“Willow, you won’t even believe it,” I said, huddled up on my small couch that was in front of my bed. I’d called Willow as soon as I got home from work.
My first impression, as always, was to talk to her about this defeat. Defeat wasn’t even a good enough word to summarize how I felt.
“What’s wrong? Did something go wrong today?” she asked.
Grant Carter was supposed to be a friend of hers and Darien’s, so the words kind of got stuck in my throat. I didn’t want to be that person that ruined a friendship or anything. After all, Grant Carter was just one of those alpha males that went around claiming anything he wanted.
I’m pretty sure Darien was like that before he met Willow. Or maybe not. I didn’t know. But I did decide to keep what happened to myself today. Which was difficult, because I didn’t have anyone else to tell.
Willow wouldn’t understand. She had Darien to confide in, and her brother too. Even though she says that after he was in a car accident, he just hadn’t been the same, physically or mentally. He had a long recovery process to ensure and he always seemed depressed.
She’d tried to hook him up with friends, including me, but it wasn’t my style to date my best friend’s brother, even if things had been normal, which they weren’t. He had become a downer, which I understood, but I couldn’t have that kind of negative influence in my life. Willow claimed to have let me in on even more secrets now that she didn’t have her brother in her life the same way as before, and in turn I did the same, but, this wasn’t just any secret. This was a pretty big deal.
“No, nothing,” I finally said. “Thanks again for hooking me up with the job. It’s just that… I ran into a creep at the bus stop on my way there, though. He had followed me home from the club and then must have been loitering around waiting for me to go anywhere else. It was crazy.”
Willow gasped. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. He got the heel to the foot,” I explained, positioning myself upside down on my sofa so my feet could rest against the wall. “At first I was afraid to go back home but then I realized what a wimp he was.”
And in between, I got propositioned at work. To have a friggin’ baby. I couldn’t believe it. But I wasn’t about to explain it to Willow. I didn’t want to mess anything up for Grant, even though I didn’t feel I had any allegiance to him.
Grant Carter. What an asshole… a handsome one, but still an asshole. Sure, I’d fantasized about being with him at the office. But in reality I wasn’t the type to mix business and pleasure, plus, all that lovey dovey stuff didn’t really work out with people anymore.
To be honest, I probably came off a little strong when Grant came onto me because I did want him so badly. I was afraid that if I let myself open up to him at all, I’d just throw myself into his arms and never want to let go. So, it was better I did nothing at all.
“Good, I’m glad you’re safe. Lindsey did say we should know how to protect ourselves,” Willow said. A baby cried in the background and I smiled at the warm sound of her family. Then I remembered that she probably had more important things to do than talk to me.
“Thank you,” I tell her.
“Okay. Darien said hi to you by the way,” Willow mentioned.
“Tell him I said hi back. By the way, how’s the fam doing?”
“Good. In fact we’re trying for another. Dahlia would love being a big sister in addition to Ariel’s little sister. And Ariel is very helpful with babies and she’s already asking me for a little brother, ha!”
There was another cry in the background and then Willow said, “Well, talk to you later. I’ve gotta go feed the girls and Darien.”
“Feed Darien what?” I teased.
“Oh, hush you.”
We hung up and I closed my eyes.
Wow, Grant Carter was bigger in person than I could’ve ever imagined. His handsome eyes seemed to still be boring into mine now, although I had done my best to get far away from him.
I couldn’t believe he had the gall to not only try to seduce me on his elevator, but also to ask me if he could get me pregnant.
Opening my eyes, I grunted and pushed myself off the couch. Five hundred thousand dollars. Damn. That amount of money wasn’t anything to sneeze at.
Glancing around my small studio, I took another stab at thinking about that offer…
Tuition was raised, I was out of a job, my mom and my sister needed occasional help, and… fuck. What was I going to do.
Rent was even due soon. My savings could pay it, but then after that I’d have nothing but peanuts left.
My phone rang again and I was surprised to see it was my sister Alice.
“Hey, Alice,” I told her when I answered. “I haven’t heard from you in a while. What’s up?”
I moved over to my bed and nestled myself down into it.
Alice sighed. “Stace, we got a real problem on our hands.”
“What?” My heart skipped a beat and I sat up on my bed.
“I found the mail… my suspicions were true. We’re up for eviction. Mom even lost her job last week. She kept saying everything was going to be okay, but I knew otherwise. I hate to call you with shitty news, but—”
“No buts. Thanks for telling me.”
I shook my head and scratched it. “I’ll see what I can do. How much time are we talking?”
I braced myself.
“We have thirty days. She owes the apartment management three thousand five hundred dollars. I’m surprised they let her go that deep into the hole,” Alice said, her voice breaking.
No, I couldn’t hear my little sister cry like this. She did her part to bring money to the table too, but she was still young and couldn’t do too much. Me? I was the eldest. This was my responsibility.
Mom raised us well. She had always worked hard for meager pay, and still did. I didn’t even understand how she was fired in the first place.
I sunk down into my bed, hand over my forehead. Life made it a habit to crash down on me every so often, but this was the ultimate dump. What? Was my life so fed up of things going sort of smooth that it had decided to wreck this much havoc on me?
I pulled my covers over me. Five hundred thousand dollars.
That much money meant so damn much. Freedom. Pure freedom