I Gave Him Half My Liver, Then He Sold My Father's House novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: What Remains After the Applause

Adrian Pike sets a signed notice beside my untouched coffee before I can ask why he is in Cormac's kitchen.

The paper lands squarely on the table. His hand leaves it at once.

I am wearing Cormac's shirt. It reaches my thighs, and the collar still smells faintly of his soap. My body remembers the night in scattered facts: the bedroom door closing, his voice against my hair, the point where neither of us spoke because speech had become less useful than touch.

We slept together.

The sentence sits in me without apology.

Cormac stands by the cooker with two mugs and a face that has lost the careful arrangement it wore yesterday. He looks at the notice, then at Adrian, then at me.

'Mr Pike,' he says.

'Cormac.'

Adrian pulls out the chair opposite mine. His paper diary is tucked under his arm, thick with loose pages and pencilled entries. He places it beside the notice but keeps one hand over it.

'I assume this is not a social call,' I say.

'It is not.'

'Good. I dislike being dressed for one.'

Adrian's mouth shifts by a degree. It is the closest he comes to smiling.

Cormac puts the second mug in front of me. Coffee. Black. I lift it, smell it, and set it down again.

'You have made tea,' I say.

'I have made an attempt at tea.'

'It has the colour of an argument.'

'You drank three cups of it last night.'

'I was distracted.'

Adrian watches the exchange without pretending not to. Then he taps the signed notice with one blunt finger.

'Gregor Vale has been suspended from the firm with immediate effect. Adrian Pike and I signed it at six forty this morning. The third partner signed shortly after.'

I pick up the page.

← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →

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