The Men Who Walked Out novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Lunch With Gordon

Gordon had booked the table by the window of the busiest restaurant in downtown Providence.

He stood up as I came in, and half the lunch crowd turned to look.

I had told Elliot where I was going.

"He's charming," Elliot had said, handing me his car keys. "That's what bothers me."

"Then he's charming and he's useful," I'd said. "I need him to be useful."

I sat down across from Gordon.

He had called my new number, and I had let it ring twice.

I picked up on the third.

"I wasn't sure you'd come," he said.

"I wasn't sure either."

A waiter filled our water glasses.

Gordon reached for the bread basket at the same moment I did, and our hands collided over it.

His was the left, and so was mine.

"Two lefties," he said, laughing. "That's a hazard at any table."

I pulled my hand back and let him have the bread.

He tore a piece in half and didn't eat it.

"I'll say this plainly," he said. "I don't want you to feel handled."

"Then don't handle me."

"Thirty years ago I walked out on your mother."

I didn't say anything.

"She was twenty-four. We lived in one room above a hardware store."

"I had a job offer in Singapore, and I told myself I'd send for her."

He turned the piece of bread over.

"I left a letter on the kitchen table, and I got on a plane. I never sent for her."

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