Despite her plea, I was going to kill her.Leandra knew better than to come down here without me, much less this late at night.Even with the sun shining, this side of town was dangerous, and so having Leandra driving around here at night was enough to give me heart palpitations.
Me:Stay n ur fucking car
Immediately stopping what I was doing, I headed towards the lobby, and I couldn’t help but grit my teeth when I saw Leandra parked in front of the shop, sitting in her car like she wasn’t giving me a goddamn heart attack.
After taking a look around first, I finally walked over to her car, opened the door, then grabbed her hand, helping her out.Without a word, she clicked the key fob to lock it as I escorted her into the shop, and I knew that she knew that I was pissed.Still, I was also astute enough to recognize that she wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t a good reason.Before, she might have done it just to push my buttons, but now that we were what we were, I couldn’t see her doing that.
I made sure to lock the front doors, then shut off the lobby lights before walking Leandra back to my workstation, and it wasn’t until I sat her on my table that I finally asked her what in the hell she was doing here this late at night.
“Baby, what the fuck?”
“I know, I know,” she quickly rushed out.“I just...I wanted to see you.”
“Then you call or text to tell me that,” I told her.“It’s not a chore to drive to your place, Leandra.”
She let out a heavy sigh before saying, “I just...I’m sorry.”
I sat down on my stool, then rolled my way between her legs.Looking up at her, I asked, “What happened?What’s wrong?’
“My mother came by,” she answered immediately.“She threatened to cut me off if I didn’t stop seeing you.”
What.A.Fucking.Bitch.
“How motherly of her,” I deadpanned.
“It was stupid, awful, and just so her,” she went on, and I hated how she sounded so troubled.“She even brought my dad into it.”
I scowled at that.“She threatened to make him cut you off also?”
Leandra nodded.“Yep.”
“I hate to say it, but your mother is a real bitch,” I said, stating the obvious.“I mean, who in the fuck does that?”
“Well, I called my dad, and luckily for me, he doesn’t feel the same way that my mother does,” she replied, and I couldn’t believe how much better that made me feel.It was one thing to lose one parent to their own stupidity, but it was quite another to be disowned by both of them.
I gave her a terse nod as I said, “Well, that’s something, I suppose.”
After a long minute of silence, it was easy to see that this shit with her mother was weighing more heavily on her than she was letting on.She looked tired, sad, and a bit lost.She looked like she was at a serious crossroads in her life, and she was terrified of making the wrong choice.She looked like she had the weight of the entire world on her shoulders, and I hated it.I hated that she was unhappy and unsure, and all because her mother was a money-hungry bitch.
I placed my hands on her thighs before saying, “Baby, talk to me.Tell me what’s going on.”
“I just...she’s wrong, Dalton,” she said.“She’s wrong, and I have no problem choosing us over her insane ideas of happiness.I don’t have any doubts there, I really don’t.”
“But...?”
“Why do I feel so bad about cutting her off?”she asked sadly.“She doesn’t deserve for me to be hurting like this.”
It was official; I was never going to like Mariah Rollins.For this moment alone, I was never going to like the woman, even if she came around later on.I would always view her as the enemy, and even though I might act cordially for Leandra’s sake, I was never going to like or trust her.
“Because you’re human,” I told her.“You’re human, and no matter what, she’s your mother, and she’s the only mother that you will ever know.So, it’s still a loss just like any other loss.”
After a few seconds, she said, “I came here because I wanted to show you that I’ve chosen you.Even though I knew that it would piss you off, I came here because I couldn’tnotcome here, Dalton.I came here because you’re here.”
Looking up at her, there was no doubt in my mind that I was in love with her or that this was forever.Leandra Rollins had finally become my everything, and I wanted nothing more than to tell her just how much I loved her.Nonetheless, now was not the time.She was emotional and going through some heavy soul searching, and so I didn’t want her thinking that I’d only said it to make her feel better.When I finally uttered those three little words to her, I wanted there to be no doubt in her heart.I wanted her to know that I was saying them simply because it was true.
So, instead of professing my love to her, I asked, “Have you thought about getting any other tattoos?”
Her brows furrowed a bit at the abrupt change in topic, but she still answered me.“Not really.I guess I’m still trying to get used to the one that I have.A month later, it still takes me by surprise at times.”
