The Pen Pal Who Turned Out to Be My New Boss novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Red Pen

Marguerite edits Hallie's feature at her desk, and the publisher announces a sponsored Lark column.

Dear Late Shift,

If you are reading this, I have probably done it badly.

I am better on paper than I am in a room, and you know that about me by now.

I did not want to be a stranger to you on Monday.

Whatever you decide, the mailbox is still yours.

Lark

I read it twice at my desk with my hand over my mouth.

Then I closed the message and did not answer, because I did not know which of us I would be writing to.

On Tuesday morning Marguerite came out of her glass office with a printout in one hand and a red pen in the other.

She walked straight to my desk, and the whole bullpen stopped typing.

"Ms. Park. Your ferry piece."

"Right. Yes. Good morning."

"Good morning."

She laid the pages on my desk and leaned over them.

Her sleeve stopped an inch from my arm, and I smelled cedar again.

I kept my eyes on the paper and my breathing very quiet.

"Cut the first paragraph," she said.

"It sets the scene."

"It sets a mood. Nobody on a ferry sets a mood, they hold coffee."

The red pen crossed out four sentences in one stroke.

I felt it in my stomach, somehow.

"The second paragraph is where you start," she said. "A man gets on the Vashon boat with his dog every morning and the dog has a seat."

"He buys it a seat."

"That's the story. Start there."

"Okay."

"Your verbs are good. Your adjectives are a little afraid."

Robin's chair creaked from the next desk.

I could hear her trying not to laugh.

Marguerite turned a page, and her wrist came into view, narrow and pale against the white paper, with a thin gold watch on it.

She wrote a word in the margin and straightened up.

"Friday," she said, and walked away.

The bullpen started typing again, a little too loudly.

Robin rolled over and hissed, "She called your adjectives afraid."

"She's right."

"She's mean, and she's right, which is the worst kind."

"She's not mean."

I said it too quickly.

Robin looked at me for a long second and I looked at my screen.

Then I looked at the margin.

Beside the paragraph about the man and the dog, in small neat red letters, she had written a note.

"Honest."

I put my thumbnail against the ink.

At four o'clock Gordon called everyone to the middle of the floor.

He stood on a chair, which he did when he had news he thought was good.

"Friends," he said. "I've been talking with a media partner about the future of The Lantern."

The room got the particular silence of thirty-one people doing math about rent.

"The partner's name is Brightline Media, and they love us."

He pointed at the corner of the floor where the Ask Lark page was taped to the wall, enlarged to poster size.

"Specifically, they love Lark."

My neck went cold.

I did not look at the glass office, but I knew where Marguerite was standing, with her arms folded behind the door.

"Starting next month," Gordon said, "we'll add a new feature called Lark Presents. Readers send in their problems, Lark answers them, and a brand sponsor helps pay for it."

"What brand?" someone asked.

"A great one. A wellness app. You'll love them."

Robin muttered, "Oh no."

"It's an honest relationship," Gordon said. "Advice, but make it work for us."

I looked up then, through the glass.

Marguerite had not moved.

She stood absolutely straight with her face smoothed into nothing, and one hand pressed flat against the wall behind her.

She had not known.

I could tell from forty feet away that she had not known, and that she was holding herself up with her palm.

Gordon came down off the chair, still talking, and shook two hands.

When he turned, he found me instead of her.

He smiled.

"Hallie," he said, easily, in front of everybody. "Got a minute later? I'd love to talk about the future with someone from the junior staff."

I nodded, because that's what I do.

His smile stayed on me a second longer than a smile should.

Behind the glass, Marguerite's head turned, and she was looking at us, and I did not understand why that frightened me.

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