“I can’t imagine.”
I waved away the topic. “Enough about me. Tell me about your family. I can only imagine the woman who raised you and twin girls.”
He laughed and I couldn’t help but smile with him. The topic of his mom was a good one. “She’s a hell of a woman. A mean one.”
“Are you sure you didn’t deserve it?”
His brows furrowed and he nodded. “Oh, I totally deserved it. My father would shake his head at my antics, but my mom would still gasp and have an hour-long talk with me about how I should behave.” He laughed again as if remembering a specific memory. “Especially since she was a teacher in my high school. A boy had to be creative to not get caught by his mom with the girls. But then I’d get caught and be in more trouble because it was usually for something over the top.”
I groaned. “I don’t even want to know.”
“It was just typical boy stuff.”
“Typical boy stuff is gross.” I cringed.
He winked. “We’ll see if you’re saying the same thing tonight.”
“Did your sisters have trouble in school with your mom?” I almost wished I could have swallowed the words back, not wanting to make him sad with talk of his sisters, but he surprised me by smiling.
“Oh, no. They had trouble in school because of me. I’d make sure to visit Mom for lunch as much as possible and scare off any boys.”
I groaned. “No. Those poor girls.”
“Hanna wasn’t much of a problem, but Sofia liked to push her limits. I swear she didn’t even like boys, she just flirted in front of me to see if she could make me explode.” His smile dimmed and he dropped his eyes to his empty plate. “She was always so strong-willed.”
I reached my hand across the table to rest atop his. He flipped his palm up and squeezed.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
“For what?”
“For making me talk about the good times. So often I shut down about her because it hurts. But it’s good to remember the best parts of her too.”
“Anytime. Besides, maybe I can take notes and come up with my own antics.”
He pretended to growl and bare his teeth. “I don’t think so.”
The waiter came to clear the table and bring the check. “So, I was thinking maybe I could tour some apartments soon.” His eyes flicked to mine with no smile behind them. “I have enough saved up for a down payment and feel good about my income. I don’t know exactly which school I’m going to, but as long as I stay close to the bus line, I should be fine.”
He swallowed and looked down at the table. “You know there’s no rush, right?”
“Yeah, I just…I figured that was the plan.”
“Speaking of plans, I owe you ten-thousand dollars.”
If someone told me a month ago I’d forget about ten-thousand dollars, I’d laugh in their face. But I hadn’t even considered it when I thought of apartments and moving out.
“I think I’d rather keep it in savings. Hell, I can open a savings bank account now,” I said, giddy at the thought. “I’ll use it for school supplies and my new addiction to pizza.”
I didn’t want to move out—who would when you lived in a place like his, with a man like Erik. But I couldn’t stay there forever. The plan had always been for me to get on my feet. But the way he looked at me now, he looked like he liked the idea of my leaving as much as I did.
We were saved from more conversation when the waiter came back and we signed the bill.
“Let’s go home, baby,” he whispered in my ear. “I’m ready for dessert.”
25
Erik
“Jared,” I answered the phone. “What’s up, man?”
“Hey, Erik, sorry to bother you on Saturday, but I figure I’ll keep you up to date on things.”
I froze outside my apartment door. If Jared called on the weekend, it wasn’t for work at Bergamo and Brandt.
“Talk to me.”
“It’s not a sale or anything. I haven’t seen anything local since the last extraction we did. But I’ve seen the name Mr. E brought up a few times.”
My muscles tensed, locking the air in my chest.
“I can’t figure out where it’s coming from and it’s pretty vague right now, but it’s looking like someone is asking questions about who Mr. E might be. Like I said, very sparse chatter.”
“And you can’t track it?”
“No. It hasn’t popped up long enough and as soon as I start getting a trace on it, it vanishes. Like they’re fishing and when no one bites, they reel it back in.”
Shit. Closing my eyes, I breathed as deep as my lungs would allow, holding it for five seconds and slowly letting it out. No one had ever asked about Mr. E. Jared and I worked hard to keep it out of the work we did. I had no doubt people could connect the dots, I just tried to be subtle enough to not make waves when we did our work.