She Plans My Promotion, I'm Planning Divorce novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Drawer

The box in Claire's hands was small and black, and it was not from the silver shop.

"It isn't a gift," she said.

Rain ran off the awning in a sheet between us.

"What is it?"

"Look."

She tipped the lid open with her thumb.

The watch inside had a steel case and a plain white face, and the leather strap was cracked at the buckle hole.

I knew it before I had finished looking.

I had bought it on a Saturday in our first year, from a street vendor's cart on Michigan Avenue, for a hundred and forty dollars.

I had given it to her at dinner, on our first anniversary, because I had not been able to afford anything from her shop.

"You lost that," I said. "You told me you lost it."

"I lied." Her teeth were chattering. "I've worn it every day for four years. It goes under my left cuff. You never saw it, because you only ever look at my face."

I did not say anything.

I was looking at her wrist, where the damp sleeve clung to the bone.

"I'm giving it back," she said. "It's the only thing I own that you paid for yourself. I didn't know if you'd want it, but it's yours."

She held out the box.

I took it, because it was mine.

"Thank you," I said. "It doesn't change anything."

"I know."

"You're not looking at me."

"I'm trying not to. I'm trying to let you not look at me." She laughed, wet and awful. "You can't hear me now, can you?"

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