Ten Years of Public Breakups, Then He Ran After My Bus novel · Chapter 27 of 40

Chapter 27: The Tin

Eben's POV

I stayed at the lighthouse until the tide turned, and then I walked back, and then I did my traps.

It was the only thing I knew how to do.

By dark I had hauled four hundred pounds of lobster, packed it on ice and sold it.

I couldn't have told you one thing about the day.

At eleven at night I sat on the bait bucket at the end of my father's wharf in the cold, in my oilskins, with the Sucrets tin on my knee.

The harbor was black and still.

Up the hill my father's kitchen light had gone out an hour ago.

I turned the tin over in my hands.

Congratulations.

I had said Congratulations.

I'd heard it leave my mouth, and I'd thought: that's right, that's correct, that's what a man says, and then I'd watched her face.

Headlights came down the hill and stopped.

A car door slammed.

Boots hurried across the planks, fast and uneven, and I knew the walk without looking.

"Paulie," I said.

She stopped at the end of the dock, a small round shape in a down coat, with her breath going up in clouds.

She had been crying.

She was still crying, and she didn't seem to know it.

"You said congratulations," she said.

"She told you."

← Chapter 26 · All chapters · Chapter 28 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend