Chapter 23: Paid in Full

I took the fire stairs two at a time, and I was out of breath at the top.

The flat was dark except for one lamp.

Hugh stood by the kitchenette with the laminated card in his hand.

He had drawn a line through every item in pencil.

Coat. Elevator. Truck. Ring. Flat. Walk-in. Gail.

At the bottom of the column, in his small square print, he had written: Paid in full.

"You can't mark it paid," I said. "I only paid the one."

"You paid the first one on a table with the whole lake watching."

"Seven items, one payment."

"It was a very good payment." He set the card down. "The rest I forgave. I'm a literal man, but I'm not unreasonable."

I walked across the room and put my cold hands flat on his chest.

"I told Gail no," I said.

"Cora texted me."

"Cora texted you?"

"She said you were magnificent. She used that word."

"I stood in a cemetery and said the word petty three times. I didn't feel magnificent."

"Come here."

I came.

He kissed me slowly, the way he hadn't yet, with his hand in my hair and no hurry in it.

It was nothing like the kiss in the walk-in, or the one in the fire stairs, or the one on the table.

It was the first time neither of us had anything to settle.

"I want to take my time," he said against my mouth.

"Then take it."

He undid my coat and let it drop.

He undid the buttons of my blouse one at a time, and kissed each place he uncovered.

My collarbone.

The curve of my shoulder.

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