Fifteen Days to Divorce novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: No Contract

"I'm not here for anything," Reese said.

She did not take her hood down.

"I quit the franchise. I told the studio what I did, all of it, in writing. My agent says I'll be doing dinner theater in Fresno."

"I'm sorry," Portia said.

"Don't be." Reese laughed, one wet breath. "I wanted to say it without a microphone."

"I sat beside you for a year and brought you your coffee order like a friend."

"The oat milk."

"One pump of vanilla. I picked it off a receipt in your trash."

Portia looked at the cup in her hands, and at the girl holding it.

"You let her use you," she said.

"Then you stood on that stage and told four thousand people. Both of those are true."

"I know."

"I'm not ready to be friends."

Reese nodded, fast.

"But the coffee was good," Portia said. "Next time ask me what I want."

Reese pulled her hood down.

She was crying and smiling a little.

For the first time, she looked twenty-nine years old.

On Sunday, Frances cooked for nine people and invited four.

Ellie came in a cardigan with a pie dish of her own.

"Competition," Frances said.

"Collaboration," said Ellie.

They sat at the long table in Frances's back garden under a string of lights.

Malachi came last, in a clean white shirt, with flowers wrapped in newspaper.

He held them out to Portia.

"They're from the yard," he said.

"It's your yard."

"I stole them from my own yard. I wanted to see how it felt."

Frances laughed so hard she had to put down the gravy boat.

Ellie told the story of the eight-year-old Malachi who had asked a bus driver for directions and walked home in tears.

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