“Let them have him,” he said. “Come on.” He walked over to a man sitting in one of the side offices.
“Excuse me. Are you the manager?” Day asked.
“Yes, sir, I am. Dave Mitchell. What can I do for ya, big fella? I saw this pretty lady test-driving earlier. Did Jake take care of you? You ready to write up a contract?”
Another white man with faux authority. Stassi just wanted to get out of there.
“He didn’t, in fact. He told my lady here she was wasting his time,” Day explained.
“Well, there must be some kind of misunderstanding. I’m sure he didn’t mean to rub her the wrong way,” the man said. “Hey, Jake. Come on over here.”
Jake, the asshole, strolled over cockily.
“We’re trying to get this young lady in a car. What seemed to be the problem?”
“Well…she didn’t qualify. Can’t get her financed,” Jake answered. “If you don’t mind, I need to pull some keys for that couple. They want to test drive.”
“No, we don’t mind,” Day said. He turned to the manager. “I’d like to buy whatever she wants.”
“I take it you’re going to co-sign? We’ll have to run your credit app,” the manager said.
“You can put it on this,” he said, pulling out a Black American Express card. “Matter of fact, I’ll take three of ‘em. Whatever she chooses, I need three. I trust that the commission won’t go to someone who didn’t earn it. Do we have a deal?”
“We’ve got a deal,” the manager said.
Jake’s face flushed red, and he stammered as he tried to find words to defend himself. “I didn’t realize that she didn’t need financing. I would have been happy to…”
“No worries, Jake. Too much of your time has already been wasted, my man. You missed this one. Might catch the next one. Better go fetch them keys,” Day said.
Stassi folded her lips in to stop herself from gloating, but damn it, Day had saved her pride, and she just wanted to rub it in.
With your bitch ass,she thought.
“Let me come from behind this computer and put on my salesman hat. You two look around, and we’ll take something out for a spin,” the manager said happily.
When he walked away, Day turned to Stassi. “You got a bank account full of money. Why you choosing struggle?”
“Your money,” she said.
“Spend the money, Stassi. I can’t take it with me. You tripping on it more than you need to.” He tossed an arm around her shoulder, and she relaxed into his body as they walked around the showroom.
“You really buying three cars?” she asked. “What you gon’ do with the other two?”
“Give them shits to my aunties or something,” he said.
She shook her head in disbelief. “Not you dropping off whole vehicles like they’re flowers,” she said.
“I have more money than I can spend; more than I can invest even. It’s not a big deal. People with money don’t talk about money. Which is why we don’t have to do all this overthinking about you spending whatever I give to you,” he stressed.
He shrugged and opened the car door to one of the floor models. She climbed inside, and he watched her as she gripped the steering wheel. “Day, this is really not necessary,” she asked.
“Nigga, quit playing coy. That game over. You want it?” he asked.
“I swear I’ll pay you back,” she promised.
He didn’t respond, and she knew he was letting her ego win the moment.
“Thank you, Day,” she said, smiling.
