Quitting this Family after Being Abandoned for Laughs novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Door Closes

The call with the regional director took forty minutes.

It ended with Declan saying, politely, that he would see him at the review.

We both worked until eight, because the rule said we could stop then.

Declan did not touch me again for the rest of the day.

He did not have to. Every time I looked up, he was already looking at me, and I felt it in my stomach.

At eight he put on his gray coat and held mine open, and we walked the two streets in the dark with our shoulders pressed together.

My new building was a narrow stone house with a green door and a staircase that smelled of fresh paint.

The building manager had left the key in an envelope.

The note said the flood was fixed and the water was hot.

I climbed to the third floor with Declan one step behind me.

I got the key in the lock on the second try, because my hands were not steady.

The apartment was small and white and nearly empty.

There was a bed, a table, a lamp and a window over the harbor.

My one suitcase waited in the corner where the hotel had sent it.

I turned on the lamp.

Declan stood in the doorway with his hands at his sides.

"You can still say not tonight," he said.

"I know."

"And it would be all right."

"Declan." I crossed the room and took hold of his coat. "I have wanted you since you stood at arrivals with a cardboard sign. Stop standing in the door."

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