Page 77 of The Photograph

When she again touches my arm, I catch her hand, but she pulls it away and we stand up at the same time. “No, I’m all right. But thank you.”

She glides to the door and when she pivots to me, I step toward her.Anything.

“Gabe, what did you do with the painting?”

What?I edge closer. “What painting?”

She tilts her head to the side. “I… Your birthday gift.”

The day I terrorized her she’d brought me a gift.Another punch through my chest.

“Yes, I left it…” She waves her fingers toward the door. “Don’t worry. I’ll grab it on my way out.”

I follow her to the coat closet where she pulls out a large package wrapped in brown paper and bright yellow ribbon as well as a smaller package.

As she straightens up with her fingers clutched on the edge of the canvas, she bites her lip and her face colors.

I want to know. I need to know what you were going to give me.

“Aelin, I’d understand if you don’t want to give it to me after how I treated you, but I’d really like to have it anyway.”

Please.

She narrows her eyes. “Why?”

Because the loss of you is killing me, and I want something of you from when you thought I was good.Before I can answer, she hands me the packages. “All right, but if you don’t like them, just…” She shrugs. “Bye.”

After the elevator doors close, I stride to my living room where I lay the painting on the dining table to unwrap it. And get sucker punched. Again.

It’s a depiction of Holloway gardens from the balcony of the master bedroom which invites the viewer to lean over a woman’s shoulder who gazes at children playing in the gardens. The scene is captured with a late afternoon light of the end of summer and it’s almost the exact memory I have of my mother at Holloway. Aelin’s somehow intuited it and given form to one of my most precious memories.

And I lost her.

A tear rolls down my cheek as I unwrap the second package, it’s a set of a tie pin with cufflinks in the same crystal she had her brooch made with my initials engraved, stylishly entwined in the cufflinks and the pin.

She put the card in her purse, and I wish I could have read what it said before I became the monster who destroyed everything.

Back to my office, I call Erica in.

“Find out everything you can about a charity called The Other Rainbow. I need this information asap.” She scribbles on her notepad. “Also, I need you to call Rhys, our event manager and organize a meeting for tomorrow.”

As she gets to her feet, I add, “Erica, don’t make Aelin or Cara wait. If either need to see me, let them in.”

She nods. “Understood. It won’t happen again, Gabe.”

Chapter Seventeen

Aelin

It’s been nearly two weeks since I’ve seen Gabe. October fifteen came and went, and our lives have returned to almost normal.

Work is picking up slowly, and I have a couple of new clients. The Peters, new parents expecting twins and need an all-genders—or would that be no gender—nursery and an older couple, the Cabos who want to transform a floor of their house into an apartment for their daughter—a doctor, they proudly announce—and her family.

Thanks to the CoW stamp on her resume, Cara’s in demand and busier than ever, .and has been hired to ‘create a catering experience’ for one of the largest IT conferences in the country. The organizers gave her a huge budget and a team of forty or so people for the event which will welcome next to fifteen hundred expected attendees. Although she’s stressed out of her mind, she’s embracing the challenge.

Around 8:00 PM, I climb out of my Lyft to meet with Mitch. We’ve been meeting as often as we can. Between our non-nine-to-five respective jobs and me trying to avoid Gabe while Cara doesn’t want to see Mitch, we navigate our platonic Romeo and Juliet situation with remarkable flexibility.

Tonight, we’re trying a new bar where the servers will recite a personalized poem based on our names and order. I arrive first and request a table on the terrace. The space is sophisticated without being pretentious. The cream walls are covered in framed quotes by famous artists and writers. I love the silver bar and wood stools. The lower patio reminds me of pictures of islands. The colors are diverse and varied with tall plants strategically placed to hide patrons while giving them an unobstructed view of passersby.

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