Never Yours Again novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Served Colder

"Ellis?"

He didn't look up.

"Where did you get this jacket, Lucy?"

His voice was careful.

"What do you mean?"

"Where did you get it?"

I came into the lamplight and took it from him, and I held the inside of the collar toward the bulb.

Two letters were stitched into the silk in dark blue thread.

E.R.

I had looked at them a hundred times and never thought about them.

"It's from the night I met Rhett," I said. "At the Lakeshore Gala, five years ago."

"Tell me."

"Why?"

"Because I need to hear you say it."

He sat down on the arm of the couch.

I had never seen him unsteady, and I didn't like it.

I wrapped his shirt tighter around me and told it plain.

"I was twenty-two. I was the junior planner on the floor."

I looked at the lamp instead of him.

"A waiter bumped me and a whole tray of red wine went down my sleeve. The head of my firm said I'd be let go if I stained one more thing."

"You ran."

"I ran. I found a balcony at the end of a hall, with no lights on."

I swallowed.

"I stood out there and cried, and I told myself I was being stupid."

I swallowed.

"Somebody came out behind me. I never saw his face, because the balcony was dark."

My voice had gone small.

"He didn't say a word about the crying. He took off his jacket and put it over my shoulders. I said the wine in my glass tasted like regret."

Ellis closed his eyes.

"And he said," he said slowly, "'Then it should be served colder.'"

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