His relationship with Madilyn had ended as a result of the same optimism, but he’d been the one taken advantage of then. How idiotic of him to think this could end any better.
He’d taken this job as a way to clean up the wreckage Madilyn had made of him and caused his own mess to keep it. The hell of it was, he didn’t even want the damn job anymore. Not if this was who it made him.
He slumped into one of the lobby’s armchairs, the cushions providing more comfort than he deserved.
24
The bus ride to Paragon Plaza did nothing to cool Cami’s temper. If she’d been mad before she saw Des, she was furious after. One liar down and one to go.
When she stepped off the bus, she was running fight scenes through her head, imagining how her confrontation with Lenny would go. It was stupid and pointless, but it kept her angry instead of allowing her to sink into the hopeless resignation of someone with no one to count on.
She hadn’t figured out how she was going to find Lenny, who could have been in any of half a dozen locations, but it turned out she didn’t need to. Lenny was exiting the store as Cami approached the side stairs to her apartment. Cami stopped in the parking lot, a dozen feet away from her boss—her grandmother.
“Hey, darlin’,” Lenny called, oblivious to Cami’s mood as she slung her messenger bag over her head. She looked normal, in patchwork lounge pants and a Woodstock 1969 tank top. It was jarring. Couldn’t she at least try to look like a liar? “What’s shakin’?”
“You’re a liar,” she replied. To her irritation, just the appearance of Lenny had Cami’s anger giving way to disconsolate sadness. This was the only friend she had in this city, this state. The only person she’d felt she could rely on for advice or comfort or even a good laugh. And now Lenny was just one more entry on the long list of people who’d done her wrong.
As the venomous accusation sank in, Lenny drew to a halt, now close enough to Cami to speak without raising her voice. She stilled, head cocked and eyes squinted, as though she didn’t quite understand the joke.
Cami didn’t get the joke either. None of this was funny.
“I found your photo album,” she said finally. “The one full of pictures of the father who abandoned me.”
Lenny’s confusion melted into comprehension. Her mouth opened, but for several pregnant beats nothing came out. Then, all she managed was, “Oh, Cami.”
“You’ve been lying to me since the moment we met! You said you didn’t know him, and then, what, you give me a job and a place to stay to absolve yourself of the guilt?”
“I didn’t?—”
“Shut up! You could have told me at any time. It’s been over a year! You let me keep looking knowing I’d never find him. You just let me wonder instead of telling me he was dead. Why? Because you didn’t want to admit your precious little boy was a deadbeat dad?”
“You watch your mouth, Camille!” Lenny snapped. “Yeah, I lied to you, and I feel like shit about it, but you don’t talk about your daddy that way.”
“I don’t have a daddy. The closest thing I ever had to it died in a car wreck fifteen years ago.”
Lenny seemed stricken by Cami’s assertion, but she couldn’t see why. Lenny had been there, after all, and knew firsthand how her son had handled the news of his girlfriend’s pregnancy.But as Lenny processed what she’d said, she began to take on an expression less stunned and more enraged. For the life of her, Cami couldn’t see how Lenny had any right to be the angry one in this situation.
“Your father fought and died for his country.” Lenny took two hurried steps toward her, bringing her hand up to jab an accusing finger in Cami’s face. “He was a hero!”
She’d never been one to react physically to anger, but the provocation was too great. Cami smacked Lenny’s hand away, and had to actively restrain herself from shoving Lenny back out of her personal space. “He abandoned his pregnant girlfriend. Some hero.”
“That is bullshit! Propaganda from your sainted grandparents. They never liked my Steven, and when your mother got pregnant, they dragged her back to Tennessee. He never even knew she was pregnant!”
Now it was Cami’s turn to be dumbstruck. She’d anticipated apologies and excuses, maybe a little groveling. She’d never thought Lenny might try to turn it back around on her. Maybe that was naïve of her. Lenny had never been one to take anything lying down.
Then again, Lenny had spent the last year lying to her about their relationship and withholding much-wanted information about Cami’s heritage. There was no reason to believe she wasn’t lying about this as well, to save face or protect the reputation of her darling little boy.
“You’re so full of it.” Cami shook her head. “How can I believe a word you’re saying? You’ve been lying to me from day one.” Lenny’s eyes narrowed, and she opened her mouth, likely to protest her innocence, but Cami cut her off. “Save it. I’m done. I’m done with you, and Des, and the store, and this goddamn city. I’ll leave the apartment key with Tristan when I’m finished packing.”
Before Lenny could react, Cami stormed around the older woman and up the staircase up to the apartment. She was scheduled to work that night, but Lenny could kiss her ass. If she timed it right and her luck improved, she could be on a bus back to Tennessee by sundown.
There was nothing for her there, but with her dad dead, the only things keeping her in California were a job provided by her lying grandmother, a man who was actively working to take her only source of income, and a degree that could be done remotely. She’d have to talk to the administration to get her enrollment changed, but that wasn’t that big a deal. And she could make up whatever work she missed in the meantime. The extra effort would be worth it, as long as it got her out of California and into a place that didn’t remind her of lies and liars.
Lenny called her name as Cami unlocked the apartment and stepped inside, but the sound died when she slammed the door shut. She locked it behind her for good measure. Though Lenny had landlord keys, Cami doubted she’d put them to use. There was nothing more to be said.
From under her bed, she pulled a dusty duffle and her laptop backpack.
Most of what she owned was unnecessary—toiletries she could easily replace, a mug she’d received as part of her school orientation, a cross-stitch hoop featuring a coding-related joke. They were things that wouldn’t fit in the duffle, and she didn’t need to take. She managed to get a week’s worth of clothes in it, along with a spare set of shoes, her hairbrush, and a couple of textbooks. Her laptop, important documents, and remaining texts went into the backpack. Then she stuffed a water bottle into a side pocket and emptied a box of granola bars into a front pouch.
