He Abandoned Our Wedding, I Destroyed His Life novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Honest Answer

I stood two steps above him and looked at his face.

I'd known it for five years.

I knew which eyebrow went up when he was lying and which way he turned his head when he was about to cry.

He was about to cry.

"Yes," I said. "I did."

His shoulders dropped.

"I loved you at Coney Island, and in our first awful apartment."

"I loved you the night you sat on the edge of the tub and typed my allergy into your phone."

"I loved you through the first wedding. I think I loved you on the hay bale, a little."

"When did you stop?"

"I don't know exactly. Somewhere between the hay bale and the rooftop. I only noticed when you came home with the cheesecake."

He looked down at the steps.

"I'm sorry, Aud."

"I know you are."

"Ma says you call her."

"Every Sunday."

"She won't call me."

"Then call her," I said. "And tell her the truth first, before she asks."

I went down the last two steps and past him onto the sidewalk.

I didn't look back.

I texted Finn at the corner of Centre Street.

"Done. Coming home."

He wrote back right away.

"Which home."

I looked at that for a long time on the train.

The club's anniversary party was on the second Saturday in October.

The front-desk manager had ordered a sheet cake with 1968 piped on it in green icing.

On top was a photo of Finn's grandfather, scowling, with a racket.

"He'd hate this," Finn said.

"He'd hate that you put his face on a cake," she said. "He'd love the cake."

That morning Robbie played his first junior tournament on court one.

Under-eleven, eight boys from all over New England.

I sat on the left side of the gallery, as promised, between my mother and Chris's mother.

Chris's mother had come up on the bus with a tray of cookies and a homemade sign that said ROBBIE in red letters.

She'd never met him.

"He's family now," she said, when I asked. "I don't need to meet family."

My father sat on the right side of the gallery and refused to move, because he said bad luck was for amateurs.

Robbie won his first match eleven to four.

He won his second in a fifth game, after being down two games to nothing.

When it was over he lay flat on his back with his arms spread out, panting.

Except he wasn't laughing.

He was crying, a little, from sheer relief.

Finn didn't run in.

He stood at the glass with both palms flat on it, and his chin was going.

Robbie won the final in three straight games.

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