Cruel Money (Cruel 1)

“Natalie, it’s not charity!”

“You have no idea what it’s like to have nothing.” I gritted my teeth. “If you did, then you’d know charity when you saw it.”

“You’re right,” he said, holding his hands up. “I have never been in this situation. But I am only doing this because I care for you. I want to make this right the best I can. And if I have to use my resources to do that, why does that have to be a bad thing?”

I yanked my jacket off of the floor and tugged it on. “It’s not a bad thing. It’s a great thing,” I grumbled, striding back toward the elevator.

“Natalie, where are you going?”

“I need some air. Some space to think.”

He reached out and brought me to a halt. “Please don’t run out of here like this.”

I tugged my arm away from his. “I can’t think straight right now, and if I stay, I’m going to say something else that I regret. So, just…let me go.”

“Okay,” he said softly. “I’m going to try to figure this out.”

“Go work your magic.” I stepped into the elevator.

“We’ll make this work,” he tried to assure me.

As the doors closed between us, I realized that I wasn’t sure if he was talking about my job or…us.

Natalie

35

I strode aimlessly through Central Park. With nowhere to go and nothing on my mind to see, I got lost while wandering the park and managed to run into the Boathouse. I grabbed a hot dog and bottled water before meandering back around the lake. Bethesda Fountain loomed up ahead, and I remembered us coming here with Melanie and Amy. How different that day had been. Before Penn and I had even started this liaison. I’d predicted that I’d leave brokenhearted. The more I thought about it, the more I really, really didn’t want that to happen.

My temper cooled as I walked up the steps that led to the Mall. I passed the park benches that were in a dozen movies and then turned back toward Penn’s place. I’d been unfair. That much was obvious. I’d just been so angry. So frustrated that this had all happened because he had moved into the beach house with me. I hadn’t wanted him to, but he’d done it anyway. I could have gotten another job. Picked a different household to work for. They would have been less desirable, but it would have been an option.

Instead, I’d stayed. He’d stayed. And neither of us had looked back. I wouldn’t trade our time together, but we only had three more days! It was wrong that we were here with so little time left.

I tucked my hands into my jacket and finally walked out of Central Park. My legs were tired, but my mind and soul were exhausted. Today had been a roller coaster. I needed to talk to Penn and decide what to do from here.

I wasn’t prepared to give him up.

But I had no idea what I was going to do for work or where the hell I would stay. That was a scary prospect in a place like New York City.

I was glad that I’d gone for my walk even if Penn and I had argued before it. The cool weather and time away from it all had settled me. I wasn’t better. I didn’t know when I would be again after being fired like that. But I was functional at least.

My mind was still so far up in the clouds that I didn’t even realize someone was saying my name until I had almost reached Penn’s building.

“Natalie!” Katherine cried, darting forward.

Oh great, just what I needed.

“Hey, Katherine. You know…now is really not a good time.”

“God, I’m sure, Natalie. Penn told me what happened at the beach house. I am so incredibly sorry.”

I shot her a half-smile. “Yeah. Thanks. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“I wanted to stop by and check on you.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said as short and curt as I could manage.

Katherine had been nothing but kind to me during Halloween, telling me how excited she was to hang out again at the mayor’s party, but I honestly did not want to talk to anyone. Just Penn. Just to make it right.

“I could come up and make you some tea.”

“I said…I’m fine,” I snapped.

Her spine straightened, and her eyes widened. “I’m just trying to help. I could not believe it when Penn told me.”

I sighed. Of course, just trying to help. “I’m just going to go upstairs and see Penn.”

“Oh, he went over to Lewis’s, I think, to talk to Lark.”

“What is Lark doing at Lewis’s?”

Katherine shrugged. “She apartment-hops between the four of us when she and Thomas are fighting.”

“Does that happen often?”

“More often than she’d admit to,” Katherine said with a sad sigh. “Lewis is helping Lark with boy troubles. Are you sure I can’t come up and help you with yours?”