All the while they were walking, Maude was hoping that Sam, her landlord, didn’t show his narrow red face and demandpayment the way he had been doing seemingly every single time he saw her.
But unfortunately for her, his downstairs apartment door crept open and he showed that face again. “Alright, Maude,” he said in his heavy Georgia accent. “You got one more week.”
Maude rolled her eyes. “Why you keep bringing that up, Sam? I know how much time I got left.”
“You wouldn’t have another day if it was left up to me.”
“It’s not left up to you.”
“They signed off on that extension over my objection. The owner gave you that extra time. Not me.” Then he added: “I can’t wait to get your kind out of here.”
That little comment prompted Edmund and Don to glance at him. Whatyour kindwas he referencing, Edmund wondered? But Don already knew. He would be considered in theyour kindcategory to that landlord too.
But none of them, including Maude, wasted their breathe and went on up the stairs.
When Maude pulled out her key, Edmund took it from her hand, which she wasn’t accustomed to anybody doing, and unlocked her door. She even glanced at Edmund, as if to say that was kind of rude, but she didn’t say anything. And he motioned for her to go on into her own apartment ahead of him. He went in behind her and closed the door. Don remained outside of the apartment on guard duty.
As soon as the door closed inside and Edmund’s large blue eyes began surveying her small apartment, Maude felt self-conscious. She knew it would never be up to his standards of luxury because there was nothing luxurious about it. But she was wrong. Edmund was impressed with the cleanliness of it, and her understated tastefulness. It was a charming home. “This is very nice,” he said.
Maude didn’t respond to that because she knew he was just being nice, although she also knewnicenesswasn’t a particular trait of his. But trying to figure that man out required too much figuring. That was why she didn’t even try as she began moving away from him. “Have a seat and I’ll get you something to drink,” she said as she began walking away. But Edmund reached out and pulled her back.
When she ended up against him, he was blunt. “How much do you owe?” he asked her.
That was the last question she wanted him to ask. She was a prideful person who never wanted anybody to think for a second that she couldn’t take care of herself. And Sam’s appearance all but guaranteed Edmund, and even Don, would think such a thing. “I’m good,” she said as she broke away from him.
But he pulled her back again. He didn’t like to pry into anybody else’s business, and he never did with any female he’d ever known. But Maude was so different to him that everything he did was different. Including his reaction to her debt. He felt an obligation to handle it, even though he had no such obligation at all. But that was how he felt. “How much?” he asked her again.
“I told you I’m good.”
“I didn’t ask if you were good. I asked you how much do you owe that man. Answer my question.”
She looked from his right eye to his left eye as if she was still trying to size him up. And couldn’t. “Why would that matter to you?” she asked him with a mystified look on her face. She just couldn’t read him. She just couldn’t figure him out!
Edmund wasn’t interested in being figured out. He was interested in her welfare. And his patience with her was wearing thin. “How much do you owe him, Maude?”
“In two weeks, I’ll be behind two months. But the owner has given me an extension.”
“That expires in a week.”
Sam’s big mouth, Maude thought. “That’s right,” she said.
“Will you have two months’ worth of rent to pay that man in a week?”
Maude hated to admit it, so she didn’t. “I’ll handle it,” she said again.
“How, Maude?” asked Edmund. “Where are you working?”
She looked at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He pulled out his checkbook. “How much is it?”
She frowned. She was nobody’s charity case. “I’m not taking your money,” she said forcefully.
“So that’s how it works?” he asked her. “You won’t take my money, but yet you won’t pay your bills?”
That comment cut Maude to the core of her being. Since she was sixteen years old and on her own she struggled to make ends meet, but she always managed to do so and to do it with no help from any man. And he had the nerve to act as if she was some deadbeat who did all she could to avoid her responsibilities? She was not that girl and he wasn’t going to treat her like she was that girl. Her rage flared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means.”
