He Gave His Female Best Friend My 5th Anniversary Trip, Then Bet I Wouldn't Leave novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Table for Twelve

Taryn stood on the landing in a gray hoodie with her hair in a knot and no makeup.

She was holding a small velvet box with both hands.

Behind me, Levi came to the doorway of the spare room and stopped there.

She looked at him once and then looked at the floor.

"I didn't come to fight," Taryn said. "Derek gave me this Sunday night, the day after the barbecue. He said it was for later, after the divorce. He said it would keep me quiet."

"Open it," I said.

She opened the lid.

It was a thin gold band with a small stone, the kind a man buys on his lunch hour.

"I want to give it back," she said. "I want to say I'm sorry. I didn't think about what it did to you. I thought about him."

"I don't want your apology on a landing."

"Then where?"

I thought about the text on my phone from Derek's mother, which I'd read an hour before.

*My birthday dinner is Thursday at six. The back room at the Italian place on Elm. I want his whole family to hear it from the two of you, not from him.*

"Thursday at six," I said. "Bring the box."

She nodded and went down the stairs without another word.

On Thursday the back room was long and warm, with a table set for twelve.

Derek's mother sat at the head in a green dress, with a cake she hadn't let anyone light.

She had put Derek at the far end, beside an empty chair.

She stood the moment I came in and kissed my cheek, then took my hand and seated me at her right.

"This is a family dinner," Derek said down the table. "Mom, she isn't family."

"She is the only one I'm sure about," his mother said.

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