Chapter 20: Lamp Out

Abigail's POV

I picked the diner on Dunmore, the one where Derrick had lied to me over cold coffee.

Nolan stood at the door in a navy tie, looking at the sign.

"This is the place," he said.

"It is."

"You could have chosen anywhere."

"I want the last memory here to be mine."

He took that in.

Then he opened the door and held it, and I walked through on my own two legs.

We took the booth in the corner.

The waitress had served me through three bad nights in a row.

She took one look at his tie and brought two slices of pie without being asked.

Nolan ate the whole slice.

He told me about the worst intern he had ever trained, who had once scrubbed in with his shoes on the wrong feet.

I told him about the man who called 911 at two in the morning to settle a bet about whether a hot dog is a sandwich.

"What did you say?" Nolan asked.

"I said yes, and he hung up on me."

He laughed so hard he had to put his fork down.

I watched his face while he did it, the scar pulling at his eyebrow and the lines at his eyes.

The want I had been carrying for weeks went hot and steady under my ribs.

He saw it.

He stopped laughing.

"What is it?" he said.

"Take me home."

"Your place or mine?"

"Yours," I said. "It's closer."

He didn't laugh, and he paid the check without looking at it.

His apartment was on the fourth floor of a quiet building, and the elevator took forever.

I stood against the back wall and he stood against the front one, with a whole elevator between us.

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