Limited Love novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: The Napkin

At seven the next morning, Chadwick was already in the kitchen.

He wore gray trousers and the undershirt from the night before.

He stood at the stove with a pan in his hand and a pen behind his ear.

I came in barefoot, in his shirt.

He looked at me, at the shirt, at my legs, and the pan tipped in his hand.

"Careful," I said. "You'll burn the one thing you can cook."

"I can't cook."

"I know."

I put the napkin on the table, flat, in the sun.

Three terms and a signature, a line through the second one, and under it his careful slanting words, Reserves the right to renegotiate.

I sat down, and I took the pen from behind his ear.

"Sit," I said.

He turned off the burner and sat across from me with both hands on the wood.

"One," I read. "Tonight is tonight."

"That's the first thing you ever said to me on paper."

"It was a lie."

"It was a good one."

"It was a bad one," I said. "You saw through it in a week."

I drew a line through it, slowly, and the ink caught on the soft paper.

"Three," I said. "My room."

He glanced down the corridor at the open bedroom door, where the sheets lay twisted.

"I've been sleeping on a couch."

"You're sleeping in ours," I said.

I crossed it out.

All that was left was his line.

I held out the pen.

"You said you reserved the right," I said. "I'm giving you the floor."

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