Chapter 55. A Place At Their Table

The first thing Diana put in her new desk drawer was the notebook from Lisbon.

The second was a bank confirmation showing the first repayment from Leo.

He had answered the written request at last. The payment was smaller than what he owed, but it was real. Diana filed it with the balance and closed the drawer without opening their old messages.

Then she returned to the much more urgent matter of whether eight people could eat comfortably at Gabriel's dining table.

“Ten could,” he said.

“Eight need to enjoy themselves.”

He looked at the chairs she had moved. “You distrust the furniture.”

“I distrust a table where people have to raise their voices to ask for salt.”

By Saturday afternoon, they had changed the arrangement twice. Diana had put flowers in a vase that had previously contained nothing. Gabriel had accepted an uneven runner from her apartment with the air of a man making a serious aesthetic concession.

She watched hi