Page 24 of Debts and Desires
While he cooked dinner, I carried his clothes up to his room. His room wasn’t bad at all, so I decided against putting it in my sights for cleaning. And truthfully, his house wasn’t dirty, just unorganized and a little dusty. But he was hardworking and barely home—at least while I was there. I wondered what his life was normally like without a stranger in his home.
When I came back down, dinner was ready. At first I scooped very little on my plate as I normally did. It was out of habit and I hoped he didn’t notice. Carter let out a long sigh and stood. He loaded my plate up before I had the chance to say anything.
“That’s another day,” he said. I felt the tears bubbling up, unsure why it upset me. I think it came back to still feeling like I was being treated as a child.
“I was going to get more,” I said. “I promise I was. I did it out of habit, but Iamgoing to eat.”
“Still addin’ that extra day because of all the other times.”
“You can’t do that.”
“You want your car fixed?” I closed my eyes for a moment and looked away, trying to regain composure before I did something dumb like slap him across the face.
Breathe, Emmy. Breathe.
Then I had a thought.
“Maybe I can get a job in town to help pay off some of what I owe,” I offered.
“Absolutely not,” he growled.
“You can’t tell me I can’t get a job.”
“Not about the job. About payin’ me. You’d have to work for weeks to be able to pay me what you owe. And even if I let you get a job—which I’m not—you’d keep that money so you can get to where you’re goin’ since that friend of yours stole it.”
“It wasn’t my friend!”
“Boyfriend, whatever.”
“Her boyfriend, not mine,” I snapped.
“The answer is still no.”
“Why would you let me keep the money instead of paying you?”
“You’re kiddin’, right?” When I didn’t answer, he continued. “‘Cause that would mean I’d get less pussy and I’m not doin’ that.”
“Seriously?” I scoffed.
“Seriously.” He went back to eating.
“You never told me what’s wrong with my car or how much I owe for it. Only the tow so far,” I mentioned.
“Ain’t had the chance to look at it yet. And before you start, no, I’m not purposely puttin’ it off. I told you I have others before you.” I worried my bottom lip with my teeth.
“Can we go talk to Tyler tonight, then?” I asked after a long silence.
“No,” he answered, still not bothering to look up. I clenched my jaw, frustrated with myself for even trying. He wasn’t going to take me even if I asked until I was blue in the face. Why? I had no clue. “If it helps, I don’t want anythin’ tonight,” he grumbled. “Too tired.”
“Then how am I supposed to pay you back if you won’t let me? The week is almost over. Two more days, actually,” I pointed out.
“Never said it was a congruent week. Never said it was a congruent day, neither.”
“What?!” I breathed. He locked eyes with me.
“There’s twenty-four hours in a day, right? And I work about ten. Need to sleep at some point, so that only leaves me with a few hours left. Technically, we’re not even one day in.”
“We didn’t agree on that!” I screeched, gaping at him.
