Page 22 of Yolo

Because it was a sure thing that I couldn’t do this on my own.

“I’m here when you need anything,” he said. “Even if I’m not living here anymore, I’m still here. If that makes sense.”

I smiled and dropped my head, wishing that I could see his face to read if the sincerity I heard in his voice was true.

It wouldn’t be the first time I was lied to after I’d lost my vision.

Freakin’ Joseph.

God, how had I picked so wrong?

“What are you doing out here so late?” he asked. “Anything I can help you with?”

I started to answer in the negative but paused.

“Actually.” I straightened my shoulders and turned to where I thought he was standing. “I could use some help.”

He turned my head, just with a finger on my chin, and I said, “Thanks.”

“Welcome,” he said. “Gotta be weird not to be able to find people anymore. What is it you could use some help with?”

I sighed. “So yesterday I called my ex-boyfriend, who, if you can believe it, decided to follow me to Dallas to ‘fix what he’d broken.’ Which, let me just say, I’d already told him he could never fix this. I can’t stand the man, yet he’s made it his life’s mission to fix me—us. Anyway, when we left, I forwarded my address to this new one. I’m not sure what happened to his. But he got forwarded a refund check for taxes, and it came to my place. So I called him to get his new mailing address. And instead of giving it to me, he said he’d get back to me. I didn’t expect that him getting back to me was showing up at my house unannounced. We fought, and he left, taking my stuffed bear I sleep with every night with him.”

Gee growled under his breath and said, “What the fuck?”

“I know.” I pressed the heel of my hands to my eyes, frustration leeching out of my every pore. “I called him after I found out, and he’d told me that he threw it away in the dumpster outside. So I need help to see if it’s in there.”

Gee grabbed my hand and said, “Let’s go look.”

I followed his directions, shivering when we hit the cool night air. “Cold.”

“They said that it’s supposed to rain/sleet tonight. I imagine that’ll make everyone drive like complete dumbasses tomorrow and give me a lot of shit to deal with at work,” he replied grumpily.

I started to ask him where he worked—I know it’d been mentioned previously, but the day of my accident was a blur—but jolted when a honking horn shattered the quiet night air around us.

Gee grumbled something dark and dangerous under his breath and said, “Fuckin’ asshole.”

“Are we in the back alley?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “Some asshole was cutting through to get to the street opposite. Didn’t like that we were using it for what it was intended for.”

“Some people are jerks,” I admitted.

Gee squeezed my hand and guided us farther and farther until he pulled me to a stop. “Stay here. I’m going to jump up and look.”

I did, shifting from foot to foot with my lip between my teeth.

“Bad news,” he said. “The only thing that is in here is some electronics. Certainly no stuffed animal.”

My shoulders drooped.

Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.

God, I hated Joseph.

Actually, I didn’t hate him. That was too small of a word for what I felt for the man.

Enraged. Murderous. Homicidal.

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