Chapter 10: Arctic Avenue

Silvio drove me back to Arctic Avenue.

I was in the same wrinkled blouse, with my hair down my back.

He kept one hand on the wheel and one hand on the gearshift.

Once he reached over and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear.

Joyce's silver Lexus was parked on Dorset Avenue when we passed the corner.

I didn't look at it.

I looked at Silvio's profile instead, and he didn't look back at me.

"Don't get out with me," I said, when we pulled up in front of the shop.

"I'll wait."

"You'll be seen."

"I'm always seen, Deirdre."

I got out alone and walked to the door of Keogh Bridal.

The whole block could see me do it.

The sign in the window still said OPEN.

Hazel had flipped it that morning, before she knew what Gail would do.

Gail was standing on the sidewalk with a banker's box in her arms.

She was crying in a very controlled way.

I stopped on the pavement, close enough to see the mascara on her cheeks.

"What's in the box?" I said.

"My things."

"Why are your things on my sidewalk?"

"Because I'm not allowed in the shop anymore, honey. Joyce's man was in here with the letter."

"He said the lease is cancelled, and I have to move my whole life out of the back office by Friday."

"You're the tenant."

"I'm the tenant, and I'm the one who has to say sorry for everything." She shifted the box against her hip. "I'm sorry, Deirdre."

The bell over the door rang behind me.

Hazel came out onto the step.

A bride-to-be followed her, with her mother trailing behind.

The bride-to-be wore a pale ivory suit.

Her mother wore a blue blazer, and she had her hand on her daughter's elbow.