Chapter 16: A Mother's Request

Cory pushed the green door open with his shoulder, already talking.

"Monique, babe, listen, whatever she told you..."

He stopped on the threshold.

Monique and I stood side by side by the counter, and each of us had a phone raised, with the red dot lit.

"Hi, Cory," I said. "I'm documenting."

He looked at the two screens.

He looked at the velvet box open on the counter, and I watched him do the sums.

"You're ganging up on me," he said. "That's what this is. Two women in a room."

"A moment ago you were calling me babe," Monique said. "Now it's two women in a room."

"You know I love you."

"You told two men I was convenient."

"I never said that."

"It's on a recording," she said, "from the Cellar. You said it about Cassia. I'm only quoting the part where I laughed."

He took one step toward her, and I did not move my phone.

He saw that.

He stopped, and for the first time since the party he did not have a face ready.

"Put it down," he said to me, and his voice cracked. "Cassia. Please. Put it down."

"I put mine away at the coat check," I said.

Monique set a ring of keys on the counter beside the box.

"The lease is half yours," she said. "Do what you like with it."

He stood in the dark green doorway for a long moment, and then he walked backward into the hall.

He did not slam the door.

I stood still until the elevator had gone all the way down.

Monique sat on the floor with her back against the cabinets and laughed until it turned into something else.

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