He Divorced Me at His Ship's Christening, So I Held the Ship novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: The Festa
The Portuguese hall on Avenida de Portugal smelled of beef broth, fresh mint and sweet bread.
By noon on Sunday there was no room left to stand.
My aunts had been cooking since Friday.
The long tables ran the length of the hall under paper streamers.
At the far end, on a satin cushion, sat the silver crown.
It came out once a year, for the festa of the Holy Ghost.
Ruel walked in beside me in a pressed gray shirt with the sleeves rolled once.
Every head in the room turned.
"They're looking at you," I said under my breath.
"They're looking at you."
"They're looking at both of us. It's worse."
An old man with a white mustache and a tuna captain's forearms took Ruel's hand in both of his.
He shook it for a full minute without saying a word.
Then he spoke, in a heavy accent. "You waited for her horn."
"Yes, sir," Ruel said.
"Good man. Sit."
My aunt appeared with a bowl of sopas in each hand and set them down in front of us with a bang.
She looked Ruel over from collar to boots.
"You eat meat?" she demanded.
"Yes, ma'am."
"You go to church?"
"My mother makes me," Ruel said.
"Good. Eat."
I hid my face in my napkin.
Ruel ate every drop without complaint.
They put me at the head table.
It was the seat my father had always taken at the festa, between the old captains and the priest.
Nobody had sat in it for two years.
When I hesitated, the white-mustached captain pulled out the chair himself.
"Your papa's chair," he said. "It waits."
I sat.
My throat was too tight to thank him.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of He Divorced Me at His Ship's Christening, So I Held the Ship are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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