Chapter 5

On the last Friday in June, the restoration exhibit opened at an independent bookstore in Boston.

Walter and June arrived early. June pulled out a recent photo and held it up next to a picture of her younger self in the album. Laughing, she asked Walter if she'd aged so much he could barely recognize her.

"Not a chance," Walter said. "You still complain I can't take a decent picture of you."

I laughed along with them and led them to the front row. The seat beside theirs was saved for Evan, with his name already taped to it.

The flowers he'd sent arrived right on time. The florist told me he'd come in yesterday to pick them out himself and had made a point of asking when they'd be delivered.

I looked down at the card.

It read, "So proud of you, Nora."

Just then, my phone rang.

A pipe at the hotel had sprung a bad leak. An entire floor of guest rooms was out of commission, and the performance space downstairs had been affected too. Guests had already arrived, and Evan had to be there in person to approve the show's cancellation and the guests' relocation.

I could hear someone on his end telling him to hurry.

"Is anyone hurt?" I asked.

"No. I'm sorry, babe. I have to get to the hotel right now."

I nodded. Even though things had been rough between us lately, there was no way I'd ask him to leave those guests stranded.

The exhibit started on time. I showed people the old books and the album and answered their questions. Whenever I caught sight of that empty chair, I looked away.

Near the end, Evan called again. "The manager's taken over. I just need to check in with the partners. I'll make it for the photo."

I finally smiled. "Really?"

"Yeah. I'll be there."

As soon as I hung up, I texted him where to park, and I asked Walter and June to wait a little longer.

They didn't rush me at all. They even pulled me over to sit with them and said I'd done a beautiful job on the restoration. Now their grandkids could finally flip through those old pictures without worrying.

I kept them company, but I couldn't stop glancing at the door.

A few minutes passed. Then a few more.

Walter checked his phone and quietly reminded his wife that their daughter had arrived to pick them up. June waved it off and told him to give it a little longer.

My heart sank when I heard that.

"Let's not wait. Let's take the picture."

The store clerk raised the camera and asked if the empty chair should be moved. I peeled Evan's name off and said yes, go ahead. Then I went to stand beside Walter and June.

When the shutter clicked, I was still smiling.

Only after I'd seen them off did my smile begin to slip.

By the time Evan rushed in, the guests were gone and the store owner was folding up tables. I was crouched by the display, packing boxes, when I heard him say, out of breath, that traffic had been worse than he'd expected.

"When did you leave the hotel?"

Evan told me. It was almost an hour after he'd called me.

"Was there something else you still had to deal with?"

"Work was all squared away." He crouched down to help me. "Chloe was worried the canceled show would affect her future work at the hotel, so I talked with her for a bit."

"Is something wrong with her contract?"

"No. Then she started talking about the audition. She thinks maybe she should give up dancing altogether."

I looked at him and couldn't say anything.

Was I remembering it wrong? He had asked me what I needed from him. I'd told him as clearly as I could. And still, after the work was done, he'd stayed behind to comfort Chloe.

"She was in really bad shape," he said quietly. "I wanted to wait until she was a little better before I left. I didn't think it would take that long."

"Why didn't you call?"

"I thought I'd make it."

The tears came all at once.

"Evan, I'm the one who asked them to wait for you. I kept saying you were almost here, so they didn't feel right leaving."

Evan reached for my shoulder, and I pulled away.

"This did matter to me," he rushed to explain. "I picked out the flowers. I remembered the time. I really did want to be here."

I looked at him, and the more he said, the worse I felt.

Evan remembered, yet he still forgot to call me. He wanted to come, yet he still chose to stay with someone else a little longer.

The store owner came over with the keys and asked if there was anything else we needed help with. I wiped my tears, put the flowers in a box, and asked Evan to carry everything out to the car.

The next day, I still had the flowers in water. I couldn't bring myself to throw them out, but seeing them hurt, so I moved them to a window I rarely walked past.

That morning, I called Ruth Callahan.

She ran a bookstore in Portland, Maine. She'd mentioned before that she had a spare workbench and a room upstairs she could rent out short-term.

"Is it still available?"

"It is. Are you coming up?"

I opened my mouth. Only then did I realize how hard it would be to say it out loud.

"I might be moving out."

Ruth was quiet for a moment. Then she asked if it was because of Evan.

I said yes.

After I hung up, I checked my savings and reviewed my unfinished orders, and I booked a consultation about separating. These were practical steps toward leaving. Every time I completed one, it hurt a little more.

I'd never imagined that one day I'd be getting ready to leave him like this.

That evening, Evan came to me with pictures of a beach rental. He wanted to take me away for a night, just us, before the vow renewal.

"Just the two of us. We can really talk. Okay?"

I looked at the ocean in the pictures. We'd been there before, and he still remembered which stretch of beach I liked.

I agreed.

But when Ruth asked whether she should keep holding the room, I told her yes too.