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“No, but she doesn’t have to, Miss Sharpe, because I know she is a hard worker. She doesn’t party like most college kids. You raised her right.”
Jess walks by and gets on her tiptoes to kiss me on the cheek. “Thank you,” she rasps against my skin.
I’m fighting the urge to take her in the car and fuck her in the back seat but I need to behave with her mother around.
I walk in behind Jess, taking in the small trailer. It smells like an old storage closet mixed with those little smelly things in the outlets. The carpet is old but clean. The counters are spotless, if you overlook the peeling cheap Formica on the surface. In what is considered the living room, the couch looks like they picked it off the curb for bulk trash.
“This is home,” Miss Sharpe says, closing the yellow refrigerator.
I didn’t think they made those, but I guess they exist. There is no fucking way I’m letting them stay in here. Not with that crackhead outside. I’m surprised he hasn’t come in here and hurt them.
I don’t know what to say. Thousands of dollars in education doesn’t prepare you to answer a question like that when you see someone living in a shitty trailer. What do you say? How do you respond? You have a lovely home and sound like a lying douchebag. A fake rich prick from wealth, lying to her face after she rode in a car that costs just as much as she makes in five years, including tips.
I feel the draft of the chill from outside seeping in and notice no heating or central air. There is only one air conditioner on the wall, and I can’t take it. I can’t.
“I was going to wait to tell you both my surprise, but since we are here, I would like for you to pack a bag, Miss Sharpe. We are going somewhere special.”
Not a total lie. I have to check to see if I have any of my five-star hotels in the area because there is no way I will have them stay in anything less.
“Oh, but I have to be back by Sunday so I can get ready for work.”
“You’ll be back, I promise.” I smile.
Honestly, she’ll be back, but not in the way she thinks.
CHAPTER40
Jess
Iwasn’t aware Reid had anything planned, but I think it was Jimmy the crackhead walking out after his last crack hit that changed his plan. Not the best thing to come home to, but he’s harmless, considering. He keeps to himself, doesn’t bother anyone, and just stands with a cardboard sign that reads:
YES, I’M ADDICTED TO CRACK. ANYTHING HELPS TO KEEP ME FROM DYING.
I used to think it was funny until I realized it wasn’t, but at least he was honest. Being honest got me bullied at school when people would see where I lived.
Maybe Reid was so disgusted, he refused to be in the trailer another second, and I can’t say I blame him.
“Where are we going? What is the surprise?” I ask.
He clears his throat. “I’m taking you to my hotel. You ladies are going to be pampered for the weekend. And I can’t tell you about your birthday present because it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?”
I smile, falling more in love with him with each passing second.
“I guess so.”
“Jesse, let the poor man surprise his girlfriend,” she scolds.
My mother likes him. She likes him a lot. I was afraid she would be intimidated by the tattoos and the piercings, but Reid is perfect, and he said all the right things. It felt genuine.
He parks in the valet at the same hotel he first took me to the night we had sex in the elevator, and it is déjà vu all over again with the valet. It is late, but the hotel operates at full capacity twenty-four seven.
I wait for Reid to open the door, but he surprises me by opening both for my mom and me.
“Oh, boy. You have outdone yourself, young man,” Mom says, looking around with wide eyes, taking it all in.
“Mom,” I rasp out, smiling but also trying not to feel embarrassed.
It really is a beautiful hotel. My mother has never experienced something so lush and her reaction is understandable. Reid has his staff taking our few bags up to the room.
