CHAPTER SEVEN
For the first three years of college, El Speed had left campus many weekends to be with Ellie. But when he’d been on campus, he’d been fully there. A few times, she’d come to UNH for a weekend, but only after El Speed and I had worked out a schedule that included me going home to Concord, leaving them the privacy of the room.
After El Speed had given Ellie that ring in October, though, things had shifted. It had happened so gradually that it had taken a while for me to notice that our conversations had started to be more about Ellie’s parents this, Ellie’s sister Nancy that, Ellie’s cousin Donna something else. Then one Thursday evening sometime in February, with a snowstorm in full throttle outside, I kind of exploded. Quietly, but still.
I was at my desk, trying to finis
