“I skimmed it,” I snapped. “And have no idea which part you are referring to!”
“The part where, if you break the contract, you owe me the sum I have already paid on your mother’s behalf. Within 10 days. Oh, and you lose your job, but I guess that’s the part you had already figured out on your own.”
I felt the ground escape from my feet. How could I have been stupid and gotten into something I couldn’t get out of, without even reading the contract?
“You can’t do this to me,” I said, tears running down my face.
“I don’t want to,” he said gently. “I want us to enjoy each other and if you don’t it won’t be nearly as fun for me either, believe me when I say that. I never wished to coerce you into anything, but you are leaving me no choice. We were having a great time until you went and fucked it up.”
“I fucked it up?” I yelled in anger. “I did? Really? I don’t recall telling you who you could or could not speak to and trying to control every aspect of your life!”
“I was looking out for you, god damn it! Don’t you see that? That jerk hurt you and yet you were standing there being nice and friendly, willing to go on coffee dates with him, as though he hadn’t wronged you in any way.”
“It wasn’t a date and never was going to be. You’re the one who doesn’t see it! Spending all that time with you was what really helped me move on from Rick. This whole year I had been moping about how hurt I was, never fully able to accept what he had done.” I was crying. “Then you came along – and – and – I saw how much fun I could have and what I was missing out on while nursing a heartache. You helped me get over him, and that coffee was going to be a symbol of my new-found strength. To show I didn’t care. But you just saw me smiling at another man and decided all on your own that I was wronging you in some way. It was not okay for you to tell me to stop talking to him, Zayden. Do you understand that?”
“We’ve already been over this. It doesn’t matter anyway, Aria. You’re stuck in this contract, whether you like it or not. It would be immensely helpful to the both of us if you just accepted it and tried to enjoy yourself.”
I felt like I was trapped in a windowless room with nowhere to go. How could he be okay doing this to me? There was no way I could produce twenty-thousand dollars in such a short time, and he knew it.
“I won’t enjoy any of it. I promise you that. And I’ll try and make it so you don’t either,” I said with all the spite I could muster, then hung up before he could reply.
For the next hour I sat in the teller’s booth with my hands covering my face, bawling my eyes out, not even caring that there were cameras set up here and Zayden would be able to see how miserable I was. There was hardly any shred of my pride left anyway. I had sold all my dignity for sixty-thousand dollars. I was that girl.
Chapter 10
Zayden
I angrily slammed the phone onto my bed. I wasn’t controlling. That was a terrible excuse to get out of the contract. It wouldn’t be a contract if she could just bail at any time. It felt for a bit like I was being taken advantage of. I was getting the shabby end of the deal anyway. In a fit of fury, I had failed to notice that Gina was watching me from outside my open door.
“What was that about?” She asked with an annoying smirk.
“Why do you care?”
“Cause you’ve been swearing uncontrollably for the past five minutes. I am just curious,” she said.
I hadn’t even realized I was doing that. Aria was capable of making me feel completely and utterly out of control.
“It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
Gina didn’t take the hint. Instead, she made herself comfortable on my bed and extended her hand, which I refused.
“Zayden,” she said, looking at me sharply. “If we are going to make this work, we have to learn to be friends.”
“I don’t have any interest in being your fucking friend. Now get out,” I snapped.
She didn’t flinch. Instead smiled, which annoyed me to no end. “Lady troubles I presume?”
“Did I not tell you I didn’t have any ‘ladies’ to worry about?” I asked, wishing she would just get out of my room.
“That’s not what it sounded like on the phone. You haven’t seemed so passionate since we first met. Come on, you can talk to me. I know you better than you know yourself.”
“Bullshit. If you knew me you wouldn’t be here in my room when I just want you to leave me the fuck alone.”
“I’m just trying to help. I don’t suppose you have had the chance to consider my offer yet?”
“Clearly I’m dealing with much more important shit right now. If only you saw beyond yourself for just a second.”
She got up and approached me, while I clenched my fists, still burning with anger.