My Ex-Husband's New Wife Asked Me to Take Him Back novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Both Sides

The power came back at four in the morning, and by eight on Sunday the store smelled like a wet dog and bleach.

I sat on the edge of the loading dock in my father's old canvas coat.

The alley was gray and dripping.

Gabe came around the corner of the building with two paper cups, and he held one out at arm's length.

"Black, no sugar," he said. "The Anchor wasn't open, so I made it on the van's camp stove."

"You own a camp stove?"

"I own two."

I took the cup.

The loading dock has a folding table on it, left from Bernie's bake sale.

He sat on the far side of it, on an overturned milk crate, with his bandaged hand around his coffee.

The table was between us, and neither of us moved it.

"I should say something first," I said.

"All right."

"I was at your mother's funeral."

He looked up.

"I stood at the back of the church," I said. "I wore a black coat and I left before the lunch. I didn't want to make it about me."

"I saw you."

"You couldn't have."

"I turned around during the last hymn." He turned his cup. "There was a dark coat in the back row. By the time I looked again, the pew was empty."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For not saying anything. She was kind to me. She made me those terrible lemon bars every Christmas."

"She hated that recipe," Gabe said. "She only made it because you said you liked it once."

"I was being polite."

"I know. She never found out."

That undid something in my chest.

I took a drink so I wouldn't have to speak.

"Tell me how you saw it," I said. "The end. Not what I think happened. What you think happened."

He thought about it.

"You got the Chicago offer on a Thursday," he said. "You came home with a bottle of wine, and you put the letter on the table, and you said, 'I'd like to do this.'"

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