Chapter 15: The Fitting

Vera lay back in my chair with her mouth open and her eyes on the ceiling light.

"Don't be nervous," she said around the suction tube. "I trust you."

I clipped the bib around her neck.

I had cleaned a few hundred mouths in my career, and I had never wanted to make one bleed.

"Wider," I said.

She widened.

The scaler was in my right hand. It is a small steel hook, and it is a very good reminder that I am not a violent person.

"Melina's not good at secrets," Vera said, when I lifted the tube. "You are. You always were."

"Don't talk."

"Sig, I'm only saying. We'll all be family in two weeks."

I scraped along the back of her lower teeth.

Her gums were swollen and red, and they bled at the first touch.

"Your gums are puffy," I said. "That's hormonal. It happens."

Her eyes came down from the ceiling and landed on mine.

"It's the cleanse," she said.

"Of course it is."

I rinsed her, and I told her to floss, and I charged her nothing.

On Saturday, the bridal shop had a bell on the door and a long rack of white dresses.

Three fitting rooms stood in a row with velvet curtains.

Vera was already there, with a cup of hot water and lemon on a silver tray.

Tyler's mother sat on the pink couch in her good coat, with a handkerchief in her fist.