Serena
Despite the support from West and my determination to behave as if everything is okay, nothing is okay. Well, notnothing. Joey is safe, happy, and healthy. I have a good job I enjoy. And now I have this amazing boyfriend, along with new friends. Everything should be incredible. Instead, I’m in a constant state of worry.
As I drive back to my apartment after work on Monday to pick up some clothes I’ll need for the week, all the little things that have been piling up start to freak me out.
I still haven’t decided what to do about the car situation. I’m driving West’s SUV while he uses his Ferrari or rides to the arena with one of his roommates. I’m getting used to having a really nice vehicle but it’s not mine and I have to figure out where to go from here. I’m due for a raise at work but not until next school year, which doesn’t start until August.
West has given me so many options, but all of them require him to carry the financial load. He can afford it. A twenty-five-thousand-dollar car is nothing to him. But it’s everything to me. I truly don’t want to start this new phase of my life—essentially the best relationship I’ve ever had—with money between us. It would be different if we’d been dating a year. Hell, six months even. Instead of just under a month.
If we break up, how do I pay him back? He says he wouldn’t askfor anything, but what if he did? Or if he buys the car and just lets me drive it, I’m in even worse shape because I have very little in my no-touch emergency fund. It’s a thousand dollars for the rainiest of rainy days. Short of a life-threatening emergency, I don’t touch it. And even if I did, what kind of junker is a thousand dollars going to buy me?
Then there’s the living together situation.
It’s tied to the car situation.
And the reasons not to are the same.
If I give up my apartment and move in with him, I can afford the car.
If we break up, I’m in deep shit because coming up with first, last, and security would be impossible. Sure, if we lived together six months or so, I’d have time to save up, but how much?
The thing is, I know West really likes me. I don’t know if he’s falling in love like I am, but the signs are pointing in that direction.
Insta-love.
It’s the kind of thing everyone laughs about when you read it in romance novels.
Until it happens to you.
Then it’s not so funny.
There’s so much swirling around in my brain I don’t notice the big black SUV parked in front of my apartment at first. It’s not until I pull up next to what’s supposed to be my parking spot that I realize it’s there.
And who’s in it.
Dammit.
Tony fucking DeMarco.
“Hey, gorgeous.” He gets out of his SUV and grins at me like we’re old friends.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, slamming the door of West’s SUV.
“We need to talk.”
“The time for talking was four years ago. Now, we have nothing to say.”
“Where’s my boy?” he asks, peering into the SUV.
“At school,” I say. “I don’t pick him up until six.”
“So, daycare.”
“Preschool in the morning, and then daycare, yes. I have to work.”
He cocks his head. “What, McGregor not giving you money?”
I sigh. “What do you want, Tony? I’m busy.”