He Took My Love 99 Times. The 100th Time, He Lost Me Forever. novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Fitting Room

The woman's name was on line fourteen of the log, and her fitting was at noon.

I knew because I had written it in the atelier's book myself.

The shop owner let me in through the back with a long look and no questions.

"Your husband's people called three times," she said. "I told them you quit."

"I did."

"Good. The gown is on the third rack. Don't ruin my floor."

I put on my pins and my measuring tape.

It was the first thing in two days that felt like mine.

The woman arrived at twelve exactly.

She was fifty and elegant, with a driver outside and her husband's name on her ring.

Everyone in the neighborhood called her the Signora, and her husband sat on three boards and owed Fabrizio's family a great deal.

"Gemma," she said warmly. "I heard the most terrible things. Are you well?"

"Step up, please," I said.

She stepped onto the little platform in her slip, and I slid the gown over her head.

It was a dark green silk with a high waist that she had loved so much she'd cried when she first tried it on.

I knelt at her hem with my mouth full of pins.

"You look beautiful," I said.

"I feel it. Do you know, I feel wonderful lately." She laughed, a little breathless. "Thirty years married and I've started to adore my husband. I wake up and I just want to look at him. Isn't that ridiculous?"

My hands went still on the silk.

"How long has that been?" I said.

"Oh, six months. I thought it was my age."

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