Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 106798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
“I’m temporarily living out of my car. But I have a car. And I have a job. My life is not ideal right now, but I’m young. I’m talented. I’m hardworking. So I will get through this just fine. Living out of one’s car temporarily is not the worst thing ever.” She exudes a surprising amount of confidence given the fact that she’s singing her positivity song in a stinky, trashed car, after lying to us for months.
“You’re her.”
“Who?” she asks.
“Suzanne. You’re an eternal optimist even when you know you have no cards left to play. But I think she’s an optimist for me more than herself. You’re the real deal.”
“Even if you fire me for living out of my car, the Mumfords won’t fire me. I still have three other clients, and I have a few other people who wanted to hire me when my schedule was full. I can check with them. So I’d hardly say I don’t have any cards left to play.”
I don’t know if I should grin because she’s so tough, a side to her I didn’t know existed, or if I should be offended that she thinks so little of me. “I’d never fire you for being homeless.”
“Dude … I have a car.”
“I’m not going to split hairs with you.” I massage my temples. “Let’s take your stuff inside.” I open the door.
“What? No. Why?”
Ducking my head back into the car, I lift my eyebrows. Is she serious? “To give you a safer place to sleep until you get things figured out.”
“I don’t want your pity or your charity. And I definitely don’t want you to tell Suzie.”
“I bet you want a shower. I bet your cat wants out of the heat.” I close the door then slowly open her hatchback.
Fucking hell … who lives like this?
Things spill onto the ground. Emersyn hops out and hustles to get her belongings picked up, including a pair of panties barely hanging on to the bumper.
“Just …” She cringes and tries to bat away my hands as I reach for her things. “Let me do it. I don’t need to bring everything inside just to shower and give Harry Pawter a break from the heat.”
“Suzanne will insist you stay.”
She snatches the bra from the top of my shoe at lightning speed. “That’s why we’re not going to tell her.”
“I can’t keep this from her.”
Her frantic hands pluck a sandal and tube of lipstick from the driveway before she snaps her spine straight again. “Listen, Zach, you have a pass. At least from me. I get the need you must have to somehow do right by Suzie’s every wish, but she nor you need a live-in right now. And you know this. She’s still here with us, so you need to focus on her. You need time alone with her. So stop acting like you’re honoring a dying request. A final letter. A forced promise in a weak moment. Or maybe just good old-fashioned guilt. I know she’ll want you to take me in like a stray dog. I don’t want it. No.” She shakes her head. “Just no.”
“Why have you always given me this vibe that you’re a little unsure about me?”
“Unsure?” She cants her head to the side.
I shrug. “I don’t want to say I think you don’t like me, but it’s a similar feeling. You get a little stiff whenever I walk into the same room as you and Suzanne—like I’m spoiling some party or that I, for whatever reason, make you nervous.”
I don’t get an answer from her. I get her crossing her arms over her chest and her hip pushed out to the side as she scowls at me.
What did I do?
Emersyn
Zach will forever put my nerves on high alert.
First: I have an innocent crush on him. It’s his fault for being the perfect husband.
Second: I have an innocent crush on him. It’s his fault for looking sexy all the time.
Third: I have an innocent crush on him. It’s Suzie’s fault for telling me about their sex life. Since she’s dying, she gets a pass, and I’m forced to now blame that on him too.
All crushing aside, I don’t know how to read Zach. I don’t know how to read men at all. If I psychoanalyzed myself, everything would boil down to daddy issues.
Acting as confident as I can (which isn’t much since he knows my secret and the disgusting odor from that secret is wafting out of the back of my car), I take a deep breath and blow it out my nose. “I’ve been a little lost. And since Suzie befriended me, I’ve felt a little found. You hired me to clean your house, and I fear I don’t do that as well as I should do it. I think you’re happy that I can sometimes be with Suzie when you’re not here, but when you are here … I feel like an intruder because …”