On Our 6th Anniversary, My Husband Gave My Home to Her novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Crib in the Lobby

At dawn Claire and her neighbor Keaton carry the crib to the lobby with the slip taped to it; Grady cancels her pass in front of everyone.

I took a photo of the delivery slip, peeled it off the packaging and put it in my coat pocket.

Then I went out to the living room and said nothing.

Grady came out of our bedroom in his socks.

"You can take the couch tonight," he said. "Summer needs the bed. Her back is bad."

"Our bed."

"It's one night, Claire."

He tossed me a throw pillow.

Then he went back in and shut the door.

I heard Summer laugh softly on the other side. I heard him laugh with her.

I lay on the couch with my coat over me and my hand on my stomach.

I didn't sleep.

At five I got up and opened the study door.

The crib stood in the gray light with its little moon.

Taped to the inside of the closet door was a plastic bag with the assembly key and a spare set of screws.

Whoever built it had been in a hurry.

I knelt and started on the first bolt.

By six I had two sides off and a pile of slats against the wall.

I dragged the first piece down the hall and out the front door.

A door opened across the corridor.

"Is somebody being robbed?"

A tall man in navy scrubs stood in the doorway of 1807. He looked like he had just finished a night shift. His hair was flat on one side and he held a coffee he hadn't touched.

"It's my crib," I said. "Sort of."

"Sort of."

"I'm taking it downstairs."

He looked at the slats. Then at the door to 1806.

"I'm Keaton. I've heard that hammer for three weeks." He set his coffee on the floor. "Where do you want it?"

"The lobby."

"Okay," he said.

That was all he said. He picked up the headboard.

We rode the freight elevator down with the sides leaning on the walls.

The lobby was starting to fill. A man in a suit was waiting for a car. A woman with a stroller was checking her mail. Two neighbors stood by the coffee cart.

We carried the crib out piece by piece.

I put the frame together right in front of the front desk with Keaton holding the corners.

The attendant stared at me.

"Mrs. Lindell, I don't think this is allowed."

"It's a delivery," I said. "It was never picked up."

I took the slip from my pocket and taped it to the rail, order date up.

Six weeks ago, in black print.

Keaton read it over my shoulder.

He didn't ask anything. He just picked up the mattress and set it in.

The elevator opened.

Grady stepped out with Summer on his arm.

She was in a cream robe. Her hair was loose. He had pulled on a coat over his pajama pants.

He stopped dead.

Everyone in the lobby turned to look at him.

"What is this?" he said.

"Summer's crib," I said, loud enough for the stroller woman. "The one she needed because her boyfriend threw her out."

Summer's face went white.

"Claire, I told you why I'm here."

"You did. I'm just wondering why the order for this crib is six weeks old."

I pointed at the rail.

A neighbor leaned in to read it.

Another one lowered her coffee.

"Six weeks ago," the woman with the stroller said slowly. "Didn't you say it was an emergency last week?"

Summer's eyes filled with tears.

She turned to Grady and held on to his sleeve.

"She's trying to make me look like a liar. I'm five months pregnant. I can't take this."

Grady wrapped an arm around her.

"That's enough, Claire."

"Tell them who ordered it, Grady."

His face went hard.

"Take that thing out of here."

"You built it. You move it."

For a second I thought he would hit the crib.

He took a breath and looked around at the faces watching him.

Then he said it calmly, in his business voice.

"Cancel my wife's visitor pass."

The attendant stood up.

"Mr. Lindell?"

"She's harassing a pregnant resident. Cancel it now."

The attendant looked at me. He looked at the phone in his hand.

"Sir, I'd have to..."

"Do it."

He pressed the screen.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

VISITOR ACCESS CANCELED.

I looked at the gate.

The little light on the reader turned red.

"Thank you," Grady said to the attendant. He steered Summer back toward the elevator. "Come on. You should lie down."

Summer looked at me over her shoulder.

She was still crying.

But her mouth was calm.

The doors closed on them.

The lobby was silent.

I stood outside the gate with a suitcase I hadn't unpacked, in a building I owned half of, and I could not get to the elevators.

A hand touched my elbow.

"You can use my couch," Keaton said.

I turned around.

"You don't even know me."

"I know you carried a crib down eighteen floors at six in the morning," he said. "I have a spare blanket. I'll sign you in."

I looked at the red light on the gate.

I looked at the crib.

Then I picked up my suitcase and let him take it from me.

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