Better Than My Ex novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Lydia at the Counter

"A job," I said.

"Anything. I've never..." Lydia stopped and started again. "I'm good with people."

"I know you are."

She flinched.

I stood in the white corridor in my gray dress, and I thought of the beach, and the table, and my back on her phone.

"The bakery opens at four," I said. "The dish pit pays twenty-two an hour. Come through the front door."

"The dish pit."

"Tomorrow. Four sharp. Bring nothing in your hands."

She stared at me.

Then she nodded, once, and sat back down under the Boeing.

The board voted that afternoon, four to nothing.

Bryson could resign by Friday or be dismissed for cause, and no one on the board looked at the lawyer when they said it.

At four the next morning Lydia was standing outside Linden & Rye in the dark, in the same gray coat.

Bridget let her in and handed her an apron.

"Phone in the bin," she said, pointing to a cake tin by the register. "We all use it."

Lydia hesitated.

"It's for my..."

"It's a rule. The oven is hot and the phone is not your friend."

Lydia put the phone in the tin.

The kitchen was warm and loud with mixers, and a flat of dough was proofing on the rack.

She stood in the middle of it with her hands folded in front of her.

I rolled out a sheet of croissant dough without looking up.

"The dish pit is behind you."

"Mara." Her voice was soft and wet, and she lifted her eyes to mine. "I want to say how sorry I am. I wasn't myself. I was grieving, and Bryson was so persuasive, and I..."

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