Page 45 of The Arrangement

My grandfather set down his glass of water hard, retorting, “If you are not early, you are late. I thought I raised you better.”

Silence.

Maria cleared her throat and said, “I forgot to tell you both I received my SAT scores today.” She was smiling brightly, but internally I was screaming at her not to bring her grades up. “1400, near perfect.”

Charles didn’t even look up from his menu but quirked a bushed grey eyebrow at her statement. “Near perfect is not perfect, Maria.”

I clenched my fists as I saw Maria deflate and take a quick sip of water. “Mine wasn’t even close to 1400. That's great work, Maria, I’m proud of you.”

She flashed me a watery smile that my grandfather chose to ignore,and I could have kissed the waiter when he came around to take our orders.

Dinner was quiet, just the scraping of forks against porcelain dishes while I suffered through an overdone lasagna and watered-down wine.

Maria and I traded conversations; nothing big or life-changing, just how excited she was to get an apartment soon so she could get a dog. She had always wanted a dog but my grandfather had always insisted that dogs were not a good ‘investment’.

“Hmm, where are you going to get money for this apartment? You don’t work,” Charles scoffed as she talked about some apartments she found near a college campus she loved. We didn’t dare talk about colleges or the fact that she wanted to go into fashion once she was done with high school.

Maria set down her fork, her lips pinched. “If you remember correctly, you won’t let me get a job, Grandpa.”

The old man nodded, stuffing another fork full of spaghetti into his mouth.“You need to focus on school, not some ridiculous job.” I could see Maria clench her teeth at the obvious contradiction of his statement.

“I’m paying for her apartment,” I chimed in. “I told her we would go look after she gets into whatever college she gets accepted to.” I set my elbows on the table, leaning over my plate and staring at the old man pointedly.

He shook his head. “You still owe me over a hundred thousand dollars for your education, Sebastian, don’t go wasting your money.”

Maria looked at me, her eyes widening. I just shook my head at her softly. “Don’t worry, you never let me forget it.”

Before long, the dinner was finally over. The bill never came because my grandfather never paid when he dined here. The old man stood, shrugging on his expensive waistcoat and buttoning it against the cold.

“Happy birthday, Sebastian. I will see you in the office tomorrow.” With that, he left, and I swear the area warmed where he had vacated as if his icy demeanor were a living thing.

Maria sighed, her posture relaxing slightly. I pushed a hundred dollar bill onto the table for the wait staff; I knew they were viciously underpaid, and Charles never even carried cash to tip. He had proclaimed it ‘tacky.’

It wasn’t until we got into the car that Maria looked at me long and hard and said, “Is that why you still work for him? Why you stay?”

I closed my eyes, knowing that this would be coming the minute Charles opened his mouth about my debt. “He paid for my college, and he wants a return on his investment. I’m paying it back.”

She shook her head, her jaw steeling. “That's not right, Seb.” I shrugged, pulling out of the parking lot. We didn’t talk the entire fifteen-minute drive home, the air tense with her displeasure.

Maria walked me to my door, giving me a quick hug as she said, “Sorry about your birthday. I was going to get you sushi.” I laughed, giving her a squeeze.

“It’s the thought that counts.” I pulled away, looking her in the eye. “Remember, bring me your college acceptance letters alright? We’ll be going apartment hunting soon.”

That caused a smile to spread across her face as she nodded. The thought of leaving the city where her mother had died and her overbearing grandfather lived and lorded over her was obviously something she looked forward to. I knew because it was something I also daydreamed about.

One day at a time.

It hadto be close to nine o’clock at night when I heard a knock on my door. Again. I groaned, pausing the TV right as the intro credits began rolling.

I checked my phone and saw no missed calls or texts from anyone to announce that I would be having a visitor. I had just turned twenty-seven, but I felt at least fifty at this point as I dragged myself to the door.

I opened it. And then I closed it quickly, my brows furrowing. Another knock, this one more insistent. When I finally turned thehandle, I realized that my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me; Georgia Clark was standing in the foyer with a store-bought box cake and brown bag with the logo of the local sushi restaurant stamped on the side.

“Clark?” I asked suspiciously as I eyed the packages. “What are you doing here?” Clark looked uncomfortable for a minute as she looked up from the cake to me.

“Happy birthday, Quinn. Are you going to let me in, or what?” It still took me another beat to finally move over to allow her entry.

“Wait, why do you have a cake and sushi?” I asked, completely dumbfounded as she set the container on the counter and began taking out the array of brightly colored rolls from the restaurant bag. Clark shrugged slightly. “I heard you liked sushi, so I got sushi.”

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