He Kept the Firm, So I Booked His Engagement Dinner novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Bill

I sat down at the head of the table.

I wanted every one of them to see me sit.

The first course was oysters under a glass dome of smoke.

By the third course, the family had stopped looking at the view and started ordering.

"The wagyu pairing," said an uncle, raising two fingers at the waiter. "And the Macallan, the old one. Cora's treat."

"The champagne flight for the whole row," called a cousin. "She won't mind."

"Bleed her dry," somebody else said, laughing, in the low voice of a person who knows they are overheard.

Nadine moved along the table with her tablet and wrote every order down.

She wrote very slowly.

"Six years of marriage," a woman near the middle said, loud enough to carry, "and this is the first useful thing she's done."

I cut a piece of scallop and chewed it and said nothing.

Rodrick sat three seats down with his arm around the back of Kelsey's chair.

He had not once looked at me since the first course.

Kelsey looked at me constantly, with a small bright smile.

"I just think it's sweet," she said to the table, "that Cora's being so mature. Rodrick took me here for my birthday, and it was nearly two thousand dollars. I couldn't believe it. And now we're all here, for free."

"For free," an aunt agreed, and clinked glasses.

At the end of the table Marguerite rose and tapped her glass with a fork.

The talk faded.

Forty-two faces turned to her under the string lights.

"I wanted to say a few words," she said, "about family."

She looked down the table at me, and her eyes were full.

"This girl has been my daughter for six years. We've had our troubles, and I know today was hard. But look at her. She came. She sat down with us and she is paying for all of this with a smile." She lifted her glass. "To Cora, who makes it all possible."

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