Forgotten Groom in the Back Alley novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: On the Step
It rained all night, and at eight in the morning Yvette was kneeling on the front step.
I saw her from the second-floor window with a cup of Dot's coffee in my hand.
She wore the camel coat, and the rain had darkened it to brown across the shoulders.
Her hair hung loose and wet, and her mascara had run.
She had not rung the bell.
She was waiting for someone to come out and find her.
A woman with a stroller had stopped at the corner under an umbrella.
A man from the florist's across the street stood in his doorway with his arms folded.
The mail carrier slowed on the sidewalk, and then stopped.
Hazel came up beside me, in her blazer, pinning her headset to her collar.
"She's performing," she said.
"She's also soaked."
"Both can be true." She took an umbrella from the stand. "Come on."
We went down together.
When I opened the front door, the rain blew in, and Yvette lifted her face.
"Jude."
"Get up, Yvette."
"I can't." Her voice cracked. "Not until you hear me."
"Everyone on this street can hear you."
"I don't care."
She said it loud, to the street, so that it carried.
I understood the performance, and I understood that some of it was real.
Hazel held the umbrella over my head and not over hers.
"I'm sorry," Yvette said. "I'm so sorry. For the alley, and the car, and all of it. I was frightened of losing my job. I made terrible choices, and you were the only one who loved me enough to forgive them."
"I didn't forgive anything. I didn't know."
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