He Sent Me the Green Dress, So I Took His Company novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The White Box
On their tenth anniversary Tilda gets a green silk dress, goes to the dinner, reads her vows aloud to the table and walks out; Gavin texts that he has told everyone she is unwell.
The courier rang at nine that morning, while the short ribs were already braising for our tenth anniversary dinner.
I signed his tablet with flour on my fingers.
He handed me a white box tied with ribbon.
The label was in the neat print of Gavin's assistant.
I had expected flowers.
Inside the tissue paper lay a green silk dress, the color of a wet leaf.
I lifted it out, and my hands went cold.
When I was eight, my father's mistress came to our kitchen in a green dress exactly like it.
She sat at my mother's table and waited for him to come home.
I stood in the doorway in my pajamas, and nobody sent me upstairs.
Under the dress lay a cream card in Gavin's handwriting.
Happy ten years, Tilda. Wear this tonight.
I photographed the dress, the box, the label and the card before I touched anything else.
Then I called my husband.
He picked up on the first ring, bright and easy.
"Did it come? Odette helped me choose. Don't you love it?"
"It's green," I said.
"You told me you love green."
"I never said that."
"You said it last spring, in the car." His voice went gentle, the way it did when he thought I was tired. "You don't remember?"
I did not own one green thing.
I had not owned one in twenty-six years.
"Dinner is at eight," Gavin said. "I booked the private room. A few people from the office, a surprise. Wear the dress, babe."
He hung up before I could answer.
I stood in my kitchen and looked at the dress for a long time.
My father had left me his vote in his company when he died.
Gavin ran the company, because I had let him.
I did not wear the dress.
At eight I walked into the restaurant in my navy dress, with the white box under my arm and my vows in my purse.
I had written them at two that morning, and I had cried while I wrote.
The private room had a long table, candles and nine guests.
Three were my father's board members, with their wives.
At the far end sat my father's operations chief, alone, with a glass of water.
He was the only one not smiling.
Gavin sat in the middle, and beside him sat Odette.
Odette had been his assistant for three years.
She brought me coffee whenever I stopped by the office.
She had asked me twice for the photo of my dad at the lake, because she loved hearing about him.
Tonight she wore a green silk dress.
It was the twin of the one in my box.
"Tilda!" She jumped up and hugged me, warm and quick. "Oh no, you didn't wear it. I told Gavin you'd hate green on you, but he insisted."
Gavin stood and kissed my cheek.
"There she is," he told the table. "She's been a little off this week, so be patient with us."
He said it lightly, and nine people looked at me with kind faces.
I set the white box down in front of Odette's plate.
"Gavin, I wrote vows for tonight," I said.
He laughed. "Babe. Not now."
"Now," I said.
I unfolded the page, and the room went quiet.
I read the first line aloud.
"I will be on your side for the next ten years, whatever comes."
I looked up from the page.
"I promised to be on your side," I said. "It turns out there's a woman standing there in my dress."
Nobody moved.
"When I was eight, a woman wore a dress exactly like it to my parents' kitchen. She was my father's mistress. She sat at my mother's table until he came home."
Gavin's face did not change.
He did not ask which woman.
He did not ask what dress.
"Tilda," he said softly. "Sit down. You're upset. We talked about the dress, remember? You said you loved it."
"I never said that. Not once."
"Honey, you did."
I looked around the table.
Two of the wives glanced at each other.
The board member next to Gavin studied his plate.
Only the operations chief watched me, and he looked angry, but not at me.
I slid my wedding ring off my finger.
It was tight, and it took a moment.
I set it on top of the white box, between Odette's glass and Gavin's.
"Ten years," I said. "Happy anniversary."
I folded my vows in half and put them back in my purse.
I walked out past the hostess stand and into the cold.
My hands were shaking in the parking lot, and I let them.
My phone buzzed before I reached the car.
Gavin had texted: I've told them you're not well. Come home and we'll sort this out quietly.
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