After a Year of Silence novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Two Chairs and a Box of Wine

Harper's POV

Six weeks later we moved into an apartment neither of us had lived in before.

We had picked it together, on a Saturday, on the ninth floor of an old brick building by the water.

It had a window seat, a bad radiator and a kitchen the size of a closet.

Quentin had said yes to it before the agent finished her sentence.

"You didn't even look at the bathroom," I said.

"I looked at you looking at the window seat."

I had no answer to that, so I signed the lease.

On moving day, Quinn arrived with a case of red wine and no boxes.

"You were supposed to bring boxes," I said.

"I brought a case. It's a box." He set it on the floor. "It's the heaviest one."

"It's your wine."

"It's our wine. I'm helping you christen the place."

He pulled out a corkscrew from his back pocket and opened a bottle before I could stop him.

Quentin came in carrying a bookshelf over one shoulder, in a T-shirt and old jeans.

I had to look away from his forearms.

"Where does this go?" he asked.

"Against the north wall," I said.

"Which is north?"

"The one with the window."

"They all have windows."

"The one with the window seat."

Quinn drank his wine and watched.

"This is the most married I've ever seen you two," he said.

"We've been married three years," I said.

"No. You've been in a long-distance hostage situation. This is married."

Quentin set down the shelf, very carefully.

"Is he allowed to say that?" he asked me.

"He's allowed to say anything," I said. "That's the price of the wine."

"I'll put it on his tab."

"I don't have a tab," Quinn said. "I have a bar."

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