“You showing up with an envelope of dirty cash? Yeah, I guess. And I’m trying to figure out if you’re the person I need to discuss a payment plan with and your mum’s ability to make the rent going forward.”
“What if I’m not?”
Mickey breathed slowly through his nose. “Then I’m out of options. Your mum won’t talk to me. I’ve been trying for months.”
“And that’s your job, right? At the housing association?”
“I’m a housing officer at DOSHA.”
Benito forced himself to look at Mickey. “You didn’t seem like one. In the club...”
“We can’t talk about that here.”
“Why not? You don’t want anyone to know you—”
Mickey pushed off the railing, in Benito’s face before either of them could blink. “Stop.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t get to do that. I don’t care who knows shit about me, but you don’t get to make this about that when all I’m trying to do is my fucking job. I didn’t ask you to be here.”
Benito lost himself in Mickey’s hard gaze. Absorbed the angry tremors as he stared Benito down. They’d been this close before. More than once. But those moments had been fantasy come to life. Not the real world with its ugliness. “I didn’t know,” Benito whispered. “About any of it—the debt, my mum losing her job. And I didn’t know about you, I fucking swear, man. I had no idea.”
“I know you didn’t,” Mickey said. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
Benito knew that, but he couldn’t shake the fear that everything that had brought them to this point was an elaborate conspiracy.Karma’s a bitch, right?More than that, it was a certainty, and if life had taught Benito anything, it was that there was always further to fall.
“Hey.” Mickey leaned in further, crowding Benito even more, his chest so close Benito imagined his heartbeat thudding against his ribs. “Stay with me.”
A hysterical laugh bubbled in Benito’s throat. “I didn’t go anywhere.”
Mickey tilted his head. “Sure about that? You look like you’re about to puke.
Benito couldn’t deny it. Barnfield always left him claustrophobic, but right now, the walls were closing in on him. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Could only drown in Mickey’s broad shoulders and hot glare and wonder what the fuck his life had become.
Mickey backed off.
Benito shook his head.Don’t go. But he couldn’t find the words. His brain was scorched earth, stripped bare of coherent thought.
“We’re out of time,” Mickey said quietly. “I can’t get this cash paid in tonight or register the payment. The office is closed.”
“What?”
“It’s after five.”
“But—”
Mickey held his hand up. “Don’t panic. I can send an email to my boss—he’ll pick it up and place a hold on the account. But I’ll still need to negotiate down from two thousand and get his agreement on a payment plan.”
“Can you do that?”
“I can try. You said your mum lost her job. We don’t have that on record. Is she receiving UC?”
“UC?”
“Universal Credit. It replaced income support and housing benefit a while ago.”
“I know what it is,” Benito snapped, willing his brain to catch up.