The Love We Missed novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Name on the Door

The divorce was final on the second of March, on a Tuesday, and I went to work the next morning at five like always.

On the first Saturday in April, the bistro on Bryant Street opened again.

The name was painted on the front window in gold letters, by a sign man with very steady hands.

AILIE'S.

Ciaran had argued for AILEEN'S.

I'd said nobody would know how to say it.

The truth was, I liked the other one better, and he knew it, and he let me pretend.

The nurses from Tricia's birthday had the big table by the window.

The couple with the twins came from Highland Park, and so did the old woman from next door, in a hat.

Carrot ran the line in a brand new hairnet.

On the chalkboard by the pass, under the specials, Ciaran had written the desserts himself.

Aileen's pear tart. Aileen's sticky bun. Aileen's salted caramel chocolate cake.

He'd underlined my name three times.

Nellie sat on her stool at the bar in a yellow dress, coloring a picture of the restaurant with every window lit.

She'd added a swing to the front that wasn't there.

"It should be," she said.

"Take it up with management," I said.

"Uncle Kee! I want a swing on the restaurant!"

"Put it in writing," he called from the pass.

Patrick came at eight.

He didn't come in.

He stood outside the window in his jeans and waved at Nellie through the glass.

She pressed both hands flat on her side and waved back.

He'd sent white tulips that afternoon with a card. "Congratulations. Every other Saturday, I'll eat here and pay."

Tricia came up beside me at the bar with her phone.

"You need to see this," she said. "Don't make a face. Enjoy it."

It was Bria.

She'd posted a video that morning from the front porch of the house in Highland Park, with the door painted bright yellow behind her.

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