Page 7 of Friends That Heal Us
“Yeah, but only my regular café orders. I’m not taking any orders from outside people.”
“Oh, really?” That makes my heart pang. She loves baking. She would never let anything or anyone get in the way of it. Especially her business. And now everything is getting in the way. I don’t blame her, but I hate how this is affecting not only her but also her business.
“I’m just too tired. Half the time I don’t want to get out of bed, but I have to,” she says, waving around her hands. “I’m all on my own now paying this mortgage. I shouldn’t turn down any orders, but I just can’t find the strength to do more.”
“Zay’s not going to help you?”
She lets out a scoff. “I doubt it.”
“So he doesn’t care if his credit is affected?”
Her gaze flickers away from me as if she doesn’t want to say something.
“Vi.”
“Only my name is on the mortgage.”
My face freezes. “What?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “Zay never wanted to buy a house, and I did. This house was perfect for my business, so I couldn’t let it go.”
Shaking my head in disappointment, I wonder what kind of guy my best friend had truly turned into. What man does that? He’s worse than I expected, to be honest. I knew he was lacking in our friendship, but he was lacking in every relationship he had.
“Did he at least help you pay the mortgage?”
“Yeah. But I’m not able to pay it all on my own now.”
At least he amounted to something.
“Vi, I’ll help you if you need help. I can cover his part.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t have you do that. You already have your own bills to pay, and on top of that I can’t imagine what debt Rya might have put you two in.”
No one knows this, but I have built myself quite a savings account. I’ve always been good with money, starting way back in high school when I got my first job. I would save 10 percent of my paycheck for my own personal spending and put the rest in my savings.
Even after marrying Rya, I saved money. But I knew from the start she wasn’t good with money, so I never told her about it. I never thought of it as a shitty move. Imagine if something catastrophic happened, and we had nothing. At least I knew we would be fine.
But as the years went by, our marriage got worse, and her spending increased. Even though I’m more on the reserved side, I’m always steps ahead. The money Rya spent was from her paychecks and money I put in our account from my paychecks. Besides the money I saved. Sometimes she would over spend before bills were paid and I had to move money from my savings to pay them. I took care of the finances, so she hardly knewwhat we had. Sometimes I think she thought our debit card had unlimited money.
The other problem was she started taking out credit cards under her mom’s name. I knew the amount of spending wasn’t adding up to what we had in the account. After doing my own snooping, I found a couple of cards in her wallet with her mom’s name on them. I know for a fact her mom doesn’t know because she would have already come barging through my door blaming me. Her mom blames everyone else except for who the problem is. Just like Rya. Rya always has an excuse, and she never takes responsibility for anything. I feel sorry for her sometimes because she is the way she is because of her mom.
But it gave me so much relief that I won’t have to pay those off. All I thought was how stupid she was not to think about this further. All she saw was the stuff she wanted to buy.
“Honestly, I’m doing fine. I know it probably doesn’t look like that with Rya’s spending.”
She tilts her head in question. “Really?”
I nod. “I mean, I would have more money in the bank if it weren’t for her, but I have been stashing some away.”
“But aren’t you both in debt on your credit cards? I always saw her with a new credit card every time we went shopping.”
I’m not one to air people’s business out, but what respect does Rya deserve from me after everything?
None.
“She took those cards out under her mom’s name.”
Vi’s mouth drops as a long breath catches her. “No. She didn’t,” she says, shaking her head.
