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Ben’s voice jolts me back to reality. “I don’t know how long that’ll take and I need moneynow!”
I bite my tongue to stop the steam of expletives from bubbling over. “You already have courtside Knicks tickets and a fridge full of beer. What could you possibly need money for now?”
“I have fuckingneeds, Emma.”
I have no idea what that means and I have no intention of asking. “I’m hanging up now, Ben.”
“If you hang up, I’ll just keep calling.”
“Then I’ll just keep hanging up.”
“Don’t make me come down there.”
I nearly gag with fear. “You wouldn’t!”
“Just watch me. I will—”
“Okay,” I hiss. “You blackmailing bastard. How much do you want?”
“Two hundred bucks.”
I answer automatically. “I don’t have that.”
“Bullshit.”
“I’m serious—”
“Okay, see you at the office, in like, half an hour?”
“You’re an asshole.”
“Just transfer the money directly into my—Caro, Rae! Shut the hell up, I’m on the phone—into my account.”
“Don’t swear at them!” I hiss.
He just ignores me. “Go ahead and do it now. I can stay on the line with you while you make the transfer.”
You havegotto be kidding me.
The thing is, I can’t afford to have Ben come down here and stir up shit. So I cave, which is probably the worst thing to do, but I can’t really see another way out.
I open my work laptop and pull up my personal banking page. “I’m transferring the money now. But seriously, this is thelastof my cash for the month.”
“Sure, sure.” His voice goes muffled as he holds the phone away from his mouth. I hear mumbling, a few punctured screams in the background, and the sound of skittering footsteps. Then the line clears and his voice comes through again. “Are you doing it? The money hasn’t come through—Caro, stop crying, I barely touched you… I don’t know… just ignore him—shit, where was I? Oh, right, the money. Done yet?”
I click the transfer button and it starts to process my request. The screen is hijacked by a big rotating circle that informs me not to close the page.
“What is Caroline crying about?”
“Huh?”
“Ben, what is your daughter crying about?” I ask through gritted teeth.
“Um… dunno, something about this creepy guy following them.”
“Whatcreepy guy?”
“Fuck if I know. Just kids being kids. Josh probably made it up to scare the girls.”
