Chapter 5

That afternoon, I went to a law firm. The transfer records for the renovation weren't hard to organize. Of the $41,800, $9,000 was given to the foreman in cash. Fortunately, I had kept the receipts and chat logs from back then. The lawyer's last name was Boyd. After flipping through the documents, Attorney Boyd asked me: "Are you taking the furniture and appliances with you?" "Anything that can be dismantled stays as is." "Depreciated value?" "Depreciated value." "Are you certain it wasn't a gift?" I pulled up the text Ryan sent me three years ago. "You cover the renovation first. When my end-of-year bonus comes in, I'll pay you back slowly. We're going to live in the condo together anyway." Attorney Boyd nodded. "This is enough." She printed out a legal demand letter. While I was signing it, my phone buzzed incessantly. Ryan had sent over a dozen messages. "The screenshots aren't what you think." "Your brother always exaggerates when he talks." "I didn't want to kick you out." "Jessica is taking Leo to sleep in the guest room tonight." "I didn't let her touch the master bedroom." The last message read: "Come back, and we'll talk face to face." I didn't reply. Attorney Boyd slid the documents into an express mail envelope. "Where should I send it?" I gave her the address of the condo we were supposed to live in. She slapped the shipping label on. "It will arrive tomorrow at the earliest." I nodded. When I walked out of the law firm, the breakfast wrap stand downstairs was just setting up. The iron griddle sizzled. The vendor asked if I wanted it spicy. I said I wanted extra spice. With the first bite, it was so spicy I coughed. Adrian called. "Have you eaten?" "I'm eating." "What is it?" "A breakfast wrap." "You really are easy to feed." "Get to the point." "I left the keys to the company apartment with the building manager." "HR said you're arriving on Monday, so I pushed the Monday morning meeting back to ten o'clock." "Why?" "Afraid you'd get lost." "I know how to use GPS." "Fine, nine o'clock then." I let out a laugh. He paused for two seconds. "Nora." "What is it?" "Are you really coming?" "The HR email already went out." "No." There was the sound of typing on a keyboard on his end. "I mean, are you not getting married?" I took a bite of my wrap and didn't make a sound. "The wedding leave application in the company group was withdrawn." "News travels fast." "So?" "So I'm not getting married." He didn't ask for the reason. After a while, he said: "Then I'll see you Monday." "Yeah." "Also." "What?" "That director's office you turned down three years ago is still empty right now." "You left it to gather dust?" "It was originally kept for you." I swallowed the last bite of my breakfast wrap. "Adrian." "Hmm?" "Don't say things like that." "Like what?" "The kind that gives people the wrong idea." He laughed. "Then just misunderstand for now." The call ended. I folded up the paper bag and tossed it into the trash can. ***