I Was the Genius Couple's Forgotten Bride novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Eight-Thirty

Nessa quits in front of the whole institute at Monday's all-hands and hands the director her badge; Lydia says gently that she'll be back by the fifteenth; Keith carries her box to the car; her bank app then shows her $21,000 moved out of the joint account into 'the lab reserve.'

On Monday the whole institute was standing in the atrium at eight-thirty.

The director held the all-hands there on the first Monday of every month.

I walked in through the revolving door in my gray cardigan and my work shoes.

Forty people turned around.

They had all seen the video.

You could tell by how quickly they looked at the floor.

The director stood on the second step of the staircase with her tablet.

"Nessa," she said, with great relief. "You're back. Wonderful. Could you start the visitor list for the Founders' Dinner?"

"Good morning," I said. "I'm not staying."

I walked past the front desk, my chair and my plant.

My mug said WORLD'S OKAYEST RECEPTIONIST, which Calvin had given me as a joke.

I stopped at the foot of the staircase.

I took the badge off my lanyard and held it up, so the people in the back could see it.

"I'm giving my notice. It starts now. I'm sorry for the short warning."

The director blinked. "Is this about the wedding? Because I'm sure Calvin can..."

"It's about three years of fetching tea for people who didn't know my last name," I said. "Does anyone here know it?"

Nobody said anything.

A lab tech in a Red Sox cap started to raise his hand.

The woman beside him elbowed him down.

"It's Colby," I said, and I set the badge in the director's open palm.

Somebody clapped once, alone, and stopped.

Then Lydia was beside me.

She had come down the stairs without a sound, in a cream blouse.

Her hair was freshly done and her eyes were a little pink.

"Dee-Dee," she said, very low, so only the first rows could hear. "You're upset. That's allowed."

"Take till the fifteenth."

"I don't need till the fifteenth."

"You will. The rent's due on the first, and you've spent everything on the wedding."

Her smile was tender.

"You'll be back by the fifteenth. I'm not being mean, sweetheart. I just know you."

She said it so kindly that two people in the third row looked at me with pity.

I looked at her silver pen, which was already in her hand.

"Write that down," I said. "The fifteenth."

Her smile didn't move.

Then the elevator opened, and Calvin came out with a coffee in each hand.

He saw the crowd and the badge and my face, and he stopped.

"Dee. Not here."

"You said eight-thirty," I said. "It's eight-thirty."

"We were going to talk."

"We can. Tell me, in front of everyone, what my job title is."

"Receptionist," he said, a little too fast.

"What did I do on the Hartwell grant?"

He opened his mouth.

I waited.

"You answered the phones," Lydia said gently, and put her hand on his arm.

"I proofread forty pages and found two wrong tables," I said.

"I never put it on my timesheet, because nobody asked."

I picked up my mug from the desk, and I put it in my bag.

"Good luck with the dinner," I said. "I hope somebody remembers to bring the guest list."

I walked out through the revolving door.

I didn't make it to the curb before I heard footsteps.

Keith Sallow came down the steps with a cardboard box in his arms.

It held my plant, my stapler, my spare cardigan and the sticky notes I'd saved for three years.

"I got your desk," he said. "I figured you wouldn't want to go back for it."

"You went through my drawers."

"I asked the woman in facilities, and she packed it. I carried." He shifted the box. "Where's your car?"

"Visitor lot."

"Of course it is."

We walked. He was a tall man, and he slowed down for me without saying so.

"Thank you for sending the video," I said. "I hated it. I'm glad I saw it."

"I thought you'd rather hear it from someone who didn't laugh."

"Did you want to laugh?"

"I wanted to put him through a wall," Keith said mildly. "But I have a new lab and a lease."

I laughed, and it surprised me enough that I had to stop walking.

"You gave me coffee," he said. "The first morning, before I'd said a word."

"You told me, black, no sugar, don't tell anyone I know that."

"You looked like a black coffee man."

"I'm a very easy man to buy a coffee for."

"I noticed."

He put the box in my trunk and closed it carefully.

"If you need somewhere to sit, there's a desk in my lab," he said. "I mean that."

"I don't need your pity, Dr. Sallow."

"It isn't pity. I need someone who knows where things are."

"I'll think about it," I said, and I meant no.

He stood there another moment and then went back in.

In the car I opened my banking app to see how long I could last.

The checking account was fine.

I opened the joint account, the one we had filled for the lab equipment and the wedding.

The balance was zero.

Under Recent Activity, one line from Saturday night, the night I walked out, said TRANSFER TO SALTONSTALL-FRANE LAB RESERVE: $21,000.00.

It was my entire savings.

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