My Husband Timed Our Marriage, So I Ran Out the Clock novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Green Dress

Hannah's POV

Joy took me dress shopping on Thursday, and she did not let me leave the shop empty-handed.

"Not black," she said, flicking hangers along the rack in an Astoria shop with a cracked mirror. "Black is for funerals and women who want to disappear."

"I want to disappear a little."

"You want to arrive, and then she disappears."

She pulled out a dress the deep green of a pine branch.

It had a high waist, long sleeves, and a back that dipped low.

I put it on, and the sleeves hid my hands, and I stood very still.

"Oh," Joy said, and her eyes filled up. "Okay. That one."

"It's too much."

"It's exactly enough. It's the first thing I've seen you want in six years."

I paid for it with my own card.

That night, Drew found me in the depot's empty office with the dress on a hanger and the question written on an index card.

"Say it out loud," he said, and sat on the edge of the desk.

"How many minutes does Hannah have left this year?"

"Again, slower."

"How many minutes does Hannah have left this year?"

"Now ask it like you don't care what she answers."

"I do care."

"I know. Ask it like you don't."

I tried it a third time and my voice stayed steady.

"That's it," he said quietly. "That's the one."

"What if she laughs?"

"Then she laughs, and the whole room hears what you asked."

"And Stewart? He's going to have the phone in his hand."

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