AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Remi chases after me, red-faced.
“How much was it? I’ll Venmo you.”
“It was a couple hundred bucks, don’t worry about it. Here, take the cart so I can open the umbrella.”
Remi steers the cart, frowning. I shake open the umbrella and take the cart back again, passing her the umbrella to hold over us both. The clouds are thicker and darker than ever—it might actually rain.
A few drops spit down by the time we’re levering open the ancient hatch of the Bronco. Remi hasn’t said a word on the short walk back to the car. It’s only after everything is loaded into the trunk that she turns on me, flustered and stammering.
“Don’t—don’t do that again, please.”
“What?”
“Pay for me.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you to—I can pay for myself.”
“Barely.”
Her flush deepens, and now she’s angry as well as embarrassed.
“I can take care of myself just fine.”
“‘Fine’ doesn’t sound that enjoyable. ‘Fine’ is barely scraping by. Why don’t you want me to help you?”
“Because.”
I stare at her, waiting for more.
“I don’t like being in anyone’s debt!” She bursts out. “When my parents died, they owed money to everyone. It was a fucking mess and humiliating, begging our landlady to give us another month when they already owed her for three, when Jude was wetting the bed again at fucking ten years old, when I was sleeping three hours a night, when the only food in our fridge was condiments—“
She stops and takes several breaths, chest heaving.
“I dug us out of that hole; I got us stable. I’ve never owed anyone since, and I don’t intend to. I haven’t even fixed your fence yet, so don’t go adding anything else on my debt.”
“You don’t owe me any fence; I was just being an asshole. I wanted to make you come over.”
“What?” Remi cries, genuinely shocked. “I thought you hated me when we met.”
I shrug. “I still wanted to see you again.”
Her mouth falls open, and then she laughs that loud, raucous laugh of hers that makes me smile, too, whether I want to or not. “You’re so fucking weird.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Remi grins. “Better than being boring.”
“So you say—I’m still waiting for it to pay off.”
Remi’s supposed to head back to her house to tackle her endless list of projects, but since it appears Tom is still recuperating and hasn’t texted that he’s on his way, we end up loafing around Grimstone for the rest of the afternoon.
We visit Selina at the tattoo shop, then her sister Helena two doors down because Selina insists she’ll be jealous if we don’t, though Remi is much more interested in tattoos than tarot. Selina seems slightly disappointed to see Remi and me strolling around together, while Helena looks like she can’t wait to blab it all over town. I try not to care either way.
We stop in at the bookstore/tea shop, where Remi purchases two paperbacks and a pound of loose-leaf chai, then a haberdashery where she pressures me into buying a peacoat.
“You have to get it; it looks incredible on you!”
