Five of Us at Christmas, But They Only Ordered Four Cookies novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Chad's Box

Chad had been standing there for a while.

His nose was red, and the cardboard box had gone soft at the corners from his gloves.

"I know you're on at eight," he said. "I'll be quick."

"Okay."

"Can we stand over there? By the bench?"

I followed him to the bench outside the clinic's window and did not sit.

He set the box on the slats.

Inside it were my gray sweatshirt, the paperback I'd lent him in March, a phone charger, and a white envelope with my name on it in his neat project-manager hand.

"That's everything of yours I could find," he said. "I went through the whole apartment."

"Thank you."

"The envelope is the rest."

I picked it up.

It was a cashier's check from his credit union, made out to me.

Five thousand two hundred dollars.

I read the number twice.

"That's ten months of Lacey's share," he said.

"Chad."

"It's what you paid for her. You shouldn't have been out of pocket one cent for her, and I helped her do it."

"You didn't owe me this."

"I did."

"You didn't take the money."

"I took the story," he said. "I'm the one who bought the cookies and wrote the note. I could have called you. I could have said, 'Han, the cookies have four slots, what's happening?' I sat there and I ate one."

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