He Chose His Ex, So I Chose My Empire novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Her Terms

Jo arrived at the warehouse at six the next evening with a small black velvet box and the face of a woman who'd been up all night.

"I panicked," she said. "I want that on the record."

I opened the box.

Inside, on the velvet, was a steel key ring.

A plain one, the kind they sell at the hardware store on Third Street for four dollars.

I looked at her.

"You said a ring," Jo said. "You said the kind you ask with. I thought about it for nine hours. Then I realized you wanted something that opens a door."

"You could have just asked me."

"Where's the fun in that?"

I took the key ring out of the box.

It was cold and light and perfectly ordinary.

It was exactly right.

"Jo," I said. "I could kiss you."

"Save it," she said. "Imogen's bringing him at eight, and she says he thinks it's a leak."

...

I set the room myself.

The church-sale tables in their square.

One lamp, the old brass one from the grant writer's desk, at the head of the square where I always sat.

The purple sign on the brick.

Through the big windows, the lights of the Bay Bridge.

At eight the freight elevator groaned.

Hugh came out of the cage in jeans and a raincoat, holding a bucket.

He actually had a bucket.

Imogen was behind him with her phone up, already filming, until I looked at her.

She lowered it.

"I'll be downstairs," she said. "Shouting at a plumber. For realism."

The gate closed on her.

Hugh looked at the dry concrete floor.

Then he looked at the lamp and the square of tables and me, standing at the head of it in my blazer.

He put the bucket down very slowly.

"There's no leak," he said.

"There's no leak."

"Imogen's very convincing."

"She's had practice on you."

I didn't ask him to sit.

I didn't sit either.

I took the brass key out of my pocket, my first one, on its faded blue ribbon.

Then I took out the new one.

It was cut that afternoon, at the hardware store where Jo had found the ring.

The key to my apartment on Potrero Hill.

I slid it onto Jo's steel ring and held it out across the corner of the table.

"I'm asking," I said.

Hugh didn't move.

I watched him understand what was happening.

I watched him try very hard not to look as if he already knew his answer.

"These are my terms," I said. "Listen to all of them before you say anything. You're good at waiting now."

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