Left Behind at the Crosswalk of Life novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Red Light
Nolan hesitates at a flashing crosswalk light while Delaney and Slade cross without looking back, and a stranger with an umbrella covers him as a bank alert says his $48,000 is gone.
The walk signal began to flash while I was still zipping my jacket against the rain.
Delaney was already two steps into the street.
"Run, Nol, you'll make it," she called back. "We'll wait for you on the other side."
Slade had her hand in his.
"Nobody's going anywhere without you, man," he said, and he didn't turn his head.
The number on the signal said six.
I put my palm on the ring box in my jacket pocket to make sure it was still there.
I was going to ask Delaney to marry me on Sunday.
I stood there with my hand on the box, picturing Sunday, and I let the six run down without taking a step.
The number hit zero and the red hand lit up.
A delivery truck rolled through the spot where I should have been standing.
Delaney and Slade reached the far curb together.
I waited for her to turn around.
She never turned around.
In four years she had never crossed a street without checking where I was.
I called her name once, and the rain swallowed it.
Slade's hand slid off her waist and settled low on the back of her dress.
She leaned into his shoulder and laughed at something he said.
They walked under the awning of the wine bar on the corner and neither of them looked back at me.
I had known Slade for eleven years and Delaney for four.
I had just paid for both of their dinners.
My legs gave out.
I went down on my hands and knees in the middle of the crosswalk, in an inch of cold water.
The ring box slid out of my pocket and bounced into the gutter.
A horn blasted twenty feet away.
Headlights swung toward me, and I couldn't make my arms push me up.
Then a woman stepped off the curb into the lane with her palm held out flat toward the car.
The car braked hard and stopped, and the driver leaned on the horn for a long time.
She didn't look at the driver.
She held a black umbrella in one hand and a phone in the other, and the phone was pointed across the street.
She had it raised before she ever got the umbrella over me.
Then she lowered it and slid it into her coat pocket.
"Up," she said. "The light is about to change."
She hooked her hand under my elbow and hauled me to the curb.
A bus hissed past behind us and threw dirty water up to our knees.
She didn't flinch.
She went back into the gutter water and came up with the ring box.
She didn't open it.
She wiped it on her sleeve and pressed it into my hand.
"Keep that dry," she said.
She was around thirty, with red-brown hair twisted up and rain running off her chin.
A plain gold band sat on her left hand, and her thumb kept turning it around and around.
"Thank you," I said. My voice came out wrong. "I'm Nolan."
"Minnie."
She was looking over my shoulder at the wine bar.
"Don't shout at them," she said. "If you shout, they'll just get in the car and go."
"Who?"
"The two you've been staring at for a full minute."
That was fair.
Under the awning, Delaney took her phone out and her thumbs began to move.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
Delaney: Client dinner ran long!! Don't wait up babe, love you xx
I read it twice.
I looked up, and she was looking down at her screen with a small, pleased smile, while Slade kissed the side of her neck.
The garage on the corner released a black Audi, and I knew the Audi.
I had helped Slade pick out its leather.
It pulled up in front of the awning.
Delaney got into the passenger side and Slade held the door for her like a gentleman.
The signal changed to a white walking figure.
So I stepped off the curb and walked toward them.
I made it halfway across.
The Audi pulled away from the curb in no hurry, and its taillights smeared red down the wet street.
For one second I saw Slade's face in the side mirror.
He saw me, and he lifted two fingers from the steering wheel in a little wave.
I stood in the middle of the street with the ring box in my fist.
The umbrella came back over my head.
Minnie had followed me out, and she didn't ask if I was okay.
"That's the third Friday," she said quietly. "They always end up at the same hotel."
I turned and stared at her.
"How could you know that?"
She opened her mouth.
My phone buzzed again, and this time it was the bank.
Transfer complete. $48,000.00 withdrawn from joint savings ending 4471. Available balance: $12.64.
The time stamp said 9:41, which was about when Delaney had said, "Run, you'll make it."
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