Chapter 15: The Envelope

I carried the iPad up the loft stairs and turned on the lamp.

Cal woke all at once, with one hand already out.

"What?"

I held the screen in front of his face.

He read it, and I watched his mouth go flat.

"I wrote that before I talked to you," he said.

"You wrote it this afternoon, and you came home and cooked me eggs."

"I haven't called him back."

"You were going to."

"I was going to, until you said yes to a door and no to Dean."

"That's not what I said."

"It's close."

"Get dressed, Cal."

We went down to the kitchen in our underwear and his flannel shirt, and Pretzel watched from the top of the fridge.

"Where is it?" I said.

"Where's what?"

"The thing that made your crew boss call you twice."

He sighed, took his jacket off the chair and pulled out a cream envelope with an Alaska postmark.

It was thick, and it had been folded in half and put back in his pocket many times.

"They hold a spot for me every year," he said. "It's good money. It's a long way from here."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"Clarissa, I didn't say yes."

"You wrote that you would."

He looked at me, and then at the envelope.

Then he tore it in half.

He tore the halves in half, and he kept going until the pieces were the size of confetti.

He dropped them into the sink and ran the tap.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Everyone Thinks I'm Thirsting Over My Own Brother from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.