“No Mom, it’s someone else, and we hadn’t really figured out what we were for the longest time so I never felt like talking about it.”
“So the guy was willing to give you 60,000 dollars before even putting a name on your relationship? I don’t get it, Aria. I hope you haven’t been doing anything illegal. I’m not worth the trouble.”
“No, Mom, no no! Nothing illegal, I promise. Like I said, it is very complicated. But I haven’t done anything you wouldn’t approve of, Mom,” I said, crossing my fingers.
“I don’t know, Aria. You didn’t even tell me about this guy, and he has been paying all this money.” Her voice was shaking slightly.
“I will be paying him back, I promise!” I said honestly. “But I think for now the payments will have to stop because, uh, we broke up.”
“Aww, honey! Are you all right? Maybe I should come over and spend a few days with you.”
I thought about that for a second and realized it was a horrible idea. If she came here it would be easier for her to find out exactly what the deal between me and Zayden was.
“Don’t be silly, Mom.” I tried to sound as cheerful as possible. “We were not even dating for too long. He was a good boyfriend but he began to get controlling and that pissed me off, so I ended it. I am not even upset about it! Worried about your hospital bills, sure, but not upset. And I will find another way to continue your payments. You trust me, don’t you?”
“Of course I trust you! But I feel like I am putting way too much pressure on you with all this money business. You are 20 years old; how can I expect you to come up with 40,000 more dollars just like that? Especially if your loan got denied. Oh, those rascals! You actually work at the bank and they would still deny you.”
“It’s okay, Mom, it really is. We will figure something out, you know I will. Please don’t worry about this for now. It’s late, go to bed, I will call you soon and we will make a plan. Everything is going to be alright.”
“As long as you are okay, honey,” she said, sounding apologetic. “I am so sorry about all this.”
“Don’t be! I am fine and if I can’t even help out my mom when she needs me, what’s the point of anything?” I asked brightly. “Goodnight, Mom. Sleep well. You are going to be okay. We are going to be okay.”
“Goodnight, baby. I love you.”
“I love you too,” I whispered and hung up, feeling extremely anxious.
Even though I had told her I would figure it out, I had no idea what I was going to do. There were only a couple of days left until the month was over, and if Zayden really had decided to back down, I hadn’t the slightest idea how I was going to get us out of this pickle.
“What is going on?” Stacey, who had been silently listening to my whole conve
rsation, finally spoke.
“What is going on, Stace,” I said sullenly, “Is that I am so very fucked.”
Chapter Six
Zayden
My last encounter with Aria had not been nearly as satisfying as I would have thought. Giving her what she wants did not make me feel the slightest bit better, but rather it made me feel weak; an emotion I had never been able to identify with in my whole life. She had sent me an email afterwards, which I unconsciously chose to ignore. Who cared if she felt guilty about my mother? She hadn’t exactly given me the opportunity to explain myself. I couldn’t help but take this time to make her as anxious and vulnerable as she had made me feel. I fully intended to make the payment to her mother’s hospital, but she didn’t need to know that yet. For another couple of days she could go on without knowing whether I was going to do it or not.
Meanwhile, I had my mom and Gina to deal with, and I figured I would start with Gina, who to her credit, hadn’t told my mother anything. Perhaps for the same fear I had - that she would react in a perfectly irrational manner. And I had come to believe that regardless of the fact that she was a royal pain in the ass, she really did care about my mother.
I had invited her over for breakfast at one of her favorite restaurants, so that the angry phone call wasn’t the last she heard of me. Subtlety was the secret to making sure this ordeal went smoothly from all directions, not that I had definitively decided that I was going to end it.
She arrived about 10 minutes late, looking as though she had been crying. Her eyes were puffy even underneath the multiple layers of makeup, and I felt slightly uncomfortable. Oh well. As long as she didn’t start crying in front of me, it wasn’t my problem.
“Hello,” Gina said, sitting across from me. “I am sorry I’m late, I just–”
“It’s okay,” I said and waved my arm nonchalantly. “Not important. Thank you for coming here, especially after that phone call.”
“Yeah, that phone call, it was really something,” she said and attempted a meek smile. “I have been spending the last few days half hoping you were joking.”
“I wasn’t,” I said and frowned. “For what it’s worth, your deal really did sound tempting and I was seriously considering it. But then you came into my office the other day and put on a show, which I am still paying for.”
“What do you mean?” She looked genuinely surprised. “I wasn’t putting on a show. I was in the area and came by to say hello. I thought we were friends and that was acceptable.”
“We’re not friends, we never were. You know full well why you were there that day, and so do I, so let’s skip all the pretenses, shall we?”