Three, Two, One, I'm Gone novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Courthouse Steps
Grant freezes at the courthouse door for a game while strangers whisper; Delia leaves him, and Paige says they must divorce first.
Grant stood on the courthouse steps with his hand on the door and would not pull it open.
People slowed down as they passed us.
"Why aren't they going in?" a woman whispered to her friend.
"He won't move," her friend said. "Look at her. She's the desperate one."
"Poor guy. She's dragging him in there by the sleeve."
They did not bother to lower their voices.
Our appointment at the marriage license office had been for ten o'clock.
It was now twenty to eleven.
Paige stood on the sidewalk below with her phone raised, filming him.
She had done my hair that morning and carried my bouquet from the car.
At the curb she had called "freeze," and Grant had stopped with one foot on the top step.
That was the Statue Game.
After Paige called freeze, whoever moved first lost, and the loser paid a forfeit.
Grant and Paige played, and the forfeit was always something of mine.
"Don't take it personally, Dee," Paige called up to me, sweet as ever. "He's trying so hard to win. Trust me, I'll say go before it's too late."
I climbed back up and took Grant by the sleeve.
"Grant. Look at me."
His eyes stayed on the door.
"I'm asking you once. Are we getting married today or not?"
He said nothing.
He did not even glance at me.
I had known the answer for months, and I had just wanted to hear it with a crowd watching.
I let go of his sleeve and stepped back.
His jaw moved, but he did not turn his head.
"Finish your game," I said. "I'm leaving."
So I walked down the steps and kept going.
Paige called my name once. Nobody followed me.
The trip home took more than an hour on two buses.
Nobody called, and nobody texted to ask if I was all right.
The relocation offer from my company had been sitting in my inbox for a week.
I opened it and replied: yes.
Then I took my suitcase off the closet shelf and started packing.
Half a suitcase was enough.
Three years ago I had moved in with three big boxes.
That was before Paige taught us the Statue Game.
The first forfeit was my necklace, which had cost me three months of paychecks.
The second was the love charm I had climbed ninety-nine chapel steps on my knees to receive.
The third was the silver wren brooch my mother pinned on my coat in hospice, a week before she died.
On the night of that last forfeit I had a fever so high I could barely stand.
I asked Grant to drive me to the ER.
He and Paige stood in the hall and told me to wait, because the round was still on.
I passed out before either of them moved.
He drove me in only after I woke up burning, and the forfeit for that round was the brooch.
I got on my knees and begged.
"That's all I have left of my mom. Please don't do this."
His voice was gentle, which made it worse.
"Can't be helped, Dee. I lost."
"And honestly, I wouldn't have lost if you hadn't gotten sick."
There were too many other times to list.
Once I had asked him why I was the one who always paid when they were the ones playing.
"Because we're one unit, you and me," he had said.
That sentence used to melt me.
Now it turned my stomach.
I had nobody on his side to call about any of it.
Grant said his family was gone, and he changed the subject whenever I asked for their name.
I had just laid the last sweater in the suitcase when the front door opened.
Grant came in with Paige right behind him, both of them laughing.
The laughing stopped when Paige saw the suitcase.
"Oh my God, Dee. It's one game."
"You're leaving over a game?"
She poked Grant in the ribs.
"Go fix it. If she really walks out, who will you cry to?"
Grant put his hand over mine on the zipper.
"Stop. I already rebooked the license office for Monday morning."
"No games this time. I swear."
He still thought I was throwing a fit.
Standing in front of a courthouse crowd for forty minutes while the man I loved stared at a door had not been a fit.
Now that I was leaving, apparently, I was.
I breathed in and swallowed it down.
"Don't bother. We're done."
"Dee, a joke is one thing, but breaking up isn't funny."
I pulled my hand out from under his.
"I'm not joking."
"I'm tired of paying for your games, Grant. I'm not a prize for the two of you to take turns winning."
I twisted the engagement ring off my finger and set it on the kitchen table.
Then I took the cheap replacement charm out of the back of my phone case and dropped it in the trash.
The smile finally left Grant's face.
"Delia Fenwick, you were the one who wanted a wedding in the first place. Don't you dare regret this."
"When you come crawling back, I won't forgive you."
"I won't come back," I said.
Paige stepped between us with her palms up, soft and reasonable.
"Dee, honestly, it was only a joke. You don't need to be this petty."
"Wait until Monday and you two can have your happy ending."
She pushed her hair behind her ear, and the thin gold ring on her right hand caught the light.
It was the ring I had seen on her every day for three years. She always said it was her grandmother's.
"Of course," she said with a smile, "first he and I have to finish our divorce."
Grant looked at the floor.
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