Finally Moving On After A Decade novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: The Letter
Brooks came to the shop at ten, and he came in by the front door.
He stopped under the bell with his hands out of his pockets, holding a gray backpack in his left one.
"I'm told you have a policy about people who walk in unannounced," he said.
"I have a policy about people who walk in with chairs to be fixed."
"I don't have a chair."
"Then you're early for the next policy."
He nearly smiled.
It was the first time I had seen it reach his eyes.
I set down the plane I was working with and wiped my hands on my apron.
"Say it, then," I said.
"I'm leaving. Seattle first, then wherever the company sends me. I sold my stake in the Portland projects on Friday." He looked at the benches, the lathe and the chairs lined up on the floor. "She will stop calling when there's nothing at the other end, and nothing there is the only thing I've never tried."
"You stayed for ten years."
"I stayed because I thought if I left, she'd find someone else to be afraid of." He shrugged one shoulder. "She found you anyway. I should have walked up to your door the first week, and I stood across the street and let a cafe window do my talking."
I leaned on the bench.
"I'm not going to say it's fine," I said.
"I'd think less of you."
"You baited her on a stage in front of six hundred people."
"I did."
"You let me stand there and think I was losing the only person I had."
"I did that too." He did not look away. "I'm sorry. Sorry doesn't pay for any of it. So here is what I have."
He unzipped the backpack and took out a black laptop and a small gray drive.
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