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He smiled at that. “I appreciate the thought, but don’t worry about the cost. I can afford it, easily. I mean if Cassandra is to be believed, I’m Scrooge sitting in my office counting my coins every night.”
“I know you can afford it. I’m not trying to offend you. I’m not used to it. Even if I could afford something like this, I’m not sure I would. I can’t get past the penny-pinching part of my life.”
“There is nothing wrong with that.”
She wiped the last tear from her face with the napkin. “Let me guess, that’s the ex that lived with you? The one that didn’t get her fancy dinners and vacations, the jewelry and so on?”
“It is. I noticed her when we walked in and hoped she didn’t see me. I didn’t get that lucky.”
“Don’t worry about it. I noticed right away the change in her eyes the minute I said we’d been dating for five months. I think she was trying to be petty and embarrass you on a first or second date with someone, but once she found out it was more, she turned vindictive.”
“That was her,” he said.
Their breakup hadn’t been pretty either.
He wasn’t sure what he ever saw in her. She was high maintenance from the get-go. They’d met one night in the Pub. He’d been having a few drinks with his cousins. They’d talked him into going out when he didn’t normally.
Cassandra saw him talking with Brody and Cade. She must have put it together who they were and thought they were friends. When she found out they were cousins, it was like a light flickered in her eyes.
She didn’t start out as demanding. Or it was only a little and then increased once they moved in together.
He paid the bills because he already was when she moved in. He wasn’t happy about it, but let it go at first. When he brought up her chipping in, not even splitting it, but just contributing, she’d gotten defensive on her expenses.
She was living for free and spending her money on clothes and other shit he couldn’t even figure out.
He didn’t see a future with her and looking back realized his family didn’t either.
They never took her in like they had Kendra.
The breakup came as no surprise to anyone, least of all him.
He was more relieved, but he’d learned his lesson.
“I’m sorry you dealt with that,” she said. “I suppose that is why you haven’t had many relationships since?”
“It is. I wanted to make sure I didn’t find someone else like her. It’s not that I have trust issues.”
“Like me,” she said.
“You have a right to feel that way,” he said. “You haven’t had the best examples of men in your life.”
“Nope,” she said. “But I’m getting one now. I see it with all the men in your family, and it’s helping me realize that I was wrong for years.”
“Sounds like we both were.”
“We only needed your aunt to prove it to us,” she said, laughing.
“Not even funny and you know it.”
“Sorry. I couldn’t resist. Just like there is something else I can’t resist when we leave here.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“You’re going to have to wait to find out.”
The bill couldn’t come fast enough and when it did, he paid and they left, him driving faster than normal back home.
They were barely in the hallway from his garage when she stopped him, then dropped to her knees and undid his pants to free him.
