Dalton
I can roll with the punches. I can pivot and adapt. Penny is sitting in front of my door with her knees curled up and head low. I can tell she’s been crying, and I assume I’m in deep shit with her for this. I don’t explain myself to people. I warned her that she and her sister didn’t stand a chance here.
Fuck, taking the contract had actually been my attempt to help. I hadn’t moved forward with it because things had seemed to settle. I’d hoped the reprieve would last until her sister returned.
What was I thinking?
I wasn’t.
I let my dick take over, and I lost focus.
“Oh, Dalton,” she sniffles, wiping at her red eyes. “It’s so bad.” She doesn’t make a move to stand up. I expect her tiny fists to be slamming in my direction, but she hardly looks ready to fight.
Penny stays sitting against my door, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Everything is so screwed up. No one can count on me for anything. I try to help one person, and then something I do hurts someone else I care about. It’s like dominos, and I’m a grenade thrown in the mix.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask, crouching down to try to understand her. Again, none of this makes sense.
“My apartment,” she croaks out. “One of these jerks bought it.”
“Bachelor Tower doesn’t sell apartments. It’s just leases. They can’t buy here even if they want to.”
“Not here,” she says, twisting her face up as she explains. “My studio apartment with Millie and Sarah. Now we’re being evicted. My roommates and I. I’m here trying to help Kylie, and in the process I get my friends kicked out of the only place we can afford in the city. Now we have to come up with first and last deposit for something else. Sarah borrowed from her parents. Millie’s money’s all tied up in the bakery.
I try to keep up as the words spill out of her like a waterfall, tumbling between tears. “I could—”
She shakes her head.
“Have you asked your sister?”
“We don’t do that,” Penny says. “No matter how complicated my financial situation gets, we never do that. I can’t live with the strings that are attached to money from my sister or my mom. They mean well, but they see it as an avenue to persuade me to be more like them. I can have a loan if I go for an interview and take a job at the company they want me to work at. Or if I go back to business school. I’ve always been able to make it on my own, and I’ll find a way this time too. It’s my friends I’m worried about. They’re being forced to give up their dreams and being punished because of me.”
“You didn’t buy the building.” Logic. When all else fails, use logic. But I know exactly what she’s trying to say. “Can you get a loan from the bank?” I’m doing that epic man thing where I try to reason my way out of an emotional problem.
She lets out a tiny defeated laugh, and it tears at the heart I didn’t know I had. “Not an option. I cosigned on some things for my dad’s business, and you know the state of things there. I’ll figure something out.” She sighs, drying her tears for the final time as she tries to right herself. “It’s a despicable thing they’ve done, but they still won’t win.”
She has no idea how vulnerable she is right now. Not only will she be out of her old apartment, she’s going to be out of this place soon enough too. Unless I can find a way around my first attempt to help her.
“You should call Kylie and tell her what’s going on,” I say, as I stand and put my hand out for her to take it. She does, and I pull her easily to her feet.
“I still have this place under control. I haven’t screwed it up. At least when she gets back everything here will be all right.”
Her optimism is like a cannonball to my gut. This is where a better man would step up and explain everything. This is where you take your shot and lay it all on the line. But I want answers first. I need to know who in my organization sold me out and why.
“Want to stress eat with me?” she asks, managing to get that familiar smile back on her face. “Donuts. I want donuts.”
“I have to get to my office,” I say, shifting around as I clear my throat. “I have something I need to do. Just hang out and lie low. I’ll be back later.” I don’t lean in to kiss her goodbye, and I regret it when I’m halfway down the hall. This is all going to implode and the last kiss we shared will probably end up being our last one.
Fuck.