In The Storm, My Husband Locked Me Out And Chose Her novel · Chapter 5 of 24
Chapter 5: Gutter Trade
Orin came across the road at six with a pot of chowder and did not knock.
Maeve had left the door unlatched for him.
"He's always been like that," she told me. "Shows up, feeds you, leaves. I once found a whole bluefish on my steps with a note that said gutters."
"The note said sorry about the gutters," Orin said, and set the pot on the stove.
"It said gutters."
"It was a long fish."
I laughed before I could stop it.
The sound surprised me, and I put my hand over my mouth.
Orin ladled three bowls and did not look at me, which was the kindest thing anyone had done all week.
When we had eaten, I put the laptop between the bowls and played him the curb footage.
He watched with his spoon down.
At 18:14 he stopped it with one finger on the trackpad, on Lorna's hand closing the front door.
"That's a seat somebody saved," he said. "Not one you lost."
"Leander's whole rule is that I lose it."
"Then it's a rule for taking a seat that was already taken."
Maeve pointed her spoon at him.
"Say that again, slowly, for the jury."
He said it again, slowly.
I looked at the little frozen picture of a woman in a camel coat sitting where I should have been, and my stomach hardened into something I could use.
"Saturday night is the Foundation's harvest gala," I said. "Four hundred donors, in a ballroom, with a big screen behind the stage. Leander's mother gives a speech about family. Leander is on the program."
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