Chapter 4: Take Her

Nobody moved.

Then Brent laughed and clapped once, loud.

"Fourteen days," he said to the room. "You heard her. Mark your calendars."

A few people laughed with him.

The engineer in the back didn't.

The elevator came and I got in with my box.

The last thing I saw was Haley pulling out her phone and turning to Brent with her lips moving fast.

On Friday night Dario took me to dinner.

His restaurant was on a quiet corner in Carroll Gardens, with a green awning and lace curtains in the window.

It looked like a place for grandmothers.

Every waiter in it watched the door.

We sat in the back room at a round table under a painting of the Madonna.

Dario ordered for neither of us.

He waited while I read the whole menu, then asked what I wanted.

"Are you going to tell me what this is?" I said. "You said Friday."

"Brent Stratton is coming at eight."

I put my fork down.

"Here? Now?"

"You can leave," he said. "My driver's outside. Or you can sit where you are."

I thought about the photo cracking in the trash can.

I stayed where I was.

At eight exactly the door to the back room opened.

Brent came in first, in his best navy suit, smiling the smile he used on investors.

Haley came in behind him with a leather folder.

He saw Dario and put out his hand.

Then he saw me.

His hand stayed in the air.

"What the hell," he said.

Dario didn't take the hand. He gestured at the two empty chairs.

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