I Prepared for My Wedding, Only to Be Shut Out of My Own Bridal Suite novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Two Million

I read the whole article standing at the counter.

Then I read it again, slower.

Abandoned forty families.

Personal spite.

They'd filed a complaint with the state board too, asking for my license to be suspended for "unprofessional conduct."

Without a license I couldn't stamp a drawing.

Without a stamp I couldn't build the warehouse.

Without the warehouse I had a fern and a room that smelled like cinnamon.

My mother took the paper out of my hands and folded it in quarters.

"What does that man of yours say?"

"He's not my man. He's my client."

"Your client sent you a four-tier cake," she said. "Call him."

I called him.

He picked up on the first ring.

"I saw it," he said, before I said anything. "My lawyer's already read the complaint. She says it's a bully suit. It's meant to scare you into calling the city."

"It's working a little."

"Then let's not let it work a lot." A pause. "Have you eaten?"

"My mother wants to know if you like shrimp and grits."

I hadn't meant to say that.

My mother, at the stove, did not even turn around.

"Tell her yes," he said. "Tell her I'll bring wine."

He came at six-thirty with two bottles and a bunch of grocery store sunflowers.

He had to duck under my mother's front door frame.

My mother looked him up and down.

"You're very tall," she said.

"Yes, ma'am. Sorry about that."

"Don't be sorry. You can reach the top shelf. The good bowls are up there."

He got the good bowls down.

Then he stood in her tiny kitchen and peeled shrimp beside her while she told him he was doing it wrong.

He was.

He left half the tail on every one.

"Did your mother never teach you to cook?" she asked.

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