15 Days Before I Left Him novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Tea With Faye

Faye texted on Monday: Could you come for tea? Just you. I'd like to explain myself.

I almost didn't go.

Bea said I should, because a woman with a stage three diagnosis was not going to ambush me with a rolling pin.

"Go, listen, and look at everything," Bea said. "You're gathering information."

Faye lived over the bakery on Lyon Street, up a narrow staircase that smelled like cinnamon.

She opened the door in a cardigan two sizes too big, and she'd put real effort into the tea tray.

There were three kinds of biscuits, a chipped blue teapot, and two cups that didn't match.

"I wasn't sure what you like," she said. "So I got everything."

"Shortbread is fine."

She laughed, then pressed her hand to her stomach and sat down carefully on the sofa.

"Sorry. Mornings are bad. I can't keep anything down until about three."

I sat across from her in an armchair and looked at the room.

It was small and very clean.

On the bookshelf was a line of framed photographs, and in every one of them she was standing next to Roscoe.

The two of them at eleven, wrapped in matching blankets, grinning for the local paper.

The two of them at a high school dance.

Roscoe at nineteen, leaning on her shoulder at a bus stop, laughing.

None of those were pictures of a woman who had been merely rescued.

"I have to tell you something first," Faye said. She held the teacup in both hands. "I didn't know you hadn't agreed."

I waited.

"Roscoe told me you had. That you cried, and said it was the kindest thing you could do for someone dying." Her voice shook. "I believed him. I wanted to. But on Friday, when I saw your face, I knew he'd lied to both of us."

← Chapter 3 · All chapters · Chapter 5 →

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