Chapter 22: Forty-One

Tilda's POV

I wore the nine-thousand-four-hundred-dollar dress to the Lakeshore gala, with the tags still tucked into the side seam.

It was the same dress I had walked out of the engagement gala in, a month ago.

It still fit.

At the coat check, a woman I recognized looked up from her rack.

"Ticket?" she said.

I had left mine at home.

"I'm afraid I don't have it. Forty-one, I think. A camel coat."

"Forty-one," said Quincy, beside me, and held out a small yellow stub between two fingers.

I stared at it.

"You kept it."

"It's been in my wallet since the night of the gala."

"Why?"

"It was the only thing of yours I was allowed to keep."

The attendant found my coat on the first try.

"It took me two tries last time," she said. "I've been practicing."

The pier pavilion stood out over the lake on steel pilings, with white lights strung down both rails.

A fireworks barge was anchored a hundred yards off.

Two hundred donors in black tie drifted along the planks with glasses in their hands.

The band had set up at the far end on a low stage.

The same band leader waved at me with the microphone.

I took out my clipboard.

"You're not going to," Quincy said.

"I'm going to do a brief walk."

"Tilda, you are on a list."

"That's why I'm walking."

I started with the planks.

The seventh from the entrance rocked underfoot.

I knelt in a nine-thousand-dollar dress and put an orange sticker on it.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Chaos Girl Rewrites the Script from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.