Chapter 24: The Corner Booth

I got to Alder at ten minutes to seven, and Harrison was already there.

I saw him through the glass before I opened the door, sitting upright in the corner booth with his hands flat on the tablecloth.

He was in the grey sweater, not the suit.

There was no phone beside his plate, and no briefcase, and no coat thrown over the other seat.

There was a glass of water, and a candle, and one folded napkin on the empty place at his right.

Ada was awake in her carrier on my arm, in a small green hat with ears that Margaret had knitted.

The hostess knew me before I said a word.

"Your husband's been here since a quarter past six," she said.

"Has he?"

"He asked us not to light the candle until you came."

I looked across the room.

Harrison had seen me.

He stood up so fast that the water glass rocked, and he caught it, and I laughed out loud in the doorway of the restaurant.

"You're early," I said, when I reached the table.

"I told you I would be."

"You said you'd be early. You didn't say you'd sit here for half an hour with nothing to read."

"I stared at the ceiling," he said. "I was just waiting for you."

He took the carrier from my arm with both hands and set it on the seat beside the wall.

Ada looked up at him and frowned at her own hat.

"She hates it," Harrison said.

"She loves it. She's furious that she loves it."

I slid into the booth, and I sat on the side I had never once chosen.

The window was in front of me.

Across the square, lit gold from within, the long curved roof of the library rose against the winter dark.

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