He Ranked Her First, I Chose Myself novel · Chapter 7 of 24
Chapter 7: The Regulars
Six hundred heads turned to the back of the room.
Fitz didn't seem to notice them.
He came down the aisle with his hands in his pockets.
My mother reached me first and wrapped me up in her blue coat.
"How do you know?" I said.
"Eleven-forty, the chanting started. I took the welder a ginger ale."
He stopped one row away. "You had your hand on his gauze and your phone in the other hand. I looked at the clock over your sink. I always look at clocks. Old habit."
"Eleven forty-one."
"Eleven forty-one."
My mother let go of me and looked him up and down.
"Who's this?"
"Fitz, Mom. He owns the bar where I do the clinic."
"The bar." She narrowed her eyes. "Are you the one with the pickled eggs?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Does anybody eat them?"
"No, ma'am. Nobody's eaten one since 1994."
She considered that.
"Good," she said. "I like a man who keeps a tradition."
Wednesday, I went to the clinic like always.
At seven o'clock the back room was full.
Not with patients.
With regulars.
The welder sat on the steel table with his thumb held up for inspection.
The woman who took her pills twice a day sat on an upturned crate.
Two retired cops from the corner booth leaned against the shelves.
A guy from the tire shop held a tray of cupcakes his wife had made.
They had a hand-lettered sign of their own taped under mine.
WE KNOW WHERE SHE WAS.
"You guys," I said.
"Don't cry," the welder said. "You'll get it in my stitches."
"Your stitches came out last week."
"Then you'll get it in my scar."
I laughed and took his hand and looked.
Six neat knots had left six neat dots.
"Beautiful," I said.
"Tell that to my granddaughter. She says it looks like a centipede."
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