Page 36 of The One I Hate
I’ll deal. It’s worth it to finally have my answers.
“Can I ask why?” Emmett asks.
“Not yet,” I say. The less he knows going into this the better. “Just make her an offer she can’t refuse. I don’t care if she can only afford a dollar. Then that’s her rent.”
“Simon, you can’t be serious.”
“As a heart attack. Make this happen for me, Emmett. It has to be Charlie. Whatever she needs, make it happen.”
I know the rent we were going to charge is probably too high. It’s fair for the market, but unless things have changed over the years, Charlie was always hard pressed when it came to money. And sensitive about it. She never said it directly, but I could tell that was the case. She worked her ass off every minute she wasn’t in class. She didn’t talk about her family much, but I never got the impression she could ask for help.
If that’s still the case, I know for a fact the four-thousand-dollars-a-month price tag I put on it would be too much. And like hell am I going to let a few bucks get in the way of giving her this.
While also getting something for me in return.
“Fine,” he says as I let out a breath. “But under one condition.”
“Name it.”
“That if, and I’ll repeat if, she signs, you need to tell me everything.”
“I promise. You’ll get your answers when you make it happen. Oh, and one more thing.”
“Can’t wait.”
“Under no circumstance can she know that I’ll be the landlord. She can’t know anything about me.”
“Simon.”
“Emmett.”
“What the fuck are you getting me into?”
“Don’t you worry about it.”
“That’s all I’m going to do.”
“It’s nothing illegal, if that makes you feel better.”
“Only slightly.”
“Just make this happen and call me after it does.”
I end the call and sit back, suddenly feeling better than I have in weeks.
Charlie is here. And soon she’s going to be here all the time.
Which, I know how that sounds. I hear it in my head. It’s insane and stalkerish and downright desperate.
But desperate times call for desperate measures.
And Charlie Bennett has made me a desperate man.
Chapter 9
Charlie
“Are you okay?”
