Day Seven I Signed It novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Properly

Ivy's POV

The decree came in the mail on the thirty-first day, and I knew because he knocked on my door holding it.

He was in a clean shirt, with two forks in his other hand.

"It's final," Colin said. "I'm asking properly."

"You've got the wrong door," I said. "Yours is across the hall. It sticks."

"I know where my door is."

"Lift while you push."

"I know that too."

I had been pretending to be calm since four o'clock, when I got home from a double and stood in the shower for twenty minutes deciding what to wear.

I'd settled on jeans and a green sweater, and I'd put the sweater on twice.

I stepped back and let him in.

He stopped in my kitchen doorway and breathed in.

"That smells like somebody loves me."

"It's garlic and chicken," I said. "Don't read into it."

He set the forks on the table, next to the two plates and the candle I had told myself I wasn't going to light.

I had lit it.

We ate.

The chicken was good, and I watched him notice, and I did not say a word.

"You said you'd cook it and it'd be good," he said.

"I said it'd be good. Eat the rest."

He laughed, and it was no longer the unsteady laugh from the stairs.

When the plates were empty, he laid the decree on the table between us, face up.

"I wanted you to see it."

"I see it."

"I wanted to say something first, and I'd like you not to answer yet."

"All right."

He turned his water glass a quarter turn.

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