The Boy on the Bridge

“Mom,” I interrupt firmly. “He doesn’t need to apply for another loan. Hunter’s set to invest. We’re good.”

She shakes her head, shooting Hunter a dirty look. Her gaze drops to my hand in his, then she looks back at my face, her eyes pleading. “Now I need to talk to you.”

I let go of Hunter’s hand and tell him I’ll be right back, then I follow Mom into the living room.

“I think I may have put my cart behind the wrong horse,” she says in a rush. “But to be fair, there weren’t any good horses. You only like bad horses, so I just had to—Well, I guess I didn’t have to, I could have just let you figure it all out for yourself, but I couldn’t. I saw you heading straight for a train wreck and I had to try to stop it. Liking boys is one thing, I figured we’d have to deal with that eventually, but I panicked. I thought ‘Hunter might not be perfect, but there are worse boys she could like,’ and apparently, you were ready to! So, I thought maybe I should give Hunter a chance, but he’s a manipulator. I knew that. I—”

I take her hand to get her attention. “Mom. Stop. I don’t know what you’re ranting about.”

“I rescind my tentative approval of Hunter Maxwell,” she says, cutting to the chase.

I shake my head, offering her a little smile. “Don’t do that.”

“He’s a manipulative, spoiled jerk.”

“Yes. A little bit. But he has a lot of great qualities, too. You’ll like him once you get to know him. And you’re going to get to know him, because he’s officially my boyfriend now.”

This does nothing to reduce her horror. “Remember when we were joking around about me selling you to Hunter? That was a joke. I don’t want you to marry a mobster, either. Maybe I should be more careful about the jokes I make. I thought we were on the same page.”

“You haven’t sold me to Hunter,” I assure her.

Technically, I’ve sold myself.

I don’t add that part.

“You said he wasn’t your boyfriend. Now he is. I’m not an idiot, Riley. He’s holding this money over your head to get what he wants from you.”

“No. I mean… kinda, but it’s not how you’re imagining it.”

“It is. This is exactly the kind of thing I saw coming when he first started sending you gifts four years ago. I shouldn’t have let my guard down.”

“Mom, stop. Please,” I say, pleading with my eyes. “I don’t need you to protect me, not from Hunter. It’s complicated and I don’t really want to explain why, I just want us all to start here. Let your impression of him be a good one. He’s not doing anything bad to me, I promise. He was just tired of being my boyfriend, but not really my boyfriend. Yes, he used giving Ray money as leverage, but it’s honestly not a big deal. And I’m not trapped in it. If I don’t like being his girlfriend, I can dump him. It doesn’t change anything between him and Ray. That is solid, it’s separate. There is no ongoing obligation on my end to keep that going.”

That is a massive revision of the truth, but I can’t tell her I’m technically stripped of my ability to say no to Hunter until graduation if Ray takes the money. She’d never agree to it.

Regarding me with enduring uncertainty, she says, “Are you sure?”

I nod. “Positive. Tell Ray to take the money. This is the break he’s been waiting for. And Hunter does have social media marketing experience. He models for his dad’s clothing line, but he runs the social media, too. I bet he could even model for some pictures to promote the gym. His body is… Trust me, it will do the job to convince people they should join his gym.”

“Yes, I’ve seen his Instagram,” she mutters.

“He’s perfect for this, honestly. And you know what? He’s not even out the money he’s investing. He said his dad was planning to buy him a starter business as a graduation present, anyway. Hunter spoke to him about the gym, and he’s agreed to finance this instead, so it’s really a win-win for everybody.”

“A… starter business?”

“He’s very entrepreneurial,” I explain. “He believes hands-on learning is the best teacher. Hunter will still go to college, of course, but his dad thinks you take things more seriously if there are real stakes—real people depending on you to make your business a success. One of his friends started doing it for his kids, so he borrowed the idea and decided to do it for Hunter since… well, he’s illegitimate and gets the short end of the stick in a lot of ways.”

Mom shakes her head. “Rich people are so weird.”

I crack a smile. “They have a different set of problems, that’s for sure.”