“If someone ever gives you a hard time again, let me know,” he said, pulling his eyes from the road to look at me. The deeper tone in his voice was firm but sincere and made me believe he would help me again. I ignored the way the promise within it made my stomach flutter, excusing it as nerves from an unusual morning and stressful night.
“Okay.” I gave him a small smile and got out of the car, focused on not tripping on the curb in case he was watching. I already proved I couldn’t even walk down a few steps without almost wiping myself out. Or sit alone without being taken advantage of. He would think I was incapable of taking care of myself. Actually, that’s probably exactly what he thought, considering his sudden change of mind about me. It was only a couple of days ago he seemed to find my existence irritating, but now he was offering me personal bodyguard services.
As I made my way up the path to meet with Kira, who was grinning at me with excitement, I could still hear the rumble of the Cadillac. While I was wondering why Dean was sitting there, Kira looked about ready to burst when I reached her.
“Was that who I think it was?” she whispered with a shocked expression. An expression that quickly changed to a suggestive smile as she wiggled her eyebrows. “What did you get up to last night, hm?”
I laughed. “It’s not what you think.”
“Do you mind explaining then? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you get out of a guy’s car that wasn’t your dad’s,” she said as she looked past me to not-so-subtly gawk at the Cadillac.
“My drink was spiked during my break at work. De—” She doesn’t know his real name. “Romeo drove me back here but couldn’t find my swipe key, so he took me back to his house. I slept in his bed, and he took the couch. Nothing else happened.”
Kira had expressed a multitude of emotions in just several seconds. From shock, anger, and happiness, and back to shock as her mouth fell wide open.
“Holy shit! Are you okay?” She pulled me into a tight hug.
“I am now,” I said as we pulled back again. “But Mom is on her way over.”
“Say no more,” Kira said, quickly pulling the swipe key from her back pocket and holding it up to the card reader by the door. The light turned red, declining the key, so Kira tried again, wiping the card reader with her sleeve and rubbing her swipe key on her leg to shine it in case there was dust on either of them. I glanced over my shoulder, growing nervous about Mom’s arrival while Dean still sat in his car.
Why isn’t he leaving?
After three attempts, the door finally unlocked, and Kira pushed it open with a little victory dance. I sighed with relief and hurried inside, turning to thank Kira when my eyes widened as a familiar silver Volvo pulled up behind Dean’s Cadillac.
Mom had already spotted us too. Beeping her horn to announce her arrival, she got out of the car with a face riddled with concern as she marched up the front path to meet us. At the same time, Dean drove away.
“She doesn’t know about my other job, remember?” I whispered quickly to Kira.
Kira nodded once and dragged an imaginary zipper across her lip before turning to smile at Mom. “Hello, Kate,” she said happily.
Mom ignored her and went straight to frantically interrogating me. “Why weren’t you at work? Where’s your phone? You haven’t returned any of my texts or calls.”
“I’m sorry if I freaked you out. I wasn’t feeling well.”
It wasn’t a lie but it prompted her to press a hand to my forehead as she frowned.
“You do feel a little clammy,” she said. “But why are you out here? You should be resting.”
“I took her to see a doctor and the buses took forever,” Kira chimed in when she noticed me struggling to think of a reason. “It was a long wait in the waiting room too— Which was also why she couldn’t answer her phone. No phones allowed in the waiting room.”
Mom looked suspiciously at Kira, and for a second, I thought she was about to see straight through the white lie, but then she took me by the shoulders and steered me into the foyer.
“See you after work, Lily,” Kira waved from the front door. I returned the gesture right before Mom walked me into the elevator.
“You should’ve called me,” she whispered harshly before the doors closed.
“Sorry...”
I wasn’t too thrilled she was coming up to the apartment. All her visits were the same, full of judgmental comments and glances around the house. She would critique everything like she was at another of her house inspections.
“What are you even wearing?” she said while I unlocked the door to the apartment. Her brown eyes dropped over the black shorts with disgust before she pinched the hem. “Black on black. You look like someone who works behind a bar.”
I pushed open the door with a strained laugh. “It’s laundry day. I’ll change. Make yourself at home.”
While I left my mother in our small living room, I retreated to my room to find something more appropriate for her taste. I changed into a simple T-shirt and a pair of shorts that came halfway down my thighs, then fixed my hair so it didn’t look like I had just rolled out of bed — someone else's bed. When I walked back out, I found her looking through the fridge with a disapproving gaze. Her expression changed when she saw what I was wearing, and she smiled.
“That’s much better. Have you eaten anything today?”
