Before I Forget His Name novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: A Table by the Lake

I played the recording with Philip beside me, and I did not cry until the old man said the word "engine."

Then I cried for an hour, and Philip let me.

In the morning I knocked on the door across the hall.

It was eight-fifty. I was inside his rule.

Adriano opened it in a black shirt, already dressed, with the look of a man who had not slept.

"Get your coat," I said. "I'm taking you to dinner."

"It's eight in the morning."

"Then we'll find a long lunch."

He didn't ask where. That was the first thing I noticed.

I had picked a small place by the lake that Philip said was good.

I made us take the tram, though Bruno's car idled at the curb.

I read the route off my phone and got us to the right stop on the first try.

Adriano looked at the stop sign, and then at me.

"Don't," I said.

"I said nothing."

"You were about to say that last time I got us lost."

"I was going to say I enjoyed the last time."

"You ate three desserts."

"Four."

I turned my face to the window so he wouldn't see me smile.

The restaurant was empty at noon, and the owner seated us beside a window that looked out on gray water.

I told him I would order for both of us.

"Do you eat fish?" I asked.

"I eat what's put in front of me."

"That's not an answer."

"Yes. I eat fish."

"Do I?"

"You hate it. You say it tastes like a cold hallway."

I put my fork down.

"I said that?"

"At your sixteenth birthday dinner. Your mother ordered you the sea bass, and you pushed it around until your father ate it for you."

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