Chapter 44
At six o’clock on Saturday morning, Kate sat behind the counter in the shop and stared at the door, utterly miserable. She hadn’t slept, she hadn’t showered, and she wasn’t brave enough to go out there and face balaclava man again. In truth, he had her running scared.
He appeared at half past six, exactly as before.
Stopped in the street and surveyed the scene for a minute, scanning to see if she was out there hiding again, most likely.
She pressed her back to the wall as she watched him climb off his bike this time, her heart hammering, her hands shaking, her fingers clasped around her bangle.
He peered through the glass door and for a horrible moment she feared he was going to open it, even though she’d triple-checked it was locked.
He didn’t. He ripped the lid from the trifle and scooped it out with his fingers, smearing it down the door again and again until he’d made as much mess as possible, then chucked the bowl on the ground and stamped on it before getting back on his bike, taking photos of his handiwork and disappearing.
Kate slid down the wall behind the counter and sat on the floor, her arms wrapped tight around her knees.
How the hell had sending that speculative letter to Jojo come to this?
How had agreeing to represent H’s beautiful book led to her sitting alone on the cold shop floor, scared of her own shadow?
She’d spent the last year and a bit scraping herself up after the divorce, and just when she’d thought she was finally getting somewhere, life had gone completely off the rails again.
—
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, startling her.
A video call from Charlie. She stared at his name on the screen, her finger hovering over “Accept,” before she declined the call.
She longed to talk to someone about all the things that had been happening and, in truth, Charlie was the person she wanted to speak to.
He’d know what to say, what to do, but she was having a hard time shaking her lingering anger with him.
Her feelings about what had happened between them had tangled themselves around the complicated trust issues she’d been left with in the aftermath of her marriage.
Charlie had categorically told her that the L.A.
chapter of his life was over, yet it had only taken his ex-wife to open the door and he’d run through it.
She knew it wasn’t as straightforward as that, and she wasn’t proud of the messy, mixed-up thought processes his decisions had raised in her head, but it was what she was.
She’d backed away to protect herself and she wasn’t ready to lower her guard, but now she was out on a limb with none of her usual support system, just when she most needed someone.
She was just trying to summon the wherewithal to haul herself off the floor, when she heard a noise she didn’t recognize outside the door.
She braced instinctively, holding her breath.
Had he come back? Raising her head slowly over the counter, she squinted toward the door, then jumped to her feet.
Someone was hosing the door down, making light work of the cleanup job.
She waited until they’d finished, then flung the door wide to say thank you.
“I saw what happened,” the woman standing there said.
Kate recognized her as the owner of the Chinese restaurant a couple of doors down; she’d seen her taking her kids to school most mornings. She’d trailed a green hosepipe along the shopfronts in order to clean Kate’s door, and was now directing the spray toward the gutter, job done.
Kate nodded, overwhelmed by the kindness of a stranger.
“Thank you,” she said, more of a tearful whisper than she’d have liked. “I appreciate it more than you know.”
The woman smiled, shy, and shrugged. “You’re welcome.”
Kate really wanted to lunge in for a hug, because, in truth, she badly needed one herself. “I’m Kate,” she said instead. “I live upstairs.”
The woman laid her hand on her chest. “Yushu.” She looked away, distracted as one of her children appeared in her doorway and called out to her in Chinese. “Kids. I better go,” she said, smiling again.
Kate wrapped her arms around herself and nodded, watching her neighbor walk away. “Thank you again.”
Yushu probably didn’t realize it, but that single act of neighborly solidarity was exactly what Kate needed to stiffen her backbone. Walking back inside the shop, she flipped the sign over to Open , bolstered by the kindness of a stranger.