Chapter 7: Two Million Dollars

Roxy swept up the broken pot herself, and she didn't say a word until the last customer left.

Then she turned the sign to Closed and sat on an upturned bucket.

"Okay," she said. "What did she say to you?"

"I can't tell you."

"Millie."

"I can't, Rox. It isn't mine to repeat."

She looked at me for a while.

"Then tell me about the picture."

I laid it on the counter between the tulips and the till.

Roxy picked it up, and her face changed.

"That's the Starlight."

"I know."

"That's the yellow uniform. I wore that uniform." She turned it over and read the date. "That's the week before the foundation dinner."

"Yes."

"Millie, I remember that week."

I stared at her.

"A woman came in three mornings running and sat at your counter," she said.

"Older. Gray dress, pearls. She tipped you five hundred dollars on a coffee."

"I remember the tip."

"You paid your electric bill with it."

"I thought she was lonely."

"She asked your name. She asked where you were from." Roxy tapped the picture. "I thought it was sweet. I never thought about it again."

"Lots of women wear gray," I said.

"Lots of women do."

We looked at each other.

Neither one of us said the name.

I want to be honest about this.

I knew what I was almost thinking, and I pushed it back down.

Constance had held my hand and called me the best thing that ever happened to her son.

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