“Please, we all know why you’re interested in him. You looking for a rich daddy now, little orphan Annie?”
I fought the urge to rip the scrunchie from her head and smash her face into the wall. Tears stung my eyes as I pointed again to the door. “Get out. Don’t come back. Any of you. I don’t need you.”
Catrine glanced around my nearly empty house and laughed. She reached for the door and opened it. “Ha! Sure. Get your rich white boyfriend to save your ass. I hope you don’t end up on the news.” She stormed out, slamming the door so hard it rattled the brittle windows of the house.
I screamed and dropped into my pile of cassettes. What was I doing? Was she right? Was I just interested in Desi because he had money?
No.
Of course not.
I recalled that first night I met him. On his birthday. I didn’t know he had money. I’d never seen his car, or known about what schools he went to, and yet, I was crushing hard for him. The phone ringing in the kitchen pulled my attention back from everything that had happened in just a week. I got up and hurried to it, taking it off the wall. “Hello?”
“Scout?” Desi’s voice came through the line, and my heart stuttered. “I, uh, I don’t know why I called.”
“Oh.”
“No! Not in that way! Let me start over.” He sighed. “I’m not good with this stuff.”
I grinned. I could almost picture him, running his hands through his hair, looking erratic, his blue eyes shining with worry.
“I just called to say I had a fun time last night. I’m sorry for getting there so late.”
“It’s fine. I’m glad you came.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. It meant a lot to me. I hope my friends didn’t scare you off.”
Former friends.
“No, not at all. I should probably learn some Spanish though.”
“Don’t worry about it. I barely know it myself. Just the dirty words.”
“I wouldn’t mind hearing them from your mouth,” he said in a low murmur that sent a warm feeling to my belly. Silence flooded the line for a moment before he cleared his throat. I could almost see the blush in his cheeks from across town.
“I’ve got to work tonight, but I was hoping to see you soon. If that’s okay?”
“I’d like that.” I began to twirl the curly cord around my finger.
“When’s your next night off?” he asked.
“Wednesday and Thursday this week. I usually work weekends. Better tips.”
“Same here,” he said quickly. “Busy time for movie perverts.”
I still couldn’t believe he worked at the dirty movie theater.
“How about Wednesday during the day?” he continued.
“Sure, what are we doing?”
“You like art, right? I know this guy…” he trailed off. “I wanna surprise you. You’re gonna love it.”
“What should I wear?” I asked.
“Just be yourself. I like you that way.”
I couldn’t believe that Catrine would come and try to say he was anything but perfect.
“Sounds great. See you then.” I hung up and fell against the wall. I cradled the phone when it started to beep, and then squealed. We had a date.
