Chapter 4 - Vernon's Shoe Repair
He carried the shoes two more blocks and stopped in front of a narrow storefront wedged between a drugstore and a laundromat. The faded sign over the door read VERNON'S SHOE REPAIR.
I looked at him. "This is where they came from?"
He nodded and pushed the door open. A bell jingled.
Inside, an older man with reading glasses pushed up on his forehead was sorting a stack of paper receipts behind the counter. He looked at Ethan for a long few seconds. Then something clicked, and he smiled.
"Walking man."
Ethan actually laughed. "You remember me?"
"You wore through more leather than any customer I've had in forty years. Hard not to remember that." Vernon's eyes dropped to the shoes in Ethan's hands. "Those finally found their way to you?"
I looked back and forth between them. "Somebody explain, please."
So they did.
One afternoon, fifteen years ago, the sole of Ethan's right dress shoe had split wide open less than an hour before an interview. He'd ducked into this shop with barely enough change in his pocket for the bus ride there. Vernon had looked at the résumé folder tucked under his arm.
"Interview?" Vernon had asked.
Ethan had nodded.
Vernon fixed the shoe anyway. Wouldn't take the money.
"When you land a job," he'd said, "you come back."
A few weeks later, Ethan did land one. He came back, paid Vernon what he owed, and asked him to fully restore both shoes — new soles, new heels, the works. By then the new job had him traveling Monday through Thursday, so he paid extra to have the finished shoes shipped to our apartment on Halstead Street.
"Why did you even want them fixed up?" I asked. "You could've bought a new pair by then."
Ethan looked embarrassed. "I was going to wear them on our anniversary."
"And?"
"And tell you everything. All of it. Sit you down and finally say it out loud."
Vernon snorted. "He stood at that counter and rehearsed the whole confession for me. Twenty solid minutes. I had customers waiting."
Ethan frowned. "I was nervous."
"You were exhausting."
I couldn't help it. I laughed.
Then Vernon's face softened. He looked at me. "He loved you. That much was obvious from across the counter."
I looked at my husband.
May you like
"Love was never the problem," Ethan said quietly.
Nobody in the shop argued with him.
