The Boy You Starved for Him novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Counter Seat

Nobody in the diner spoke.

The woman who had hugged him on Friday looked at Dexter, then at her soup, and did not say "oh, honey."

Norman wiped his hands on his apron.

"One meal," he said. "Sit down at the end. When you finish it, we talk."

Dexter stared at him.

"You threw me out of here."

"I did. The kitchen is still mine, and so is the stool. Sit."

Dexter sat on the last stool, with the duffle between his feet.

Norman put a plate in front of him without being asked. It held two eggs, toast and potatoes, and a glass of water.

I got off my stool, walked down the counter, and sat on the stool one over from my brother.

We looked at the pie case.

Dexter picked up the fork and put it down again.

"You don't have to stay," he said.

"I know."

"Norman could handle it."

"He could."

He began to eat. He ate fast, with his head down, so no one would see how hungry he was.

I watched him, and I found I did not feel anything I had been promised I would feel.

He pushed his plate an inch away and reached into the duffle.

He took out a white envelope and laid it on the counter between us.

"It's six hundred and forty," he said. "I sold the coat and the watch. That's what's left."

I did not touch it.

"I took forty-five hundred of yours over three months and sent back three thousand," Dexter said. "This is meant to cover the other fifteen hundred. It's less than half. I know."

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