Kiss Me One Last Time novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Rowhouse

By nine that night, my mother's kitchen had a folding chair, a space heater, and a cot with her quilt on it.

Lester had carried everything over from his own basement and apologized for each piece.

"It isn't much," he said, setting down a lamp.

"It's a lot."

"I'll be next door. Bang on the wall."

"I will."

He stood in the doorway a moment longer.

"Your mother would have liked to see you in this room," he said.

Then he went home, and I sat in the circle of the lamp and ate crackers with my pills.

The house settled around me, ticking and creaking.

I heard a car stop in front at ten.

I heard a door shut, and heels on the steps, uneven.

Someone knocked.

I knew the knock before I opened the door.

Sabrina stood on the stoop in a camel coat with her hair coming loose from its clip.

She had no makeup on.

She looked younger and worse, and for the first time in years I saw how thin her wrists were.

"Can I come in?" she said.

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to be sick if I stand out here."

I let her in.

She walked through the dark rooms, trailing a hand along the wall.

In the kitchen, she lowered herself onto the folding chair.

"It's ugly in here," she said.

"It's my mother's."

"Mine's the one who took it."

I stared at her.

She didn't meet my eyes.

"I'm not here to apologize," Sabrina said. "I want that clear."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because you were right at the lawyer's. I faked it."

"I know."

"I did it because Mom looked at me," she said. "She does this thing with her eyebrows. I've done what that look says since I was six."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Kiss Me One Last Time from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.