Don's Regret Came Too Late novel · Chapter 5 of 32
Chapter 5: The Bakery Back Room
The bell rang behind him and Silvia.
The line stood there in silence.
Then an old man at the front put his blood pressure slip on the counter and said, "I'll come back Monday."
One by one, they all left.
I flipped the sign to CLOSED at 12:51 on a Friday, for the first time in forty years.
Papa was wiping a spotless counter with a spotless rag.
"Papa."
"I was going to tell you."
"When?"
He put the rag down.
"Five years ago the bank was going to call the loan. The roof, your mother's chemo. I was three payments behind." He looked at his hands. "He came to me the week before the wedding. He said a Pellegrino shouldn't owe a bank. He said it was a gift and I could pay him whatever I wanted, whenever."
"And you said yes."
"I said no. Three times." He shrugged, small and old. "He stood in the rain outside that door for three days to marry you. I knew he'd stand there until I said yes to this too."
I remembered the rain. I'd thought it was the most romantic thing a man ever did.
"I'm sorry, cara," Papa said. "I wanted you to marry a man, not a bank."
I hugged him across the counter.
Then I went upstairs, took my white coat off, and put my good black dress on.
"Where are you going?" Papa called up the stairs.
"Bensonhurst."
The bakery on 18th Avenue had a line out the door for sfogliatelle.
Behind the glass cases, a doorway with a bead curtain led to the back.
Two men in shirtsleeves sat on folding chairs on either side of it.
They watched me walk past the line. Everybody in that bakery knew whose wife I was.
One of the men stood up.
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