How can he stay with someone like me?
Chapter 1
Her alarm squawks inelegantly, giving a warning that wallowing in self-pity gets a woman nowhere fast. Sighing, Minnie rises and goes about her usual routine, preparing for work. As she’s walking into the kitchen, she finds herself stopped dead by the fact that she’s not alone.
Minnie blinks at her guest in shock, a hint of flight in her breast, worrying about an unlocked front door. While she was expecting this guest, she wasn’t expecting this guest to arriveso soontoday. “How did you get in here?”
“Pfft.” Ariel flaps her hand, overdone scarlet nails flashing in the morning light. She’s back to red hair again, it appears. Her lip filler isalsoback to looking shy of perfect. “Your hardass man let me in as he was dipping out on you. What a guy. You gave hima key?!”
Indignation makes Minnie’s tone sharp. “He wasn’t dipping out on me; he has to be at the worksite early most mornings. What was he thinking, lettingyouin?” Especially knowing how anxious Minnie is about doors and exits.
Shrugging, Ariel clicks her long nails on the coffee mug she has helped herself to. The aroma of rich coffee fills the air, a welcome scent for Minnie. As Minnie’s helping herself to what her sister made, Ariel says, “I drove into town early and was just pulling up as he was stepping out. When I told him I was your sister, he said, ‘ah, the little mermaid, I see it’ and he let me in.” Ariel frowns for a moment, twirling her dyed hair. “What do you think he meant by that?”
Making some oatmeal with honey and her ‘bougie’ oatmilk as Gage calls it, Minnie shrugs with a hint of sarcasm. “Could bethe hair, but I’m just guessing. And the fact that he knows Mom named us both after Disney characters.”
“False.I’mnamed after a Disney character; you’re named after a little old lady who probably drinks tea all day and comments on the weather while knitting scarves. You’re named after an oldie who probably saysoh, you’re giving me the vapors, whenever she gets excited. That’syou.”
Snorting, Minnie sits down and starts to eat. “I resent that.” The vapors?Hah. “Mom has always called me Minnie Mouse.”
“Okay, Minerrrva,” Ariel cackles teasingly. Her gaze floats around the room as she cups her coffee mug elegantly. It feels like an inspection, the way she seems to stare at a few things. Minnie doesn’t like it in the slightest. What does she have to look at so skeptically? It’s not like much is different…
“So, you’re keeping him?” Ariel asks suddenly, staring at something across the room.
What, like Gage is some sort of object instead of a man?
“I’m not keeping anyone,” Minnie replies, embarrassed. She doesn’t even knowwhatthey are, she and Gage. It’s been a few months since they started this…between them. All she knows is, he keeps coming back, and she wants him to. She likes him and his brash attitude; his tough demeanor has grown on her. His sense of humor and the way he smiles, how her stomach flutters when he looks at her with those intense hazel eyes. The way he holds her hand makes her heart flip. “We just…have this thing. Going on.”
“Sure, sure.” Ariel is sniffing the bouquet of flowers that Gage brought two nights ago. Her next question makes worms wiggle into Minnie’s stomach. “What will Daddy think?”
Time comes to a screeching halt after those simple words are uttered.
Minnie looks up, vaguely horrified. The idea of her parents meeting Gage fills her with a cold dread that she can’t shake.Somehow, she never imagined having to worry about him meeting them. That never fit into the equation. They aren’t from the same…backgrounds…and Minnie is well aware that her father is…well,veryprotective of her. “I hadn’t thought that far. I’ve just been…trying to live in the moment. For once.”
I don’t need the added stress of wondering what our Uptown Gold neighborhood parents are going to think. Their standards are beyond unreasonable.
“I mean, I’m proud of you for doing that. For spreading your wings, not letting your anxiety rule you. He’s a big step for you. Butcome on. Look around this place!” Snorting in disbelief, Ariel gestures about the tasteful townhome, the one that Minnie realizes now shows signs of Gage in the smallest of ways. His extra pair of work boots sit idle by the front door on the mat, and one of his rugged jackets is haphazardly thrown over the side of her pale couch. There’s an extra toothbrush in her bathroom and a bar of that smells of wintergreen in her shower. “Mouse. You’re boning this guy on the reg-”
Minnie flushes, hissing, “You don’t have to say it like that!” She’s a grown woman; she doesn’t need to be guilt-tripped about the one man she’s decided shereallywants around and doesn’t mind having in her bed!
He’s sarcastic. He’s got dry humor. He makes her feel sexy, safe,and wanted-
Rolling her eyes, Ariel replies, “Dress it however you want, but we both know it’s true. He has histhings-” she wiggles her scarlet fingernails at the empty beer bottles by the sink. “Popping up all over your place. If our parents visit, they’re going tonotice.”
The answer seems simple. “I’ll just clean the house if they visit. They don’t drop by unannounced. You know how mother feels about polite manners.”
Shaking her head in disbelief, Ariel says, “So, you’re hiding him. That’s your answer? You’ll just pretend you don’t have someone important in your life, because you’re afraid of what our uptight parents are going to think of him. Mouse, that’s shitty of you.Real shitty.”
Guilt worms into her guts. Softly, she says, “I don’t want them to look down on him. You know how they are.”
Nodding solemnly, Ariel replies, “I know. But you might run into them in town. How are you going to explain your tattooed scoundrel?”
That’s a nightmare that better not happen. Swirling her spoon in her oatmeal, Minnie says, “He’s not a bad guy. I know he looks…rough around the edges. He was in prison-”
Ariel blanches a bit, eyelashes fluttering. “Prison?! Like,prisonprison?For what?!”
That’s the thing. Minnie used to wonder about why he spent nearly a decade in the slammer, but ever since getting to know him, she hasn’t cared about prying into his past. She doesn’t want it to cloud what they have. He’snotthat man anymore. “I haven’t asked. He offered to tell me, once. I told him I didn’t need to know. It wasn’t important to me.”
Groaning in dismay, Ariel pours herself another cup of coffee, dumping some oatmilk in it. “You’re unbelievable. You don’t need to know?! Well,Ineed to know. What if he’s a rapist? What if hekilledsomeone?”
