by Ash Johnson
“You’re fuckin’ shitting me, right? This ultrasound was taken over a year ago,” I say, the humor draining from my voice as I throw the year-old picture of someone else’s baby back at the lying bitch.
She tries to snatch the picture in the air but fails and has to bend over to grab it. When it’s shoved back into her purse, she pins her angry brown eyes to me but still says nothing.
“So you were hoping I would fall for your bullshit lies and—what? Move you into my house and fuck you until you really did get pregnant? You’re delusional.”
“That one must belong to one of my friends. We were at her house talking about being pregnant, and I must have grabbed one of the ultrasounds she was showing me. Please, Blake, let’s sit down and talk about this,” she says as she starts down the stairs to my basement. I clutch her forearm and steer her to the front door.
“No fucking way. We are finished in every sense of the word, Heaven. I don’t ever want to see you around here again.” I don’t believe a damn word about her grabbing the wrong ultrasound picture. I think she borrowed someone else’s and brought it here with the hope that I wouldn’t notice.
After staring at me in disbelief for a few seconds, she realizes I’m not going to fall for any of her shit and growls, muttering “asshole” as she slams my front door closed.
I shake my head, glad that I don’t have to deal with her bullshit anymore, and call Harlow one more time. She doesn’t answer, and I think about getting into the BMW and heading over to her apartment but then notice that it’s around eight p.m. and wonder if she’s on her way to her bartending job right now.
I would go over and talk to her there, but she’s told me before that she’s always busy when she works this job, and this is how she makes the most money. I don’t want to distract her from making money or, even worse, see her in a sexy outfit that is going to make me want to drag her out of there.
It will just have to wait until after she gets off, and then we’re going to talk.
Chapter 15
Harlow
I work long and hard at the club tonight, trying to make enough money so that I don’t have to worry about this week’s payment anymore. I send the other bartender home early hoping to make more, and it works. I’ll leave tonight with over four hundred dollars in tips. It’s enough to pay off my three hundred-dollar weekly debt to Dominick and possibly take Alex to get some more appropriate clothes for school.
By the time I clean off the bar and all of the tabletops, it’s almost four in the morning, and I’m exhausted. I didn’t even check bus times earlier, so it seems that I’ll be sitting at the stop just waiting for the bus to come around. If I could afford it, I would buy one of those smart phones that has internet access, but the flip phone I my dad bought me when I turned sixteen is much cheaper and is almost indestructible.
I wave to the bouncer as I make my way outside and take a deep breath when the warm, dry Arizona air smacks me in the face. I start moving in the direction of the bus stop a few blocks away when someone shouts my name. My shoulders tense. Has Dominick come to collect this week’s payment early again? I spin around. It’s just Blake, jogging toward me and my body relaxes.
“Blake? What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been waiting for you to get off work so we could talk about the car. I’m still not sure why you gave it back in the first place, but it doesn’t seem like you have another ride lined up.”
I don’t know how to answer him without sounding pissed. I’m very upset and a bit heartbroken that he has two kids from one woman and another baby mama and never told me about them. Granted, there are things about my life I still haven’t told him, but he knows more about me than almost any other person in the world.
Most people start to get to know me but give up quickly when they find out that I’m so busy with three jobs that I can’t do anything outside of work. I’ve lost a lot of hope about new friendships because of these jobs.
I ball my hands into fists to fight off the anger rolling through me as I attempt to speak in a steady voice. “Well, I gave you the car back so that you could let the mother of your unborn child have it. She seemed a bit angry that I was using the car and not her.”
“Mother of my unborn -“
He seems confused for a moment before a light bulb appears to go off in his mind. “You must have run into the bitch when you showed up at my house, huh?”
“Bitch?” I snap, getting more pissed off by the second at the way he’s referring to the mother of his child.
Blake puts his hands up in an “I give” gesture. “Babe, that woman is not pregnant with my child. She’s just some psycho I picked up at a bar a few months ago who thought she could force me into a relationship by telling me that I knocked her up.”
I think back to my meeting with Heaven earlier in the day and then furrow my brow. “She had an ultrasound picture in her purse. She showed it to me.”
Blake gives me a soft smile and tucks a lock of hair that escaped my bun behind my ear. “The ultrasound she showed you wasn’t hers. She showed me the same thing. It belonged to someone who was older than I was and was taken over a year ago. I know she’s not pregnant. She was just hoping that I would start something up with her after she showed me the picture, I guess.”
“So Violet was lying the entire time?” I cross my arms over my chest as I try to process all of this.
“Violet? Is that what she told you her name was?”
I shake my head. “No, she never told me her name. I just started calling her Violet because of her hair.”
Blake chuckles and leans closer. “Believe it or not, I don’t think that’s her natural color.”
“Hmm, you may be right. It was a pretty color, but she’s too pale for that shade of purple.”
“I think anyone is too pale to pull off purple,” he says, laughter threatening to overtake his voice.
“Oh, don’t say that. I was considering dying my hair that color. I think it would look hot.” We smile at each other as Blake grabs the thick bun piled on my head, wiggling it before moving both of his hands to my shoulders.
“Please don’t. While purple hair would be amazing on you, it would distract me from your pretty blue eyes and sexy-as-hell mouth, and we can’t have that.”
I bite my lower lip and avert my gaze, suddenly shy. I’m still not used to his flirty words. He puts his finger under my chin and tilts my head back up, bringing my gaze back to his.
“Come on, babe, let’s get you home.” He puts his arm around my shoulders and leads me toward his Hummer. Once we’re both seated inside, I turn to him.
“I’m sorry I dropped everything on you all at once today. I was a bit freaked out about the girl who confronted me in your driveway about being pregnant with your baby, and then when I met your kids in the house, I got upset. Why didn’t you tell me about them? I would have understood.”
I’m not usually this forward when I speak to people, but with Blake I need to understand what’s going on. I refuse to beat around the bush searching for answers when it’s easier to get it out in the open.
“My two kids in the house?” The light bulb comes on once more. “Those two kids are my niece and nephew. They belong to my best friend, Jay. I was watching them so he and his wife could go on a date. It was Ada’s day off from the hospital.”
“What?” That must be why I didn’t see any traces of Blake when I looked at those kids.
“Yeah,” he says, nodding. “And the woman who you met in my driveway, she has been stalking me since I snuck out of her bed over three months ago. It was only after she started telling everyone that I was her boyfriend and then asking all of my friends where I worked and lived that I realized she is bat-shit crazy.”
“Holy crap,” I whisper as he pulls out of The Booby Trap’s parking lot. “She sounds insane. Maybe you should get a restraining order against her.”
He chuckles. “I think I got rid of her once and for all today, but if she comes ba
ck around threatening the people I care about, I’ll call my buddy Ronan. He’s a detective with the Phoenix PD and will help me out.”
Well, that makes me feel a bit better. Maybe this thing between us could work out after all.
I ignore the butterflies fluttering in my belly when he suggests he cares about me. “Have you known Ronan for a long time?”
“Yeah, we met each other a few years back when Ada was being stalked. I was sleeping with Ada’s best friend, Elle and, it turns out, so was Ronan. Now Elle and Ro are married and have a two-year-old boy. We’ve been buddies for a while.”
Holy shit. He’s friends with a guy now after they were both sleeping with the same girl? “Really?”
He chuckles at the expression of shock on my face before turning his eyes back to the road. “Yeah, babe, really. Elle and I weren’t serious, and she and Ronan had dated in college. They started hooking up again around the same time. It’s all cool between us now. We hang out all the time.”
“Well, that’s good to hear.”
It would be nice to have people in your life that would stick around no matter what. I can only hope to have that in my life at some point. Things to look forward to until I have a life again, I guess.
Chapter 16
Blake
I can see a bit of the tension melt away when I tell Harlow that Maya and Axel aren’t my kids and the crazy purple-haired chick isn’t my baby mama. I’m slightly pissed that she believes I would hide kids from her if I had any.
We’ve been talking to each other for over a month, whether on the phone or just through text messages, so she should know me better than that, but I guess not. I let this roll off my back for now, because there are things I don’t know about her yet that I could possibly overreact about as well.
“So, you’re going to let me drive the Hummer then?” she asks, seeming nervous. I chuckle. “No offense, babe, but I don’t think you could handle the beast.”
She gives me a confused glance, which I catch out of the corner of my eye. “So are you going to drive us back to your house and let me take the BMW, then?”
That would make sense, but I’m not ready to give up time with her. “No. I was thinking that I would drive you home tonight and then pick you up in the morning before your shift at Guy’s. I’ll bring the BMW when I come to pick you up, and you can take me home after that.”
Is it obvious that I want to spend as much time with her as I can? I was waiting outside of a strip club until four in the morning for her to get off work just so I could drive her home and tell her that I’ll be taking her to work again tomorrow. I hope she’ll tell me to stay the night.
Maybe I’m being way too obvious about this whole thing. Shit, I’m whipped and I don’t even have the girl yet.
She tilts her head to the side, suggesting that she knows I’m full of shit. We pull up to her complex before she can call me out. It takes us a while to find a place to park, because the lot around her complex is packed, but we finally find a spot not too far away.
The fact that Harlow lives in a scary-as-shit neighborhood, I get out and walk with her to her front door. As we tromp three flights up the rusty metal staircase, we hear heavy bass music pouring from one of the apartments close by. I want to say that some people have no fucking respect for their neighbors because the sun has yet to come up, but then I hear the sounds get louder as we get closer to Harlow’s door.
When we stop in front of her apartment, I’m glad I kept my damn mouth shut. The apartment next door has every light on, and an angry woman glares at us through the side window. I don’t know how the cops haven’t been called yet.
Harlow is pissed as hell as she tears off a piece of paper that is folded and taped to her door and opens the peeling green front door, only to be met with chaos.
Teenagers are all over the place: dancing on the furniture, making out on the counter, and disappearing down the hallway.
“Excuse me,” Harlow keeps yelling, but no one acknowledges her.
“Hey, shut the fuck up!” I holler over the music, which is cut off at my tone.
Harlow mouths “thank you” before turning back to the underage partiers.
“If you do not live in this apartment, then I suggest you get your ass out immediately.” Most of the teenagers groan but oblige. A few try to play the “I don’t give a shit what you say” card, and it’s my job to step up and threaten them.
“If you don’t get the fuck out right now, I’ll make you leave myself.” The kids scatter like roaches when the lights turn on at my growl. Being big and bulky can be an advantage at times.
Harlow scans the kids as they depart, searching for someone in particular. After the last teen is gone and she doesn’t see who she’s looking for, she blazes a path down the hall toward what I assume are the bedrooms.
I follow in case she needs help getting rid of any kids hiding in the rooms. At least that’s what I tell myself. I will have her back through this argument.
When Harlow opens a bedroom door, we both peer inside to find a couple going at it in the bed, neither noticing that music has been killed or that the door was flung open.
“Alexis, close your fucking legs and put some clothes on.” Oh shit, this must be Harlow’s little sister.
“Who the hell are you?” the snotty boy between her legs, who is doing nothing to cover his naked girlfriend’s body, hollers. I step closer, pissed off that he talked to my girl like that.
“She’s the one who pays the damn bills in this place, so I suggest you get some clothes on and get the hell out, junior,” I tell him, happy when he shrinks a bit at the sound of my voice.
Harlow slams the door and moves to the room opposite Alex’s, where we find another pair of teenagers having sex on a mattress.
“Holy shit—get the hell out! Party’s over,” Harlow yells, scaring the couple then moves toward the dirty kitchen.
“I’m going to need bleach and a lighter,” she mumbles to me once we’ve made it to the stools at the kitchen island.
“Why bleach and a lighter?”
“The bleach to pour in my eyes after seeing my little sister having sex, and the lighter for my mattress, which has seen more action from horny teens than it has from me. I can’t sleep in that bed ever again.” I laugh at her explanation but am secretly happy that she essentially said she hasn’t been having sex with other guys.
After about five minutes, the couple from Harlow’s room and Alex’s boyfriend leave, and Alex joins us in a tiny, see-through white tank top with no bra and plaid pajama pants.
“Why the hell did you break up my party?” she has the nerve to yell at Harlow. I keep my eyes to the floor, because I don’t want to see whatever it is her sister is trying to show off in that shirt, while my hands clench into fists. I have to remind myself that she isn’t my little sister and that I’m trying to get an in with Harlow. Yelling at her little sister most likely wouldn’t get my foot in the door right now.
“I broke up your damn party so you could help pack up the apartment,” Harlow answers in a low, even tone.
Her sister’s head jerks back. “Why do we need to pack up?”
“Because I told you we were on our last noise complaint warning. One more complaint from our neighbors about loud parties at all hours of the night and we were out. But you don’t give a shit about any of that, do you, Alex? You don’t give a shit that I’m out working three fucking jobs to keep Dominick off my ass and us both alive, do you? You just want to have your all-night parties and sex when you are too fucking young to be having sex and not give a crap about anything else. So now you get to clean up the mess from this party while I go out and get us some boxes. When I get back, you are going to pack up your room and the kitchen.”
“But—” Alex starts, but Harlow holds her own.
“Shut the hell up, Alex. I don’t want to hear any excuses or whining about having to clean up after yourself for once. I need to get boxes and find us another place in the next twen
ty-four hours, so shut up and get on it.”
“Twenty-four hours?”
“Yeah,” Harlow says, holding up the piece of paper she snagged from the front door. “The landlord gave us twenty-four hours to get our shit packed and moved out before he has us escorted off the property. I’m just glad he didn’t call the cops. So we have to get this done before my shift in six hours. Get on it.”
Harlow leaves Alex standing in the kitchen and stomps out the front door as I follow closely behind. We make it down one flight of stairs before she breaks down, her body shuddering with sobs. I twirl her around and pull her close to me, whispering soothing words into her ear in an effort to calm her.
“I have no clue what we’re going to do. This is the cheapest apartment complex anywhere in Phoenix, and I don’t have the time, the money, or the transportation to move everything to a new place today.”
Then I say what I was tempted to tell her inside her apartment. I don’t even give it another thought. “Move in with me.” I don’t think about going from living by myself for five years to having a chick I’m trying to start a relationship with and her teenage sister there. I just react on gut instinct, and my gut is telling me that Harlow and Alex need to move in.
Harlow’s head lifts from my chest, and she gazes up at me with tears in her eyes. “What?”
I know she heard me, but if she needs me to repeat myself, I will. The more I think about Harlow sharing my space with me, the better this idea sounds. “You and Alex can move in with me. My house has four bedrooms, and I won’t charge you any rent. You can even go to my house and sleep before work while Alex and I move your stuff over to my place.”
She’s staring at me like I’m a fucking god for suggesting it, but then her expression goes from amazement to concern.
“That’s so sweet, but I can’t take you up on that Blake. I won’t take advantage of you like that.”