I nod in agreement. “Yeah. But I want to take you home instead.”
“There’s no parking assigned to my apartment,” she informs me in a haughty tone.
“I don’t care. I’ll find parking.”
“Parking in the city is very expensive,” she retorts.
I shrug. “Worth it.”
Her eyes bug out of her head, making me laugh. I understand why she’s shocked. In fact, I am shocking myself with this. And now I wonder how much parking by her apartment does cost. I bet it’s a lot. Maybe we should take the train for part of the trip back…
“I don’t know what’s going on in your head right now,” Mona snaps at me. “And I’d rather not discuss it while you’re driving. I don’t want to die when you lose control of the car.”
I snort. “Why would I lose control of the car?”
There is no scenario that I could come up with where I’d lose control of the car because of whatever she thinks she’s mad at me about.
“Wanna bet?” she challenges, making me laugh.
“Are you reading my mind?”
I stretch my arm over the middle console and cup the back of her head. Her body stiffens up in an instant, fighting me when I try to pull her closer to me. I stare to the side of her head for as long as I can while not driving off the road.
“Seriously, what’s the problem?”
She looks like she’s having an entire conversation in her own head as she mumbles to herself, shakes her head a few times, and rolls her eyes even more.
“I’d love to be able to defend myself,” I chime in. That gets her attention.
“Oh, yeah? Defend yourself against what, pray tell? I thought you didn’t do anything wrong.”
I take my hands off the wheel and throw them up in the air.
“I don’t even know what the hell is going in.” I am well aware that I raised my tone of voice, but things are getting ridiculous. “I thought we had an amazing time last night, and again this morning.” I glance her way again. “Didn’t we?”
Her jaw looks clenched. “Fabulous time.”
“See, you say it, but the way you say it implies the opposite.”
She harumphs. “The nerve.”
By now, we are close enough to the exit, and I feel like it would be wise if I remain silent until we get to her apartment.
Luckily, since it’s still early in the morning, and on a Sunday, there’s not much traffic. However, the fees I need to pay when I enter the city make me sick to my stomach. There’s a reason why I don’t drive around this side much. When I get to Mona’s building, I realize there are no parking spots available right in front of the building, which means I’d have to find something that could be blocks away, then walk back.
“Fuck,” I mutter to myself.
“Just stop here,” Mona snaps at me. “I can get out.”
I slow the car down, realizing that it would be stupid to make her walk from where I park when we are in front of her building now.
“I’ll be back as soon as I find parking,” I tell her as the car comes to a stop.
She turns in her seat and leans against the door, her eyes shooting daggers.
“Who is Julian Lewis?”
My eyes widen in shock while my jaw about hits the ground. Then, Kyle’s words come back to me.She knows. I figure that lying now would only dig me a deeper hole.
