Chapter 10: Cushion Cut

I remembered her then.

Not the blowout. Not the camel coat.

A woman with a short dark bob, sixteen months ago, in a plain blue sundress for engagement photos.

She'd stood on my platform and asked a hundred questions.

Did I own the shop? Was I married? Did I live upstairs alone?

I'd thought she was being friendly.

The ticket had said "S. T." and a phone number. I never looked at it twice.

"You dyed your hair," I said.

"I'd just gotten engaged to a rich man, honey. I upgraded everything."

She slid into her car.

"Here's the thing. You can keep Clint. I'm done with Clint."

"And Hugh?"

"Hugh is mine, and that baby is his. On December twentieth I'll be standing in that rotunda in the dress you're going to finish for me."

"I'm not finishing anything for you."

"Mrs. Meade paid you in full. Read your contract."

She smiled up at me through the open door.

"Cushion cut, by the way. I always thought it looked cheap on you."

She shut the door and backed the Audi out across the wet lawn, leaving two brown ruts in Mrs. Meade's grass.

Hugh was standing on the porch when I turned around.

I didn't know how long he'd been there.

Long enough. I could see it in his face.

"She picked you," he said quietly.

"She picked me."

He came down the steps and stood in front of me in the wet grass, and he didn't touch me.

"I asked Clint in August of last year," he said. "In my office. If he was still seeing her."

His jaw worked.

"He laughed. He said he was about to propose to someone else. He showed me the ring on his phone."

"What did you say?"

"I said congratulations. I shook his hand."

He looked down at his own big hand.

"I bought him a bottle of scotch."

On Wednesday, a FOR SALE sign went up in Clint's front yard.

Bonnie saw it on her way to derby practice and texted me a photo with nine skull emojis.

"OPEN HOUSE SATURDAY 11-2," the sign said.

At eleven-thirty on Saturday I walked up the front steps of the gray Craftsman behind a young couple with a stroller.

The lock was set to OPEN for the day.

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