3: 3

3

"But the rush shipping is over eight hundred dollars."

Carol bit her lip. "Maybe just forget it. No one can see it while I'm carrying it anyway."

Harvey leaned down and pinched her cheek.

"You deserve the best. Eight hundred is nothing."

"Even if the shipping were eighty thousand, if it's worth buying, we buy it."

I gripped the strap of my canvas bag, the fabric long since washed pale and fraying.

I'd bought this bag off a street stall my sophomore year. Fifteen dollars. It had been with me for seven years.

"How much was the bag?"

I heard myself ask.

Carol blinked. "Why do you want to know that?"

"Just asking."

"Twenty-five thousand," Harvey said, his tone flat and offhand. "Limited edition. Only three of them in the whole country."

Twenty-five thousand.

Enough for two of my father's heart stent surgeries.

Enough to replace all my mother's old appliances that were always breaking down.

Enough, even, for the engagement gift money Harvey owed my parents.

He'd saved for six years and still couldn't scrape together the twenty-five thousand, and he was always saying I was too expensive, that my parents were selling off their daughter.

And now he'd spent that same money on a bag for his childhood sweetheart without a second thought.

Bought three of them, just like that.

I nodded. I couldn't name what I felt, only forced back the tears and turned away in a hurry.

"I'm going up."

I turned toward the stairs.

"Hold on."

Harvey stopped me. "Carol's staying here tonight. Change the sheets in the guest room. Don't use the silk set in the cabinet, she left that one here last time."

My steps halted. "The guest room sheets were just changed last week."

"Last week's have been slept on."

Carol said softly, "I want them to smell nice…"

She pulled a bottle of perfume out of her bag. "Can I spray this on the sheets, Gloria?"

A pink bottle. I'd seen the brand in subway ads. One bottle cost as much as three months of my "allowance."

"Do whatever you want," I said.

"Also," Harvey's voice came again from behind me, "Carol's going to an art show tomorrow. Take her to pick out a dress, and remember to get the receipt."

I whipped around. "Tomorrow's Wednesday. I have work."

"Take the day off."

"The attendance bonus is five hundred."

Harvey finally looked at me straight on, his eyes full of appraisal and distaste.

"All you think about is money."

"It's five hundred dollars. Is five hundred more important, or is Carol more important?"

Carol sneezed right on cue and rubbed her nose.

"If it's too much trouble for you, Gloria, don't worry about it. I can go by myself. It's just that the gallery's out in the suburbs, and an Uber there costs over two hundred…"

Any other time, I'd have agreed without hesitation.

Because I had to save money.

As long as it saved money, I could shortchange myself in every possible way.

But this time I didn't give in.

"Suit yourselves."

I turned and went upstairs, Carol muttering under her breath behind me.

"Harvey, why is your girlfriend so stuck-up? What's she got to be so smug about?"

"That dress she's wearing is practically falling apart. My dog wouldn't wear it."

Harvey chuckled.

"That's just her taste. How could she compare to you?"

"I'll make you caviar tonight, the premium kind I brought back from the Harborview District."

"Yay! You're the best, Harvey!"

My hand paused on the guest room door.

Caviar.

He'd told me that was a business gift, off-limits. I'd never even dared to smell it.

Last time I opened the fridge for eggs, my finger just brushed the packaging box, and he was in my face yelling.

"Gloria Finch, can you stop scheming about that caviar?"

"I already told you it's for a client."

"If you touch it, how am I supposed to explain that to the client?"

Only now did I understand.

His childhood sweetheart Carol was the biggest "client" his heart had ever known.

Back in my room, my mother's video call came through at exactly that moment.

She was all smiles on the other end.

"Glory, your dad and I made it back to the hometown. Don't worry, and don't fight with Harvey over our business. You two just live your lives well."

"And this time it was our own fault, us two old fools eating something bad. We forgot to ask, too."

My mother rubbed her hands together, trying to cover her nerves.

"When are you two… planning to get married?"

My father sat beside her, looking just as uneasy.

"Don't ask so bluntly. You'll upset Glory."

I held back the sting in my nose and shook my head.

"Mom, Dad, I'm not getting married."

"Tomorrow I'm quitting my job. I'll pack up and come home, settle down there."

4: 4

4

When she heard me say it, my mother shot to her feet.

"But everything was fine… why aren't you getting married anymore?"

"Glory, is it because the engagement gift money I asked for was too high?"

"But all your girlfriends back home, every one of them got two hundred thousand, and it's not that I'm after the money…"

"That money was all meant to go with you into your new home. I only worried that Harvey wouldn't treat you well, and I wanted to leave you some security."

That was when the tears finally broke loose.

"Mom, it wasn't too high. What you asked for wasn't high at all."

"Harvey has plenty of money. He could…"

He could buy some other woman three eighteen-thousand-dollar bags without so much as blinking.

But he wouldn't give six years of my youth so much as an answer.

"Mom, it has nothing to do with you. I just figured things out for myself."

"I don't love Harvey anymore, all of a sudden."

The thought of spending the whole second half of my life pinching every penny.

A life with no end in sight. It suffocated me.

I'd earned plenty over the years, but Harvey had socked every cent away in the name of the joint household fund for our future.

I wanted to use my own money to buy myself a designer handbag.

To finally replace this beat-up phone I'd used for six years.

The next morning I was up at six. I didn't reheat last night's oatmeal for breakfast the way I always had. Neither Harvey nor Carol had come downstairs.

But Carol's laughter drifted from the second-floor bathroom. "Harvey, stop messing with my hair!"

I entered the password and withdrew the money I'd put into that so-called joint household fund over six years.

Six years. Six hundred and eighty thousand, all told.

Enough to buy a small house back home, a car, and settle into an easy, peaceful life with my parents.

I didn't feel like going out.

For the first time in six years, I ordered food delivery.

Breakfast, with a breakfast sandwich, a doughnut, and orange juice.

I was happily eating when Harvey and Carol came down. They saw me eating and frowned.

"Gloria, how can you be so selfish? You only made enough breakfast for yourself?"

Then Harvey caught sight of the delivery box in the trash, and his face went dark.

"You actually ordered delivery?"

"Gloria, you were always so frugal, so careful. When did you get so bad at managing a household?"

Any other time, when he stood on his moral high ground and scolded me for not knowing how to economize, I'd only feel guilty.

Now it just struck me as absurd.

"Economize? Economize for what?"

"So I can hand the money I saved to some other woman to spend?"

Harvey's brows drew hard together, and he pointed at the phone with the cracked screen lying on the table.

"The money you saved could've bought you a new phone."

I laughed harder.

He frowned. "What's with that attitude? Have I ever shorted you on food, on clothes?"

"I give you three thousand dollars a month in allowance. Save even a little of it and you'd have plenty for a new phone."

"There's no need to parade around with this old thing and make people think I've been mistreating you."

There was something bitter in my laugh, but my eyes came up cold on him.

"Harvey, how do you have the face to say that?"

"I scrimped and saved alongside you for six years. And what did I get for it?"

"My parents finally come to visit, and they end up eating your leftovers. Six birthdays you gave me, and every time it was two boiled eggs. Did you ever once buy me a cake?"

"Harvey, you're the one who made me feel like I've lived my life as a joke."

"You're impossible."

Harvey was silent a few seconds. "Gloria, you didn't used to be like this. You used to be so sensible."

Sensible.

I gripped the phone and wanted to laugh, but the corner of my mouth wouldn't move.

Sensible meant six years without a new phone, three years in the same dress, my parents traveling all that way only to eat leftovers and end up in the hospital with an upset stomach.

Sensible meant standing quietly by while he bought some other woman designer bags.

"Carol's different from you."

Harvey sat down on the sofa across from me. Carol's half-finished iced latte still sat on the coffee table. "She's been in poor health since she was little, and her family doesn't have much. It's only right that I look after her."

"And when I was a kid, if it hadn't been for Carol's parents taking care of me, helping raise the money for college, I wouldn't be where I am today."

"Glory, we have to know how to repay a kindness."

"You're the one who received their kindness. It has nothing to do with me."

I cut him off, cold.

"Harvey, I was a fool before. You had me spinning in circles. That won't happen again."

Harvey ignored me, sure I was only throwing a tantrum like all the other times.

He gave a cold snort, put his arm around Carol, and moved for the door.

"I'll take you out for a five-star breakfast buffet, and this afternoon we'll hit the art studio. Let's enjoy ourselves a couple of days."

Carol turned back with a smug look.

"Glory, the woman who knows how to pout has the best luck."

"If you'd just say a few soft words and give Harvey a way to save face, maybe we'll bring you back something nice…"

"No need."

I shot it right back at her, cold.

I'd already withdrawn every cent I had in the joint household fund, and I'd already bought my ticket home for that afternoon.

"Some people take good intentions for garbage!"

Harvey gave me one cold look. "Come on, Carol, let's go pick out some gifts for your parents. Don't mind her."

I watched the two of them disappear, and drank the last of my orange juice.

Then I picked up my bag, got up, and went out, taking an Uber to the mall.

Six years riding the bus, six years without hailing a car. So this was how convenient and comfortable it felt.

I bought myself the newest phone, then two pieces of clothing that were nice and fit well.

The suitcase was worn out too. Time for a new one…

By the time I'd bought everything I needed, it was two in the afternoon.

Suitcase in hand, I headed for the station without looking back.

Meanwhile, Carol was clinging to Harvey, begging him to buy the painting she'd set her heart on.

"Harvey, this painting is only a little over twenty thousand. That's nothing to you. You'll buy it for me, right?"

Harvey went stiff all over.

One lousy painting for over twenty thousand. His heart was bleeding.

But faced with the eager look in Carol's eyes, he couldn't get the refusal out.

"Of… of course."

The moment he agreed, the clerk beside them brought over the card reader.

"Cash or card, sir?"

Harvey hesitated a few seconds, then steeled himself and pulled out the bank card with the joint household fund on it.

There should still be over eight hundred thousand on it, he thought. That would be more than enough.

But the clerk took it, set it on the reader, and looked up with an odd expression.

"Sir, there aren't enough funds on this card. Would you like to use a different one?"