I Pursued the Wrong Guy and He Became Obsessed novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Closed

The ballroom came back on all at once, and it was loud.

People were on their feet.

The woman at table two had a hand over her heart. The man at table nine had thrown his napkin in the air.

Somebody started clapping, and then everybody was.

Thatcher did not hear any of it. He had both hands on my face, and he was breathing hard, in and out, with his eyes shut.

"You're here," he said.

"You're here."

"I'm here."

"Say it again," I said. "The thing you said. Now that it's not on the clock."

"I love you," said Thatcher, in a voice that cracked the whole way through. "I love you. It doesn't count for anything and I love you."

I kissed him in front of two hundred phones, and I didn't mind a single one.

Monique's voice cut through the applause.

"Thatcher, you're unwell," she said, shrill and bright. "We all heard it. He's talking about voices, he's confused, Constance, tell them."

The applause thinned.

She was still on the stage, in her cream dress, holding the notebook up over her head.

"Reason two. 'She talks to the ceiling, and I answer.' He needs help. I've been trying to help him for months."

I looked up at the little glass window at the back of the room, where the audio booth sat.

I raised my hand and gave it one small wave.

The speakers crackled.

"Test," said Monique's own voice, loud and clear, from every corner of the ballroom. "Okay, it's on."

Monique stopped moving.

"If Constance asks, I'll say the notebook fell out of his coat. She'll believe anything I say if I cry first."

A murmur went around the tables.

"That woman would sign her own name on a napkin if you told her it was for his health," said Monique's voice. "She wants a sick son because it's easier than a strong one. I don't care if he's sick. Whoever holds the book holds him."

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