Skipped by the Altar, Taken by His Uncle novel · Chapter 5 of 24
Chapter 5: The Same Window
I got to City Hall on Monday at 10:20, and the clerk was already laughing at me.
"He's been here since 10:02," she said through the window. "He asked me if that was too early. I told him it was the first smart thing an Eckert's done in this building."
Reuben was on the same wooden bench I'd sat on Friday.
Clean white shirt, sleeves down for once, buttoned at the wrists. The cracked watch.
He had a bouquet across his knees wrapped in newspaper. Zinnias, sunflowers, a few stems of basil.
He stood up when he saw me.
"Farmers' market," he said. "Ms. Huff said no lilies. She said it like a threat."
"It was."
"The basil was the woman's idea. She said it smells better than roses and you can eat it after."
I took them.
They smelled green and hot.
I wore the pale blue sundress again.
I'd thought about it all Sunday. Then I'd decided a dress shouldn't get ruined just because a man didn't show up for it.
Connie came in behind me in cargo pants and a black blazer, camera across her chest.
"I'm the witness," she announced to the hallway. "And the photographer. And security."
"We only need the one," the clerk said.
"You're getting all three."
Sunday's Courier had come out with Blaine's front-page wrap anyway. His face, the backdrop of my father's store, A FAMILY MAN FOR A FAMILY TOWN.
The wedding announcement wasn't inside. I'd made sure.
Instead, on page four, somebody at the Courier had run a short item about "an emotional moment" at the Eckert birthday party.
It didn't say my name. It said "a guest."
"Pritchard and Eckert?" the clerk called.
This time two of us stood up.
The room behind the window is small and plain. A flag, a fake ficus, a window over Court Street with the blinds half drawn.
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