She was around five foot three and had the features of most in Chinese culture.
The lightly tanned skin, dark brown hair, slanted eyes.
She was the epitome of beautiful, even at fifty-four years of age.
I wanted to be her when I grew up, but sadly I had too much of my daddy in me, and it would never be.
My eyes squinted and I looked around. “Where is daddy?”
He’d been here last night, but I hadn’t seen him all morning.
She shrugged. “He had a few errands to run. He said he’d come see you soon, though.”
I looked at her skeptically but shrugged. “Okay, well I guess that’s fine.”
I walked out to my old car and threw my bag into the backseat, not needing to open the door since I’d never bothered to roll it up when I’d gotten here three days ago.
When I turned, I saw her staring at my car with a frown on her face.
“What?” I asked.
Her eyes moved up to mine as she said, “Why are you driving this?”
“I like it,” I said, lying through my teeth.
In all honesty, it was a piece of shit that I got for a grand off the side of the road. It needed a hell of a lot of work, and quite a bit of it I couldn’t do myself, so it never got done.
She looked at me skeptically but stayed quiet. “You should’ve taken your car.”
I laughed, then.
My ‘car’ as she said, was the one I’d been driving since I was sixteen. It also had a GPS tracking device in it. Something I hadn’t known until the day I’d turned twenty.
For four years, my dad had known where I was at all times, and that’d really stuck in my gullet. I hated how he was so overprotective.
I realize that he nearly lost me when I was younger, but that didn’t give him any right to stalk me.
“Sure, as soon as daddy takes the GPS chip out of it, I’ll start driving it again,” I said.
She sighed at hearing the familiar statement. “Take care of yourself, baby girl.”
I nodded and gave her one more kiss before I dropped down into my old car, and started it up with a rumbling cough.
Smoke poured out of the tailpipe and my mom waved her hand in front of her face to clear it from her face before scowling at me.
I smiled at her and said, “How about you take care of yourself, too?”
She waved a dismissive hand at me and turned around to walk back into the house.
My heart hurt at watching her walk away from me.
The call I’d gotten three days ago had scared the ever-loving shit out of me.
I was in the area of medicine, but I had no knowledge, whatsoever, about the actual diseases that there were. Not knowing that the seizure she’d had was actually not ‘bad,’ I’d driven straight home, skipping my classes and work, as I went.
It turned out that she wasn’t hurt or dying after all, and I’d probably overreacted, but I’d been scared.
My mom and dad meant the world to me, even if my dad was overprotective as hell.
The same day I’d arrived, my father had started grilling me on my life. That night when I’d told him I met somebody at my apartment complex and had started seeing him, he’d gotten really weird about it, even going as far as to interrogate me about who Downy was. What he did for a living. Who his parents were.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he was at work running a background check on Downy, even though it was his day off.
My drive was uneventful, and when I finally pulled into my parking spot at the apartment complex later that afternoon, I was nearly about to pass out.
I hated driving. It always made me so tired.
I’d had to stop at a gas station about half way and buy some sunflower seeds.
I was cheeking them like a baseball player does while chewing tobacco.
In fact, it was a good thing that my mouth was occupied, because the moment I stepped out of my car, my eyes caught on a very familiar looking motorcycle.
One that looked incredibly similar to my father’s.
I started to get a sneaking suspicion that there was more to my father’s frantic phone call, telling me that my mother was sick.
Oh, I didn’t doubt for one minute that she’d been ‘sick.’
What I doubted was that she was sick enough for me to come all the way home.
Something that got me conveniently under my mother’s watchful eye, and freed up my father to come check out my new man.
I let Peter out of the car, slamming the door closed behind him.
He was much more watchful now since the near dog attack, and stayed within three feet of me the entire way up to the apartment.
I debated on whether or not to go to Downy’s apartment, but decided against it when I heard laughter coming from behind the closed door.
I went to mine instead, opening the door wide for Peter to go in before slamming it behind me.
Hard.
That little shit.
I started slamming stuff, going first to the kitchen cabinet where I left the cups, then going to the fridge for my jug of juice…only to find it empty.
Either dad had been in my apartment, or the house full of men next door were making use of my amenities.
Sighing, I went to the faucet and filled my glass up all the way. Then chugged it.
Water ran down the sides of my mouth, but I didn’t stop until I finished the entire thing, slamming the glass down on the counter when I was finished.
“Wow,” Downy drawled. His sexy, Southern accent making tingles trickle down my back. “Who’d have thought seeing your girl chug a glass of water would be that sexy?”
I smiled and turned, finding him leaning against the side of the island that separated the kitchen from the living room.
He was shoeless in jeans and a red t-shirt that said, ‘If all else fails, empty the magazine.’