My sister kissed my husband in front of thirty people at her own anniversary party and called it a joke. Her husband had a wrapped present in his hands and an envelope she had never opened.

So she came across and took it out of my hands and put it down on the table.

“Give me that before you drop it. It was a joke.”

Thirty people. My father four feet away.

Nobody said one word.

And then, from behind me, Bram Prewitt laughed. One short laugh with nothing in it at all.

I could not see what he was doing because he was at my shoulder.

But I watched my sister’s face stop, and I watched my husband go grey.

“Actually,” Bram said. “I’ve got a present for you.”


PART 2 — THE PRESENT

He had it in a gift bag under the table where the cards were, and it had been there since about eleven that morning.

Wrapped properly. Ribbon, the lot.

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