Limited Love novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Dried Shrimp

On Monday at noon, a runner left my catered lunch on my desk on the thirtieth floor.

It was a sealed cardboard box with my name on the label, the way it had been every day for two years.

I lifted the lid.

Chicken, rice, a lemon wedge.

And in the rice, a handful of small orange-pink curls.

I knew them before I touched them.

Dried shrimp.

In my first life, I found the shrimp before I took a bite, and I made the mistake of being kind about it.

I am so allergic that a shared fryer can put me in the hospital.

The executive chef knew that. The whole kitchen knew it.

I shut the lid on the box and kept my hand flat on top of it.

Then I carried it down eighteen floors to the kitchen, because I did not want to give it to anyone.

The chef looked at the shrimp for a long time.

He was a big man in his fifties, and he swore under his breath.

"Mrs. Higginson, I swear on my mother. That box was sealed in my kitchen. There's nothing in my kitchen with shellfish in it, not this week."

"I believe you."

"Who carried it up?"

"I don't know yet." I looked at the clock. "Is there a camera on the pantry?"

"There's a blind spot over the pantry shelves," he said. "Maintenance has been meaning to fix it since March."

"I know."

He looked up.

I had known that for three years, because in my first life I had stared at footage of that exact pantry and seen nothing but Lacey's elbow.

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