“It’s a nice place,” Harry said.
“Didn’t you have a couple of others we were going to go look at today too?” Belle asked.
“Yes.” Joey headed for the door, though they’d only been there maybe ten minutes. The pictures had spoken a thousand words, and seeing it in person only solidified for her that she liked it.
“There’s one that’s furnished, so maybe it will be better.”
She led the way back out to the car, and she, Harry, and Belle went to see two more apartments. Then she dropped off Belle and Harry at his house with only twenty minutes until she had to get to work at Pork and Beans.
She connected her phone to Bluetooth, so she could call Adam hands-free, and she dialed him before she pulled out of Harry’s driveway.
“Hey, baby doll,” Adam said. “How were the apartments?”
Joey sighed heavily and looked out the side window.
“That doesn’t sound good.” Adam’s voice slowed and lowered, and she could almost see him looking up from his work or settling down from whatever he was walking away from. “What’s going on?”
“One of them was really nice,” Joey said. “The first one we went and saw? I sent you those links.”
“Yeah,” Adam said. “I looked at them.”
“The second one was okay,” Joey said. “But it’s in a big complex, and I don’t really like that.”
“Right.”
“The third one was furnished,” Joey said. She wasn’t sure why such a keen thread of unhappiness moved through her. She didn’t want to be ungrateful, and perhaps she didn’t deserve any better. “But it wasn’t nice, Adam,” she said. “I feel stupid saying that, like I’m just some dumb twenty-two-year-old, and?—”
“No.” Adam’s bark cut her off. “You arenotsome dumb twenty-two-year-old. You work two jobs; you take care of your grandparents. You deserve somewhere nice to live, and if it wasn’t nice, then it wasn’t nice.”
Joey swallowed, tears pressing so close to the surface. “It wasn’t very nice,” she said, her voice coming out nasally and tinged with tears.
“So you’ll get the first one,” Adam said. “You deserve somewhere really nice to live, baby doll. I want that for you.”
“I can’t afford it,” Joey said, her frustration thankfully covering up her emotion. “Well, I mean, I can, but I don’t have any furniture.”
“Oh, well, furniture is easy,” Adam said, as if he was talking about how the sky just shone blue every day or the grass grew in green.
“It’s easy foryou,” Joey said, a bit of bite in her tone now.
“What, uh—?” Adam cut off and didn’t continue. Sudden tension threaded through the air, so thick Joey could almost taste it on her tongue.
“I can help you get some furniture,” Adam finally said, his voice as neutral as Joey had everheard it.
“I don’t?—”
“We can go shopping together,” he said. “The way you came with me when I got my cowboy hat. We’ll just go to your aunt’s place, and we’ll walk around, and you’ll pick out all the things that you like.”
Joey ground her teeth together. “There is no way I can let you do that.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because we’ve been dating for one month,” she said.
“Six weeks,” he corrected.
“I’m still not going to let myboyfriend of six weeksbuy me an entire apartment’s worth of furniture.” Joey gripped the steering wheel like she was trying to strangle the life out of it.
“Even if I want to?” Adam asked. “I’m an adult; I know what I’m doing.”
