“Mmm-hm,” Vivian murmured. Her gloved fingers tapped on the top of the steering wheel as they drove south on Beall Avenue, past the entrance to the Wooster College campus, where she used to mutter curses under her breath at the carefree coeds laughing and swinging their books around. Just seeing them used to flatten her mood and sour her outlook on the day, making her feel like she wasn’t good enough.

The new feeling inside her, bubbling up from her belly and spreading out into her extremities as she drove past, was one of excitement, nervous hope, and possibility.

“And, did I tell you?” She kept her eyes on the coeds but leaned toward her sister. “I’m going to get my high school diploma.”

Chapter 52

Vivian felt good about her plans to get her high school diploma. She wasn’t as sure how to feel about her anniversary this year. It was their sixteenth year together, if you counted the first fifteen years and seven months that weren’t legitimate in the eyes of the law. If she’d considered a piece of paper with Reverend Alsop’s signature to be more sacred than sixteen years of semi-faithful devotion, well then, that might have ruffled her feathers a little, but a lot had happened since that day. The sixteenth anniversary didn’t have any specific traditional gift attached to it. Last year, fifteen, had been crystal, and she’d hoped for candlesticks, but Edward hadn’t gotten her anything, because he forgot. But that had been before. There was no chance he’d forget this one.

Edward presented Vivian with a large box. He must’ve been keeping it out back in his shed, because she hadn’t seen it in the basement or in any of the closets. It was heavy, and wrapped in beautiful silver ribbon, and he set it on the coffee table in front of her. It looked like he’d had it professionally wrapped at Freedlander’s, which was something he always scoffed at. “I’ve got two good hands. I can put tape on paper and tie a bow.” Not to mention, it cost money to have that done at the store. The corner of Vivian’s mouth pulled a little and she shot him a queer look as he brushed a hand on the sofa cushion next to her and sat down.

She turned her attention back to the gift, and gently pulled at one end of the ribbon, watching as it slid out from the bow. She worked the knot apart with her fingernails, now painted in Revlon’s Plum Beautiful, because she’d had enough of Fire & Ice, then slid the rest of the ribbon out from under the gift and set it beside the box to save. Edward’s foot began tapping next to the table. The unwrapping was going a lot more slowly than usual, since Vivian wasn’t too sure she wanted to see what was inside. She’d had plenty of disappointments that year and didn’t think she could handle any more. She carefully plucked at the tape holding the wrapping paper together, trying her best not to tear it. The wrapping paper could, and should, be saved, too, and she folded it into a square and tucked it under the ribbon sitting next to the box.