He Mistook Me for My Roommate, So I Called a Stranger Husband novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Day Ninety

I knocked on Quincy's door at seven on Friday evening with a folder under my arm.

He opened it in a gray sweater and bare feet.

He looked at the folder.

"Day ninety," he said.

"Day ninety."

"I thought you'd text."

"I wanted to see your face when I said it."

He stepped back and let me in.

His apartment smelled of garlic and something baking. Two plates were set on the little table by the window, with a candle he'd tried to hide behind a book.

"You cooked."

"I ordered. I cooked the bread."

"That's a gift."

"It's dinner." He closed the door. "I'll let you split it."

I put the folder on the table.

"Sit," I said.

He sat.

I stood on the other side with my hands folded, the way my thesis committee had stood on Thursday.

"Question one," I said. "Why did you send the screenshot and not a letter?"

"Because a letter would have taken me a week, and you'd have found out in the meantime."

"Question two. Why didn't you tell me who you were in the library?"

"Because you'd just said you were a runner, and I'd just seen you flinch."

"Question three. What do you want?"

He looked at me for a long time.

"I want you to stay past Friday," he said. "And the one after. I want to be the person you text first. I want to go to the front row and not the back one."

"That's four things."

"I'm a law student."

I almost laughed.

I opened the folder and took out an envelope.

"This is for you," I said.

He didn't touch it. "June."

"Open it."

He opened it.

Three hundred dollars, in twenties, folded once.

"That's the coffee cart," I said. "The girl at the window told me it came to three hundred even. I looked up the oat latte price and added tax."

"I told you it wasn't a gift."

"I know. It's a debt. And I pay my own."

"I don't want it."

"Quincy."

"You'll never owe me for coffee."

"I'm not paying for the coffee." My voice went rough. "I'm paying so that when I say what I'm about to say, I don't owe you anything. I stay because I want to, not because somebody paid my way."

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