Pipe Burst Guest novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Dock

The Varrone dock at Camden had a single light on a pole and a long black gap where the river began.

It was past midnight when the car let me out.

Nico stood at the very end of it in his shirtsleeves.

His back was to me and his hands were in his pockets.

I walked down the planks, and he did not turn.

"Your driver told me you'd gone home," I said.

"I did."

"This is your dock."

"It's the nearest place to think."

I held out the sheet of hotel notepaper.

"You don't need a guest anymore," I read.

"Yes."

"You wrote that and left a key on a table."

"I thought it was the decent thing to do."

"Decent." I folded the note in half.

"You got through my husband, my best friend and a dead man in my ballroom."

"And?"

"And the thing you decided to run away from was me."

"I'm not running."

"What do you call it?"

He turned around.

The light was behind him, and I could not see his face, only the line of his shoulders.

"I call it leaving before you ask me to," he said.

"Why would I ask you to?"

"Because you've won."

"I've won what?"

"Thirteen full chairs, and the whole table doing what you say. I watched you do it. You were better than your father."

"Thank you."

"I'm trying to tell you something." His voice was rough.

"Then tell me."

"I heard them say it in Fishtown, and I've said it to myself every night since."

"Say what?"

"The first time you are weak, you go back to what you know."

I waited.

"I watched you look after him as he left," he said.

"For one second."

"For one second I watched your face, and I knew I'd been right."

"Nico."

"A woman like you wants her own table."

"I have one."

"You'll want a man beside you on Sundays who knows the old words."

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