Ch. Mr.chatterbox for her, Mr.Icebox for me? Ice melts and so did my love. 58 Mr.chatterbox for her, Mr.Icebox for me? Ice melts and so did my love. 58

Chapter 9 

Three days later, Thursday afternoon, Marcus called. 

“He signed. Meet tomorrow at ten, courthouse.” 

“Okay.” 

I hung up and went out to Casey’s balcony, stared at the sky for a while. 

Nice day. There was a little strip of green across the street. 

Casey asked if I was happy about it. 

I didn’t know what to say. 

That night after my shower, I was sitting in bed when my phone lit up. 

Eric texted me. 

Diana. See you tomorrow. 

I stared at it for a long time. Didn’t text back. 

A couple minutes later, another one came through. 

I kept that photo. The one from 0521. 

You smiled when you set that password. I remember. 

I put my phone on the pillow and turned off the light. 

Lying there in the dark, I kept thinking about the first day I moved in. 

I’d typed in 0521, looked over at him, and smiled. 

He smiled back. 

Then he walked over and said, “That’s easy to remember,” hit reset, and put in 0912. 

That smile just died right there. 

Chapter 9 

But I didn’t say anything back then. 

Next morning, the sky was gray. 

I tied my hair up in a ponytail. 

Casey asked if I wanted her to come. 

“I’m fine.” 

I got to the courthouse at 9:40. 

Eric was standing at the bottom of the steps. 

He looked thinner. Dark shadows under his eyes. 

He was holding this huge bunch of sunflowers. Bright, almost blinding yellow. 

I stopped halfway up the stairs. 

“Got it right this time.” 

His voice shook a little. 

I looked at the flowers. 

The petals were full and thick, glowing at the edges where the sun hit them. 

They were wrapped in brown paper. Plain. No ribbon, no card. 

Nothing like that fancy bouquet of baby’s breath. 

“You want them?” 

I stared for a few seconds. 

“No.” 

His arm dropped a little. The bouquet knocked against the edge of the step. 

One petal fell off, bright yellow, and landed on his shoe. 

“Let’s just go in.” 

When we got to the door, he reached out to pull it open. 

Chapter 9 

I saw that one of his cufflinks was undone, his sleeve hanging loose, showing part of his wrist. 

Back when we were together, I used to check his collar and cuffs and tie before he left the house. 

My fingers curled up tight in my pocket. 

I didn’t take them out. 

When we grabbed a number, there were two couples ahead of us. 

I sat down on one of those plastic chairs in the waiting area. Eric sat next to me but left one seat between us. 

He set the sunflowers on the empty chair, leaning them against the armrest. The flower heads tilted sideways. 

“Diana.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Your birthday and Jenna’s-they’re the same day.” 

“Yeah.” 

“If I’d just thought about it one more second-if I’d realized 0912 was your day too-maybe we wouldn’t be sitting here 

right now.” 

He kept his head down, hands folded on his knees. 

“But that’s not really the problem. The problem is, even if I had realized it… when I saw those four numbers, the first person who came to mind would still be her. Not you. I can’t change that.” 

I didn’t say anything. 

“So you think we should do this too.” 

He went quiet for a long time. 

“Yeah.” 

They called our number. 

The clerk checked our IDs and the papers, stamped everything, printed out the copies. One for each of us. 

When the seal came down, it made this little click sound. 

Softer than the beep when you reset a door lock. 

Chapter 

The whole thing took less than fifteen minutes. 

When we walked outside, the sun came out from behind the clouds. 

He was still holding those sunflowers. A few more petals had fallen off. 

“So what are you gonna do now?” 

“Stay with Casey for now, then find my own place.” 

“You need help with anything?” 

“I’m good.” 

He nodded. 

“You know what the password was?” 

He looked at me. 

“0521. The one you changed.” 

His face went completely blank. 

“I locked you out with the password you didn’t want.” 

I started walking down the steps. 

I got about ten feet when I heard him call out. 

I stopped but didn’t turn around. 

“Sunflowers-did you always like them?” 

The wind picked up. It smelled like wet grass. 

“Always did.” 

He didn’t say anything else. 

I kept walking. 

There was this little flower shop on the corner. They had a bucket of sunflowers sitting out front. all of them leaning toward the sun. 

I stopped and picked one out. 

15:57 

Mr. Chatterbox for Her, Mr. iceberg for Me 

Chapter 9 

The guy running the shop asked, “Just one? You sure that’s enough?” 

“Yeah. One’s enough.” 

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