying to see what he does. What someone seeing this for the first time would feel. The room is colour-drenched in a dark green with a window in front of the desk letting in light. Despite what Daisy thinks, I don’t completely avoid sunlight. The desk takes up most of the room and is covered in paper with my laptop buried under it somewhere. Notebooks dot the room, some piled on the floor, and there are shelves of books covering the right wall. Filled with my special editions and paperbacks, and my favourite books by other authors, books I’ve been collecting since I had the space to do so. My collection doesn’t fit in the lounge anymore.
My whiteboard covers some of the shelves, but unlike when Hemi first arrived, I don’t try to hide it.
The left side has a squishy blue couch I’ve had since I moved out of my parents’ place, and most of the time I end up writing on it. And falling asleep.
“You do?”
Hemi nods and focuses on the poster above the couch. “I can’t believe you have a poster of the fellowship on your wall.”
I scoff. “Like I would put anything else up there.”
“Pretty sure I have a poster of me somewhere.” Hemi moves to the bookshelves and peers at the titles. Carefully avoiding looking at the whiteboard I notice, and warmth settles in my chest.
“Pretty sure it would distract me.” I’d stare at it all day instead of working. I’d never get used to having his face on my wall. I shift the whiteboard, not bothering to hide what’s on it, so he can see the shelves better. “You can touch them. I don’t mind,” I say. His hand keeps lifting, but he always drops it before he can touch the spines.
“Are you sure?” I nod, and Hemi’s eyes crinkle with excitement. He pulls a book off the shelf I haven’t read in awhile, but I remember enjoying it. The cover is bright red and has an embossed sword on the cover. “Did you like this one? I haven’t read it before.”
“I did. Don’t remember much about it, though.” I scan the shelves and find what I’m looking for on the top left shelf. “Have you read this one?” Hemi shakes his head and takes the book when I hand it to him. The spine is creased with some pages barely holding on, but it’s still readable. I’ve had the copy since I was in high school. “It’s my all-time favourite. Unique magic system, found family, little bit of romance, and great sword fights. You can borrow it if you like.”
Hemi lifts his eyes from the blurb. “Really? You’d lend it to me?” He runs a finger down the spine, and I wish his fingers were on me instead of the book. “You clearly love the copy. I’d be scared I’d ruin it.”
“You wouldn’t ruin it. Besides, it’s an old copy.”
“If you’re sure,” Hemi says hesitantly, stroking a finger over the crease running through the middle of the cover from when I shoved it in my school bag too forcefully.
I smile. “I am.” I like the idea of Hemi having something physical of mine when he leaves on a plane to South Africa and out of my life. At least he’d have my favourite book with him to remember me by, even if he puts it on a dusty shelf and forgets about it. It would still be there. I shake the thoughts and rub my hands together. “Now! The reason you actually wanted to see the office.” I find the shelf holding the copies of my books and slip the special edition of the first book out. I hold it out to Hemi, whose eyes latch onto it and widen.
His hand lifts but drops when it gets close to the blue cover with gold framing the character art. “No, I can’t. It’s too special.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s just a book.”
Hemi gapes and stares at me. “Just a book? It’s a special edition ofyourbook. In your office.”
“So?”
“So, I don’t know what to do.”
I laugh in disbelief at what I’m hearing and stalk closer to him to give him the book, but he backs away until he’s cornered against the wall. I press my chest to his, the book by my side. “You touch it, read it, annotate it, take it to the pool for all I care.” I lift the book and grab Hemi’s hand and drop the book, forcing him to catch it.
He fumbles, and it’s a good thing he’s a rugby player and knows how to catch, because the books don’t tumble to the floor. He places the old book down carefully and opens the special edition reverently with light fingers and swipes a finger across the dedication.
“It’s for Daisy, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. She’s done a lot for me. Told me not to give up, so it was natural to dedicate it to her.” I dedicated the book to Daisy even though I knew she wouldn’t read it. She got me through the drafts, the rejections, the endless edits, and it wouldn’t exist without her, so it’s hers.
Hemi smiles at me, a soft look I want to feel on my lips, but I leave him to flick through the pages, to discover the art at the back and the different images below the chapter titles, while I grab the other books in the series for him. I want him to have them, and I’m going to make sure he has them no matter what he says. I don’t need them.
I take the three books from the shelves and set them on the desk while I find a Vivid. I know there are some somewhere. Under all the paper and random shit covering my desk. I should probably clean it but it’ll look the same within the day, so I don’t see the point. I lift an A3 plotting sheet and find a green pen, a red Vivid, and a neon yellow highlighter. The red will have to do.
